900 nautical miles

March 18, 2021

From Panama to Galapagos is 900nm approximately. Remember ? 1 nautical mile = 1.8km. Therefore, 1560km. It is quite a distance, equivalent of Paris – Gibraltar or Bogota – Dominican Republic…

We had very light winds and also some days with no wind in the predictions. So we splitted the journey in two parts. From Panama City to Las Perlas and from there to Galapagos.

Panama City- Las Perlas.

This leg was only 40 nm which we did in one day, leaving early morning and arriving to  just after lunch time. The wind was good enough to give us 5knots average on the speed.

We spend 3 nights in Las Perlas, just anchored in two different bays both of them inhabited. We just saw some fishermen’s in the distance during the day. They set their nets and come back hours later to collect their catch.

The scenery was fantastic, there was a lot of mangrove full of life that makes smaller islands you can go around. The water was pristine, you can see the bottom which was 8m deep. And the tide changed up to 4m during the cycle. Therefore, rocks appeared and disappeared making the islands bigger and then smaller. It is quite impressive and we had to be really careful when anchoring. Imagine, you don’t want to anchored with 4m depth at high tide and then loose 4m of water.

We had time to finish working on the preparations for Galapagos. One of the main requirements is to have the hull perfectly clean. We read that boats have been sent back out of the bay to clean the hull and come back in to be reinspected. We wanted to avoid any chance of that happening to us. Although, Happy Days antifouling was done recently, Panama waters are full of life and we already had some barnacles hardly attached. So we had to clean the hull again. Luckily, water was very clear despide being a bit cold. Pacific waters are much colder than the Atlantic.

We also have time to try our new friend. ¨Hasty¨a brand new outboard engine bigger than the current one we have. With a bigger engine we will be able to go further away, it is easier to start and more powerful, perfect to do the safety when kiteboarding. They don’t sell this engines in Europe anymore so we took the opportunity and got it in Panama.

From Las Perlas to Galapagos is 860nm so I got busy and cooked a few meals ready to warm up during the passage. When we sail I could be limited on what I can do in the kitchen.

We thought we had to stay a bit longer in Perlas because the forecast was no wind at all for the following week and we can’t carry enough fuel to motor for 8 days. But the predictions got better so we left on Monday 8^th of March at 7:30 am.

Boat ready, food ready -including the catch from the day before -2kilo tuna- captain ready and crew. Let’s say crew ready too. I’m the only crew, (we had a friend who was supposed to come but sadly he had to cancel because of his work) and honestly 860nm is a long passage for me.

Las Perlas to Galapagos

We did 7 full days of sailing arriving on Monday 15^th of March. The whole passage was really good. Happy Days was great, we had days with very light winds and also days with no wind as per the predictions but we manage to sail plenty and the great ally was the current. At some point we had 3knots current pushing us in the right direction so we even broke a record: 170nm in 24hrs. But don’t get too excited, one day we did 100nm and most of them were with the motor and probably 1knot of current. We had no moon so the nights were full of starts and even shooting starts some times.

On day 3 when I woke up for my shift I could see some kind of shadow far away and later with the sunrise I realise it was Malpelo.

Malpelo is the top of a 1,400-kilometer underwater mountain range, belonging to the Andes system. The island was declared a Sanctuary of Fauna and Flora in 1995 and in 2005 its area was expanded to 9,584 square kilometers, making it the ninth largest marine protected area in the world

The island belongs to Colombia. I wanted to visit it because diving is great there. Lots of pelagic life. Sharks, turtles, rays and more. But there is no protected anchorage. Impossible to go on a sailing boat. Unless you have someone to stay onboard permanently and even though I’m not sure what kind of paperwork would be required. So we had to skipped.

Couple of unexpected events happened during the journey. We had a very unusual catch. Not a fish. As we were sailing we saw a lot of garbage floating, lots of wood, leaves maybe from rivers but lots of garbage as well. So when we started the engine and hear weird noises we both new we must had caught something. We took time  to plan how to attack the problem. We had to go down to the propeller and remove whatever was blocking it, but at the same time we were in the middle of the ocean with current and not great visibility. Look at what we found. 200 nautical miles from the closets point in land.

It was hot and muggy because there was no wind so I ask permission from the capitan!!! And “pluff” there I was swimming in the Pacific Ocean with 2000 meters of water underneath and 200 miles from the closest piece of land. So refreshing! It was great.

We could have a lot of damage if we had not caught it that quickly. Aftewards, the engine was perfect!

