BOOBIES!!

Boobies!

BOOBIES

The intrepid pair are sitting on the back end of the boat in the shade when all of a sudden there is a loud SPLOOSHSPLAT. Looking behind them they see ripples spreading out from a central focus and what seems like ages later there is a plop as up pops a bird. These are the amazing boobies. They fly about high overhead and then make a kamikaze dive into the water – we never see if they get anything – and then up they come, shake themselves a bit, and the flap flap with the wings and flap flap with their big blue feet and they are airborne for another go. And they really do have bright blue beaks and bright blue feet. What we don’t understand is how they don’t knock themselves out when they hit the water at the speed they do.

NOT GOOD NEWS

And now the batteries. The electrics on the boat are very much Dave’s baby as he has put a lot of effort into making up a good system. I had heard him talk about the batteries as being super dooper ones and all seemed OK. He looks at them regularly and tops them up and they seem to provide power when we need it so they tend to be taken for granted. So the day came to give them a once over and shock horror, they are not very well at all. Something had seemed to be not quite right for some time though, as we had been charging the batteries with the engine for longer and longer times each day, but it creeps up on you. After getting them out of their cubby holes, which is not easy, the truth dawned – we need new ones. Here, in Galapagos, the back of nowhere!  Dave has salvaged a couple and we can make do overnight, but no way can we set off for over a month at sea with things as they are.

So we started at one end of the town, going from one shop to the next one suggested, until we came to a shop full of cleaning products, but with a sign outside that said ‘battery agent’. It did not look promising at all, but in we went, and found a lass who could speak a bit of English. Over the next few days we were in touch with her boss who was in Ecuador at the time on a re-supply mission, and with a great deal of effort on his part it appears he has been able to find what we need at last. It did look hopeless at first and Dave was getting most despondent, thinking we might have to risk using truck batteries with much less capacity than we need just to get us to Tahiti, with the risk that they would not last the distance given the demands that would be put on them. So now it is off to the cash machines to start the money drain to pay for them, and we wait for the next supply ship and their arrival in a week's time.

It would appear we should never stop anywhere – whenever we stop we seem to find a problem!

STOP PRESS

Dave has refused to consider doing anything other than the British thing of shout louder in another language. He has just come back proud of his purchase of a can of fly spray – except it is lavender air freshener.

‘I went, “shhh shhh“ and made aerosol can signs,’ he said. ‘What more can you want?’

'HOLA! HOLA! HOLA!'

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobel, Galapagos 

'HOLA! HOLA! HOLA!'
Bangbangbangbang on the hull -bangbangbangbang

It is 6:30 in the morning and two sleepy heads poke out of the companionway.
'Hola, mira!'  meaning !look!

We look and see the back end of a very large fuel carrier bearing down on us at what appears to be a very great rate of knots. All is clear - we have to shift, and NOW!

Scurry for some clothes, fall out on to the deck and wrap up the cover, get the anchor ready for lifting, untie the wheel, turn on the engine, while this thing gets ever closer. It is indeed vast.

Then a very nice Navy man appears in a boat and asks in English if we are going to move! I say yes, just a few minutes and he very politely agrees that is a good idea. 

So off we go trundling around the bay for another spot to sit on as the fuel carrier edges backwards towards the jetty and drops its anchor from the bow before sending stern ropes ashore to be tied off. 

We were right in the middle of the path. 

We then watch as one of the water taxis drags a big string of yellow sausages around it and we suddenly twig what it was that we had seen on the jetty the night before - a barrier in case of fuel spills.

We are OK in our present spot with one exception - we have lost our wifi link. This was a bit sporadic but we managed to get hooked up to a slow service each day, but now there is nothing and we will have to run ashore again looking for a spot on the sea front. Not as easy as you would think, as we found when I was trying to post the blog that all is not well there either. And then I finally fluked being able to post it very early last Sunday morning from the boat. So it is back to our Kate and the radio email till I can get myself sorted. Even ashore last week it took 3 goes before I could even log onto my own blog - heaven knows what goes on in the ether!.

