Well, I guess we're beginning to understand what people mean when they say Ecuador has weather "just like San Diego." Once we hit the Humboldt current we saw a completely new pattern emerge. Most of the time there's a marine layer which might break just enough in the afternoon for a glimpse of the sun. Then you get a day like Sunday when the rising sun just barely kept its head above the clouds until it burned them off entirely and we had a crystal clear blue sky, blue sea day again. Then it started rolling in again in the afternoon until it cleared off later that night. The great thing now is that even when you're standing in the Noon sun, the breeze is nice and cool. John actually broke out his favorite fleece jacket for night watches. It's reminding us very much of the California coast.
We had a great day of sailing, and even put the wind vane on to steer instead of the auto pilot for a change. We weren't able to go straight to our waypoint, but it was nice to be sailing along at a reasonable pace again. The wind shifted against us and then subsided so we put the pedal to the metal in the late afternoon to try to eat up some more miles.
My sister wrote that it's hard to imagine that we're out here so far from land (and home), and the weird thing is that it's often hard for us to grasp that idea too. Nakia has been our home for over 16 years so it's old familiar territory, and it's only our back yard that's constantly changing. Since we're always "home" do we ever really leave home? I think it kind of takes the edge off of visiting new places to have your home travel with you. But it also means never completely getting out of your comfort zone to have a familiar place to return to at the end of each day. This might make us take our adventures a bit for granted, especially when we stay in one place (like Mexico) for so long. And so what may sound exotic to someone else, is just our life. We're not on vacation, we're still doing the dishes, cleaning the toilet, fixing things that break, cooking meals, socializing with friends, and learning new things, just like everyone else. We're just doing all those normal things in foreign countries afloat in a boat.
Funny the things that pop into your head. This morning I came on watch at 0400 and found myself singing (to the tune of "Shenandoah"), "Oh, Ecuador, I long to seeeee you!"
Distance traveled: 96 nautical miles
Distance made good (towards our destination): 87 nautical miles
14.5 hours motoring, 9.5 hours sailing
Linda and John
http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?0,06.749,N,81,13.692,W,Day%20Seven,