So we are at last off to the famous Islands – home of the giant turtles,
Blue Boobies, and Marina Iguanas to name a few of the tropical beasts we can
expect to come across (We have been watching the BBC DVD ahead of our
arrival !) . We are all glad to be leaving the Ecuador mainland , not that
we didn’t feel welcome , in fact the Minster of Tourism came to see us off
in Salinas, and award prizes – once again K8 was 1st to the podium – this
time in the “non competitive nature of the event” (what BS!)we were awarded
a special prize for the longest spinnaker hoist in the event – following our
start in Panama !- the event organisers think they can keep us happy by
giving us prizes for something(they’re right) -there was no formal winner of
the last leg – rightly so given the amount of motoring most people had to do
.

We all had time to get off and enjoy some of Ecuador , with various trips to
coast, cities and mountains, the fact that the President of Ecuador
declared a National State of Emergency 2 days before we left had nothing to
do with our visit, the oil slick in the Marina , or the damage done to some
boats following the big swell (thankfully not K8 – David H was our hero
) ,but more to do with the torrential rainfall resulting in flooding and
landslides – which made road and air journeys v. interesting, and long !

So with one last trip to the supermarket in the knowledge that the shops in
the Galapagos have v little on the shelves (think Russia in the 80′s), and
most likely the last clean fuel we can expect for 4 months we headed off on
Sunday morning to the start – like everything in Ecuador it was running 1
hour late as the local port captain struggled to process so many yachts all
leaving at the same time on a Sunday! (What was he thinking – we would have
a staggered start based on his ability to process paperwork!)
Friendships among the fleet continue to grow as we all spend more time in
port together, on the positive side the Yacht Club was great, and we got to
spend lots of time getting to know each other at the overpriced bar, and
the banter continues on the radio network ( actually using the SSB !)
Special thanks to the WARC folks who managed to deal with a wide range of
challenging issues – all with a smile, between bouts of food poisoning!

Sadly we are not so much sailing to the Galapagos, as they are on a direct
line across the equator – what in old money we called the doldrums , now
known by its politically correct name as the “Inter-Tropical Convergence
Zone ” ITCZ – even under engine we are making slow progress as we have 2 .5
knts of current against us , but hope to arrive Thursday.

The Islands originally discovered by accident in 1535, we hope to arrive by
about 16.00. to witness Evolution in Action and promise to minimise our
footprint. thinking of evolution , we are all looking forward to Danial
joining us – if he ever makes it through 4 airports with his excess baggage
- everything from bikinis for the girls to lewmar parts for the boys ,(
maybe some Bombay Sapphire ….)

Sorry no photos (Tim is working on it !) and we have moved to the slower
Iridium Satellite as the Fleet 33 secombed to the tropical rain. Thanks to
Gavin for getting our back up plan/satellite working!

While Adrian is still trying to leave the boat on a regular basis  -  again today he had to go over the side for the 2nd time , to remove more strayfishing lines . in 1.5 knts of current  ( that is like a  v smart indoor lap pool ) – however one of our highlights was David’s great catch (nearly) and release of a 1 meter long Mahi-mahi  - which broke free less then 5 feet from the boat ! after a 20 min struggle .

The good news is that once again we  K8, were first home to Ecuador  – but arrived too late for the Marina/ customs  Warc / Blah Blah (what sort of marina bar is closed at 22.00) and are at anchor  2 miles off the beach.

Tomorrow more jobs list for some , Valentine day for others , David & John head for the hills to ride the open top train through the mountains..

At 05.55 local time (10.55 GMT) we finally crossed the equator, we are now in the southern hemisphere (much to Adrian and Jen’s joy) !  David’s claim of previous crossing in a cruise ship was dismissed as not qualifying – so with Rosie on hand as photographer, Rosie , David , John and Nick all paid their respects to Neptune in the traditional manner. Not that Neptune was kind to us for the last 17 hours it has rained constantly in varying strengths – at times even wetter then Dublin or Sligo , as Adrian & Jen did not get up
to pay their respects  -  Neptune gained revenge by turning a routine impeller change into 120  min task.

