Day 14 Galapagos to Marquesas

17 MRCH 2024

Sunday is Pizza day and we have now been at sea for 2 weeks. Average speed 7.1kts.

Yesterdays GRIB file weather download did not give good news. There is some very unsettled weather up ahead, and a band of very light wind will pass us early tomorrow morning. I wonder if the unsettled weather has anything to do with the insane sea temps we are experiencing. Over the past 24 hours, sea water temperature has risen from 28*C to 29*C! 1*C may not seem like much, but from an ocean perspective this is huge. When we experianced 29*C in the Med we were concerned, but mid pacific ocean in 4000m of water, that is a real worry! The unsettled weather should not affect us too much, perhaps it may delay our arrival until Friday? The weather will no doubt give the ARC boats to the NE some unpleasant sailing and motoring for the last week of their passage.

We had some gusty winds last night, and the breeze backed to the East, so we were wing on wind since 3am, racing down the waves and making some good speeds. At 4am I saw a ship, from the navigation lights it was over 50m, possibly a huge super trawler because it was very well lit up and traveling slowly. The vessel did not show up on our AIS system which makes its business “smell a bit fishy”, as all commercial vessels should be broadcasting their details on AIS.

Because of the high sea temps it is very hot down below. and hard to cool the boat down. Luckly there is no spray on deck so we can open hatches, but it is still super hot. This makes all the electronics that we use work even harder. The fridge compressors are not as effecient in the hot weather, and the batteries are hotter than normal, but thankfully no issues with the boat at all so far this passage (touch wood)!!

Issy’s left front tooth is hanging on by a thread, so close to coming out and causing a few drama’s. But the doors onboard are not heavy enough to be of use…. perhaps a string to the boom prior to gybing? (Dad’s joke). Because of heat and teeth, and weather nobody is fully rested at the moment, so taking it easy watching documentaries and reading. Max continues to build his penguin empire.. the poor penguins must be very hot too!

Our resident Brown Boobie has been perched on the top of the mast or missen spreaders. I think it moves as required to maximise its effect of whitening our deck with its excrement. Who would have thought one bird could make so much mess. This afternoon our Boobie has disappeared. My book says that Boobies should only be 50nm from land, so I guess its using us to hitch itself a ride back home. Hopefully it has left us for another taxi.