Askari Position Report 0800 local time (1300 UTC) 22 February 2020
03 Degrees, 43 Minutes North
081 Degrees, 03 Minutes West
24 hours 164 miles
Sailing at 8 knots
21 knots of wind from the North
Course 210 Degrees Magnetic
Genoa Poled out to Starboard
Wind, no Wind, Wind…….
The ocean has gone from brown and confused, with weird patches of overfalls and crazy phosphorescence to much more of an ocean swell with fairly nice big (1.5m) waves pushing us south. This morning we have birds around us again as we are near the Colombian Island of Malpelo; a reserve and great dive spot. We also have beetles - seriously pretty flying beetles with shiny grey backs, red spots and green legs - but heading to the Galapagos this isn't good as they are strict about quarantine requirements.
Yesterday the wind eased off for most of the day to about 15 knots, we sailed most of the afternoon on the Starboard tack wind at 120 degrees, with a plan to make a little most westing and then pole out again for the night. So of course right at mocktail hour the wind died. It always happens…. We don't drink on passage but like to make a nice cold soft drink and watch the sunset before getting into dinner and night shifts. So instead we are trying lots of different strategies to keep the boat moving in the weird sea, in the end we opted for a few hours of engine and the main sail. It came back with avengeance at 1am. My watch, but Andrew came to help get everything set up again with the pole.
The other thing we are monitoring out here is the water temperature; it has been steadily getting warmer as we head towards the equator going from 25 degrees centigrade near Las Perlas to 29.4 degrees here. After we turn towards the Galapagos we should start to see the impact of the cold Humboldt current - watch this space!
We fished again yesterday with a deep sea lure but no luck, however the Spanish Mackerel from the day before provided the most delicious ceviche - served with wholemeal pan bread. We even had avo and coriander to make it all a little bit posh.
We are going well and pleased to be passed Malpelo - on our last trip getting to that island was a bit of a nemesis, that warranted Matt n Togs onboard Helene to pen a song about the difficulties sailing south with fickle currents. Today the current data Andrew has downloaded is paying off.
Ciao :
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