Sunday Island Day 4 Galapagos to Marquisis

8 March 2024

> Finally we have reached the tip of the trade winds. Our Latitude now at 6*15S, we can begin a rhumb line of 260*T towards Marquisis. >
> Yesterday afternoon I set up our biggest sail the Code 0 to give us more power. The sail worked but when the wind died off last night we furled it away while we motored for two hours and then replaced it with the Genoa. Early this morning I played around with some configurations to use the spinnaker pole to get the Code 0 further forward, and be able to pull it aft away from the furled Genoa. This allows us to run deeper with the code 0, but also gives us the ease of being able to furl the sail quickly in a squall or if we catch a fish. >
> I also got the spinnaker up on deck and ready to go, only to be faced with squalls on the horizon, and decided to stick with the Code 0 for a bit longer. The Trade winds come with a small price to pay of afternoon thunderstorms causing havoc with the wind direction, gusts and lulls. Thankfully the wind only reduced to 8kts in the lulls, and then came back again, and the gusts were not too extreme. We also got some nice rain to wash away the bird droppings on deck & on our solar panels! We are now sailing at 6-7kts towards our destination! >
> We have an unwelcome guest onboard.. a stowaway…. from Galapagos… a Red Footed Boobie now sits at the top of our mast… on the wind instruments! We managed to scare him away this morning with the air horn, and he would take off, fly around the boat, empty his bladder in an attack that would be prized in the RAAF, and fly away. But by the afternoon he learnt the airhorn would not hurt him… and he is now quite settled perching on my $1500 wind wand and spraying white poo all over the deck, sails and solar panels from above as well! >
> Today we caught our first Mahi for the trip. Max was keen to trawl with his rod and lure too, and was ready to go at 0700 this morning. The Mahi was a breeze to pull in compared to the Marlin yesterday.. my thumb is still red raw from using the reel on the Marlin! >
> Sunday Island is performing well… everything is working and we are having a lovely sail. The signal from the HAM radio has not been too crash hot despite my new modified 16m antenna and we have been unable to download new GRIB weather files. I do hope this email gets out today. I do not expect to be able to get out daily emails for the rest of the trip unless I can find another station with better reception – perhaps Hawai will provide results when we are a bit closer