Thursday, May 2, 2013

leaving paradise and get caught in spider webs - day/night #1

the last days were about getting ready for the biiiig jump.
we went to a farm where we got to pick our fruit and vegetables off the bushes/trees...just fantastic.
so we stocked up on tomatoes, capsicums, papaya, maracuja, melons, bananas, limes....good bye scurvy!

then - just to treat ourselves after 2h of "hard" work ;) we had a lovely lunch at hauser's - an austrian who settled with his equatorian wife on isabela and runs a restaurant that only opens for reservation.
"we" that is our beloved crew from Chili Cat and our new friends from Lateral Thinking.

but the time had come...we had to move on.

so at 11:30 GAT (galapagos time) on the 1st of may 2013 we lifted anchor and set off - together with Chili Cat and another 4 boats that we will see again in the marquesas
Mark and i were both a bit sad, at the same time looking forward to what's coming - and galapagos gave us a farewell from heaven.
we saw so many turtles and had manta rays just next to the boat.
most amazing were a couple of hammerhead sharks and dolphins swimming with us and just when we thought it can't get any better, we spotted a 10m whale shark and it's young right beside us!
Chili Cat topped us though by spotting a humpback whale!!!!

the sea was calm and so was the wind - we changed sails a lot of times to end up motor sailing.
as the night set in the winds slowly picked up, and the favorable current that kept pushing us, turned against us.
at 00:00 just after i woke mark to change the shift, we all of a sudden slowed from 5,5kn to 3,8kn - for no good reason.
as we where motor sailing i quickly disengaged the engine...thinking something must have got caught under our keel.
and sure enough, we dragged a long-line fishing line.
we simply had to cut it and kept going - only to find ourselves in another one just 1h later.
in total we had 3 lines, one snapped before we had to cut it - Chili Cat was not as lucky totalling 6 lines!
the couple of fishing vessels we saw do not respond to the radio...must have to to something with the fact that commercial fishing is not allowed in galapagos' waters extending 200nm around each island - we where hardly 100nm out.

the wind has picked up now and we have a lovely sail.
the first nights are always a bit rough as we have to adjust to our sleeping pattern and the boat movement - so trying to get into the groove right now.

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