Sunday, October 6, 2013

Escape Adventures:  Galapagos Islands 7-12 July 2013

We only spent four days in the Galapagos Islands.  Jay and I had gone on a tour of the Galapagos Islands back in 2010 so we had a good chance then to visit all of the main islands and see the fantastic wildlife up close.  We were on a Linblad Tour that went to both Machu Picchu in Peru and the Galapagos Islands and while we were in the Galapagos, we sailed on the National Geographic Ship Endeavor.  The ship sailed from Island to Island at night and then we went ashore on the zodiac boats each day.  I'm posting a picture of the Galapagos Islands so you can get an idea of how it might look approaching from the south.  Santa Cruz Island is about 30 miles across so you can use that to size the rest of the islands in your minds or to plot distances for sailing around the islands.  Our current stop was primarily for rest and resupply, but we certainly hoped we would get a chance to see some of the wildlife too.  The Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador and they are all a part of the national park.  If you arrive there as a private yacht, you must sign in with the local Port Captain at the Island you first land at and you can only stay at that island.  If you want to cruise from island to island, you have to get a special permit from Ecuador which takes a lot longer and is pretty expensive.  Even then, you have to hire a guide to sail with you from island to island and that also is quite expensive.  One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was that when we awoke on the morning of 6 July, we found this Swallow Tailed Gull sitting on the deck with a broken wing.  Apparently it had flown into one of the stays during the night and broke its wing.  I picked it up and made it as comfortable as I could, but it had a bone sticking out of the front of its wing and it was obvious he wasn't going to make it.  We put it on the back deck and eventually he just jumped overboard and swam off.










We first saw the Island of Floreana around 0515 on the 7th and then Santa Cruz about 0830.  We dropped anchor in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz around 1245 after Sailing 2585 nm.  It was a great relief for me personally to be there and Jay and I particularly had a great sense of accomplishment.  Sven had sailed to the Galapagos a couple times before on two of the Atlantic 57 catamarans that were built at Alwoplast.  As soon as we anchored, I contacted Johnny Romerez, who was the agent we had been coordinating with, and told him we had anchored.  He came on board around 2 PM and brought a Navy Officer with him to inspect the boat and to fill out the necessary papers for us to be there.  I also made arrangements with Johnny to have diesel delivered to the boat and I thought everything was taken care of so Jay and Sven went ashore to see the sights while I waited for the diesel to arrive.  Here are a couple of pictures of the harbor taken from the back deck and I've posted a video of the anchorage so you can get a better view at:
http://youtu.be/3MTXzNDLgMQ   Santa Cruz Anchor Site











