jaws!

finally the moment arrived and we left the galapagos islands towards the polynesia, excited and honestly a bit scared of what to expect of the long days ahead…. Within the first couple of hours while trawling, we got a fish!! Imagine our excitement after all of our fishing failures in the preceding thousands of miles… this one was not going to get away. we were determined to have fresh delicious fish for lunch… or at least that is what we thought… sadly, after seeing esteban put on a huge fight, we were able to get a close look at the fish. it was a shark! A type that is typical to the Galapagos only. We brought it in with a big disappointment and cleaned it, cooked it and actually eat it. It was awfull, it had a bitter amonia taste. but it was fresh meat after all, so we kept some filets just in case the fishing continued to be as bad. After this shark experience we threw in the line again hoping for better tasting fish. But guess what we got the text day… another shark! We let this one go and fortunately this was the last of this animals we saw hooked to our lure. but certainly not the last we saw because as we would soon discover, the pacific has many of these animals, all over, and swimming and diving with them would soon become the norm.




A un par de horas de salir de Galapagos, sentimos un gran pique, la cana de pescar se arqueaba y el reel sonaba impresionantemente; este era nuestro momento de reivindicación con la pesca.
Ya que en trayecto anterior habíamos perdido mas de 5 peces con senuelos y todo, debido al grosor del nylon. Esta vez, no se nos escaparían, nylon de 140 libras de resistencia y en último tramo del senuelo cable de acero.
Emprendimos la lucha, bajamos la velocidad del barco y lentamente traíamos ese pez enfurecido más cerca del barco. Ya cuando lo teníamos al alcance de la vista emerge a la superficie y nos encontramos con esta especie única en el mundo, tiburón de Galápagos, “mierda” dijimos, que mala suerte, pero al fin es comida para el viaje.
Las fotos hablan por si solas, en resumidas cuentas luchamos con esta bestia, llenamos todo el barco de sangre y luego de tres horas lo teníamos fileteado en la nevera.
Horas mas tarde decidimos cocinarlo y nos encontramos con la sorpresa que su gusto es como su aspecto, feo salvaje y agresivo.


La esperanza es lo ultimo que se pierde y volvimos a arrojar el senuelo al mar como siempre. Al dia siguiente, mafe empieza a luchar con otro pez, transpiraba y giraba ese reel con mucho entusiasmo pero lamentablemte otro tiburón, este si que no lo sacamos del agua, ya habíamos aprendido la lección.

crossing the south pacific

This is the longest crossing of all, at least in our plan. from galapagos to marquesas, which is the first archipelago of the french polynesia, there is absolutely nothing in between; only ocean and sky for over 3000 miles. This leg is feared not by the conditions of the ocean, which are rather calm and favorable this time of year, but for the condition of the crew; and that is our sanity! The challenge is to live in such a small space (the cockpit mostly) for a month, sailing day and night, just the two of us.

during the crossing we never saw a plane or another boat. just sunrises and sunsets and ocean in between. We saw many dolphin, a few birds and had some squalls from time to time, but mostly we had steady winds blowing at 18 knots average from the same direction almost every day. we had no major damage to the boat or the equipment. We simply lost the radar deflector (the last day) and of course had some chafing in all the lines, but nothing major. for those who wonder what one can do in this crossing with the time, the answer is really that the time flies. We spent the days and nights, sleeping, cooking, fishing, doing maintenance to the boat, planning, talking and mostly thinking. we thought a lot about our families and friends and often wondered what they were doing while we were at sea. We also though a lot in our future, what to do next, how to keep the sailing lifestyle while making money doing so, and also how life would be after such an experience…. At times we did get a little tired and bored and often laughed while asking ourselves where and when we could get off the boat. As if there was some port nearby… but then we carried on with the daily activities, connecting through the single side band, participating in the sailor’s net, etc.



as far as food, in total we caught 2 marlins and 2 mahis. Originally we thought this was not too much for 24 days at sea. But we actually were above the average, because most cruisers only caught one, if at all. The food we got in panama lasted for the crossing and at least one moth in the marquesas. We eat a lot of rice, tuna, potatoes, eggs and luckily tomatoes! We thought we were going to eat more pasta, but after a not so tasty pasta meal, I managed to ruin the pasta taste for us for a while… upon arrival in the marquesas, guess what we were craving the most.. tuna out of all things! luckily we eat that a lot, in every possible form!





El cruce del pacifico

Generalmente este es el cruce mas largo realizado por aquellos navegantes que deciden dar la vuelta al mundo. Desde Galápagos a marquesas (primer archipiélago de la polinesia francesa) no hay absolutamente nada en el camino. Solo mar y nada mas que mar, mas de 3000 millas náuticas separan estas islas unas de otras, para aquellos que piensan en Km., alrededor de 6000.

Generalmente no es un trayecto temido por las condiciones del océano, pero si por la gran distancia recorrida, la cantidad de días en el mar y la integridad de la tripulación y de la embarcación.

Es un desafio físico y más que nada mental. Hay que vencer los miedos de cómo será vivir en una embarcación de menos de 12 metros de largo, durante casi un mes sin bajarse, navegando las 24 horas del día, a una velocidad promedio de 10km por hora.
Pues la única forma de saberlo es haciéndolo y ahí continuo nuestra travesía.
Se hacia de noche, la costa se alejaba y realmente en ese momento no sabíamos que no veríamos por un mes ni un barco, ni un avión, ni un ser humano. La experiencia fue única, larga y por momentos muy dura, no había adonde bajarse, ni a donde regresar, solo quedaba seguir adelante y rogar que nada malo pasara.
Algo que nos sorprendió fue la cantidad de tiempo que uno tiene para pensar, al estar alejado de todas aquellas obligaciones y distracciones del mundo moderno en el que vivimos.



Muchos se preguntaran que hicimos durante 24 días??, la verdad que los días fueron pasando y hoy no recuerdo el cruce como algo tan grave. A uno se le pasa el dia bastante rápido, cocinando durmiendo, conectándose por radio a la rueda de navegantes, leyendo , viendo películas , haciendo guardias y pescando. A propósito pescamos 2 marlins y dos mahi mahi, pero solo uno de ellos termino en nuestra mesa. La pesca es un arte y en esta parte del mundo los peces son muy grandes y difíciles de traerlos dentro del barco. Razón por la cual, nuestra alimentación fue basada en pasta, arroz y comida en lata. Lo primeo que haríamos al llegar a tierra seria comer frutas y pescado, qué ironía la vida no??

good bye galapagos

we say good bye to the galapagos islands, a place with most dramatic landscapes and a great history. for us, also a place where we met great people, had a very relaxing time, eat delicious food, refilled on supplies and diesel and prepared to cross for our longest crossing of all: the south pacific from galapagos to the marquesas islands in the french polynesia!!

i will write the next posting after we have crossed over 3000 nautical miles of only ocean on sight. it will certainly be an experience! we are happy to do it, and somewhat prepared :-) Until then…!!!