But all is not tooooooo bad - apart from the parcel that is still stuck in Ecuador and dead domestic batteries. More of that later.

EQUATOR           

Just to prove we have crossed the equator, here is the proof – GPS reading of 00deg00.00 or almost as

there was a shutter delay, and the man doing the honours with the bottle of wine. And it is hot!!

Soooooo…..Where are we now?

Brrrkkkkk!barrrrrkkkk!Grokkkk!ArrrrrkkkArrrkkkArkkkkk!

Barkarkarkark bark bark aaaaaarrrkkkkkk!

And very loud it is too – the sounds of sea lions

We are anchored off Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (Shipwreck Bay) San Cristobel, Galapagos. And lovely it is too, if a little on the warm side for me as temperatures wander between 30 and 38 degrees C  each day. I have sent Dave ashore for an adventure of his own to get a bit of peace and quiet to do a little writing. He is not affected by the heat at all – maybe he is a cousin to the iguanas sunbaking on the rocks. I am more like the sea lions, a dip in the water before drying off before a dip in the water etc.

We are delighted to be here. It is a small community, but exceptionally friendly and incredibly safe – we have no need to lock anything or fear for our possessions as we did in Panama, and it is an open and very clean town. In fact it must be the neatest and cleanest place we have ever been in. It is also the only place we have been where the sea lions share the park benches with you and accompany you down the street. In fact there are sea lions everywhere – the childrens play area, the beaches and rocks, steps leading to the water taxis, and any dinghy afloat or low slung boat of any kind. Our friends on Fifi, a catamaran, were a prize place for a sea lion as the steps up the back of the pods were an easy jump.

There are brown pelicans  everywhere, and various as yet unidentified sea birds around, manta rays in the water and big spotted fish and the occasional turtle. We are constantly visited by sea lions swimming around us, probably looking for a sleeping place, but we have too many bits of hardware for them to get a purchase. But they delight with their grace and agility, so different to the laborious struggle up the beach and onto the rocks.

THE OUTING

We have had a superb day out as a reward for a not so superb day of engine maintenance and diesel antics. The engine work is always a nightmare – it has to be done I know – as it always involves mess, spills, spurts and leaks, despite Dave’s best efforts. So after a sweaty day sorting it all out so it is ready for the next leg which is the longest of the lot, we had a treat. Our agent, Bolivar, arranged for his friend Wilmer to take us around the island. We assumed Wilmer would have had a bit of English – wrong, but I was chuffed to bits as he conversed with me in the broken Spanish I have supplemented by lots of arm waving. He took us everywhere and walked with us too. We went up the side of the volcano, (which nearly did me in!) and Dave took off around it as well. We cannot get the pikkies of the camera he used as the battery charges won’t work and the battery is dead – grrrrrr. We then went to the tortoise conservation place.

The last giant tortoise is now dead, and with his demise the species became extinct after being hunted and eaten out of survival. There is a strong breeding programme for the other tortoises , and the place was fascinating.

Tortoises take so long to reproduce. 14 eggs a year, 25 years to sexual maturity, then well over 100 years of life. There was one we met yesterday who was 167 years of documented age and there was a bit before that – he was a family pet handed down the generations. The pikkies from the hatchery are not very good, but they stay small for ages and it is 5 years before they can be put out into the wild.

After the tortoises we drove to the other end of the island, back near where we are and along a bit, to the place where the marine iguanas are. 

They are so primeval in their looks, but not fussed by our photo shoot. Dave reckons one of them returned his good bye wave with a paw shake.

Along from the iguanas is the loberia, or seal lion nursery (Spanish for sea lion is lobo) and we watched the babies cavort and play rough and tumble in the shallows. The mums were a bit further back in the deeper water keeping a watching brief – bit like mother and toddler groups for us I guess. The photos did not show them up I am afraid. People were swimming along in the same place, and a bit further out there was a good surf for the board riders.  And it was baking hot  with no shade and the sun reflected mercilessly from the sand and the rocks.

