Galapagos Trip - Day 1

The crew of Emily Grace are well and still pushing southwest. Our current position is 6º 2.6' N, 80º 19.7' W and we moved 148 miles towards the Galapagos during the last 24 hours. We still have almost 715 miles more to go so no champagne yet.

We have seen a school (maybe 50) of rays leaping around the boat and several large dolphins jumping while daddy took a nap. The rays were comical to watch as they would clear the surface by 5 to 10 feet and frequently do back flips or spins before doing a belly flop. We are not really sure why they do it but it does look like fun.

We even hooked a marlin 15 minutes ago that looked to be about 8 feet long. We saw him jump and tail walk a few times before he stole my lure and swam away. It was amazing listening to the line pull off the reel despite the heavy drag I had set.

The ocean is calm with long period (widely spaced) swells that gently raise and lower the boat. The winds are light and our sailboat friends are falling behind. I'm careful not to be too cocky since with 10 knots more wind, we would be quickly left behind. They play a delicate game of using their engines to find the winds and saving fuel. They do not carry sufficient fuel to motor the whole way and I doubt that they would want to. There are about 5 boats out here with us for this passage to the Galapagos and we are all checking in on the SSB radio at noon to discuss our latest positions, weather conditions and fishing scorecards.

We got a partial school day in yesterday since it was rougher than today. We ate spaghetti for dinner last night and things are pretty normal aboard our little ship even though no land is in sight.

Posted Via SSB

Tom