Other fun elements of our trip from Panama   have included , dodging various shipping at night  – it really is v busy here , coupled with catching the long line (hook) of a v small  Colombian fishing boat – circa 40 miles offshore  – which resulted in Adrian going over the side with knife clenched between his teeth  – to clear away. other minor mishaps have included an electric winch developing a mind of its own (rain water got into the switch )   – so all told, all sorts of spooky occurrences   

As they say respect the sea…..

We are all looking forward to our arrival in Ecuador – some time later this evening..

What a trip back from las perlas, firstly we started with a pre breakfast
snorkelling ( at low tide) the best we have seen yet – it really was like to
photos in the cruising guide – lots of little multicoloured fellows ,
rays, puffa fish and even a shark ( sleeping ) . then under the watchful
eye of John C we headed back through the islands for Panama , where we
caught no less the 3 large fish ( tuna ) – Gill and John had one a piece and
we spent an hour following 2 whales – in perfect flat calm waters , in part
it was easy to follow as one could see the shoals of fish leaping out of the
way of the oncoming whales ! – now photographing whales takes a lot of
patience – as you get a lot of pictures of the sea .so we all have much
more respect for those national geographic images – that said David’s
patience with the digital camera paid off as you can see .

And so to Flamenco Marina in Panama – where many of our fellow WARC’ers
we getting fed up having spent a week in a marina that is 25 min from Panama
City ( when traffic is light) – we did get a little time off to shop and
sight see , all agreed that it will be v interesting to watch Panama
progress in the coming 5 years – as they are clearly building the
infrastructure, to be the Miami of Latin America – only cheaper !

Having spent a day running around we went to the official prize giving in
Banana night club with heavy hearts – and were delighted to find that we had
won – the first official leg of the RTW race – St Lucia to Panama – as
you can imagine a great party followed – sponsored by the Pan Canal agents
( Match Shipping – great guys ) – which meant that after a few quite drinks
in the night club – Rosie & Nick ( flying the flag for K8) joined the
maddest late night city bus tour ever – – 3 traditional Panamanian Buss’
converted to fully mobile disco and bar , where rule 1 was don’t sit down -
party , and rule 2 was -don’t throw anything out the windows ! – you will
never know how much fun we had – suffice to say that a UK Health and Safety
inspector would have had a caesura at the antics of the Warc Party ! oddly
enough sore heads followed next morning .

And we are off again – a mere 700 miles this time – so a Fastnet race ( if you like !) -  with help from commander weather – we have hopefully a wind filled route  – ( although are realistic about how we will cross the doldrums )- a magic first 12 hours  with the big ( “ the extension Whitby Surprise “) Spinnaker up all the way making between 8 -10 knts  – a lovely balmy night , with lots of traffic to watch – alas
our Radar and AIS interfaces to the computer have gone down  ( don’t worry we still have radar – only in  old fashioned red and black ) – amazing how many fellow competitors have either a) followed our
recommendations for Las Perlas Islands and are stopping off there , b) motor sailed from the start !  – all in all another great days sailing – shame the spi sock jammed on launch at the start line  – gave the other boats something to snigger at – mind you we had overtaken them all in less then 30 min !

Well we safely passed through the canal , and what an experience it was , we
were lucky to have a great funny pilot , who was as much a tour guide as he
was a pilot ( thanks Eduardo) . Lots of photos to follow when we get more
bandwidth – suffice to say the locks and the lake are a trip none of us will
ever forget – thanks to all those who tuned in via the Pan canal Webcam -
technology actually working for us !!! – Rosie could not be kept out of the
rig – and we think that the tourists at the locks were taking more pictures
of her then of the boats passing through – no other boats had anyone up the
mast .

And so we passed straight form the Canal to commence cruising Las Perlas -
the group of archipelago Islands circa 40 miles west of Panama City ( one of
the Islands was where “Survivor” the TV series was filmed ) 90 of which
are named and 100 of which are un-named – While these magical little
cluster of Islands are mostly uninhabited , alas the snorkelling could be
better – the water is still lively none the less, and we have yet to share
a beach with anyone.

Sadly when one reads of uninhabited desert islands – you don’t realise what
this means with regards to the high water mark strewn with the endless
Jetsam of every type of plastic bottle man can make, shoes, and plastic
crates galore – a big reality check on the damage we do to the environment,
especially those who let plastic go over the side in any format ( strangely
garden furniture seems to feature highly as do small oil bottles ) .

