Galápagos Islands (Official name: Archipiélago de Colón; other Spanish names: Islas de Colón or Islas Galápagos)
The Marquesas Islands (French: Îles Marquises or Archipel des Marquises or Marquises; Marquesan: Te Henua (K)enana (North Marquesan) and Te Fenua `Enata (South Marquesan), both meaning "The Land of Men")
I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face and a grey dawn breaking.
I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume and the seagulls crying.
I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry [tale]1 from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.
John Masefield
I am reminded again of the vastness of the ocean seascape. It goes on forever, even from a height of just four feet above the water. On clear day the sky goes up and up, forever blue and the sea reflects a darker version. You've all had those day by the sea when the whole world looks blue in different shades. It is the same here in the Pacific, just there seems to be more of it. And day after day....
Actually our first few days out of the Galapagos were marred and marked by the Doldrums. Seriously dull, the breeze may just take the heat off the day, the sails flap listlessly and annoyingly as the yacht lurches slowly from side to side. At first it is enchanting, this newness, this almost stillness. The sea is glassy and shiny, with a long rolling swell which causes the lurch and the flap. Falpping sails are more noisy than you would think. We are trying to conserve fuel and motor only when the battery is getting low on wiggly juice. Sometimes we motor a bit longer to get through this patch of no wind. we need to find some wind.
Wind and Weather
David is receiving text messages on his satellite phone from his wife Leslie in Australia. She reports that wind is to be found at 10 degrees south - these are the fabled Trade Winds which should blow from the south east all the time. We expected them further north at this time of the year. So we creep out way south and find wind. But this is not of the Trades but rather of local storms and squalls Direction is variable and often from the north. Well and good - we tack across this and continue our way south. Another period of doldric weather and then we are through into the Trade Winds which are all we hope for. A steady 15-25 knots of wind from the south west, occasionally veering east-south-east and sometimes affected by more local storms and squalls running through.
Watchkeeping
We keep watches, always two on, across the five of us, with a routine of 4 hours on watch, 6 hours off watch, with a change over every 2 hours. This works well for a small crew of 5 and means we can get 5 hours good sleep often enough. Even so it takes a few days to get used to the routine and to get one's sea legs.
Keeping ship-shape and Repairs
Leaving San Cristobal in the evening, after a long wait to get our passports back, we motored away in the evening sun. First to get the yacht looking shipshape we hoisted the Mainsail and furled away the Lazy Jack bag. For those who are not so nautical this is a large, shaped bag that sits on the top of the boom under the mainsail, with guy ropes on either side attached to the spreaders on the mast, which collects the mainsail as it is lowered onto the boom. Keeps it all tidy, and the cloth is also UV light protective. UV light rots the sail cloth in time. So the Lazy Jack bag serves two purposes. On short running kept it raised - it does not impinge on the sail performance - but for a long run it looks tidier to have it neatly furled away. You can see the crew at this tidy work !
After a few days of sailing we found that the Log (shows boat speed and records distance) was not reading correctly. David took it out of its mounting but count find nothing wrong with it. Removing the Log takes some doing. It is basically a little paddle wheel which sends and electronic signal to the reader. The wheel sits just proud of the bottom of the hull. Being below the waterline means we have to stick a bung into the hole quickly as a fountain of water shoots up when you take the Log up. Lots of fun..... potential for a flood.
Then one day I noticed that we had anenome creatures growing off the back of the stern - Scotty said they were a type of barnacle. It occurred to me that if they were growing off the back of the boat they might be growing under it too. So as we had a very calm spell we stopped the boat and I went for a swim with goggles. And my theory was correct - there was a small forest of them growing around the flange through which the Log protrudes. They were soon scraped off and away we went, the Log merrily spinning and recording our true speed.
On the same day we had to drop the mainsail as holes were appearing where it was rubbing against the spreaders - these are two arms that stick out either side of the mast to hold supporting guy wires. You will understand that a boat takes considerable punishing even in mild weather as it is in operation 24 hours a day. So down came the sail and on went the patches. Not as simple as just hauling it down - it had to be disonnected from the mast and reconnected. The bolts and fittings are tricky things to secure in a moving mast - even in calm weather out here there is always a swell and pitching from side to side hanging onto the mast fiddling with small nuts and bolts is some task. I lost one (only one) off the side !
