Monday, May 22, 2017 – My birthday
12.30    4°28N 81°29W  With the sprayhood up  we proceed towards  the dark cloud. We turn the radar on, to monitor how the squall clowd  moves. and it seems to move  south. We turn 10° east and move away from it. A light drizzle starts falling. The squall just missed us. Yorgos takes the weather report with the sat phone.
-The wind will die out tonight. Tomorrow we’ll have  a strong S-SE,  15- 20 knots he says when he’s d’one. Let’s hope so
13.30 We are motoring on low -1.00 – revs and the current is so strong that our speed is maximum 2 knots, where it should be 5 knots. We decide on a new tacktic, we must to try move away from this area where the current is strong,  before our fuel is all exhausted! We turn the gear to 2.200 revs and the speed rises to 4 knots
-Not bad. With 20% increase of gear, which must be about 40% increase of fuel consumption, we got 100% more speed! Not bad at all, Yorgos says.
I go inside,  to prepare lunch, chow mein with vegetables, with soy and coconut milk  and a simple salad with avocado, olive oil and  fresh lemon juice.  Filizi is heeling and swinging, the vegetables are rolling around the galley, the pots are sliding but although it’s very, very complicated and it’s so hot in here, when the gas on the cooker is burning, I cook singing Let’s sail west and love every minute of it,  as I’m watching the ocean waves outside. I’m sorry I don’t  have the energy to make desert. This birthday will be without a candle, but it’s all right. We are on our way to the Galapagos! That’s a birthday to remember, all my life.  As I cook, the gas bottle is finished and we change it with a full one. Every gas bottle  usually lasts  about 20 days to a month. We have three more full bottles, enough for 80 to 120 days. After that, and if we don’t find a refill, we’ll have to eat dry food
I go out  check on  captain Yorgos  as he ties a small line to keep the boom from swinging. That’s better!
14.30 We eat at the cockpit –  two servings of noodles each of us.  At 15.00 the island of Malpelo  a small rocky island in the middle of nowhere –  is only just 17 NM away. Yorgos remembers that, as we read on NOONSITE,  there’s a Colombian navy station in Malpelo and  it is required  that all passing vessels, call the Navy on VHF Channel 16, reporting their position, if they are within 20 nautical miles of the island. Yorgos calls the Navy but no one answers. We tell Anders on Freja, and he calls them, too, but still no answer.  Well, at least we both tried
16.00 The engine is still running, there are 5 knots of wind from the south-west, exactly to our nose, and we are still motoring. We talk with Freja and decide to change the course a bit more to the south. This way, we’ll have a better chance to find a nice breeze Yorgos lays to rest on the cockpit and he’s fast asleep.
18.00  The wind becomes stronger and there’s a huge dark cloud ahead, a squall maybe. Yorgos unties the boom preventer. Time passes and the cloud moves south without touching us. There’s a ring of dark clouds all around the sky line. A purple sun is setting behind this airy curtain.
Dramatic colors paint every cloud, and the sight is spectaculat. We sit and look in silence and then Victor, the older boy on Freja calls on the VHF.
-“We  have a bird ontbord, it’s a booby with a blue beak and red feet.  It’s been  siting  on our bow for 15’ already the boy says, sounding really excited. This bird has special air bubbles inside its chest, to endure the impact,  when it  dives in the water to get fish!! Amazing, isn’t it? “, he adds. Yes it is trully amazing!
19.00 A beautiful white sea bird with totally black head flies around Filizi, showing off its great flying skills. At 21.00 another seabird lands on our bow. As we watch it klinging tight on the swinging bow, we realize it’s could be a blue beak  boobie, too.
As Filizi goes up and down, bouncing on the ocean waves, the bird sometimes looses balance, flies away, makes a circular flight and lands on the same spot again.
The sky is relatively clear tonight,  the Southern Cross is on our port,  and beside the cross is Carina constellation, my nameshake!. Freja is sailing very close to us, just a mile away. And what a sweet feeling it is, to see another boat’s navigation light in the vast ocean! Yorgos monitors the  SOG and Boat Speed
-“At last! The current is subsiding. It’s dropped 0,70 knots!We should better save some fuel”, he says and slows down, lowering the engine gear back to 1.800 revs.
22.00 We motor with 4,2 knots speed, with the main sail on second reef just for stability.  The captain sleeps at the cockpit and I’m on watch. It’s a quiet night, the ocean is almost flat and the wind is just 5 kts. Freja’s navigation light goes slowly further away, to the south. I watch at the scorpion constellation, at  the  bright stars above and my  soul is peaceful.
Tuesday, May 23, 2017
00.00 03° 21N 082° 18W Freja’s little green light is even further. I check the AIS and see the distance is now 2,26 nautical miles away.
01.30  Yorgos wakes up and I’m relieved because I couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore. I lie on the cockpit couch and fall asleep at once.