Then home again after picking up the laundry (what an excellent way to do the washing – give it in and receive it all back clean and neatly folded!) That was icing on the cake!

Shipwreck Bay

At 5pm yesterday we dropped the anchor in Shipwreck Bay, San Cristobel. We had had to motor the last couple of days, and in the early hours of the morning yesterday the rain came - and did it come!! Visibility dropped to just above a mile, but thanks to the GPS and radar and our trusty chart we made it in OK. 

View Larger Map 

We have parked ourselves next to Fifi, and Erica and Kevin came over for a very wet visit and a cup of tea. The first thing you notice is the number of sea lions, they are everywhere including any dinghy that is in the water and on the back steps of Fifi. Fifi is a catamaran and the back steps up the pods make a really nice sea lion perch and he was not to be deterred when Kevin lowered his dinghy. During the visit we heard a grunt, groan, kerplosh as another one made it into Fifi's dinghy. 

Shipwreck Bay

Our agent braved the rain to come out to us just after the anchor was down, and after a cup of coffee departed with all our papers to fix us up. We are programmed to have a visit at 10am this morning from the Port Captain, Immigration, Customs, the Bug Catcher and the National Park man as well as our agent. Where they are all going to go I have no idea, but we have had the heads up that they will do anything for a can of Coca Cola, so there is a raft in the fridge. It is not so long ago that you could not visit at all, so these formalities are a small price (the real price is not so small!). 

So now the sun is trying to get through the clouds and maybe the rain has stopped we will get tidied up and see what we can see.

Over the line!

Such excitement filled the little boat as the numbers on the GPS started to count down. Dave was ready, but could not find a Neptune outfit, having declined the the only thing big enough for a cloak, a Cape Verde sheet I had obtained by mistake. Beard was present anyway, but crowns are in short supply on Spirit. However he had his bottle o best Australian wine, courtesy of some Aussies we met in Gibraltar. I had the camera ready to snap the appropriate numbers, and we waited in high expectation.

'000000 - Go for it!!'

Snap, snap and the the great pouring out with more snap, snap, and we were over.
Can't send the pikkies till we have ordinary e-mail though.

Funny though, south feels exactly the same as north - and there is still no wind!!!

The line across the middle is the Equator!

 ....

Had to give in and motor as not only was there less than 4 kts of wind, it was definitely coming from the wrong place. Now we might have to slow down as we are due to arrive on Sunday, which may not be a good idea. We wait advice from the agent.

309 miles to go, doing about 130 miles a day.

A story

Rummage rummage furtle furtle rustle rustle groan groan 'where on earth has she put it???' more rummage rummage.......

'Wotcha doing Dave?'
'I can't find it and we need it soon!'
'What is it?'
'I need that bottle of wine'
'But you don't drink wine anymore'
'Not for me, silly, it's for him'
'Him who?'
'King Neptune. It is only a couple of hours till we cross the equator. I can't remember though all the things you are supposed to do.' Big sigh.
'Well, we could prance around and around the cockpit I suppose.'
'Really, Jen, you could take this a bit more seriously......

Just think, in a little while we can zig-zag and go summer winter summer winter summer winter or northsouthnorthsouthnorth....!!!!  

King Neptune

Well, the no wind has finally caught up with us and we gave in last night and did a bit of motoring instead of slopping about with the sails crashing and snapping. According to the gribs we ought to be making our way out of it soon, but then there is that word ought....
Looks like a big knitting day to me.

......
Yesterday was clean the fridge day. Now for all those boatless people, our fridge is not like a domestic big box with doors on. It is a big hole under the work surface next to the sink, with a small evaporator in the roof and a compressor chugging away under the sink. I am 6 ft tall and have super long arms and by standing on tip toe and leaning over I can just wipe out the bottom. Bad luck for the petite crowd. By cunning and careful packing I can get those bricks for the esky frozen and some meat if it is put under the evaporator, but this is not so easy as the rest of the stuff in the fridge becomes a disorderly mess and occasionally need a sort out - and yesterday was the day. Best bit was finding some still edible chicken for dinner!! Just don't tell health and safety as I think we break all the rules, but so far so good.....! (And a lovely dinner it was too, courtesy of Dave and his culinary skills.)

