Sailing from Panama to Galapagos 900 NM
08° 24N 79° 04W
Friday May 19, 2017 – DAY 1
12.15 The day we were talking about for years has come: today we are sailing  from Panama to the Galapagos Islands. The distance is about 900 nautical miles and we expect to arrive after 8-9 days.  First we’ll set course  to the small island Malpelo, about 60NM away)   and after head to our destination, the island of San Cristobal in Galapagos Archipelago. Now, we are at the east anchorage of Pedro Gonzales island, at the Las Perlas islands, Panama. Anchored fifty meters away is the danish boat Freja. We are going to travel together, we’ll try to stay close during the passage and it’s very comforting, to know that someone will around.
-“Goodbye Karina, Goodbye Yorgos, we’ll see you in Galapagos in a few days!!” says Anna, waving her hand. I watch as the small dinghy wih five blond heads, floats towards the blue boat.
-“Goodbye! See you all there!” we both say waving back to them. The couple Merete and Anders seem very brave to us, to travel the world with three young kids Victor 14, Anna 12 and Ludvig 8.
We are happy to be with them, really happy.

12.45 Anchors are up and off we go for the long passage to Galagos islands, about 870 nautical miles from here.
14.00 It’s a beautiful day today , the sky is clear but for very few clouds at the east. There’s no wind and we have a favourable current, so with 1.800 rpm we go 6 knots! The sea is calm like a lake and the pastel colours of the horizon resemble of a painting. We go side by side, Filizi and Freja, and every few minutes the kids call us on the VHF about this and that :
-“Did you see the dolphins on your bow?”or ” We have pilot whales to our starboard!!” and ” Watch for the big tortoise ahead of you!!” Life is sweet! We keep a course at 188° to the first waypoint 60 miles ahead and then we’ll take a new waypoint close to the small island Malpelo, about 200NM further.
19.00 As the sun sets and the sky gets darker, we see the first lightning strike in clouds at the east and then more lightnings in the huge clouds, back north.

21.00 Engine is off as the wind picks up. We hoist full genoa and take a second reef to the main. The lightnings are constant in all four point of the horizon and for some seconds, the dark, moonless night becomes day. It seems quite impossible to get away from this one.
23.30 I sleep at the cockpit for two hours, from 21.30 – 23.30 . A few minutes after I wake up, the squall catches us. We manage to reef the sails – 2rd reef on Genoa- on time for the stong wind and the torrential rain.
When the first squall ends, I go down to check for …casualties. There’s some water in the WC1, and  our bed is a little wet. I put a towel on the bed, pump the water from the bathroom floor and close  all the valves. We will use the second bathroom, hopefully that one will not overflow. Freja is still close by, I hope the kids were not scared…
Saturday May 20
01.00 Yorgos is sleeping at the cockpit since 00.30, only 30 minutes but I wake him, because the wind is getting stronger and there’s a very dark, very menacing cloud behind us.
– I think another squall is coming I tell him and he stands up the moment he hears my voice marine sleep.

03.30 One more squall comes, but this time the wind goes up to 32 kts. We take 3rd reef on the genoa. The rain is torrential and it seems endless. The ocean waves get  bigger and the boat movement is very uncomfortable.

05.30 The day breaks and the sky is very heavy and cloudy. Freja is 2,2 NM behind us, I’m afraid that the kids may feel sea sick with such big waves. I go to the aft cabin to sleep. Captain Yorgos turns the engine on. The sound of the motor , like a lullaby, makes me sleep like a baby. I sleep for one hour. Great. Course 227°. Speed 4,8 kts
07.00      06°52N 79°20W   Yorgos finds two dead calamaries on the deck. When I go around the deck for the daily check, I find three more, poor creatures. There’s a lot of sea salt on the deck
09.15 Engine off. Sail configuration: genoa full, main 2 reefs . I sleep one hour, from 9.30 to 10.30
11.00 There’s a really huge cloud behind us so we reef both sails. Yorgos takes a power nap from 11.00 to 11. 40.
Hours of sleep (Day 1 from 12pm to 12 pm) Karina 2+1+1=4 Yorgos 1,10+1,30+0,40=3,20

