out here. Just before 10am Nick and Steven spotted what they thought
were whales and woke me up. There were no whale blows and it must have
been dolphins. I saw a splash in the distance but too far to make out
what it was. Interesting that every whale species have a different blow
and is one of the ways to identify what type of whale it is. Anyway, I
stopped the boat and the silence was awesome. In my language we call it
the quiet ocean if I translate directly. The vastness of this ocean
sinks quickly into your being, and the thought that it covers 70% of
Planet Earth makes it seem even bigger. Apparently the ocean was named
by Francis Drake after he rounded Cape Horn and found the ocean on the
other side completely pacifying, hence the Pacific Ocean. Once the boat
came to a standstill first Steven and then Nick went for a swim. The
visibility is as good as you will ever get and the boys enjoyed the luke
warm water tremendously.
Galapagos is about 3 days away. In Spanish Galapagos means enchanted
islands, or bewitched. This is due to the currents that run around this
group of islands like rivers in the ocean. I can imagine the Spanish
galeons and the confusion when they get swung all around. As I was
writing this, Steven spotted a log with a bird on and turned towards it.
Knowing what we can expect I woke Nick and Eduard and once again stopped
the boat. A huge amount of fish took cover under our boat, big and small
from different species. Steven and Eduard tried climbing on the log but
it just turned around. Crabs and barnacles were clinging to this
floating little eco system in the deep blue. Took some nice pics, had
some fun and we are on our way again. Quite a bit of debris in the
water. Eduard thought it was a ship ahead of us dumping some stuff but I
showed him the current running down the west coast of North America, the
current running up the west coast of South America and where they meet
is where we are, using whatever bit of current we can find to assist our
progress. Mostly small polystyrene pieces, now and then part of a
plastic doll, or a shoe and things like that.Yes, the ocean here is like
a big blue dam, flat as anything. Just a nice gentle swell rolling
through.
32*C and warming up. Our position at the moment is 03*57'N/084*37'W.
Word for today is Junk. From the Latin juncus or jungo which means to
join. Junk became the word for rushes which were tied together to make
baskets and mats. By extension that included rope because it was also
made from rushes. It came to be applied more specifically to old rope
which had begun to break down and resembled its basic material. Hence
its present use to describe dumped and worn out items.
Till we meet again.
Captain Paul
No comments:
Post a Comment