Washing and cooking!

Not Spirit! But shows they're not the only ones....

Yesterday was washing day as we were getting short of undies and shirts - it is a hot and humid place where we are. So our Dave decided he did not like the wet things flapping at the end of the boat behind the cockpit (where the breeze is as we are going downwind), so made a cat's cradle up front (where the sails are). Which meant he had to hang them, but no problem after a lesson or two on which way up. However, with the sails out there is no flappy flappy of clothes, so none dried properly. So it was a sad face that said, "I guess they do have to go back here". I did point out that we have not seen a ship for days so no one will notice the washing and think any the less of his boat, but I am sure he is scheming about how to avoid the washing all together or dry it downstairs. May be I will get a washing machine and spin dryer!!!!!!!!! Dream on girl, and keep the hands in the suds. Sigh.

Jolly pleased with ourselves so far as we only had four hours of really light winds yesterday before we had the promised 15-20 knots and a super sail till just after tea time when we slowed a bit bit not too much. Dave was feeling chuffed so cooked an excellent steak, egg and chips he made in the oven. Yummy.

This is the life... oops!

There we were, cruising along nice and smooth in the sunshine, thinking "this is the life" and saying to ourselves that after the Atlantic this was going to be a doddle! Till last night when the wind dropped and the rolly rolly crash and bang started as we flopped and about. And we thought we had it all sorted - which only goes to show that pride comes before the fall. So I am clutching on and doing my best to keep the fingers on the right keys.

The problem is this - we are going towards the equator and have met the ITCZ (inter tropic convergence zone) better named the doldrums. This is an area of little to no wind which extends around the equatorial belt. We had looked at the gribs and planned and planned how to avoid as much of it as possible, but it looks as though we have caught it a bit. If it dies off completely we will motor, but one tries not to do too much of this. So more gribs and more planning are the order of the day as we are plotting to go  bit south and come underneath it.

A story

"Hey Dave, are you sick??"
"No, why?"
"You were leaning over the side, bum in air."
"Just getting a bucket of water."
"Why is that?"
"'Cos I'm sick of you saying my lovely new instrument is wrong and that the sea temperature is not really 47 degrees C."
"Weeeeellll - if it is then the bilges should be hot to touch and the fish dead."
"Perhaps they are hot water fish??"
"Anyway, here is the tester thing - and it says 24 degrees. That is still warm enough you know."
"I know, but that means my branny new super dooper instrument thing is not right." Biggest sigh.
"It also means that we do not need the super dooper ice box for the medicines as they could still be under the floor!"
"So now we could have a super dooper cold box for drinks Jen, when the pills go under the floor again."
Silver linings everywhere.

But still a despondent Dave as if that bit of the multi-purpose thingo is wrong, what about the other bits. Life on board!

Only 657 miles to go! Then it is turtle time.

Stop! Turtle time! (National Geographic)

Panama Canal, January 2013

JANUARY 2012, PANAMA 

We made it, despite the feeling at times we wanted to get off the sleigh ride. Mind you, it was over Christmas, so Santa could have been a bit more gentle. We had to wait at Cape Verde for the mail that never came, and also for the trade winds which did. The dilemma is this: go when the trades are still to set in and put up with quite a bit of quiet wind and slow progress, or wait until they start and hope for a quicker run that is not too boisterous before they really establish themselves. We were forced to opt for the latter, but thought we were in before the trades really built up over the next couple of months. We looked at the weather daily and all looked OK. SO off we went. And after a few OK days we were hit with wind and waves more than hoped for. It turned out to be the windiest and bumpiest trip so far. And the most uncomfortable, especially in the Caribbean where the seas became high and confused.  Having finally tied up at the aptly names Shelter Bay we breathed a big sigh of relief. 

