Day 1 Galapagos to Marquises

We cleared out of Santa Cruz before lunch and made final preparations to sail. After a nice lunch we hauled up the anchor and set sail towards Marquisis.

On our way out of Porto Ayora we said our goodbyes to a few other yachts. I also asked about HF Frequencies for the Arc Skeds so I could listen in. The Arc fleet depart Porto Ayora on Wednesday and the 30 yachts in the rally will follow us across the Pacific. I hope to keep in touch with a few of them via HF SSB radio on our passage.

We had a full set of sails as we departed and a lovely 12 kt breeze just aft of the beam. We were reaching at 7.5kts and Sunday Island was loving the sail. The wind gradually eased off throughout the afternoon and by the evening we had the engine on as we glided our way through mirror seas. As we sailed along I was conducting a compass check and was horrified to see our compass was 100* off the true magnetic. After futher observation of the chart we observed that magnetic anomolies were recorded in the area… but it is rare to find them so high. Captain Fitzroy from the Beagle must have been very confused as he sailed through the islands, even with this anomaly he somehow managed to chart the area! Thankfully now we are clear of the islands we only have a 30* error, which is far from acceptable but due to the magnetic field of the high powered alternator and proximity to the magnetic compass. I guess Fitzroy did not have such issues on a wooden ship!

We are sailing our way through the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone, ITCZ where all the air rises. Fatu Hiva is on a true bearing of 259T @ 2955nm from Galapagos. We are sailing a course of 235T to make our way further south into the trade winds, where we can start sailing west towards French Polynesia. The alteration the rhumb line course adds about 40nm to our overall passage length but will result in better wind and good sailing, reducing the overall time of the passage substantially. I expect by tomorrow afternoon we should hopefully start seeing a little more breeze, and tomorrow evening we will be in the trades. Since departure we have a 2kt current in our favour, and averaging 7.5kts.. Our days run over the past 24 hours is 170nm.

Everybody has settled in onboard. Emilie and I are settling into our watch routine, and the kids have recommenced “school”. This mornings class has had the kids writing about San Cristobal in their scrap books and learning about eagle rays and collective nouns – “A creep of Tortoise, a Bay of Turtles“. This afternoon we study science with Dad – Weather and the ITCZ