None of this has spoiled our gentle cruising where a pattern of swimming,
beach walking and slowly moving from one isolated beach to another has kept
us busy for a few days. – coupled with either trying to catch fish, or
buying them from the local fishermen we come across

Yesterday – just when we found a perfect beach and had it all to ourselves
we were joined by the magnificent sight of Maltese Falcon – with Tom Perkins
on board , who anchored for the evening and provide many photo
opportunities – as the worlds most expensive super yacht she does look
magnificent in day and night .

With our new arrivals , Diana H , accompanied by Gill & John C ,now safely arrived , we are all on our best behaviour – determined to make it a trip to remember for all the right reasons, our visitors arrived in the comfort of the glass topped train from Panama City – and met by a fleet of Taxies at the V smart train station . Nick & Rosie took the bus from Panama  – where an orderly queue  of muggers lined up for them at the  Colon bus terminus, helpfully the pre arranged  marina cab driver said “ do not get off the bus until I get there”…..

After a lovely  meal on board , thank you Adrian & Jens, we are all well rested and ready to go .. as expected nothing is straight forward in Panama , we will be leaving the marina on Saturday  evening circa 17.00 local time , and completing the first set of locks ( Gutan) by circa 22.00, once we have dropped off our pilot for the evening we will be at anchor overnight in the middle of the Panama Canal….not as dangerous as it sounds – it’s a huge lake …with crocodiles, so no swimming !.
All going according to plan we will meet a new pilot on Sunday  morning  where we will proceed through to Miraflores lake and ultimately the Miraflores Lock … now we are doing all this hanging around in the Panama Canal especially for our friends in Europe as we figured there was no way you would get up too early on a Sunday morning to watch us live on the Pan Canal web cam – !  http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html if you are really really interested , let us know and we can send you an email/txt alert just before we head through  – so you will be able to watch us live on TV(web)..    (At this point, we think we will be on camera somewhere between noon and 3 p.m. UK time – but we will e-mail you automatically if you have registered!  Technical or what!)

Yes we did make it here on Monday evening , sorry it took so long to update
the blog(s) .

We had a magical trip down the coast of Panama , arriving at 22 .10 on
Monday evening, 15-20 knts breeze all the way – to a fairly hairy entry to
the little marina ,after passing all the big ships at anchor waiting for the
P canal . what an incredible sight ,on arrival we were met by ever reliable
Finn from world arc – who guided us in by flash light . Only after we
tracked down the WARC folks to their hotel 20 miles away! as the first Mono
hull home we felt great , and celebrated alone late into the night

When you head off to sail around the world , the last thing we expected to
run into was another round the world “rally” this time the ” blue water
rally” – some would say it’s the perfect time to commence a pacific
crossing , others would say the race organisers were trying to keep us apart
- but K8 speed meant we arrived ahead of their plan and it was fun to run
into other RTW sailors including Peter Mantel ( ex CEO JLL ) on his Oyster
..

2 days in the very welcoming port “shelter island ” – ( ex US navel base
)located in the middle of a nature reserve has been great , lots to do on
the jobs list – mostly now done – ( note – rig checks are important, we
found a dislodged clevis pin on the first spreaders ) and lots of mundane
stuff -cleaning the dinghy, repacking kites etc , not to mention 4 hours
washing down the boat ( gee there was a lot of salt in that last leg )

Good news – despite previous comments – this is a v warm and welcoming
location , and it is v cheep ! – The UK marina industry could learn a thing
or 2. Suffice to say the GM of the Marina was on the dock to greet us
personally.

Now with the jobs list done we are ready and waiting for the Boss to arrive
( Mrs H ) who is coming in to join one of the great ( and safest) passages
of the world, the Panama Canal Transit – so if all goes according to plan we
will transit on Saturday Morning – and you can watch us live on the Panama
Canal web cams http://www.pancanal.com/eng/photo/camera-java.html

we will keep you posted – but rarely will you be able to see us in real
time over the web as we make one of the great crossings from the Atlantic to
the Pacific ( admittedly the easy way !!)

Meanwhile with time on our hands and jobs done , little city excursions call
- so were off for some sight seeing in Panama City ( 1 h by train,
following the route of the canal ) – we decided to give Colon a miss – the
crime rate is higher then Manchester !