much that Anthony had to put a sweatshirt on in the fly bridge during his watch. At this
time I am supposed to say just joking, but this is really what happened. We are just a few
miles from the big bad equator and summer has transformed itself into mid to late fall.
What is up? Sea sickness is still a problem. All day I have been practicing meditation to
ward off the inclination to run to the side and barf overboard. I think I slept most of
the day; when you meditate there is not a lot of difference.
John is going to set a waypoint to intercept the equator about a little after 7 AM in
daylight tomorrow when most of us will be up. Such a special occasion needs to be
witnessed in daylight. It is hard to see that line you always see on the world globes in
the dark. From now on the high and low pressure winds will spin in the opposite direction;
the same thing is true for water swirling down a sink or toilet. Water drains in a
clockwise spiral in the north hemisphere and counter clockwise in the southern hemisphere.
It is fall and will be winter soon south of the equator. It is a tradition to party when
one crosses the equator. Tomorrow night, weather and crisis permitting, we will break our
no drink policy and have one sundowner.
Our now close buddy, the lonely sea gull, has found a mate or at least a friend. They
greeted each other with such joy. He is no longer lonely. We will see if they are still
with us in the morning or have moved on with their lives.
It was so cool last night I slept with the hatches closed and I forgot to turn my fan on.
Wow, that is a first. It is 10 minutes to 6 AM and I am about to start my watch. I will
wake everyone up at 7. I climb the stairs to the fly bridge and Anthony is sitting in his
sleeping bag at the helm. It is cold, overcast, foggy and damp. Anthony says the sea water
temperature has dropped significantly. Galapagos has two seasons, late May till December
is the cloudy cool dry season with an average daytime high of 64° and January to mid May
is the sunny hot wet season with an average daytime high of 82°. During the cool season
there is the Humboldt Current that comes up from Chile and bathes Galapagos in cool sea
water. In the hot season the El Nino Current feeds the same islands. Much of the unique
life in the Galapagos is made possible by the rich Humboldt Current. I wonder what it will
be when we arrive.
At 7 AM everyone comes up to the fly bridge in their sweat shirts and sweat pants and wool
socks. I am still dressed like Tortola – tee shirt, shorts and bare footed; however, I am
truly very cold. I keep expecting it to warm up like every other day lately. We pass into
the South Pacific, very pleasant and beautiful, but not at all what we imagined.
We make course correction to starboard, north, towards Galapagos. The apparent wind is now
30° on our port, enough to raise the staysail. This will make the first time in at least 2
days that we use the sails. We go from 8.5 to 9.5 knots as the sail begins to pull. Later
we raise the main sail for the first time and go to 9.8 knots. We are set; if the wind
picks up and/or the apparent wind angle increases we will break 10 knots.
Along our way we see more dolphins and a big whale ambling along.
God Bless Bella Donna
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