26th January
We are currently entering day 3 at sea of our trip to the Galapagos Islands. Sea Dragon is feeling great after our refit period, everything’s shiny and working nicely. After so long ashore I was keen to get back to sea, and I think she was too- maybe it’s just the freshly polished and painted hull but she’s definitely leaping through the water much faster than I remember!
We shall miss San Jose, a very sweet, artistic place with some of the friendliest people I have encountered. The crew enjoyed exploring for a couple of days and it has certainly helped them bond as a group. They are now exchanging stories and jokes as if they have known each other far longer than they have. The past few days have been filled with some great sailing, from on the nose as we left Baja, to wing on wing for the past couple of days. Everyone has been impressing with their helming skills. Some particularly skillful work today in quite swelly conditions, surfing with boat speeds of up to 13 knots- not bad for a 45 tonne boat!
Those following the tracker may be wondering why we’re not just aiming straight for the Galapagos, electing to follow the coast slightly more. This was to eek out as much sailing as possible before the inevitable wind lulls, which the coast of Mexico is renowned for, appeared. The motor came on a couple of hours ago as the wind came ever more behind us and died off. However, this is in someways not unwelcome as the Tehuano winds look as if they’ll be giving us a bit of excitement Sunday-Wednesday. These are strong offshore winds which funnel through the mountains in the south of Mexico. We’re expecting gusts of up to 35 knots, but then to be spat out the other end into the doldrums- one extreme to the other! The crew seem quite pleased with some motor sailing in order to prepare for this- very exciting talks of laundry being done and showers had.
Big excitement of yesterday morning was the catching of the largest Mahi I’ve seen on this boat-arguably the same size as Lori. The most well received change on Sea Dragon during the refit period is probably my stance on whether we eat the Mahi we catch. The many local fisherman (and google) have now informed me I was incorrect on the belief they mate for life- so we had delicious ceviche for lunch (thank you Brandon) and I believe Doug has fish tacos planned for lunch today! *Chefs kiss*