Thursday seems to be the day things happen on this trip, it hasn't been planned like this but every departure we have had has been on a Thursday.
2 days ago, on Thursday, our agent , customs officers, police and a representative from the parks authority came out to Shimshal, our passports were stamped, Simon, as skipper was quizzed about crew numbers, fuel capacity destination and route. The boat was searched to ensure we had no turtles, sea lions or iguanas hidden away they wernt bothered about cockroaches, and we were finally handed our zarpe, the document we need to say that the boat had legally left Galapagos, well Ecuadorian, waters. If you can't provide this on arrival at a new port there is trouble. We were officially out of the country.
The first thing we did, probably illegally, was to nip ashore for some fresh bread, we also managed a sneekey ice cream as well. The heavens opened as we arrived back at the boat so we sat below for lunch and waited for a dry spell. At 1.15 the anchor was lifted without a problem and we were off.
With no wind we were motoring and we spent our first evening threading our way past the islands we have so enjoyed over the last 5 weeks. We had a couple of hours of a breeze in the small hours when the sails came out but we were basically under power for the first 20 hours. Since then we have been lucky and have had enough wind to sail. Sometimes quickly, sometimes not but always moving. Other boats have had to push another day south before picking up the trade winds which, if we are lucky, will push us along for the next 3 weeks to the Marquesas islands.
In our first 2 days we have managed 150 miles a day, keep that up and we will arrive after 20 days.
We have slipped back into watches, from 18.00 to 10.00 we devide the time into 2 hour chunks, that way we each get 2 watches each night, we change who does which watch as some are better than others for the body clock. The rest of the time during the day when we are generally up and about as long as there is someone on deck we are happy. As the cockpit is the coolest place we all spend a lot of time here.
Cooking is split, no official rota but we all have a go. Currently we have plenty of fresh goods but may have to get a little more creative as the fruit and veg either run out or start to turn.
We each nap during the day to make up for night watches, the crew, now like sea lions, choosing their favourite bench to catch up on sleep.
There are boat chores to complete, books to read, the daily French lessons, Heather has downloaded conversational French, we all sit in the cockpit for an hour repeating after the instructor in a terrible French accent.
Generally it's all very pleasant, we do still have a long way to go though.
The night watches are lovely, Currently there is a big moon so it is never completely black and the stars go on for ever, they will get more intense as the moon wains and the nights get darker, we have star apps to help name then and make up for our woeful astronomical knowledge. So far we have seen two fishing boat but know there are other sailing boats out there, heading to the same way we are, they only need to be a few miles away to be completely invisible.
Very little animal life up to now, the odd tern and red footed boobie. We hope to see wales and dolphin at some point in the trip.
Anyway that is our life for the next few weeks before arriving at New islands with a different culture and new places to explore.
Tim