Galapagos to Marquesas Day 5

Day 5: Wednesday 3/20

Another good day……caught 7 bonitos….can you believe that….now a total of 12….. but, nothing on the grill yet…. why are there so many bonito and why are we only catching them…..I’ve used a lot of different lures….maybe our slower speed??????. We had grilled tuna from the tuna Julio (the dive captain in Isabela) gave us….yummers!!!!

This was probably my most relaxing day…..not too many chores…..the ice maker quit working a few days ago…..we thought it was the control module again but it had gotten stuck so when we defrosted everything it started right back up. We try to only make ice in calm conditions but we think we were making ice during one of the infrequent rolly conditions and got water everywhere!!

The magnetic door latch on our bathroom door has failed so it keeps banging with the roll. Kathy had gotten a new one from China so she and Les put it on…..it was too short….the same model…..go figure…..so now we have a manual stop which is a PITA but workable!!!!!

We played w/the sail more…..apparent wind is 0 – 8 kts…..still not sure how much it is helping but it is fun anyway!!!

We have really enjoyed Les and Rose onboard…..they are such great experienced boaters and good friends. They have crossed the Atlantic in their sailboat so have a wealth of experience to share. When I was struggling with the stress of the much lower SOG than expected a few days ago a few sage words from Les snapped me back…..so, John let’s figure this out……about what I would counsel those in Dreyer’s…..save me the emotions, let’s figure this out…..from then on my mind has been working on the problem and my stress level is way down….of course it helped a whole lot to empty the port fuel bladder and gain the 0.5 kt speed.

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Position 3/21 @ 1300 UTC:

Position: 2 33 S 100 36 W

Traveled: 142nm today; 659nm total; 2348nm to go; ETA sometime 4/6,

Course: 247M HDG, 250M COG; being slightly pushed to the south

Wind: for the most part SE-NE <6 kts but had brief periods of W-S winds >10 kts from squalls up ahead and a brief squall over us during the night

Waves: 2-6′ S-SSW swell; 14 sec period; had 1-3″ South wind chop, started last evening and has lasted most of the night; ok ride; had to use stabilizers; some wind chop against current

Speed: current speed is 5.5 SOG, has varied 5.5-6.4 SOG since course change; avg 5.7 SOG today; 5.7 SOG total for passage (we planned for 6.0 but hope/want 6.5).

Weather: mostly sunny, clouds/squalls to the west, south and north but way in the distance sea temp 82 deg F

Boat sightings: 4 since we left; 0 today

Fishing: 7 bonitos…..wow, a new record for Mystic, but nothing on the grill yet 🙁 ((((

Fuel Burn: After 96 hours we were burning 2.09 nmpg, 265 gallons total….not as good as we planned @ 2.25 nmpg, but much better than yesterday, fuel burn today was >2.5 nmpg….yes!!!!!!.We will try to empty 100+ gallons from the starboard fuel bladder today and hopefully get rid of most of the squatting!