Now we wait...

New passports picked up. Check!

Boat's waterline lowered from 132 eggs, tons of produce, full diesel tanks, full gas tanks, and full water tanks. Check!

Last ice-cream cones eaten in civilization for awhile. Check!

Wind to get us to the Galapagos. [Sound of sad clown horn].

 

We're back in Las Perlas and even though the wind is blowing like crazy here, the forecast for sailing the 900 or so miles to The Galapagos is dismal. After we fueled up at Panama City, we decided we didn't want to spend one more night in the rocky, rolly anchorage at La Playita. We were also stubborn and didn't feel like motoring even though there was hardly any wind. So we tooled along at 2 knots for a good portion of the journey and pulled into Contadora after about 10 hours, around 9 p.m. The good thing is, our sail was calmer than the anchorage at La Playita and we caught 2 big red snappers. There were big swaths of reddish water, which we speculated could be the toxic red algae tides we had heard about. The water was so still that we could see tons of schools of tiny minnows, little octopuses, crabs, and jellies. We also sighted more whales. It was a long, slow, but pleasant journey.

We think there might be decent wind next Friday that will take us at least half way and then not so decent wind that, with the current, could get us where we're going without burning a ton of diesel. That's a lot of ifs and just another way of saying we are waiting to see what will happen. We might beach our boat to do the final bottom cleaning. At any rate, waiting around here beats the subzero temperatures that our family and friends back in Chicago are experiencing.