The blog editorial team did an excellent job with the material provided - so many days were too bumpy to stay glued to the seat to type. But we did have a respite of a couple of less boisterous days at Christmas which allowed us to have our special Christmas dinner.

There now follows a short lesson on weather!

We get the weather forecast over the SSB (single side band- High Frequency radio) which has a special modem attached to the computer. This modem allows for the exchange of text only e-mails and the reception of weather pictures called GRIBS. These gribs are a special binary format of weather data which are optimal for radio transmission. The pictures show the latitude and longitude you are interested in, the land if any, and the wind direction and strength by means of coloured arrows with different numbers of 'feathers'. Each ½ feather is 5 knots of wind, a whole feather 10. This is the mean wind speed and we find you can easily have gusts of 5-10 knots more. The colours become more violent the higher the wind, hence our comments to each other as to wanting to get in the yellow or blue instead of the red and purple. Most of the way in the Caribbean we were in the purple! The forecasts can be for up to a week, and spaced daily, 12 hrly, 6 hrly etc. So far on our journeys we have found them surprisingly accurate. So you now all know what we mean when we say "the gribs said"! I managed to get a transmission each day on the trip despite wishing I had Velcro on the seat, so we could keep up with family, notify the marina and our agent when we were arriving and get the weather. 

 A GRIB, Panama Canal

Try having a look at www.passageweather.com and playing with the site to see the weather anywhere in the world.

However - all was not that simple!!

We had a rather fraught time about 4 days out from Panama when the engine would not start. Now we needed to have the engine running once a day for battery charging, as we were using the heavy duty auto pilot due to the high sea state - Harriet the wind vane gave up on the job as the waves kept pushing the boat over and knocking her off course. This meant a big power consumption which was not compensated for entirely by the solar panels and wind generator. We had a family tragedy when Cyril the water generator had his turbine chomped off by some creature. If it was a shark, as has happened to others, he will have a tummy ache as the turbine is a largish heavy metal T that spins around in the water about 60ft behind the boat. Cyril proved to be a great asset, and the faster we went the more he produced and kept the volts up despite the fridge and the autopilot drain. A day of mourning was held when we noticed his rope was no longer turning.

So when the engine did not start it was very bad news. As would be the case it was the last thing at night as well! It was very dark and the conditions in the cockpit were horrendous, with the waves splashing over the seats and the area where the fault most probably was right at the back of the cockpit where it was wettest. Added to which the lurching and bouncing would not allow any work to be done anyway. Dave looked glum and despondent, and we had to leave things til morning and hope that we had enough battery capacity overnight. The morning was a bit better, not a lot, and still nothing could be done. So it was fridge off and hope the solar panel and wind generator would hold the fort. Later in the day there was a patch which allowed an inspection of the engine start panel, and after some cleaning and squirting with the magic WD-40 allowed a cough and a start of the engine. Relief - for a while. Dave then noted that the engine start battery was running down! So it was remember to isolate the engine battery after running. So we had a couple of OK engine runs til the night before we were due to arrive. Fail again! AAAArrrrghghghgh!!! So up at first light, thankfully the rolling waves were manageable and 2 hrs later we had an engine going. This is now high stress as we need the engine to enter the harbour and marina. So we left it running til we got in, waiting for it to stop at any minute. The parts we needed were waiting for us in Rachel's box of stuff she had sent for us - not a lot of help where we were though!

We arrived with a smile though, and the largest pile of wet and soggy clothes I have ever had after repeated cockpit drenching, and really wanting FOOD! 
First thing after tying up and doing the formalities was to go to the bar and have a looooonnnnngggggg drink of fizzy water and a big helping of wonderful French fries. Yummmmy! That was followed by nothing less than ice-cream and a big burp!

Then we found the laundry.

Then we found our bedding and looked forward to a lovely un-bumpy sleep.