Day 3
Sunday, May 21, 2017
12.00   5°22 N 80°42W  The wind shifts its direction constantly, now it’s W-SW force 4.  We turn the engine off and keep the course at 220°, with a speed of 4,5 knots. The sky is overcast and we haven’t seen a glimpse of the sun for the last 24 hours.  There’s no rain nor drizzle now,  so I take the laptop and sit at the cockpit to write the log –  with the invaluable assistance of captain Yorgos, as always.
When I’m finished, I turn  on the satelite IridiumGo and send the log to our friend Stamatis,  the web designer, to upload it on our blog. Yorgos heats a ready made soup, we bought a few of them in Martinique and they are delicious. I’m not so sure of its nutritional value, though.
14.00 The wind drops to about force 3, 5-9 knots and our speed drops even more  to 3,3 kts. The engine is running on low revs but the current is strong and progress is slow. We talk with Freja on the VHF and Anders gives us their coordinates: they are 8-9 miles away. We agree to come close, as to have visual and AIS contact again. They change course and come our way
-“What’s on the menu today?” Yorgos asks. I’m too tired to think, so I take the notebook where we wrote possible menus for the ocean passages, in order to estimate  the quantities of provisions to be made. It all demands too much cooking, though and  I feel exhausted.
-“Since we have fresh potatoes, carots and greek yogurt, we could have that favourite dish of yours, remember? It’s done on the microwave oven, so we’ll save up on gas, too”, I propose.
We must manage everything visely,  gas, water and of course  the fresh provisions. Most of the food we’ll need is already on board,  except for  vegetables and fruit, that we may find in Galapagos. After Galapagos we have  a really long trip ahead, the passage to the Marquesas. The distance from isla Isabella, the westernmost  Galapagos island from which we’ll probably sail away  to Nuku Hiva, one of the Marquesas islands  of French Polynesia is some 3.000 NM and we estimate 25 days of ocean sailing! Anyway this is too much for me to think of, right now. Let’s get to the Galapagos,  first.
I go to the galley to prepare the food: cut 4 potatoes in medium sized cubes and one big onion cut to four, three carots to thin slices. I put all in a plastic bowl and then in the microwave for about 15 minutes. Also I prepare the dressing with greek yogurt, mayonese, some olive oil and ground peper. For the captain I also make  some tuna salad that he can eat today and tomorrow with pita bread,  as a snack . We serve the food at the cockpit  on antislippery pads.  I’m eating slowly, still worried abour my stomach.  Yorgos sleeps from 14.30  15.40 and when he wakes up, I lay down at the cockpit, too. I fall asleep the moment I touch the pillow.
17.00  The wind picks up and we turn the engine off. The course is now 230°.
What a beautiful music to the ears is the hiss of the wind on the sails and sound of the wake around Filizi. The sun appears behind the clouds,  the touch of its rays is so powerful.  The lead colored sea, turns bright blue. In the distant horizon,  dark clouds are forming. The sun hides again, so soon.
19.00 We talk to Freja, they are still 8 miles away. Yorgos and I decide that  to get close to them, we must all take actions. First we  try to hove-to in order to stop Filizi, but instead of  stopping,  Filizi  moves backwards with  2,5 – 3 knots SOG speed (speed over ground)!  This monstous west to east-southeast  current is pushing us away! We did not expect this.  According to our books, the current at this region is part of the Peru-Hambolt current , and runs up to one knot into the Gulf of Panama, going to the northeast.  There’s an interesting story here: in 1532, the conquistador Pizzaro, faced the same strange current that we face today. Pizzaro sailed from Panama heading south to overcome  the Inca Empire. This  route that would normaly be  very difficult, was done easy and fast, due to  the devine intervention of a favourable current which Pizzaro named “El Nino”,  the holy baby.  As we know today, this current appears only in “El Nino” years. Captain Yorgos looks at the instruments and explains:
-“Although 2017 is expected to be a “La Nina” year, which usually follows an  El Nino year as was 2016, some scientists believe that it could be one  more “El Nino” year.  We have observed two things that make me believe that theses scientist are right. The first is this current  that we are confronting  right now. The second is the unusually high temperature of the sea water. And this is not good …”, he says and checks the instrument: the water temperature  is 28°C!.
“El Nino” years, are years where the sea temperature at the Earth’s equator is very high. This phenomena causes numerous metereological anomalies, affecting the whole world, with torrential rain in some regions and prolonged droughts to others, like Galapagos for example.  And for us sailors, an El Nio year, is a year with less steady winds and a more severe Cyclon Season. But the season is still early and things may change.
– Let’s  set our sails then and sail backwards towards Freja. That’s the only way I propose. And so we do`
After 30 minutes the small pink avatar of Freja appears on our AIS screen. We call them on the VHF: they say they can’t see us yet on their AIS. But at least we can see them, and that’s a start! We give them our coordinates and set our course to  250°.
20.00  I fall asleep at the cockpit, and sleep deep until 23.45!! When I open my eyes I’m delighted to see Freja’s  green navigation light a few miles away from our starbord.
