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We saw a motorboat (may be fishing boat) in the night. We also heard 2 Spanish boat talking on VHF not far from us, but we could not see them. It is exciting as we are so far from the land.
The wind was lighter in the evening again although we could still do 4 knots. The waves were a bit shaky so 3 of our slides on the main were broken. In the morning we replaced them and reduced the sails and headed towards west with the 2 twin genoas this time by 5-6 knots. We estimated around 1 knots of western current below us.
Today a flying fish and a squid jumped on board. What a suicide! We used the flying fish as bait for our fishing and we cooked the squid. The cooked squid was so tiny. And we had black ink on our hands after it.
In the afternoon we had some guests. Many dolphins arrived from everywhere and they were quick and jumping out of the water with some acrobatic movements. Assume they were Dusky dolphins with white nose and stomach. We have never seen as many dolphins at once before.
We could talk to Hafskip in the afternoon but we could not hear Yagoona. They could have some problems with their radio.
We had our best sailing today we made 8.4 knots of top speed and 125 miles during the day (24 hours).
Daily position:
10:30 4-21.90S 96-24.70W log= 19102.4
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7. day - 19/06/2007 - We had some squalls in the night. The strength of the wind changed frequently so we had not got too much sleep in the night as we had to trim the sails. In the morning we had a squall again with strong wind when we reached 8.9 knots of top speed on this journey. When the squall left we could see a rainbow in the sky.
Our flying fish bait was taken away by a fish so we replaced it with an artificial bait. We caught a dorado at lunchtime, but we could not take it to the board as it was moving so fast and finally fall back to the sea. We ate a potato goulash on Hungarian style instead.
We did the same daily distance as yesterday (125 miles under 24 hours from 4 pm yesterday). Not bad. The boat was surfing on the waves whole day as we reached the 5 degrees on the south.
One of our friends suggested that we could make some banana schnapps. Well, we will think about it.
Daily position:
09:30 4-40.60S 98-22.20W log= 19221.0
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8. day - 20/06/2007 - We did our top speed (11.8 knots) and top daily average today. We sailed all together 145 miles under 24 hours. Huh, this was great and required more work from us too. The ocean showed its wavy face today because of the constant strong wind. The trade wind clouds were also very close. Some of the waves could have been about 4-5 meters. This is the point where you have to overtake your fears because you can even face to a wave that has a size of a small house size. The boat did well even in the
higher waves. It went up on the hill then down like a roller coaster to the valley. We try to get every wave from the back however waves can be tricky sometimes. We had to reef our sails in the strong wind. Now we are sailing with two reefed genoas without any other sails on with a good progress.
In the afternoon we had strong sunshine so we could have a shower outside in the cockpit. It is amazing how clear is the water of the ocean. We use salt water then a bit of fresh water for showering.
This march is a bit tiring. We always have to check the sails whether they are too tight. We had to grasp always something because of the big speed and the waves can rock the boat.
We were listening to the story of Hafskip (other boat) on the radio in the afternoon. They caught a dorado fish. We started to think about what to have for dinner when our bait signed. There was a 70 centimetres dorado on it. May be the brother of the other. We were fighting with the dorado when the waves come and washed the board. We were a bit wet but we had fish for dinner at least.
We still have some bananas left but not the branch.
Daily position:
09:45 5-15.00S 100-38.40W log= 19361.0
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9. day - 21/06/2007 - We had our highest speed (11.8 knots) and top daily average today. We sailed all together 145 miles under 24 hours. Huh, this was great and required more work from us too. The ocean showed its wavy face today because of the constant strong wind. The trade wind clouds were also very close. Some of the waves could have been about 4-5 meters. This is the point where you have to overtake your fears because you can even face to a wave that has a size of a small house size. The boat did well even in the
higher waves. It went up on the hill then down like a roller coaster to the valley. We try to get every wave from the back however waves can be tricky sometimes. We had to reef our sails in the strong wind. Now we are sailing with two reefed genoas without any other sails on with good progress.
In the afternoon we had strong sunshine so we could have a shower outside in the cockpit. It is amazing how clear is the water of the ocean. We use salt water then a bit of fresh water for showering.
This march is a bit tiring. We always have to check the sails whether they are too tight. We had to grasp always something because of the big speed and the waves can rock the boat.
We were listening to the story of Hafskip (other boat) on the radio in the afternoon. They caught a dorado fish. We started to think about what to have for dinner when our bait signed. There was a 70 centimetres dorado on it. May be the brother of the other. We were fighting with the dorado when the waves come and washed the boat. We were a bit wet but we had fish for dinner at least.
