THE GALAPAOGS
At sea. Palm Sunday, March 28, 2010

At present we are motor-sailing in bright sunshine and a cooling breeze
parallel to the south coast of Isla San Cristóbal in the Galapagos,and
have just waved at a couple of snorkeling boats in action near Kicker
Rock. After ten days at sea, much of it motor-sailing, we are looking
forward to a three-day stop here.

Once we got through the Doldrums, we were no longer bothered with constant
sail-changes. Once or twice we reefed down in anticipation of something.
But, all was quiet. We stand our three-hour watches during the long
nights, frequently in the cockpit. Our windvane steering doesn't work when
we are under power and the electronic tiller pilot is finicky. In the end
we use the bungee cord system and sit outside to keep an eye on it. Many
times there is no wind to speak of (much like my solo voyage from Western
Panamá to Bahía de Caráquez, Ecuador two years ago now). We could have
tried to sail the whole thing as I did back then. But it took me 18 days
and who's interested. We just want to get into the SE Tradewind zone,
which starts at about the equator and about this time of year. As we
approach San Cristóbal, the winds are indeed SE, but quite weak still.

For those wondering why we did not head straight S from Panamá until we
could get better winds, the reason is that the ITCZ was still quite far S
(touching the Colombia coast) and not up near Golfito in Costa Rica.
Cornell et al. recommend then sailing W from Costa Rica, hoping to pick up
NE Trades in the spring still and then, much farther W, punching S through
the ITCZ. All the characteristics recommending this route were there. But
we never actually found any NE Trades. All we had were moderate W winds,
which on a starboard tack was taking us W (Great Circle Route) to The
Marquesas, we therefore decided to punch through the Doldrums as we
encountered them.

When we came out the other side there was only very light southerlies. Our
rhumb line for The Marquesas and that for The Galapagos were now quite
close together, which encouraged us to decide on a stop here. We can top
up fuel and water and get fresh provisions. We spent a month in the
archipelago four years ago, so we know our way around a little bit. Of
course, the bureaucracy has become more intense, so we shall see what the
whole thing costs. We only want to make a 72-hour stop and then get going
again.