DAY 2
12.15 The squall breaks with strong wind. It’s raining cats, dogs and other animals. We can see nothing around us but rain. The wind blows, folowing seemingly a circular course as withing the next five hours it changes all directions. The waves dissappear and the sea becomes almost flat.
13.30 First 24 hours we did 130 nautical miles, not bad. Yorgos defies the rain, and goes to the mast to tightet the balanzin. The rain continues non stop and it’s torrential. Freja is half a mile behind, but as it’s silhouette hides behind the rain curtain, it looks like the shadow of a pirate ghost ship
14.30 We are hungry and eat peanuts, crackers and cheese. The rain is so strong that Yorgos changes his fully waterproof jacket for another.
As I am inside Filizi, my stomack starts to ache, I feel pain and nausia.
-“Maybe you ate too many peanuts, darling” Yorgos says with a comforting criticism. I feel terrible, like a beast in a cage, I can’t stay inside. I wear my waterproof jacket  and go outside at the cockpit.
-“I think something I ate, was bad. Could you bring me something, a Losec pill maybe?”, I say feeling like a dead potato.
17.30 The rain becomes a drizzle but the sea state is terrible, with waves from all directions. Filizi moves like a wahing mashine. We motor with bare poles with 1.800 revs. There’s a current pushing us north and to keep the course at 226° we steer 205°-210°. I sleep for one hour in the aft cabin and feel a bit better when I wake up. The pill worked.

22.00 I Freja is more than 6 NM behind us, Merete and the kids had a difficult day with sea sickness. The night is dark, pitch dark, but still the wake of the boat is sparkling with fluorecence, a trully magical sight.
Sunday May 21
01.00 We are sailing close hauled with 25-30 kts of wind in total darkness. The only light around, is the fluorecence of the plancton. The boat’s movement is very abrupt and we must be really carefull as everything is still wet and sleepery. The waves are almost to our nose beating Filizi strongly. Until now we have trimmed and changed sails configuration 20 times. A lot of work. The sky is covered with very heavy clouds but thankfully it doesn’t rain, anymore. Behind the aft, the dark velvet of the ocean is cut by a long phosphoric bright line, a line marking our course, made from the propeller turbulence. Far away behind us, I can sometimes see the dim green navigation light of Freja. Yorgos is resting, and he looks deeply asleep but, every now and then he lifts his head and asks me how things are.
– “Things are fine, captain. Go back to sleep”, I tell him. Actually things would be better if the wind eased a bit, 30 knots is too much, for a night sail in the darkness. The Pacific has proved to not to be very peacefull.
02.30 Yorgos takes charge and I go to sleep on the new comfortable cockpit cushion. As I lie down I’m thinking what an imazing idea was to make them, the old cushions were so hard, like we were in the army and worse. “Be well senior Roriques, you did a good and fast job. Y muy barrato, tannin!” I think to myself.  I sleep for one hour and a half.
04.30 I check the AIS for ships in the vicinity. There are two cargo ships far away but Freja has disappeared from the screen. I go back outside and after a few seconds I locate the green navigation light in the horizon. I’m relieved that our friends are still close. Oh I am so sleepy

05.00 The moon!! What a beautiful sight, the small moon appeared for a few minutes behind the clouds. I even saw some stars, too. There are huge clouds behind us. The wind has dropped and we are sailing close hauled, with a supersonic speed of 3 knots!
10.00 Karina come quickly! I see a shark fin! I run outside and follow his pointing finger. I see the dark fin, definitely a shark fin, in the silvery waves. The shark is circling slowly, possibly checking us out. After a few minutes, fin and fish disappear.
11.00 05° 31N 80°35 W
–“Filizi, Filizi, this is Freja, over“we hear the voice on the VHF. It’s Victor, the danish family’s older boy. We are so happy to hear them, as they are still not to be see on the AIS screen.
We exchange data, course, speed and coordinates. They are 12 NM away from us.
12.00 5°22N 80°42W We are continuing with our course to the Galapagos, a course that is until now against the wind. We did just 100 NM the last 24 hours. And another 660 nautical miles to go