Enroute to the Equator and Ecuador
Friday 13 May – we waved goodbye to Jo and Ian as they sailed past us on the ferry and after a few quick emails and facetimes, pulled up the anchor and left around 4pm for our 3 day sail to Ecuador.
So far so good, Geoff sorted out the watches with Mike and Sheryl, and being the novice sailor amongst the group, I lucked out and got no solo watches, just ones with Geoff.
Hard to believe then that after standing on the deck waving to the ferry in blazing hot sunshine, less than 12 hours later we were in the middle of a huge storm. I have mentioned in previous blogs that there is a lot of lightning around this area, and true to form, on Sheryl’s 7pm – 10pm watch she reported seeing some lightning in the distance. By 3.00am we were sailing directly under a full blown thunder and lightning storm. Geoff and I, although not on watch, sat in the saloon, with an absolutely drenched Mike sitting in the cockpit – sheeting rain making it impossible to see anything outside the boat. For me it was nothing short of terrifying.
The lightning went on for hours with the thunder crashing over us, but thankfully not striking us, we were bobbing about like a cork in the middle of nowhere. When we were finally able to venture outside onto the deck in daylight, Geoff noticed the chain he had on the bow that went into the water to earth the boat in lightning had disappeared over the bow, we’ll never know but it may have just saved us before it made its exit.
Saturday 14 May – I learnt this morning that I wasn’t the only one who silently said a prayer last night!
For the first time on this trip, the grey sea looks like the North Sea and very unappetising. The squabs outside got soaked during the night and we have a boat that is humid, dank and steamy with articles of wet clothing draped around. Yuk. We had heard a lot of crashing and banging during the night as bits of logs hit the boat, so far the water seems to have quite a bit of floating debris in it.
Later in the day, Geoff and I, off watch, were resting in the cabin, when we kept hearing an odd vibrating sound. He got up to investigate only to find out that there was this huge piece of bamboo which had broken itself into a v-shape around the front of the keel. It slipped down the front of the keel, and along the bottom of it and popped up between the keel and the rudder. Jammed against the rudder it swung from side to side and as it did so, caught the propeller and what we had heard was the thump, thump, thump as the propeller hit it.
Nothing for it but for us to stop the boat, and for Geoff to jump in and dive underneath to dislodge it. It was difficult because bamboo is quite thick and it was more of a trunk than a branch and very greasy. Geoff had to try and straighten it to slide it out between the rudder and the prop. Fortunately the motor still seems to be working OK.
Sunday 15 May – Quite exciting as we are about 150 miles north of the Equator and I am looking forward to seeing the dotted line (as per the Atlas) across the water! All day we had a nice sail and we stopped the motors and were doing 9–10 knots under sail, the boat was sliding along. Geoff and I had just gone off watch at 7pm when all hell broke loose, the block holding the dinghy on the targa bar on the stern broke. The stern of the dinghy fell into the water and it was dragging. In what seemed like a very short space of time the wind and the waves had become enormous.
Recovering the dinghy and getting ship shape was a long and difficult process. After a couple of hours this was achieved and we settled down to a rough night motoring into quite large breaking seas. Thankfully by 3.00am–4.00am we moved out of the rough water and were motoring at 8 knots quite comfortably into a 10 knot headwind.
Monday 16 May – 1407 hours – 00°00.000’N 080°38.160’W – 20 miles off Punta Venado, Ecuador - we’ve just crossed the Equator and are now in the Southern Hemisphere! The first time Salanjo has been here since 30 November 2011. And we had our first sunset in 4 days