-They are coming, at last!
– Well. It hasn’t been easy. I lost them again, a while ago, but we finally made it. What a crazy day today was, sailing in circles in the Pacific Ocean captain Yorgos says with a smile.
23.00 Captains logbook: Eye contact with Freja after about 24 hours.  We both set new course 280°, against the current. The engine is running with 1.800 revs. Max speed 2,9 knots!!!
Hours of Sleep  (12pm-12pm) Karina 1,10’+3,45’+2,00’=7 Yorgos1,20’+2,45’+2,00’=6.00′
Monday , May 22, 2017
00.00 – Happy birthday, my love! Yorgos startles me with a big kiss . I had forgotten about my birthday.
-“What an amazing way to spend this day, sailing in the Pacific Ocean on the way to the Galapagos islands”, he says and I totally agree. And even as we are on our way, we still think it’s unbelievable. I wish the weather was good, though. Dark clouds hide the stars and a light drizzle falls. I make  a pot of tea and open a box of bisquites. A sailor’s celebration in a night watch.
01:00 I take charge and Yorgos lies down to rest. Not more than a second later he’s sleeping deeply on the cockpit seat, wearing his waterproof clothes and sailing boots. I watch Freja’s light getting closer. There’s no wind and we are motoring with the main in first reef for stability. The sea state is great, almost flat sea and I’m happy thinking that the kids on Freja, won’t feel sea sick anymore. I read my Panama canal book on  kindle, quite fascinated with it,  when I suddenly  realize that Freja is behind our aft, heading south! Puzzled, I decide to wait a bit more, to see what they are up to.
01.15 Freja is heading south and I decide to talk to them on the VHF even though the hour is so late. Anders answers immediately, sounding sleepy. After we hung up, Freja changes  course.  Soon we sail side by side again.
03.30  Freja call us, maybe we could hoist our sails and  save some of our precious fuel, as the wind angle  changed favourably.  Unfortunately the change doesn’t last, after a 10 minutes the wind angle is 25-30° again,  an angle imposible to sail. The current is still  very strong. We decide to motor until sunrise and see how it goes.
The talking wakes Yorgo up. The drizzle has stopped and the sky is almost clear. We open the bimini,  take the sprayhood down and suddenly the night becomes magical. A tiny moon, appears at the  east,  and as it rises with  glorious Venus by it’s side, the horison looks like a picture from a child’s book.  I lie on the soft coushion looking at the stars above and I soon  fall  asleep.
06.00 What a sight, what a magical world we are living in, what a miracle is every sunrise on this beautiful blue planet.
-“Good morning, birthday girl!”, Yorgos says. “Look around you!”
I’ve never, ever seen a sunrise like this in my life. The horison is purple in all four directions. The sun rays paint the cloud formations with different tones of red, pink  and magenta. In the far west horizon,  under a fluffy white cloud, a double  rainbow is formed. Everywhere we look, we see extraordinary beauty. I make a cold decaf coffee and go back at the cockpit. Should I take charge and the captain go to rest? No, Yorgos doesn’t want to go to sleep. It’s too beautiful now, he says.
7.00  Change of course 30° to port. Motoring with full main sail. We gain 1,3 knots and our speed becomes 4,2 kts. The current is still strong.I make a festive breakfast, omelette with chese and tomato.

07.20 The wind picks up and we hoist full genoa. Our speed goes to 4,8. Sailing at last!!
8.00 The dream didn’t last for long. We take the genoa in  the  wind dies out, and the little breeze comes from 10° starboard
9.00 Victor from Freja calls us on the VHF. When I answer the whole family starts singing happy birthday to you in Danish and after in English. What a lovely surprise, that was. We sail close to them and take pictures of each other. A happy birthday, indeed.  Yorgos goes to sleep at 09.30.
11.00 Land Ho! I see the island that we set as waypoint, the isolated Malpelo. The island belongs to Colombia and there’s a naval base on it. I check on the map,  Malpelo is still 24 NM away, but it’s very conspicous as it rises 800 feet above sea level.  We talk on the VHF with Freja. They hoisted full genoa trying to gain some speed. I, on the other hand, seeing a big, dark cloud ahead, I sugest instead  of hoisting the genoa to reef the main. Anders says to go 10° south to avoid the squall, a good idea. I change the course and  prepare for rainfall
11.30 Yorgos appears at the hatch, his face relaxed and fresh. He sees me wearing the waterproof jacket, looks at the sunny sky  and seems puzzled.
-“Look ahead”,  I say.
-“Wow! That looks big!”
12.00   4° 23N  81° 29 W  Day 3 is over, we are already 72 hours at sea. The progress  we did the last 24 hours was too small, 76 nautical miles, a record low performance for Filizi, caused by the contrary current of course. If it weren’t for our appointment with Vasso at San Cristbal on Sunday, I wouldn’t worry. I hope we arrive on time
Hours of sleep Karina 1,10+3,45’+2.00=6,55′ Yorgos 1,20’+2,45’+2,00=6,05′