Brian's Travels Index
Well we had a wonderful sail across the Pacific, and we were the first to arrive at the Marquesas. See the attachment for the report.
Galapagos To Marquesas
The Galapagos Islands were fantastic. The wildlife so unusual and fearless you could get close to them. We were on a 4 day organised tour with a guide, you are not allowed to move between islands other than on a controlled tour. The most exciting moment for me was snorkelling with sea lions and a large green turtle. We watched a large green turtle about 5 feet long come ashore and dig a hole to lay her eggs.
Too soon it was time to leave and start our longest passage to the Marquesas over 3000nm. We left at 0600 12 March, 3 days into the voyage the fishing line burst into life and we got our first catch a Big Eye Tuna, as we brought it in there were lots of dolphins zooming towards us and following behind in a more leisurely pace as far as you cold see on the port quarter whales, they were heading straight for us they came right up to the yacht almost touching the stern. They were Pilot whales 12 to 18 ft long we according to the book 1 to 4 tons We took photo’s and afraid they might damage the rudder we started the engine and turned to starboard, they went off to port not liking the noise of the engine.
7 days out the sea life is prolific this morning there were 3 flying fish and 43 squid on deck. We are doing good daily runs after the first few days of very light winds. At roll call each day we monitor all the yachts daily runs and we are doing very well
Day 8 we have now sailed 120 degrees of long since collecting Kalypso in Sweden one third of the way round the world. Late in the evening clouds roll over us bringing stronger winds Dave and I have some exciting hours hand steering the yacht under her huge spinnaker
Day 9 the generator is not working properly so we cannot use the breadmaker, I make breadrolls by hand they use lees gas. 0930 and we have reached the halfway point there will be a little celebration at dinner tonight. At roll call we find that we are in the lead having overtaken Robinson a 35ft steel yacht that started 5 days earlier than us.
Day 11 a fishing vessel decides to get in our way, we had to drop the spinnaker in the middle of the night and motor across her bows. We did not want to go behind her because of nets which are often illegal and can be up to 20 miles long.
Day 14 the watermaker has sprung a serious leak. Spent the day stripping it down and rebuilding it after replacing the end of one of the membranes.
Now I must tell you something really worrying happened to me on this passage, and its very scary, I have started having nightmares about it I have become a “HARRY POTTER “ fan. No please its not funny, my only excuse is that the odds were 4 to 1
The skipper and the other 3 crew were already Potter converts, they
kept saying things
About me first I was a Huffflepuff then worse they said I was a Slytherin.
I was brow beaten so much that in the end I picked up book 1 then I devoured
book 2 and can’t wait to get book3 that Judy is reading.
Wednesday 27 March we expect to arrive on Friday around 1600hrs. The Pacific if I was to describe it thus far I would say “It was a pussycat” Gentle seas and light winds have been the norm. We have flown the spinnaker night and day, taking it down only to repair chafe on the guy..