We still have some bananas left but not the branch. |
The waves became bigger by the evening. We used to the strong waves and we gave them nicknames, such as wave 9.4, wave 8.7. This ment to be the speed that we gained on them in knots. Although our top speed was 12.7 knots surfing down on a wave, we could only reach 133 miles (towards Fatu Hiva) today. It was because we had to reef the sails down and the strong wind tossed us towards north.
We nearly had a dorado again on our hook in the morning. Due to the high speed because of the good wind made impossible to pull them on board. So we had to wait for the afternoon fishing. There were plenty of dorados around so we caught a 70 centimetres again in the afternoon and we ate it for dinner.
The ocean sometimes looks chaotic. We cannot see any systems in the currents around here. Sometimes we have a helping current then a counter current. Also there are many squalls around here, so we frequently have to adjust the sails.
At 10.30 pm we saw a big ship from 4.42S and 104 W. It is amazing so far from the land. The other interesting thing is that we can see many birds around here.
Daily position:
11:05 4-50.80S 103-13.49W log= 19517.4
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10. day - 22/06/2007 - In the morning we celebrated the 1/3 (1000 miles) of our ocean crossing with a banana shake (we still have some bananas left). We are tempted to talk about the food. It is very important to plan varied foods with vitamins in it. We started to run out of bread because we could not buy lasting ones in Galapagos. But we can make some on board in the future. The fruits look still very good in the aft cabin.
The squids and flying fish regularly come on board. I am thinking of making some cheviche from it.
The wind was very variable today and also the waves. The waves are influenced by the currents and wind here. We are happy with our speed so far. We stay for a couple of days in the north if you look at our position we are still at around 4-5 degrees to the south. Probably the wind will stay for the next days and the currents might be better here than in the south.
Daily position:
10:47 4-45.40S 105-23.04W log= 19646.6
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11. day - 23/06/2007 - Our new record was 148 miles today due to the constant good winds, the squalls in the night and the current. The temperature of both the air and the water increases day by day. We recognised that the sunrise and the sunset started to be later than a couple of days before.
As I mentioned earlier the currents are variable here. Sometimes we have counter current, which make the waves very steep. (Per Geza: it was not the same in the Atlantic Ocean where the waves were long and say flat). Sometimes the waves come on board, break into the cockpit. Then we have to redress. In the night the squalls are very frequent. If its dark it is very hard to recognise them on time before they hit. It happens that we sail in 15 knots of wind and it changes quickly to 35 knots. The squalls
usually had gone by the time we reefed the sails, so we decided to reef a little bit for the night anyway before anything happens.
Daily position:
10:45 4-57.40S 108-04.90W log= 19808.3
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12. day - 24/06/2007 - Like a spiderman we made our task today on board. The wind is weakening and there is nothing good in the forecasts. During our hot contest with the elements in the variable weather (wind, squalls, waves, currents or even dead calm) the main problem of the boat is wearing and tearing and our problem is tiredness if we cannot sleep enough in the nights. But if we serve the boat the boat will serve us in longer terms so we do not mind being a bit tired and do everything what we have to do. We continuously
check on the boat and fixing small problems.
In the morning we changed the track to northwest instead of southwest. More wind is predictable to the north in the next days. This was more than 2 hours manoeuvre with our original setting of sails. We released the second genoa first and then the spinakker boom that was holding it and than the baby stay. Then we released the first genoa from the boom, and changed it to the other side. Then we set the baby stay and the spinakker boom again.
We recognised that our second genoa (we got it from the previous owner of the boat) was torn. The material is old and it cannot stand the flapping on the waves. So we started to sew it together. We continued our journey with one genoa for a while. When we finished with the sail we set it again. The problem was now going too much to the north instead of northwest, so we changed the sails again and raised the main instead. We could sail with it by 4 knots in the weakening wind.
In the afternoon we found that one of the lines of the wind vane was also torn, so we had to fix it too quickly on the way.
Daily position:
16:00 5-24.00S 110-42.00W log= 19967.0
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13. day - 25/06/2007 - At the rise of the day the wind started to drop and rose before lunch again. We had to change the sails again in the morning and this time we had to 2 genoas on again. The air was so clear and there was not any wave so we could see as far as we wished it. Of course we saw water, water and some more water.
On the board everything happens based on daily schedule (sleeping, having breakfast, lunch and dinner). Most of our time goes with setting sails, checking and mounting staffs, cooking, reading, studying, and contacting people on SSB radio. We check regularly our fishing line too, whether we caught something with it. If we catch a fish our brain will start to search among the receipts we have.
Due to the changing time zone (it will change 3.5 hours up to Marquesas) we changed the night watch. Now we change each other at 3 am (Galapagos time), it used to be 2 am. We do not set our watch on board during the journey we use the time zone of the departure port and UTC when we use the SSB radio.
Daily position:
10:10 5-38.20S 111-50.80W log= 20036.9
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