Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Hi from Dave...2701 miles to go

Hello all...Dave here...i am back in the saddle on night watch again after resting and exploring in Galapagos for a number of days. I have the 10.30pm to 1am night shift.

We are now already about 250 miles from any land at lat/long position 02 degrees and 03 minutes south and 094 degrees and 24 minutes west. Wind is from the south east at about 10 knots and we are doing 5.5 knots with a 1/2 knot current assist finally in our favor :-) Seas are nice and mellow with some large rolling swells. What a beautiful clear night with full moon and no sign of any other boats.

Stars out of this world ... so clear it was unbelievable before the full moon came out. We switched off all lights and even the navigation lights for a few minutes early evening to show the kids how clear the sky's were. The milky way was spectacular!

We are in contact with another sailboat (Mary Ann 2) in front of us daily on the SSB radio so good to speak with someone a few hundred miles ahead of us and also heading to our destination.

We have all started settling into life at sea again. It always takes a few days to find that groove and get use to night shifts again but after the rough conditions we endured on passage to Galapagos from Panama, so far this trip has been rather a pleasure!

We left Madeira Beach without having the time to fully test everything I had fitted and one of those items was running our washing machine via the Invertor. Well yesterday was the moment of truth as we decided to try a load of washing using the Invertor which converts our battery power into 120volt power. Happy to report we have clean laundry!!!! So the significance of this is we can use solar power for doing laundry vs running our generator and use valuable diesel resources. I had always intended it to work this way and had done the install accordingly....but just never got to test it this way until yesterday. Up until that point we had either used shore power or generator power to run the washing machine.

We had a great time in the Galapagos and the last island we visited, Isabela, was definitely our favorite! It's the biggest island but least inhabited and least developed. The last day the water around us was alive with activity. We had penguin's and seals and blue footed boobies and turtles....all hunting fish within feet of our boat at the same time. It's amazing how much we end up taking for granted like that as we cruise along and now putting it in writing I think to my self how unbelievable that was and how special it was to see!!!!!! Very lucky indeed!!!

We did the final halyard repair in that same anchorage.....thanks to Remi from ZSpars in France that has been so graceful in helping us along our journey. He so kindly made and then sent us via FedEx two custom stainless steel rollers to Galapagos that I installed at the top of the mast 4 days ago. Remi they fitted perfectly so again a big thank you for your help and kindness!!!!

Thanks Mom, Gaylor and Volker for your emails!!!! So nice for us to get news from people and it's normally a highlight of our days at sea :-)

With that I am signing off as it's now 12.30am on 6/22/16 with only 2695 miles now remaining!! Till next time....regards to all!!!

Dave






Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

3 comments:

  1. Good to hear from you and see you all are doing so well! We have a world map taped to the cabinets in our copier room & I track with a marker where you are every couple of days to show everyone your progress (and to keep you here in our office!) LOL

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  2. Brother Dave! Many things look great! That is good news about the washing machine I know that was a big thing and I'm sure Goods is very happy haha how is the toilet working? Also how is everything going with the transfer pumps, how is the Jenny working for you? Is it quiet did you have to put in another fan? I'm sure everything is working out great I am so jealous haha it's okay because very soon I will be able to come and maybe join you on a leg or two if you still will let me, I went and did my immigration test yesterday and passed with 100% I'm doing my ceremony on Monday the 27th of June and as of Monday the 27th of June I will be a US citizen so I will be allowed to leave the country and come join you!!!! I see you guys are having an amazing time good for you this is something that not many people in the world can experience I would be interested to see what percentage of people in the world have seen what you guys have seen in just a few months. I drive past your house all the time and I always look down the canal and I don't see your boat it makes me remember the times I helped you work on your boat now you're almost across the world haha it's amazing how quick time goes and how much can happen. I always talk about you to my friends and family and I'm always waking up in the morning and planning my day and my things to do around my ceiling one day and I keep thinking about that but you gave me about getting to that point, you are definitely a huge inspiration to me as well as your whole family. Keep having fun out there Hibberd family and be safe!

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  3. Sorry about some weird sentences I was actually talking to the phone and it's spell stuff wrong haha. I said I am planning my life around sailing one day and I always remember the advice you gave me about getting to that point. Just thought I would clarify those few sentences all the best dave and fam!!:) 👍

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