En Route to the Galapagos -8 April 2024

There was little wind after supper and I had gone for a rest as Charles and I were on the 2.00am to 5.00am shift. I heard Mark ad Joyce beginning to put out sails at about 10.15pm and as I was not asleep I got up to help. The wind was about 8kts and so they thought they would try and sail and once set I went back to bed. In terms of sail, we put out the full genoa and main. I was woken at midnight by Keith and Angus to decide what to do as the wind had died and the best angle we could make meant that we were quite a bit off course. I decided to take in the sails and motor as the wind was supposed to come in about breakfast time.

We started our watch at 2.00am and the wind got up again and so we set full sails again in about 9 kts and we sailed all of our watch with quite a nice warm wind. The boobie guest flew off when we put the sails up as I saw it in our green navigation light. We could see lightning in the distance which lit up the sky and there seemed to be quite a storm going on ahead although we could hear any thunder. However, by about 4.30am we could hear thunder and I turned the radar on and we could see rain clouds on the radar and so we watched them and tacked away from one to avoid it. Lightning can be quite dangerous on a boat as if the mast is struck it can burn out all of the electronics and so we would have no instruments, so we try to avoid lighting. We handed over to Mark and Joyce and left them to the storm dodging. However, by 6.00am the wind died and we were motoring again. When Charles and I came on at 12.00noon the wind had picked up again. There seems to be a theme when we come on watch!

We therefore set sail and off we went and there were a number of hours of quite strong winds up to 22 kts, when we had to reef and mostly it was between 12-14 kts and we were making good speed and for once in the direction we wanted to go. Even though we had the wind it was raining or drizzly most of the day and there was a bit of a chop which meant it was a bit less comfortable.

We had made 154 nm the day before which was a mixture of slow sailing and motoring and today to 12.noon we made 153nm. We managed to continue to sail all day with the wind varying from 15 to 6 kts and we were glad to sail rather than motor as we were not in a rush.

Charles cooked a fish, vegetable, chickpea and chorizo supper which was delicious and we settled down for a night of sailing with the roll and slight heal. It had been a grey, wet day and I thought the Pacific looked like the English Channel on a wet grey day (which as we know frequently occurs.

We have about 500nm to go and today’s picture shows the chart plotter and where we are on our journey which I hope you find helpful. The red crosses in the Galapagos is where we are headed. We hope tomorrow has the wind but also some sun.

Opportunity for any Readers/Sailors.

In late May 2024 we shall be in the Marquesas in French Polynesia, and we will then move through to the Tuamotu’s before getting to Tahiti about the end of July 2024. There may be some space on Stormbird during this period should any sailor/reader be interested in joining for this period or part of it in what must be one of the most distant and beautiful places in the world.

In addition, in year two I will be going up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and probably across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town and I will need some more crew.

If there is any interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we head off to the Galapagos and beyond.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com  I can only upload one picture a day and visit our website www.stormbirdgoesglobal.co.uk