In November I returned to the US and then onto Europe to see if this whirlwind relationship with Suzi was actually a workable one. Well . .  She returned to Panama about 2 weeks after I did. She has moved aboard for an extended cruise that should take us first to the Galapagos Islands, and finally to the South Pacific island chains. We'll end '07 either south of the cyclone zone in Australia or New Zealand, or north of it in the Marshall Islands. That's the plan anyway. Then again, things rarely go as planned. 

We loaded Barraveigh with a year's provisions, an extra 250 feet of chain, and left Panama City for a week of decompression in Las Perlas islands. During that first day sail to Isla Contadora we heard chirping. It wasn't a mechanical problem. It was 3 baby sparrow chicks whose parents had nested in our boom. Now orphaned, we decided we would give it our best shot. We extracted them from the boom and placed them into a bucket with their nest. Bill and Linda on Creola gave us an empty dispenser bottle to feed them. Bill on Chat D' Or downloaded info from the net on how to best care for them, and a German boat named Lumme gave us dog food that the info recommended. They only lasted 4 days, but it was a great example of how cruisers pull together to help one another. It's a close knit community to belong to. We may have small houses, but our backyards are nearly infinite. 

Las Perlas islands are a cruising sailors fantasy. There are hundreds of interesting anchorages with papayas, coconuts, mangoes, and freshwater streams. We joined 4 other boats on the beach at Espiritu Santo for an afternoon of ultimate Frisbee, with oars as goalposts. When the activity of the game became too much, a dip in the water cooled us down before a ½ kilometer stroll thru the jungle to the other side of this thin island exposed it's beautiful sandy bays. We stayed for 3 nights. During the days we would lie in hammocks strung from the riggings of the ship and dream away the hours with cold drinks, hand picked coconuts, and big smiles. After months of hard work to ready Barraveigh for the coming year, it was sweet revenge wasting time without a list of things to be crossed off.  One day we kayaked to a freshwater spring, and filled 10 gallons worth of the stuff. Those kayaks are sleek, fast, fun and are rather practical for hauling as well. We use that water for the showers that we administer in the cockpit using the pressure from a 2 gallon insecticide bottle. It works perfectly, with a minimal amount of wasted water, and the added charm of spraying each other as the waning daylight peeks beneath the bimini cloth can't be neglected as this budding relationship grows. During the evenings we would have potlucks with friends, drinking and eating from our well supplied larders. This was to be our rest before the 1000 mile passage to the Galapagos. We savored the down time.

We sailed further down the archipelago to Rio Cacique and, while at anchor in the setting sun, we were approached by a speedboat of spear fisherman offering us some of their catch. We gorged ourselves for the next couple days on ceviche, baked Pargo, and Thai curry Amber Jack. I scrubbed the bottom, went for a final run on the beach and after another check of the weather report we had run out of excuses for staying. All systems had been deemed ready, so at 1:30 pm on March 29th we weighed anchor. We only used the engine to leave the anchorage. The next 36 hours were some of the best sailing I've ever had. Flat seas with a constant 12 knots off the starboard rear quarter. We had no problem doing 6 knots. That's pretty good for this old girl, weighted down like she is. I think it was the bottom cleaning that she appreciated so much. 

Suzi's first night at sea went smoothly. She only had to wake me once to reef a sail as the wind increased. She followed all the rules perfectly. It can be rather daunting for a neophyte but she did very well. The sleep deprivation sets in rather quickly when there are just 2 of us aboard. We run 2 hour watches. That means you get 1 hour and 55 minutes before the other person wakes you again. It doesn't take long for exhaustion to set in and little of that time is wasted trying to get to sleep. We catch up throughout the day. Better to lose sleep than to lose the ship. These waters are busy with gigantic container ships bound for the Panama Canal.

We saw dolphins, watched a shark catch and eat a fish, and I even spoke to the captain of one of those gargantuan container ships. 

"Sir, do you see me on your radar?"
"Yes. I have you on the radar." 
"Sir, are we on a collision course?" 
Long pause. "No." 
"Thank you for checking." 
"Snowdrift standing by on 16." 
"Barraveigh clear."

Killer Whales
We had an encounter with Killer Whales. That's right. I didn't think it could be true either, but they came within 30 feet of the ship, and they looked terrifying. We had 2 pods circle Barraveigh one day. I had just finished reading a book called "Surviving the Savage Sea" about a Scottish family that survived in a life raft for 37 days after their ship was holed and sunk by killer whales. Apparently it's easy to run over them while they sleep on the surface, and then, because of your territorial infraction, they have to, by the code of the killer whale, sink your boat. I've seen whales at sea many times and have sailed alongside them for miles. On this occasional, I was happy to leave them in my wake. We scanned the waters ahead of us and motored away. 

There was no wind at all. We were sweltering in the tropical heat and the motor only made it hotter. The stove was even worse, but Suzi's upside down pineapple cake was worth it. We were completely becalmed and we still had another 620 miles to go. The sea was so glassy that it looked like an oil spill. This is the ITCZ. The Inter Tropical Convergence Zone. You've probably heard it referred to as the Doldrums. The Spanish explorers of 500 years ago called it the Horse Latitudes. They would chuck their horses into the sea in order to lighten the boats when their provisions ran low. I'll bet that entertained the Orcas. We, fortunately, retained our horse power and cranked on the engine. I'm not a purist when it comes to passage making. Sailing is the goal but motoring gets us there too. I've known for years that the morale on board drops quickly when we aren't making headway. We had a long way to go and it's important to keep spirits high.