Midnight watch: all good so far – light winds, small waves both against us. Not terrible, just a little bit bouncy as we are going slow, its a long ways and lets not get too beat up on the first night out.
Pretty good day, got an early-ish start. About an hour late as I wanted to change the fuel filters while in the protection of the bay, especially after seeing what showed up in the ‘baja filter’ we used to screen the jerry can fuel we loaded up on in the Galapagos. Water and sludge. That took about an hour so we got started around 8:30.
One of the boats we know from Panama came in the night before we left, and anchored close enough to say hello and good bye at the same time. Our paths will cross again as they will also head to Easter Island after Galapagos.
Christine & Sally made some yummy banana muffins for breakfast while Ron helped me with the fuel filters.
First couple of hours was 180 degrees from where we wanted to go, we had to get clear of the island before we could tack over to get on course.
Once on course we dropped the fishing lines in, nothing much for a long while but then a large Wahoo took off running. Could already taste dinner, but then as he was leaping out of the water the swivel became the weak link and dinner said, see you later. Not to be out done a sneaky Marlin came in close with lightning speed and snatched the ‘teaser’ right up next to the boat, breaking the 200lb test line like it was sewing thread. So far, fish: 2 – us: zero. Its a long way so we will keep trying.
Pressure cooker Carnitas for dinner, its almost like being in Austin with a little Tex-Mex to wind down the day.
As I sat down to type an update, the wind, like on cue picks up to 20k from the steady 12k we were having – the dark cloud that obscures the stars is no doubt the reason, but the increase in wind also pushed top boat speed up to 9.9kn for the past 30 minutes. And just like that we are back to 10knots of wind and slow going.
Started with 1765 miles till the destination, 1675 miles to go if we were a crow.
On 12/14/2018 @ 7:45 AM Our position: 01°58.69’S, 088°33.01’W Traveling 7.9 heading 135T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-1.97817,-88.55017
At 12/14/2018 @ 7:45 AM Our position: 01°58.69’S, 088°33.01’W Traveling 7.9 heading 135T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-1.97817,-88.55017

We are underway, looking at least a 2 weeks at sea, and going into the wind. Gonna be a long one. Not quite as far as the atlantic crossing but will be close by the time we factor in the wind direction and waves that are pushing against out direction its gonna be a while before we find internet again.
Cheers, all is good so far.. course its only been 6 miles.
Lots of miles to go, only about 1765 nautical miles as the crow flies.
On 12/13/2018 @ 3:20 PM Our position: 00°53.62’S, 089°41.22’W Traveling 6.9 heading 255T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-0.89367,-89.68700
At 12/13/2018 @ 3:20 PM Our position: 00°53.62’S, 089°41.22’W Traveling 6.9 heading 255T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/-0.89367,-89.68700

50 Hours in and still trucking tho, not on the shortest / direct route. As Sugar Shack was refitted with new pointy things on top of her mast, we took the opportunity to upgrade those pointy things that normally only show which direction the wind is coming from. We upgraded them, as all things on a sailboat must serve dual purposes or there is no room on board. The new pointy things we settled on not only show the direction the wind is coming from but also the destination we are attempting to get to. They worked perfectly over night. Pointed straight to Galapagos and right at the wind that was coming from there. Now we just need a power boat. We now have traveled close to 100 miles out of our way to get to where we were going. The rain squalls kept it very interesting.
Just before sunset, some sea birds decided the shack was a perfect resting place to prune their feathers, it started with one. That was cute and fun to watch, but not a very pretty bird. Then another and another all competing for the princess seat on the bow. A quick look and those darned birds don’t get up to use the restroom. So an hour or so of swatting and washing down the dirty deck almost caused dinner to burn. In the end, we tied 2 t-shirts up there and that seemed to scare off all but 1 persistent little &&%# guy. Finally we were victorious and and didn’t see them after dark, and since it rained, I probably have 2 clean t-shirts to show for it. Tho the did use the solar panels as target practice, good thing it rained hard last night so there wasn’t much to clean up this morning.
Broke out the pressure cooker and made a Chipotle Chicken Rice bowl, tho might have been a bit spicy for Christine since there is some left-overs that we will roll up into a burrito for lunch today.
Sun is coming back out this morning, hopefully that will dry the cockpit out and some of our wet clothes. We tacked back this morning after being 50 miles off course and got a slightly favorable wind shift, still not quite able to make the course. Still light winds, but with our course change we are now also heading into the waves too, so slow going. But we will get there.
Keep on Keeping on. 459 miles to go (as the crow flies)
On 11/5/2018 @ 2:20 PM Our position: 04°58.97’N, 084°42.87’W Traveling 5.9 heading 251T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/4.98283,-84.71450
At 11/5/2018 @ 2:20 PM Our position: 04°58.97’N, 084°42.87’W Traveling 5.9 heading 251T
Google says we are here www.google.com/maps/place/4.98283,-84.71450