Saturday, May 06, 2006

Update from Ellen

Half past midnight and there is very little wind so we are motoring. It has been raining on and off all day with thunder storms rumbling close by, and there is now a steady drizzle punctuated by the odd dramatic flash of lightening which serves to illuminate an otherwise black night. I'm cooler than I have felt in months (am actually wearing trousers) which is nice, but all is very damp inside and out the boat, which is not pleasant, as ventilation can be a problem when underway. Hope tomorrow is drier. During a major downpour earlier on in the day we had cockpit showers which was very refreshing.

Today has been spent repairing the wind-vane (after servicing in Panama, he had been reassembled incorrectly!) and eating perishable food (watermelon, pineapple, bacon and tomatoes) as we have a vast amount and if we pace ourselves too strictly, it will all go off (well that's our excuse). We have also joined two nets for this trip - one in the morning and one in the evening. The evening net consists of about 5 buddy boats who, like us, have all just left Panama for the Galapagos, so we are not alone out here by any means.

Nick and I are experimenting with watches, just to see if a different system is more suitable for us. With the old watches of 6 to midnight and then midnight to 6, it meant that my watch was always in complete darkness, and also, Nick found that he didn't sleep for the full 6 hours, so we have shortened the watches to 3 hours and will see how that goes.

Position 0100 (0600 UTC): N6°19' W80°33'
Distance to go - about 700 miles!

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