The other even was related to the gas. On a boat things are different and some basic things granted when you live on land are completely the opposite on the sea. Let’s take the gas for cooking. We have 4 bottles of camping gas with us. We used and keep refilling them on the ports one bottle can last up to 3 weeks normally. When we left Panama we had 3 full bottles and one in use. Or at least that is what we thought. We had just refilled 2 in Shelter Bay Marina. But we have a very unpleasant surprise, when we finish the bottle in use and went to change it. Only until then we realised the bottles we had given to Shelter Bay Marina for refill were empty both of them. We didn’t noticed when we got them back, we were running around with so many different things and just took the bottles both weighted the same we stored them and that was it. Luckily, we still had one full. We have no other means for cooking. No gas means no cooking. In the end, I’m happy this happened to us on the journey to Galapagos. Imagine that happening on a 25 days crossing to French Polynesia? that could be a real problem if we ran out of gas. Now, lesson learned, always double check and now we need to find a place in Galapagos to refill them all.

Back to the crossing now. The days keep following and you start to get into a rhythm. Between 5 to 6 am I wake up and do a couple of hours watch while Cedric takes a nap. I see the sunrise, get breakfast ready and also a bit of the lunch, chopping, reviewing what fresh needs to be eaten first and so on. Then we have breakfast together at 8 to 9am. After that is nap time for me.

Cedric likes to be strict on meal times when sailing he says that put people in a rhythm and the passage gets easier and better. So lunch is at 1pm, apero 6:30pm and dinner 7:30pm. The rest of the day gets busy with reading, watching movies, trying to fish, checking the weather and of course sailing and taking care of the boat.

After dinner, Cedric goes for a nap and I star my watch until midnight then we swap and I go sleep until 5 or 6am and restart again.

Here some sunrise and sunset pictures from those days.

The routine makes it easier until couple of days before when you start thinking it is time to arrive. With so little wind we were not going that fast, but in any case we didn’t needed it either. We didn’t wanted to arrived on a Sunday. The officials charge double on Sunday and Hollidays. So this time we made sure not to arrived on those days.

We moved from North to South. We crossed the Equator!!!

Traditionally the crossing of the Equator line marks a really important event for a sailor. In older times it was a test for seasoned sailors to ensure their new shipmates were capable of handling long rough times at sea. If you are crossing for the first time, you are supposed to make a full baptism with water and offering a piece of hair to Neptune the God of the seas.

I remembered the first time I crossed the Equator line, I couldn’t jump in the water. We were sailing with Thira from Kapingamarangui in Micronesia to Kavieng in Papua New Guinea. The waves were rough, so the captain decided that instead of going in the water, I would just get a showered, so he just took a full bucket of water and dropped it on my head. It was a very hot day so the water was refreshing. He also cut a lock of my hair and offered it to Poseidon.

This is the fifth Equator crossing for Cedric and for me the third so no ceremony required but nevertheless worth mentioning. I started joking and telling Cedric that now our heads are upside down!!

On Saturday afternoon we could already see a glimpse of land. It is such a great feeling. Sometimes when I am in the middle of the Ocean for so long I kind of wonder, are we really in the good direction? So seeing land is a confirmation!! Yes, we are right… we did it! However, it is kind of frustrating to see land and knowing there is still a full day sailing ahead.

Some birds came to escort us and flew around us on and off until we got to the Baquerizo Moreno Port. This was our first glimpse at the amazing diversity of fauna in Galapagos.

We are all cleared and checked-in to explore Galapagos!!!

Landing in Galapagos is officially the time we received the most people in Happy Days. I think counting us we were about 15 people on board. More than any party we ever throw.

Very quickly after we arrived our agent came to the anchorage to meet us and collect some paperwork to start the process. She told us we were schedule for full inspection at 2:00pm. Also she saw a little something under the hull and said to discreetly take care of it which we did right away.

At 2:00pm the agent arrived with two doctors. They reviewed our paper and the PCR test we did in Panama before we left as per request. Unfortunately, the test had more than 10 days so they considered it was no longer valid. I was not happy to say the least about that.  They decided we needed another test!!! They had an express kit, so they did it on the spot and five minutes later we had the results. A PCR on fixed land is one thing but a PCR on a rolling boat is different and the doctor didn’t seem aware of that. Cedric had to tell them to hold on until the boat passing by was cleared of making waves.

Once we were clear from the doctor a full water taxi of officials disembarked. Environmental people, immigration, port authorities, divers, national park representative and couple more. Each of them with a full checklist. The next hour they started asking questions non stop about everything: what food do you have on board, did you fumigate, when did you leave, how long are you staying, where is the first aid kit, where is your maintenance record, where is this, where is that, etc. I had read plenty about this inspections so I think it helped we were prepared. I even had made brownies to offer them. They loved them and disappeared in no time. When the diver said we were clear, we were so relief, I knew the rest would be easier.

So here we are in Puerto Barquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal Island, Galapagos, ready to start exploring. And best of all, look at our welcome committee!! There are sea lions everywhere here. I promise, I’ll post more pictures of them on the next blog.