Sunday, February 20, 2011

Sailing from Costa Rica to The Galapagos

Hi friends and visitors of our blog, This report is a 15 day sail from Costa Rica to the Galapagos, I had estimated we would do this in 7 to 10 days, but neptune decided different. we had little to no wind, sometimes we sailed for two days, then we drifted for two days. In total we used the engine about 24 hours, 18 hours at the end, to arrive at our destination. It was an easy passage, the sea was always calm, we made 848 miles. Spirits were always good on board, we enjoyed this sailing a lot, we have seen things on this trip, we would not have seen, if we had wind al the time, and sailed hard. Unbelievable how much live there is in the ocean, I cold see "things" some kind of tiny spiders, running over the water, how can they live here?, In the morning we saw tiny blue spots in the sea, I catched one with a bucket, so small you could not see it, unless it was schining blue. Do not think we had a boring passage, because we had no wind, no it was a nice experience this passage. regards, Glenda and Eddy Sunset in Puerto Jiminez, the last sunset we will see in Costa Rica A cormorant comes by in the morning, he has some problems steadying himself. This cormorant was not afraid of us. Sunrise. No wind, and we were right in the shipping line, from the ships that come and go to Panama, this one came close. We saw a bird sitting on "something", we drifted for hours togheter, then we saw he was sitting on a turtle. Here they have a discussion, the turtle say's,"get of my back you moron" the bird answers "you keep on floating", they stay for hours togheter, strange is that the turtle did not dive. This big fish, around 2 meter was playing around, I think its a marlin, later we were sailing and I catched one, when he was aside the boat he got free again. These big tuna fishing boats are all around, we saw two of them in action, they have helicopter, to help them find the fish, they fish the sea empty. here the helicopter, at night the chopper stands on the fishing boat. Glenda enjoying the last sunshine of the day. Here 3 dorades are playing around the boat. Glenda starts playing with the lure, I say "you never catch one" she answers "I am positive and have faith" unbelievable, she hooks twice a dorade, but after a few minutes of fighting they got free, a pity, because dorade is a delicious eating fish. A turtle comes by to greet us. She has something growing on her back. A windless sunrise, its such a strange experience, see the video Glenda made, to experience this better with us. Somethimes we can use the light wind sail, genaker, but the wind has to come from the side or from the back. A meeting of seabirds on a windless day. Here we drift over the ecuator, luckely we have the current al the time with us, here 0.9 knots After 12 days at sea my first catch, a nice tuna, food for day's This whale passed by close to the back of the boat, I estimate the lengt about 5-6 meters, I don't know what the scratches are on his body. Sunrise and the land of Galapagos, san Cristobal Island, the last 18 hours we used the engine, otherwise we were still drifting. Glenda made this beautifull photo of the sunrise with the dolphins. Plenty of dolphins to welcome us to the Galapagos. Strange shaped rock, it is called "lion dormido" sleeping lion. Other side of the rock. Birds to welcome us. Bird Piquero Enmascarado sitting on the water.