Two new crew members, John Rohrback and Eric Buxton from the Seatle area had flown down to meet us in the Galapagos and would sail with us to La Paz.  I had put out a call for crew members to my teammates on the Ventura County Sheriff's Mountain Search and Rescue Team and one of my teammates, Kevin Matchet, responded and said his brother-in-law really wanted to crew on Escape and that he was an experienced sailor, spoke fluent Spanish, and was a professional bird expert specializing in Pelagic Birds or sea birds.  All of those qualifications appeared to be exactly what I needed so I started corresponding with John and after about two e-mails, he said he really hesitated to ask me, but  his friend Eric Buxton, who is also an experienced sailor, really wanted to come.  After a few more e-mails I found out that Eric had owned his own sailboat for several years and had sailed extensively in the San Juan Islands.  Both Eric and John were in their late 20's, in great physical shape, and were both experienced sailors—and they were willing to haul all of the repair parts Alwoplast was sending me to make modifications to Escape before we sailed the remaining 2136 nm to Baja.  Eric and John had arrived on the Island of San Cristobal on 7 July but neither they nor we had a cell phone that would work in the Galapagos so we communicated through e-mail which I was sending over the SSB radio.  Since Escape couldn't leave Santa Cruz, we decided that they would just catch a water taxi over to the boat on the morning of the 8th, which they did.  After we had made introductions all around they broke the news that, although the flight had been a good one in general, the bag with all of the repair parts did not make the connection somewhere and was lost.  They said LAN Airlines assured them that it would be there the next day or maybe even that afternoon.  Sven already had airline tickets for the 11th and we were hoping to have the repair parts so he could help us install them before he left.
Since we didn't have any of the repair parts and I thought all of our paperwork was in order, we all decided to go ashore and see what there was to see on Santa Cruz Island.  Since both Jay and I and Sven had all been on this island before, we had some good spots already in mind.  Sven suggested we start first with jumping from some 45 to 50 foot cliffs that he knew about from his previous trip.  We called the water taxi on the VHF radio and a couple minutes later they showed up at the aft steps of our boat.  Here are a couple pictures of the water taxis:
 These water taxi drivers were very skillful and could get you right to the dock and hold the boat there while you jumped on or off.  It cost a dollar per person to ride the water taxi so it was a pretty good deal.  It avoided the hassle of taking our own dinghy ashore, finding a place to park it, and of course worrying about the motor getting stolen, etc.  Once we got ashore we walked about 3/4 of a mile down some back alleys, around a salty swamp, and across an ancient lava flow field and then came upon this incredible canyon overlooking a very beautiful lagoon below.  Sven  led the way through the thick bushes along the
ledge to a rock outcropping that stuck out over the edge a little ways.  I looked at the drop and at the people swimming down below and remembered how it had been during my West Point training when we jumped 40' into the water simulating jumping off of an aircraft carrier deck.  I quickly volunteered to be the photographer and the medic for those who were crazy enough to jump off that cliff and thought that, although I hadn't brought my first aid kit with me on this hike, I could fall back on my training for the past six years with the Ventura County Sheriff's Mountain Search and Rescue Team to at least splint any broken bones and to pump air into anybody who got knocked out if they hit flat on the surface.  Here are pictures of Jay, John, and Eric jumping off the cliff.  Sven had hiked out to the diving platform and jumped before I had the camera ready so I didn't get his jump on film.  I also posted a movie of a couple of the jumps on YouTube at:
http://youtu.be/UBog-EcRnf0   Cliff Jumping 8 Jul 2013


We spent a couple hours at this site paddling around and jumping off the cliff.  There were a couple big fish in the pool, but I figured it was against the law to catch them so we just looked at the fish and then headed back across the lava field towards the boat.  Along the way I saw this Lava Heron hiding in the bushes so I got a good close up of him.  We also stopped at a local tavern to have a cold beer before going back to the boat.  From the path along the shore we came across this small bay in front of one of the local hotels.  It was really nice and seemed like a great place to take another dip.

A little farther down the path we got a pretty good view of Escape sitting in the harbor so I took this shot so you could see a view of the bay from shore.  While we were sitting at the outdoor table at the tavern, a huge frigate bird landed on the gate post just a few feet from where we were so I quietly lifted my camera off of the back of the chair where it was hanging and took this picture.  During mating season Frigate Birds blow up that red sack under their necks.  That really appeals to the ladies.  I had just sat back down at the table when this large brown pelican came swooping in and drove the Frigate Bird off of his perch as if to say, "if these tourists are handing out any treats—they're mine".  Since it was still early in the day when we left the pub, we went to the LAN office  downtown and inquired about the lost bag with all of our repair parts as well as our new VHF radio in it.
No luck, but John and Eric stayed there a couple of hours haggling with the agents at LAN explaining what had happened and how urgent it was that we find that bag.  The people at the counter were really nice, but they didn't seem to have much information or authority to make anything happen.  John's ability to speak fluent Spanish was a real help in talking to the folks at LAN.  While John and Eric haggled with the LAN agents, Sven, Jay, and I went back to the boat.  We were welcomed by this huge wasp, which I was hoping was not an omen of things to come.  He didn't sting us but all of his friends were inside the boat hovering around the fruit we had bought.  Once we got the hornets shooed out of the boat, Sven and I got all of the diesel cans out of the 

anchor lockers and dumped the remaining fuel into the tanks in anticipation of getting more fuel later that day.  While we were dumping the fuel into the tanks, we couldn't help but notice that there was a lot of dirt and debris in the bottom of each 5 gallon can.  Consequently, we left about half a gallon in each can so that we didn't dump any of that sediment into the fuel tanks.  We were starting to have second thoughts about Johnny Romerez because we'd already had a couple Navy boats stop by and ask us who our agent was and told us we needed to go see the Army officer at the port to get checked in.  


