Day 197, Year 1: Halfway to the Marquesas–Day 11
Date: Tuesday, May 2, 2006
Weather: Blue-Ribbon Beautiful Day
Air Temperature: Daytime 80 degrees F
Latitude: 06 degrees 26 minutes S
Longitude: 114 degrees 54 minutes W
Location: Passage from Galapagos to the Marquesas, Day 11
Miles to Go: 1440 (~ 139 miles last 24 hours)
Miles to Date: 1509

We are halfway there. Hurray! The winds are down to 10 to 15 knots today, but that still allows us to move along nicely. From talking to folks on the net, however, it appears that the winds are even lighter up ahead, but we can’t complain. We have had days of non-stop sailing without having to use the engine. It has been delightful.

I was taking a mid-day nap today when I awoke to the sound of the fishing reel. Some critter was running with our line. By the time I got up into the cockpit, it was too late. Whatever had our line was very large and it actually broke the line. So much for that line and lure and no fish for dinner tonight. At the same time, we saw sails on the horizon just behind us. Were we hallucinating? We had just passed the half-way point and were as far away from land as we can be, and there is sailboat coming up on us. Small world. We got on the VHF radio on Channel 16 and hailed the sailboat. It was Felix and Monica of Makani from Germany. We met them our last night in Puerto Villamil. They left a day after us, but their Bavaria 42 is obviously faster than our Tayana 42. The Bavaria is a lighter boat and they have now passed us and are headed into the sunset. Their HAM radio is not working, so they have no contact with anyone right now other than the close range VHF, thus the reason they have not checked into the net. We alerted the boats in front of us to be on the lookout for them and to contact them on Channel 16 when they can see them. They do have satellite email, but because of the expense they have only given their email address to their son. So, to send them an email we would have to send it to their son and he would forward it to them – complicated. It made me think long and hard about how I would feel without our radio contact. I don’t think I would like that very much.