On the Way to the Galapagos

This is day two of the passage between Isla Cocos and the Galapagos. And unfortunately but not unexpectedly there is no wind. We’ve been motoring for 24 hours and likely will the rest of the way south.

The good news is there was a huge pleasure boat at Cocos that was selling fuel to the sport fishing boats and when we asked to buy fuel the crew member said they were selling it for $6 a gallon. We figured out the minimum we needed to motor all the way and asked for that much. They gave us much more than that in one of their containers and just said they would “take care of it”. When Rob bought the containers back the owner said it was free! Apparently he had some sympathy for the little sailboat in an area with no wind. So we’ll get there just fine now.

And the better news is (actually I shouldn’t say this and jinx us) that I think we’re through the ITCZ now. I need to download the weather forecast this morning, but it was really far north when we left and hopefully it’ll stay there. We motored around a bunch of rain squalls yesterday, but when I woke Rob up at 8:00 for his watch last night we were leaving the last cloud behind and motoring into a starry sky. This morning there are scattered puffy clouds around (I should know what kind of clouds those are!), but no indication of huge thunderheads.

The sad news is I have two ear infections. But I guess the good news is they didn’t get infected until after we were done diving. And I have drops onboard and one is feeling better already. Needless to say, it sucks to be sick while on passage.

The worst news, though, is that Rob didn’t get to bring his camera on our last dive Tuesday morning. We went out and dove on a site called Dirty Rock, which is a rock about 1/2 mile off the north side of the island that we had dove on Monday morning. The dive guides from the liveaboard boats call it “the reason divers return year after year to Cocos”. And for very good reason. It was a spectacular dive and I’ll describe it more in detail when we get to the Galapagos and I have time to write a more detailed log. But our darling little kitten hasn’t quite learned what she can and cannot chew on and one of his cords for a flash had a short in it. Suffice it to say that when the eight to ten foot long hammerhead swam within five feet of us Rob & I both were very very sad that only Axel’s camera was flashing.

Teresa