In the early afternoon, John and Eric returned to the boat only to report that the bag with the missing parts still hadn't shown up, but said it might be there late in the day or the next morning for sure.  We decided there was no use just sitting on the boat so we headed to go shore again and hiked to the eastern end of the main street in town to the Charles Darwin Research Station.  At the station, they have all kinds of research going on, but one of the main efforts is to reestablish the endemic tortoise populations to the various islands.  In the olden days of waling and exploring, ships would stop by the islands and load a bunch of the large tortoises on board.  The reptiles could go for over a month without food or water so it was a good source of fresh meat on the boats.  Unfortunately, over time many of the tortoise populations became extinct or nearly extinct.  Tortoises lay a lot of eggs each year, but sea birds and other predators kill a lot of them before they can get big enough to fend for themselves.  The research station raises the young tortoises until they are big enough to survive on their own and then releases them on the island their species came from.  Here's a picture of Jay and Sven at the Research Center and a picture of one of the large tortoises, an iguana, and a mockingbird at the station.

After going to the Charles Darwin Research Station we checked again at the LAN office—still no bag, so we returned to the boat.  The next day, 9 July,  John and Eric went in early to check to see if the bag had come on the morning flight and since it didn't they decided to sign up for a scuba diving  tour.  Jay and I decided to take the mountain bikes we have on board and go ashore to explore.  We rode all around town and all around the Charles Darwin Research Station and then headed out the main road towards the airport.  Jay decided it was boring just riding out the long straight road (see first picture below) so he turned back and went to join John and Eric on a hike to one of the local beaches.  I continued on by myself for about 10 - 15 miles.  It was hot, but I liked the exercise after being cooped up on the boat for so long and I liked the peace and quiet as I pedaled along through the woods and looked at how the local people lived.












Here are a couple examples of houses I encountered along the way.  Note the clothes line out beside the blue house to the right and the banana trees to the right of the house below.  These people don't necessarily have a lot of possessions, but they are happy for the most part and seem to live a pretty good non-stressful life.  After an hour or so I came to a small village with dirt roads going out on both sides of the highway.  I took one of the dirt roads to the right that went out toward what looked like citrus orchards.  That's where I got the picture of this second house with the dog sitting in the driveway.  A little farther up the road, I saw a road that went back into some sort of complex that had what looked like a playground there.  As I got closer, I could see that it was a school and the sign below indicates it was donated by Linblad (the company I had gone on the tour with in 2010), National Geographic and some other companies.  The school was closed that day and there were no children or anyone else at the site so I just peeked in through one of the windows.  The classroom looked like it was for kids in about the 2nd or 3rd grade and had lots of teaching aids on the walls.
On the way back to town I was grateful that it was mostly downhill and about half way back I stopped to rest at a wide spot in the road and saw a sign that indicated that the trail leading away from the parking lot went to some lava tubes. I parked my bike and walked along the trail for about 1/4 of a mile where I came upon this lava tube.  Lava tubes are created when there is a large lava flow that eventually cools on top with molten lava still below.  After the supply of lava stops coming to the surface the molten lava still in the tube drains out and the lava tube is left.  This one is about 20 to 30 feet high down at the bottom of the picture.  


On the morning of the 10th, the missing bag finally showed up so I assigned everyone jobs to get as much of the work done as possible during the one day Sven had before he had to fly back to Chile.  The first order of business was for Sven to go up the mast to install the new pulley system Alwoplast had devised to prevent chaffing of the screecher halyard.  That took a big part of the morning because it's difficult to get up there and it's not easy working at the top of the mast even when the boat is in a relatively quiet harbor.  Here's a picture of Sven at the top of the mast.
After Sven got the new pulley installed at the top of the mast, he started installing the one-way valves in the bilge discharge hoses.   Jay and Eric removed the VHF radio that Alwoplast had loaned us and modified the panel above the pilot station so the new VHF radio could be installed.  Here's a shot of Eric modifying some of the electronics that had to be soldered before they could be installed.  While he was doing that, John Rohrback helped Sven by removing shelves in the closet and reinstalling them after Sven installed the one-way valves.  That saved Sven a lot of time so he could devote all of his time to the tasks that actually required his skills.

