Hi all,
A few days ago I was bemoaning the lot of a sailor and had decided that the best option was to quit whinging and join the happy throng of petrol heads. This was during our never ending steaming days through the doldrums. Now however I am very happy to report that we are getting our fill of the most glorious sailing imaginable.
Clear bright skies, deep blue ocean, steady trade winds with slight seas by day and warm, moonlight, star spangled evenings. Sailing bliss !!
It feels to me that this passage has only just commenced maybe it's because I've been poorly, (now nearly fully recovered, and thanks for all your concern) but we have already covered a 1000nm with a couple of thousand to do. Somehow we have found ourselves near the front of the fleet who are all enjoying this near perfect sailing conditions, so we must have made some right calls in heading so far south to catch the trades and as we still have a full tank of fuel, it looks as though we are in good shape for the rest of the passage should we loose the wind.
The highlight of today's run and a first for Kasuje, we actually over took somebody!! or more accurately something, actually it was a Pacific green back turtle, who we nearly ran down, and was immediately nick named ''Lucky''. It is a well known fact that Green back turtles are lucky, as there life story depends on it!! This we learnt from our ''country boy'' guide on the Galapagos tour who explained.
'' Green back turtles lay their eggs on selected beaches in the Galapagos. They are laid in clutches of around 100 buried up to two feet below the surface level.
The sex of the new born is dependant on the temperature of the sand and therefore the embryonic egg,
(that proves it, I always new women were cold!! Ahhhhhhhhh I shall suffer for that one)
By a trigger unknown to man, we think the phase of the moon, the eggs all hatch together, and the turtle chicks crawl up to the surface and then run the gauntlet of a 50 metre dash to the sea. At this time 50 % are snapped up by waiting predators.
Once in the ocean further dangers await, reef sharks, blue footed boobies, and hammerheads snap up the slow.
Then it's off for the ''lucky'' few (hence the nickname) who spend the next 25 years, following the Pacific currents half way round the globe.
(Do you remember the bit in Finding Nemo, when he swam with the turtles, It is just like that)
Then somehow by luck? or brilliant memory they arrive back at exactly the same beach they were born, to lay their eggs and start the process again.''
So what else could we call our green backed friend but ''lucky'' and wish him well on his journey along the Humboldt current to the Pacific Islands.
He looked a big old boy so he had probably completed a circuit or two and would certainly have been unlucky to be run down by us!!!
Happy Days
Skipper Steve and crew.