Lat: 1 29.594′ S
Lon: 92 11.843′ W

2836 nm to go…

After 10 great days in the Galapagos, it was time to get moving again. Wes, Tiff, & Lauren
had done the final provisioning and I’d completed the items on the repair and maintenance
list. Because of the distance of this passage, we made sure all our water jugs tanks,
jerries, jugs, bottles, etc. were full before leaving. This required several trips to the
water store to fill our five 6-gallon jugs. In total we are setting off with 140+ gallons
of water, which should be plenty given the good sailing conditions we’re expecting and the
water conservation abilities we’ve developed. We pulled the anchor at 3:30pm yesterday with
Lauren at the helm and the GPS reading 2957 nautical miles to the waypoint we set just south
of Hiva Oa.

Here’s a bit of arithmetic on the passage distance, time, etc. On our previous passages,
4.5 knots was a good average speed for us. At that rate, the 2957 nm would take us 29.4
days (a nautical mile is 1.15 land/statute miles and knot is one nautical mile per hour).
At 5.75 kts, the passage takes 21.4 days, and at 6 kts it takes 20.5 days. Every quarter
knot of speed is about a day difference in our passage time. Our goal is to stay above 6
kts and make it in three weeks. Because of this arithmetic, I spent about 2 hours yesterday
morning in the water cleaning the bottom. The water here in the Galapagos is great for
marine life, including several varieties that grow on the hull of a boat — brown gunk,
green algae/weeds, etc. It’s not perfect, but it’s two hours of cleaning better, our
rudders are now blue again instead of brown, and I had a rag on almost every square inch of
the bottom, so I hope it gives us the extra quarter knot or so.

The waves were a bit steep as we were leaving, but they are much better now that we’ve
sailed out into deep water. Last night was one of the more beautiful nights on our trip.
The clouds were fairly minimal, allowing us to see lots and lots of stars. Lauren mentioned
that we should be able to see the Southern cross from here, I looked up, and there it was
off to port! To starboard we could still see the big dipper, although I think part of it
will be gone over the horizon by time we reach Hiva Oa. We pulled out our star charts and
found several stars, including Spica, which is the name of a boat we met in Shelter Bay.
I’ve been reading Bowditch and the looking over the Nautical Almanac the last few days and
finally got to try a noon sight with the sextant today. I was pretty happy when it turned
out to be fairly straightforward and the result came out within 3 miles or so of our actual
latitude. We’ll see how I do tomorrow. Just as the almanac showed, we also saw Jupiter
rise about 10pm and begin climbing quickly through the sky.

This morning when I came on deck for morning watch, Lauren asked me to toss over a squid
that had found its way on deck. “I think I saw another one somewhere else as well,” she
said. A few minutes later, after making my way all around the deck, I had tossed 58 squid
back into the water! They ranged in size from just over a couple inches to about 6 inches
or so.

We’re no longer within sight of the Galapagos, so I pulled down the Ecuadorian courtesy
flag. Next stop Marquesas.