After John finished that task he went to the back deck to reroute some of the wires that go to the antenna farm by the radar.  Some of it was left loose and was flapping in the wind or not very well protected from the weather during storms.  Here's John working on that task.







Once Sven finished with the one-way valves.  He and I removed the bowsprit that we had repaired at sea and installed the stainless steel reinforcements Alwoplast had sent us.  By the time we finished it was after 10 PM and Jay had supper for us before we hit the sack.  Overall, it was a very productive day.  We didn't get to install the flappers that Alwoplast sent us to keep the water from coming into the engine compartments through the exhaust fan tubes, but I figured I could do that once we got to La Paz.  There wasn't a good source of any kind of building materials there at Santa Cruz.  We did buy a few items at one of the local dive shops, but we couldn't get stainless steel screws or any things like that.  
We still hadn't received the diesel that Johnny had promised us so on the morning of the 11th I called him again and explained to him that we were scheduled to leave on the 12th.  I was really unhappy because we had been visited a couple more times by the Ecuadorian Navy and each time they told me that we still hadn't registered with the Port Captain.  Johnny said he had turned in all of the necessary papers and not to worry, that the diesel would be there around noon.  I sent everyone to shore to get groceries and other supplies for the long trip to La Paz while I waited for the diesel to arrive.  
At noon there still was no diesel  so Jay went for one more swim off the back deck.  The water was perfect.  Around 2 PM a boat showed up with diesel and I got ready to have him fill our tanks the rest of the way up and to fill our five gallon cans.  I figured I needed about 68 gallons of diesel.  The diesel delivery boat had only been tied up beside Escape for about five minutes when the Navy boat showed up again and started asking the operator for his permit.  He showed them lots of papers and there was a lot of hand waving going on, but in the end, one of the Navy guys came on board and told me that I couldn't have this diesel because it was diesel that was left over from a delivery to another boat and for some reason, it couldn't be put in my boat.  He told me that I had to come with him to talk to the Port Captain.  Here's a picture of the Navy boat that I went to see the Port Captain in:
The Port Captain was really nice and fortunately for me he spoke pretty good English.  I had brought John Rohrback with me in case I needed a translator.  I was surprised to see that the Port Captain had also rounded up Johnny Ramerez and "slick" Johnny was explaining how it had all been a mistake that he really intended for different diesel to come to my boat and that he didn't understand that he had to file our papers showing that we were anchored in the bay, the same day we arrived etc.  The Port Captain chewed out Johnny Ramerez pretty good in words I didn't understand and then turned to me and said that this was an unfortunate infraction of their rules and regulations and that although Johnny had not done what he was supposed to do, it was the captain of the vessel who was responsible for making sure things were done right.  I assured the Port Captain that it was not my intent to disobey any of the Galapagos protocols and that I greatly appreciated the National Park and the work they were doing there.  He told me that there would not be any fines or other problems resulting from the unintended infractions and that it was OK for me to go back to the boat.  I pulled Johnny outside and told him he better find some diesel and get it out to the boat that night because we had to depart first thing in the morning.  I also told him that he wouldn't be getting the full fee he usually charged for his services and if he expected any fee at all, he better show up with some diesel.  That night, he did show up around 9 PM with some diesel on one of the water taxis.  The operator filled the five gallon cans one at a time as we handed them to him and we used a couple of them to top off the fuel tanks to the boat.  We finished with the fuel transfer around 1030 that night, and hit the sack.  We planned to get an early start the next morning.  
In the next post, I'll cover the departure from the Galapagos and the trip to La Paz.