And then we had to replace the header sail (also called a Genoa or Jib) as it was getting very ragged along the luff (the trailing edge of the sail). The problem is that the leading edge on this new sail does not fit into the groove of the forestay - the sailmakers fault which was only discovered once the sail was onboard in the Carribean (there was no time to fix it before sailing). So the new sail is now fitted to the forestay with string ! But the sytem works for now - they need replacing every now and again for wear and tear.
Food
We stored the boat for six weeks - all my old Naval skills coming back here. Although we have not stuck to the diet I created, it was sufficient enough to provide ample food for our long voyage. Indeed we have eaten very well. Sarah does most of the cooking, I do the occasional thing, and David makes fresh bread most days (he went on a breadmakers course before leaving Australia). The bread has got better and better each day - now that he has got used to the vagaries of the cooker! Fresh bread and soup makes great lunch especially if the sea is a bit rough.
Each day we also put out fishing lines. This has not been as successful as we hoped but Scotty has provided two fish so far - Mahi Mahi - and very good they are too. You can see a picture of one of them and Scotty eating the raw skeleton. Sadly we have only had two - just where the rest are we don't know.
The sky
We have had some wonderful and spectacular sunrises and sunsets. Out here the sky seems so big as it is only bordered by the horizon disc. The weather generally has been wonderful - sunny days and clear nights. For the early part of the voyage the moon was young so the night sky was full of stars. As the moon waxes towards full and shines in the night sky the smaller stars are floodlit out. The moon is now waning away, but still bright. We take the biminiy (the blue cockpit sheleter) back for night viewing. Jupiter is now rising in the morning sky, being chased now by the early morning Venus. Being on a moving platform does not allow for night photography but I am sure you will like the sunrise and sunset views.
Wildlife
There has been suprisingly little really. We did see a school of pilot whales briefly a few days out from the Galapagos, we see the odd bird (petrels and frigate birds) but mostly we see lots of flying fish. Some are quite small and others quite large. They land on the deck very often. See the picture of one of the larger ones. They use their strong tail to flip out of the water and then flick the waves with their tail again to keep the momentum going. They can 'fly' - well it is really gliding - for several tens of meters, an astonishingly long way. We have also occasionally had small squid land on the deck - mostly we find these in the morning. No large whales or sharks.
And the last mammal we saw was our sea-lion visitor - so tame, this one was also tagged. These had been a source of great amusement in the town of San Cristobal. Qutie fearless and very happy to live alongside the human population.
Filling the time
Life in this yacht is not all pulling on halyards, sheets and other ropes, trimming sails all the time, nor even much steering ! The yacht has fine self-steering gear (Otto, the autopilot) which works electronically and keeps us on course. The great advantage of this is that we can fine tune the course to within a degree to get the optimal use of the wind in the sails. So much for my vision of helming all the time. Actually I do enjoy turning Ott off and taking over the helm.... especially if the wind is strong and the waves loom large - this is fun and I think I have the knack of it now - at any rate there have not been too many complaints from the Captain.
Off watch time is spent reading - we have a small libary of books, including all the Harry Potters which I have read again (comfort reading). I am ploughing through the Complete Shakespeare, and trying also to get through the King James Version of the Bible - now this is a challenge. Should have brought a modern translation. Why am I doing this ? Well I guess it is something not many people do. It is quite an eye-opener too! All those sacrifices in Dueteronomy and Leviticus ..... I am told my maternal grandfather once read his way through the Bible too... quite a challenge.
I am also doing some writing - like this blog - and writing e-mails to send when we get to the next port.
And so what with watches, catching up on broken sleep, just sitting and thinking, the hours adn dasy are going by.
However, this slower pace of life, which I thought I would enjoy, is becoming frustrating. After a busy life of constant activity before coming away, I am finding myself restless at this pace of life dependent entirely on the vagaries of the weather. I am certainly a better human doing than a human being ! But when we get to Tahiti the voyage gets more interesting as we will have shorter legs between the islands at which we will stop - more on those as we progress.
I hope you are enjoying my Blog - to all friends and family - I miss you all and think of you often.... I will be home before too long ! Bye for now
Photos for this entry are here : http://picasaweb.google.com.au/Stephen.Couling/GalapagosToMarquesasIslands?authkey=Gv1sRgCOahkrng97jRvgE#
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment