We had a very peaceful night with a little rain and varying wind conditions, sometimes slow but mostly rolling along with a brilliant star display when the sky was clear. We did 190 nmiles in the last 24 hours which is pleasing given the very light wind conditions (6 – 14 knots).
The sea here is teeming with life in the South Equatorial Current and daylight brought the usual deck cargo of squid and flying fish that have jumped aboard during the night. This morning we collected 9 small flying fish and 12 small squid, 2 of which had jumped through open hatches and into the main cabin.
We witnessed our first big pod of Pilot Whales this morning, crossing our transom from north to south, with their characteristic head out breathing technique and long rounded back curving dorsal fins.
The big surprise this morning was a flyover by a small two seater helicopter with sea floats at 0700. The two people aboard circled low and waved happily before disappearing to the south. We suspect they are fish spotters because we later saw a fishing boat with a crow’s nest atop the main mast and dories and nets visible astern. There must be a mother ship as well because we are beyond small helicopter range from the Galapagos.
We have also had a fishing boat off our port beam which we assume is part of the fishing fleet with the mother ship because it is not big enough for a helicopter.
This morning’s HF net included 7 yachts, 6 of which are at sea, with another leaving San Cristobal on Saturday. Ghost is sailing with 3 reefs in her main sail to nurse the unravelling shroud.
It is also washing day on Salacia. We have a “Splendide Combinatic” combination washer dryer which is certainly a luxury and it does a great job. We hang the washing out rather than run the drying cycle so we look like a chinese laundry. Cyndy originally joked that we would leave it on the dock in San Diego but it is worth its weight in gold on the long passages.
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