Thursday, October 3, 2013

Escape Adventures:  Passage from Valdivia to Galapagos Part 3 (28 Aug - 7 July 2013)
I apologize for the long delay between posts.  I was out of the country for a month to attend my son Chris' wedding in Germany and to do some geneology research in Poland for my wife's side of the family.
This post will pick up from the last one on 28 August 2013 and get you the rest of the way to the Galapagos Islands.  Since my last post, I've received several messages asking for more details on the sailing characteristics of Escape under a variety of conditions so I uploaded several movies to YouTube that covers the days in Part 2 as well as the period covered in this post.  Here are the links:

http://youtu.be/UboIggjoF6U  Sailing Down Wind in 26 kt Winds 6:23:2013  In this movie you can hear the engine running, but we're not using it for propulsion, we're just charging the
batteries with it.

http://youtu.be/vBncr3GpDzY Sailing Downwind at 10 kts 6:23:2013 
http://youtu.be/qKhMl8eMcUQ  View from Aft Deck
http://youtu.be/UboIggjoF6U   Sailing Down Wind in 26 kt Winds 6:23:2013
http://youtu.be/vMkSBp8QhCo   Sailing Broad Reach in 12 kt Winds 6:26:2013
http://youtu.be/gSUkXU7BHg4   Sailing Broad Reach After The Storm 6:27:2013 
http://youtu.be/jMU735bGfPg  Sailing Wing on Wing in 17 kts TWS 7:28:2013  
http://youtu.be/ghyyLB5_kbs   Wing on Wing 1a 28 Jun

When we first left Valdivia, the conditions were pretty good once we got out to sea although we had to motor at first to maintain the 7 knot average speed we were trying to keep in order to out run a huge storm that was coming in from the west. Most of the sailing during this period was downwind so we were either sailing wing-on-wing using both of the jibs or one of the jibs and the screecher sail. In most of the movies I include a shot of the speed sensor and the wind direction/wind speed sensor. The speed sensor is reporting speed over ground from the GPS and the wind speed sensor is reporting true wind speed (TWS) and apparent wind speed (AWS) in knots as observed from the top of the forward mast. As we moved north we were influenced by the winds on the outside of the storm and it moved eastward a little faster than the weather forecasts predicted. On the 26th the winds were pretty light so we motor sailed part of the day to try to maintain our speed. By about noon on the 27th the wind picked up quickly and in a very short time we were seeing strong gusty winds up to 25 knots and choppy seas with 4-6 foot waves with very short period making for a rough ride. In the late afternoon we motored for one hour with port engine to charge batteries and make water. By 6 PM we had two reefs in both sails but kept both mast foils engaged. By 8:30 PM we were seeing 25+ kt winds with gusts into the mid to high 30s, so we put 2 deep reefs in the jibs and trimmed the mast foils. We were moving at 11-12kts COG during gusts and the ride was pretty rough so we furled the mizzen jib to <25% of its normal area and weather cocked the mizzen mastfoil to reduce speed. We stayed in that configuration until about 8 AM on the 28th when the winds died significantly to around 14 knots so we let out the sails and resumed our normal speed of 6-8 knots. During the high winds the wind shifted more westerly, but now it was from the northwest. We had gotten considerably off course during the night and we needed to head more to the west to get back on course, but with the wind coming from the northwest, we couldn't crab too much into the wind and still keep up good speed. The sun even came out in the afternoon and we picked up a little speed. We were regularly doing 8 - 10 knots. I went down to my shower and looked out the portal at the other bow slicing through the water to see what it looked like to be going that fast at the water level. Here's a movie that I posted on YouTube so you can see too.
http://youtu.be/-uRbxAG4_eE   View from the Starboard Portal 28 Jun 2013
At approximately 2 AM on the 28th, the wind shifted to SE, i.e., it was coming from the SE, which is the direction we wanted it, but it was very light so we were only able to sail at 3-4 knots.  We started the port engine at 3 AM and motor sailed until the wind picked up again around 5:15 AM to around 12 knots. We let out sails again and shut off the port engine.  About the same time we saw steaming lights from another boat at about 110˚ M.   We could not pick it up on radar and we could only see it when we were up on the crest of a wave.  It was probably another sail boat going the other way.  That was the first boat we had seen since we left Valdivia.   We estimated the range to the other boat to be about 6-10 nm.  By mid morning the sun came out and it remained clear all day.  The winds steadily rose until they reached 18 to 20 knots directly from behind us and stayed that way the rest of the day.  We consistently sailed at speeds between 8 and 10 knots.  The seas were calm and the ride was smooth,  a welcome change from the days before.  We sailed all day wing on wing with the front MF deployed and aft MF feathered.  When sailing wing on wing with the wind from directly behind the boat, the aft MF causes more back and forth movement and disrupts air flow to the mizzen sail so it's best to feather it.  We also attached the mizzen boom preventor lines to a snap shackle tied to the center cleat to get a better angle on holding the boom forward and down.  This gave the sail a better shape and didn't let it flap or backwind if the boat rocked with the waves.  Here are a couple pictures of Escape in the wing-on-wing configuration.  The first one is using the foresail jib and mizzen jib and the bottom picture is using the screecher and foresail.



The winds steadily increased during the night until by 8 AM on the 29th we had 25-30 knot winds accompanied by  15 - 20 foot waves from the aft port quarter causing considerable meandering.  We stayed in the wing on wing configuration with the foresail fully deployed but put one reef in mizzen sail.  We kept the forward MF engaged and  feathered  the aft MF.  We pretty much sailed like this all day on the same heading of about 335˚ M at 8 - 10 knots.  I put a couple of movies on You Tube of us sailing in this configuration and one of them is of us surfing on some of the waves.  You can find them at:
http://youtu.be/xmf8mKR4xTA   Wing on Wing After the Storm 29 Jun 2013
http://youtu.be/kmXDMdm31oA   Surfing the Waves 29 Jun 2013
 Here's a shot of the speedometer as we surfed one of the waves. It was up to 20 knots, but before I could take the picture it was down to 17.2.  

The winds stayed pretty steady at 23-27 knots during the night on the 29th but were shifting more southeasterly.  This caused our main jib to start flapping as we went over some of the waves and we were having a hard time holding our course.  We tried bringing it over to the port side, but it still flogged a lot even with considerable direction adjustments.  So, we brought it back to starboard into the wing on wing configuration again.  The strategy was to go slightly west of our planned route to keep the sail from flapping and then, as the wind moved more SE, we would bring the forward jib over and go into a deep reach to get back on track.  Even though the winds were high and the ride was a bit bumpy,  Jay managed to mix a batch of his delicious naan bread and I teamed up with him to fry the naan for dinner.  Here are a couple pictures of the naan bread making process:


In the morning of the 30th Sven found a storm petrel on the deck.  It probably had run into one of the sails or windows during the night and was partially stunned.  He picked it up and held it in his hands for a while to warm it and to comfort the bird and eventually it was able to fly off.  I put a couple pictures of the storm petrel below.  The wind continued shifting farther eastward and  we continued to sail wing on wing until our starboard preventor line chaffed through the sheath.  We quickly moved the forward jib over to port to a deep  reach configuration so the starboard preventor line was slack and Sven mended it by puling one end of the broken sheath over the other and sewing it in place.  We were still maintaining a speed over ground (SOG) of 9 knots or better.  Throughout the night we continued to sail on a starboard tack and the winds gained strength with gusts up to 32 knots.  We put two reefs in the mizzen jib and one in the foresail.  With those reefs it was a pretty good ride and we were still making around 9 or 10 knots.  









On the morning of the 1st of July, our luck went from bad to worse.  At about 7 AM our autopilot stopped working and the boat just took off in whatever direction it pleased with the sails flapping.  Once we got back on coarse we took the sails down for about 1/2 hour and tried to get the autopilot working again, but were unsuccessful. We wrote an e-mail to Navico and Alwoplast over the SSB radio to see if they could shed any light on what might be the problem.  Throughout the rest of the day and night we manually steered the boat in three-hour shifts.  By the morning of 2 July, we were exhausted, but we had an e-mail from  Brian Gifford (Warranty Rep for Navico) and he had some suggestions that led us to the solution for fixing the autopilot.  It turned out that the failure was caused by a corroded and loose wire back by the autopilot motor that engages the clutch.    I determined that the large following waves were splashing water through the hole around the shaft from the autopilot to the rudder so I dried it all out and stuffed the hole around the shaft with rags to prevent a future occurrence.  Remember that Escape is the first boat of this design off the assembly line so some things like this were bound to happen.    Around 4 PM, Sven caught about a 25 lb yellow fin tuna, so between getting the autopilot fixed and catching a tuna, this was a very good day.  The winds have slowed to about 12 knots and our speed decreased to 6-7 knots.  Here's a couple pictures of Sven catching his fish and cleaning it.  



I also posted a movie of him reeling it in on YouTube at:
http://youtu.be/b2rAYjSCRvM   Sven Catches a Tuna 2 Jul 2013
Obviously sushi and grilled tuna followed and we put the rest in the refrigerator for meals over the next few days.  Here are pictures of the sushi and tuna steaks that Jay made from Sven's catch:




The winds were light and variable throughout the night making it very difficult to keep the sails trimmed, but by early morning the winds were steady around 12 knots TWS so we put up the screecher sail, furled the mizzen sail, and put the mainsail to starboard in wing on wing with the screecher, which was to port. This will give us a chance to evaluate the repair of the bowsprit and the chaffing of the screecher halyard. We sailed with the screecher all day at 7-8 knots in 13 to 15 knot winds. We took the screecher down around 1600 to look at the halyard. It had modest chaffing, but not bad. We put the screecher back up and sailed with it until just before dark. We took the screecher down at 2000 hours because we didn't want to take a chance on it failing during the night. There was no additional chaffing on the halyard. We rolled the screecher up without moving the mainsail in front of it to block the wind and it rolled up easily. We put the screecher in it's bag and tied it to the trampoline. We used the mainsail and mizzen sail in the wing on wing configuration for the rest of the night. Both mast foils were engaged as the wind was light and the sea calm. The port shower pump switch failed today. I took it apart and it was full of water. Eric Burton who is coming to help crew from the Galapagos to Baja said he would pick one up at West Marine today and bring it with him.
We motor sailed through much of the night because the winds were so light, but by 0600 on the 4th of July the winds had picked up to around 16 knots and were directly behind us.  We furled the mizzen jib and put up the screecher and foresail in a wing-on-wing configuration with the foresail to starboard.  We were maintaining about 8.5 knots.  The wind continued to shift to the East as the day went on so we furled the foresail and let out the mizzen jib to port so we were sailing with the screecher and mizzen jib in a deep starboard reach.  We wanted to do something to celebrate Independence Day so Jay put a few really nice Chilean sausages on the BBQ grill.  Here's the before and after shots of the brats.  Notice the naan bread and beer off to the side—yum yum!





After the meal, Jay laid down on the trampoline for a rest while the rest of us did the dishes and cleaned up.  Other than the flying fish I picked up on the 5th, the 5th and 6th were fairly uneventful.  Here's a picture of the fish.   Sometimes we just sat on the front deck like in the picture below contemplating the good life.
The winds got lighter and lighter until eventually we had to motor in to the Galapagos. We began picking up blips on Santa Maria Island around 0515 on the 7th with the radar on the 35 nm range setting and we saw the running lights on one boat leaving the islands earlier in the morning. Gardner Island gave the first good returns because it sticks up pretty high. We'd been watching the stars throughout the night. Ursla Minor (the Big Dipper) was prominent just off our starboard bow. We had Land Ho about 0830 in the morning and could see Isla Santa Maria and Isla Santa Fe off in the distance about 20 nm away and just the feint outline of Santa Cruz dead ahead about 22 nm away. What a great feeling for that island to show up exactly where we were expecting it after 2583.7 nm of sailing from Valdivia. We dropped anchor in Puerto Ayora at 1245 hours and it was a great sense of accomplishment for us to have made the first big leg of our journey. Here are a few movies of the approach and the anchorage at Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz, a picture of me and Jay celebrating and me with my laundry while waiting for the authorities to come aboard to inspect Escape.



http://youtu.be/tc2AEXzbyeM  Sailing w:Screecher in Broad Reach 4 Jul 2013
http://youtu.be/zN4eSegmaW4   Approaching Santa Cruz Island 7 Jul 2013
http://youtu.be/h6nfZICJrDA   Anchorage at Puerto Ayora 7 Jul 2013