06.00 What a wonderful  sunrise I see as I open my eyes! To add to the beauty, the engine is off and we are sailing with 5,5 kts at  50° angle with the wind!
The  captain is down below and when I go inside, I see him knitting a loaf of bread! What else can a sailor wish for? The sky is clear and the sun is shining. A beautiful day!
07.00 The blue beak boobie is on our bow again. This bird is lovely. In a few days, when we arrive in the Galapagos,  we’ll meet his close relatives the Blue Footed Boobies. I can’t wait for that.
08.30 The bread is ready and the smell is to die for. We eat bread, butter and honey from Crete for breakfast.
The sky is covered with clouds now and we see lightnigs to the north. Yorgos believes that we have crossed  south of the ITCZ, the Intertropical Convergence Zone. The ITCZ is a zone of  disturbed, unsettled weather, the point where the Northeast and the Southeast trade winds meet. It lies a few degrees north of the Earth’s equator,  where  the sea temperature reach the maximum,  surrounding the whole planet. In the ITCZ torrential rain, thunderstorms, squalls or dead calms are frequent.
12.00 03° 07N 82°41W We sailed 105 NM the last 24 hours. The wind is south 10-15 kts and we keep close  50°- to the wind. According to the weather forecast, the wind will die out tonight, but from tomorrow we’ll be sailing with more favourable wind. But that remains to be seen
Hours of sleep Karina 4,20′  Yorgos 1,00’ +3,30’ + 1,00’=5,30′
    DAY 5
14.00 We eat noodles for lunch, which I made spicy and more exotic today. From 14.30 -1 7.30 sleep in the cockpit – like a baby.
16.00 The sailing is amazing today, 15 kts of wind, at 50°  port. We talk with Freja and make a bet about when we will cross the equator. Yorgos believes it will be in the first 6 hours of Friday and Merete, is betting for  the next 6 hours (6-12 pm). The prize for the winner is ice cream at the best ice cream place in Galapagos, hopefully  there will be one! Freja are taking a more southern course and as we are already 9 NM away, soon we’ll not be able to talk on VHF with them.
18.00 I’m on my shift, looking how the horison fills with colors. Yorgos appears on the hatch and comes out
-“What will you do, if I fall into the sea right now?” he asks me
-“I’ll stop the boat, press the MOB (Man Over Board) button on the plotter and throw the DAN BUOY in the sea”,
For the next 30 minutes, he explains what should be done in different situations. I don’t want to think about it, but the truth is that we should always be prepared for the worst.
20.00 Yorgos goes to sleep, always in the cockpit. The wind has dropped and we are sailing with 4,0  4,5 kts a bit north from our rumbline at 250°.
22.30 The wind drops even more and our course turns even more north, to 265°, I go and sit close to the captain, I ’m thinking to turn the engine on, and help keep to our course
-“Yorgo?” I ask slowly, but he doesn’t move, he’s sleeping too deep.  This has never happened before, when we are sailing Yorgos wakes up  the moment I whisper his name. I decide  to let him rest. The night is  lovely,  the stars are shining bright. The soft breeze touches my face and I’m constantly smiling,  feeling thankfull for this amazing experience.
23.30 I put my favourite sailing music, Stavros tou Notou (The Southern Cross), poetry by the seaman poet Nikos Kavadias and  music by Thanos Mikroutsikos. I feel so happy tonight. And the Pacific has become trully peaceful, at last.
23.45  The captain wakes up and we have a very late dinner, fresh bread and Greek salad with special Terra Creta extra virgin oil, bought at Athens Duty Free and saved for the occasion. The wind drops some more, and we turn the engine on
Wednesday May 24, 2017
01.00 I go to sleep and the captain stays up to do what he does best:  Sail! With the engine on, he’s keeping a course close to the wind, ameliorating our position that I neglected when on my shift. We are going fast 5,5- 6,0 kts and he reefs the main as there are some squals, but all that luckily doesn’t  wake me up! So tired, poor old turtle me.
06.00 I wake up fresh as a daisy and check the iPad:   391 nautical miles to San Christbal, we did great progress. The wind got stronger, 20-25 kts but the direction is not as we expected from the weather forecast, it is still South and almost to our nose. We are riding the waves and they are wild!!

Filizi is bouncing up and down and the movement is really powerfull.
07.00 I go inside to make a simple breakfast,  Yorgos bread, tahini and Cretan honey and laugh of how difficult this simple task can become. I go out in the cockpit soaking wet from  sweat.  I guess that sailing  Filizi today must be similar to riding a wild bull on a Rodeo.  I ask Yorgos to go to sleep a bit, but he’s too occupied  with the demanding sailing.
-“Karina look!” he says pointing at the west. Magnificent! There’s a pod of about 50 dolphins, maybe more, riding the waves, jumping, playing , about 200 meters away, and among them there are babies, too. Beautiful creatures. Dear Perkan, you would have loved to see this.
09.00 Sun, clouds  then sun again.  I go to the aft cabin and sleep 2 more hours.

11.00 The tough ride continues, and the waves are a lot  bigger now. Every few minutes,  a big wave comes and our bow dives inside, splashing water around. It’ takes a lot of energy to just keep  balance and stay seated on the captain’s seat.
Yorgos takes the weather forecast with the satelite phone. The prediction is for the wind to change direction from S-SW TO S-SE later this afternoon. If this happens we’ll be much better. But I wonder if…
Hours of sleep  Karina 3,00 +3,45’ +1,45’=8,30’  Yorgos 3,30 + 1,30 = 5,00