Day 137, Year 1: Preparing Windbird for Crossing to Galapagos
Date: Friday, March 3, 2006
Air Temperature: 79 degrees F
Water Temperature: 69 degrees F and Rising Slowly
Location: Contadora, Las Perlas Islands, Panama

Today was supposed to be a day of rest and relaxation, but somehow that didn’t happen. After listening to the morning radio net, Mark repaired the tears in our spinnaker that happened while we were in the Caribbean. I helped by moving all of the fresh food baskets off the v-berth so he could get underneath to get the sail out. While moving the food baskets, I discovered that the eggplant was not keeping as well as I would like, so I decided to make ratatouille to freeze for our crossing to the Galapagos. As always, one thing leads to another. Making ratatouille requires others veggies, so I had to dig those out as well. I’ll list here the fruits and veggies we have stored for the trip to the
Galapagos. I thought you might be interested in what we are carrying and how we are storing things. I’ll list those here and let you know how the long term storage goes.

50 key limes-each wrapped in aluminum foil
2 mangoes-wrapped in tissue paper
1 papaya-prepared and stored in the refrig
4 cantaloupes-stored in a plastic crate
70 oranges-in hanging bags
1 stalk of bananas (approximately 75 bananas)-hanging in the v-berth
15 Granny Smith apples-individually wrapped in tissue paper
2 pineapples-stored in a plastic crate
4 heads of iceberg lettuce-stored in the refrig
1 head of Romaine lettuce-stored in the refrig
30 large potatoes-stored in a plastic crate
12 red and 24 yellow onions-stored in a plastic crate
3 cucumbers-individually wrapped in wax paper
4 large and 24 small green/red sweet peppers-individually wrapped in wax paper
6 small summer squash-individually wrapped in tissue paper
35 carrots-stored in a plastic crate
3 heads of white cabbage, 1 head of Chinese cabbage– stored in a plastic crate
1 daikon radish– stored in a plastic crate
4 small egg plants-stored in a plastic crate
4 small heads of Bok Choy-stores in the refrig
1 small head of cauliflower and 2 small heads of broccoli-stored in the refrig
2 bags of baby carrots-stored in the refrig
1 bag of okra-stored in a plastic crate

Later in the day, I started preparing dinner. We had invited Margaret and Patrick from Aqua Magic over for an Indian curry dinner and I wanted to try and make an Indian bread, so I had to start early to try this. During the dinner preparation, Mark got out the Creative Zen (like an Ipod) and set it to play jazz music that Heather and Jed had recorded for us. We had great fun listening the selected music. It was great to think of them as we listened, but I have to admit it made me just a bit homesick. Good thing they are meeting us in the Galapagos.

Mark was in the cockpit during this time, and I heard him make the call for dolphins in the anchorage. These dolphins are more like little whales in terms of their water antics. They jumped and breached their way between boats and put on quite a show.

Tomorrow morning we move on to another island, Isla Del Ray, and will stop in the Espiritu Santo anchorage. If the water quality there is good, there should be some good snorkeling. If so, it will be great to be back in water again.

060303 Day 137 Panama–Contadora Anchorage, Las Perlas