Perhps my first mistake was going on a dive holiday to the Galapagos five years ago. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have met David andI wouldn't now be waking up to a pre dawn alarm and the recollection that today we were startig our journey back to where it all began......
I jest. I was looking forward to my first long ocean passage, a journey of 920 miles from the Gulf of Panama into the Pacific and onto these famous islands Together with or friends Gary & Jackie on Inspiratio Lady and Robert, Trish and their sons Owen and Elliot on Bristol Rose We left Taboga Island, seven miles off Panama City, at 6am on Saturay, 27 March and motored for a couple of hours waiting for the forecast wind to materialise. We'd prepard for a downwind sail the day before; a twin headsail configuration which looks like an inverted kite on the bow when it;s flying and perfect to scoop up the lightest following breeze. The wind came from directly behind us and we were able to sail donwiind until late Sunday when the wind dropped off as we entered the ITCZ (inter tropical convergence zone) where the northen hemisphere weather system meets the southern hemisphere weather. At the centre of the ITCZ, lying from east to west north of the equator are the infamous doldrums, an area of no wind, flat seas and humidity. Time to turn to an alternate power source and fire up the iron sail, ie start the engine and motor through.
The doldrums are wide. We motored for 24 hours, 145 miles over glassy seas until we picked up usable southerly winds. We were now into our third night on passage and I was thoroughlly enjoying myself. Daylight hours fly past. Every morning we checked in using the long range radio to the Pan Pacific Cruisers net to report our position and happily report all well on board. Then there were set times when we called our buddy boats to check progress, get weather updates from where they were and to compare fishing triumphs and failures. The fish triumphed over us on this trip to the tune of Jackster 0 Fish 2. We didn't land one fish, but they did take two lures off us. They must have been big bruisers to snap the line. Inspiration Lady had a shark circling their boat. We saw whales on the surface spouting water jets. At night there were seabirds flying around us and attempting to land on the deck. Luckily they failed. The picture shows the moment when we were on the equator changing from pollywogs into shell backs, the name for anyone who sails across the equator.
During the day between our radio chats we snoozed, read, took turns at watch, trimmed the sails as the wind shifted and enjoyed some good food. Every evening we'd put up the table and sit with a gin and tonic watching the sun set. Then dinner in the last rays of day
Before we left Panama David said he'd always wanted to have a whole stem of bananas to hang on the back of the boat so I got him one at the fruit market and got myself the headache of coming up with different ways to eat 100 quickly ripening bananas. Fortunately the market had sold out of the large varietty banana and I got a small tree of the petite ones. There were bananas on breakfast muesli, bananas caramelised in butter and honey (with custard for D), banana pancakes, two banana & walnut cakes, banana smoothies and an endless supply of midnight snacks. It's now almost 14 days since I bought them and we have 5 left. Although the skins have gone black the fruit inside is still unblemished and good.
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