Apsara's Log: On our way again -
the South Pacific
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400, Friday, May 21, 2004
0 54.4 S 090 22.5 W
Boatspeed 8.7 knots
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We left Puerto Aroya, Santa Cruz, Galapagos a couple hours ago with our
intended landfall Hiva Oa island in the Marquesas. We are gliding along
under mostly clear skies with light southerly winds and a sea so flat one
could almost water ski. But it would be a long ride; the Marquesas are
3,000 nautical miles to our WSW. This is like setting out to travel from
New York City to San Diego and then still having 800 miles to go...and
knowing that you will rarely go faster than 10 mph. The Marquesas islands
are actually 200 miles closer to San Diego than they are to the Galapagos.
(So if anyone is thinking of sailing down to meet up with us, you still have
time to get there first if you leave from SoCal)
The weather has been delightfully cool here on the equator thanks to the
slightly more northerly position of the Humboldt current. The Humboldt
current originates in Antarctica and flows north toward the equator bringing
cold water in the earth's never-ending attempt to cool its midsection and
warm its poles. The water temp has dropped 15 to 20 degrees from Panama and
is now in the mid to high 60s. This had kept the air temp a comfortable 70
to 80 and made for good sleeping weather. With in a few days we will be
south and the temp will increase significantly.
The Galapagos were an amazing stop, as expected. 97% of the Galapagos are a
national park and no one is allowed to visit the park except in the company
of a park guide/naturalist. Most people take various sized tourist boats
and visit several islands in the space of a week or two. We were successful
in gaining a special permit from the department of Defense that allowed us
to use our own boat to visit the islands so long as we had a guide aboard.
In the Galapagos the wildlife is everywhere and is almost totally unafraid
of humans. We had to step over baby sea lions to get ashore on the beaches,
we were three feet from pelican nests as their young were hatching, we swam
with the penguins (and the white tipped sharks and the spotted rays) we
watched as large red marina iguanas surfed home on to steep black lava
cliffs with crashing waves. We toured the islands with friends Suzy and
David Dominik for a little less than a week.
For this passage, our longest ever, we have two Brits aboard as crew.
Sharon from London joins us again after having sailed Antigua Race Week and
Adam also from London but now living in San Fran. Both look to be great
company and crew. We will be standing solo watches unless the weather gets
dirty. Night watch is 2.5 hours and day watch is 3.5 so each person will
have 6 hours of "work" to do and 18 hours off. We should have a chance for
about 8 hours of sleep a night. The winds are forecast to be light and we
do not expect to arrive in much less than 18 to 20 days. We all have good
books and will have plenty of time to get into the rhythms of a long
passage. Plus we'll be trolling for fresh fish.
If you care to track our progress we will be sending daily updates to a kiwi
web site www.pangolin.co.nz You might try the following link and look for
Apsara http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/reporter_list.php.
The length of
the lines is proportional to the speed of the wind (blue line) or the boat
(red). The direction of the line is the wind or boat's course direction.
Our first report will not appear until tomorrow. Let us know if you can
find us and how it looks from home.
The faithful crew of Apsara
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s/v Apsara
www.svapsara.com
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