Day 1 - Galapagos Passage

 Date: 19th February 2023

Location: Contadora Island, Panama

We left La Playita this morning at 8.30 having checked out with the marina. We and Meraki 2 motored out and circled our friends in the anchorage to wave goodbye.

15 knots on a port beam reach gave us a wonderful sail almost all the way here, an eight hour sail. Soon after departure we set up Paul, the wind steering. We had full main up and rather a lot of weather helm which make his work very hard with continual tweaking required. But the sea was flat, the company good and the fishing rods were out. Unfortunately...no fish.

Mareki 2 reported by radio that they had a problem with their external mainsail furler and they are working on that now anchored 50m away from us.

Peter and Sally seemed to enjoy themselves and we learned a bit of sail trimming from them. By now Paul was working great and for most of the time we just left him to it. Even better Sally, who had feared sea sickness had no I'll effects which bodes well for the rest of the passage.

So now we are anchored off a lovely sandy beach with a few other sailing boats and plenty of motor boats too. After all it is Carnival weekend.

Of course the day was not without a few setbacks as well. Our fridge has stopped working (great timing!) so tomorrow we will see if we can use the freezer (normally not switched on) instead.

PS: I am having trouble sending these blogs. You might not received anything til we are in Galapagos. Apologies.

And our hull that was supposedly cleaned in La Playita seems dirty and our agent is getting stroppy about recleaning.

But overall today a great shakedown both crew and boatwise.