Luckily for us...the seas were
quite soft and the winds a gentle breeze.
We weren’t making great time, but we were sailing...keeping vigilant
watch for any cloud patterns that might foretell a puff of wind.
Originally when we departed
Panama City we had planned for a 6 – 8 day passage. If we had sailed with our weather window,
that is what we would have done.
However, with the light winds come slower speeds and we found ourselves
drifting along at 3kts for a period of 18 hrs with the winds dying. This was on Monday April 8 and so I decided
to start the engine and do a little motor sailing. The engine started as it had each time I
asked it too after my early morning vigil with it’s parts. I put her in gear...and nadda...buttkiss...no
joy...WHAT DO YOU MEAN!!!!...no transmission????? You gotta be kidding me...!!!
I jest...you have reverse...but no forward :o)
Now your little motor can run
just as good as can be, but if you gotta no a transmission...I’m a gonna tella
ya what....you a go a no place!.
Well after a hastily called
crew meeting to discuss our options...hahahah what options??? We could drive
backward 200 miles...we could paint a pointy end on the stern and pretend we
were going forward.... No wait a minute...we got options...we’re a sail boat
right??? (uhuh....when there’s wind).
So we did what sailors do...we sailed...
We were joined early on by a very attractive little sparrow who took great delight in playing with his friend 'in the mirror'...he spent hours hopping along the front of the mirror trying to figure out how that other bird was so smart.
Panama bird and his buddy in the mirror
And there’s dolphins’.....did
i mention the dolphins...everyday...very large pods of small, very playful,
flipper tricks et al, and they were very entertaining...as well a terrific lift
to the spirit of our passage.
We finally reached that magical mark in every sailors path...the Equator...it is significant...it's a milestone...tatoo or no tatoo...earing or piercing....I think not...we gave to Neptune what was his due...we rejoiced in making this far and bravely sailed over the line into the South Pacific.
at 6:36pm on April 9 2013 KaijaSong and Crew crossed the Equator.
and we sailed somemore....until the next night when we
found ourselves 40 miles from the Galapagos and NO WIND!....SO what do you do?...you
turn off Auto( autopilot) put away the sails and go to bed....and hopefully
when you wake up...you will have drifted closer to your destination...and
that’s exactly what happened...we woke up with 32 miles to go...a little
breeze...we raised the spinnaker and with a light breeze gently filling the
spinnaker we had ten miles to go by 2pm....and the wind died...
the X's were rumline waypoints...the somewhat squiggly line is where the wind took us.
Now for those of you who tuned
in late...our dinghy motor was stolen...so we bought a new one...and guess
who’d been ridin along do nothing for almost 900 miles???? You guessed it...so
we dropped the dinghy in the water and tied her along side and started up the
little Yamaha 15hp outboard and putted our way into Santa Cruz...
dinghy tied alongside KS puttin the last 10 miles to Galapagos...hey ya use what ya got!
I will say we were ever so grateful when our new friends Pete and Raewyn Sv Saliandar sailed up alongside and
offered assistance as did good friends Karen and Cheryl on Sv Interlude when
they came out in a launcha to assist us with anchoring...what a relief...to be
in safe..Thank you Lord, and thanks to all the friends along the way who
helped.
We made it ....the Galapagos!
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