Friday, February 21, 2020

Day 1 Panama to Galapagos

Askari Position Report 0800 local time 21 February 2020

06 Degrees, 02 Minutes North
079 Degrees, 37 Minutes West
Sailing at 7 knots
17 knots of wind from the North
Course 190 Degrees True
Genoa Poled out to Starboard

Dolphins, Fish and amazing phosphorescence…

We lifted the anchor at Contadora at 10.30 am yesterday morning and are now nearly 170 miles south of Las Perlas. We started sailing slowly at 4.5 knots and the wind then dropped to under 10 knots so the engine went on at low revs for a couple of hours. Then the wind filled in perfectly. Actually yesterday afternoon we both agreed it couldn't be any more perfect (oh the water could have been blue instead of panama brown). We had a knot of and half of current pushing us south, 20 knots of wind and poled out the genoa; the sea hadn't picked up so we were just gliding along at between 8 and 9 knots.

We spent the afternoon fishing and caught three fish, however we only kept 1 as the other two had red meat and I didn't fancy that this early on, so they went back with a bit of toothache.

We had a quick visit from two beautiful dark dolphins and then settled into our night-time routine after an awesome curry (if I do say so myself). As it got dark there was no moon but the stars were super bright and the phosphorescence was incredible, if not a little unnerving as every breaking waves shone all around us making it difficult to watch for any small boats.

Today the current should ease a little and we are expecting the wind to drop a e during the day so we will make a little westing but still head south. We are aiming for a waypoint around 02 North 82 West before turning West towards the Galapagos.

Happy days and even some sleep - not bad for day 1!

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