Feb 26th-- Several Excitements!

DISTANCE TO GALAPAGOS: 577NM , 105NM made good noon to noon

CONDITIONS: Continued warm, humid and 0 to 3kt winds

PROPULSION: Mostly sailing <3kts and drifting, 6hrs motoring

MECHANICALS: None

CREW CONDITION: Everyone doing well

EXCITEMENT: Passing between two big squalls w/ cumulus clouds but not getting any wind from them. More dolphins. Big tree stump sticking out of water with birds on it. No fish.

COMMENTS: We've been trying to conserve fuel by motoring only when there's little to no wind. We can re-fuel in the Galapagos, so Mike calculated that we could motor for 12 hours / day for six days and still have 40 gallons of fuel left in reserve. That is a relief.

1400: I've decided to add to the Excitement listing above. One of the storms drifted over us and it turned out to be part of a weather front that gave us 10 KT WINDS!! and lots and lots of rain. We are still sailing two hours later on WNW winds on a very clean boat. Fantastic!

1500: More Excitement! Joe's fishing gear finally attracted some attention...

There was a momentary whirrrr from his reel so he brought the lure in and said a bill fish must have taken a stab at it because the nylon leader was all rough. He put another smaller lure on and set it out again. Fifteen minutes later we heard the whirrr again and looked back to see a large marlin leaping into the air twisting and turning in an attempt to shake the hook. But it was set, so we turned the boat upwind to slow it down to less than 1kt, and Joe fought this fish for about half an hour to bring it in. He had to follow it around the boat once, passing the rod around each mast stay as he went. Then back and forth several times over the backstay and dinghy, which was up on davits. He asked Mike to get down on the swim platform with a pair of wire cutters in order to cut the lure and let the marlin go when the time was right.

When the marlin got close to the boat we could see it was a beautiful shiny silver with deep blue on its back, and about seven feet long! Joe said it was the biggest fish he's ever caught, and he's a big fisherman. We got pics that we think should go in some fishing magazine!