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25th April – 4th May 2005
friends and visitors joining us for a slice of the action when we’ve safely reached an enticing port
near the comforts of land. However the lure of the Galapagos Islands - and the chance to
experience the nautical rites of crossing the Equator en route - teased out a series of eager souls
willing to crew this leg.
First to commit was Molly McDaniel, who had found the talent to convince her various
employers to allow her an extended break from PR, journalism, and her jazz band in St Lucia to
join her favourite skipper(s) not just for the Panama Canal transit, but onwards for her first long
offshore passage and the giant tortoises of her childhood dreams at the end.
Lisa 'Pixie' had been with us since Cartagena, and finding the Skardu cocktail too good to give
up, discarded her original plans, and decided to chance her luck by continuing on with us as far
as Galapagos, where she hoped to pick up some work as a Dive Instructor for a while. She
brought much humour & light-heartedness to the yacht, while eagerly honing her ‘yachtie’ skills.
After much deliberation, ‘last-minute’ Matt Stoudt finally re-joined us in Panama City on the 21st.
Having failed (at the eleventh hour) to make the ARC, he was determined to do an ocean
passage with us; certainly he was now locked in for this leg, yet we were unsure whether his
original plan to stay onboard through to the Marquesas might be threatened by a new job
opportunity back home in the States… time would tell.
Hence we became a Skardu crew of five. Provisioning went up, space down, and a new watch-
keeping system had to be introduced to reflect everyone’s varying levels of experience.
Slipping our Balboa Yacht Club mooring at midnight on the 24th, we departed Panama City by
picking our way along the edge of the buoyed shipping channel, carefully avoiding the stream of
supertankers, cargo ships and cruise liners headed for the Canal entrance. An overnight sail
took us to the Las Perlas Islands in the Gulf of Panama, where we found an uninhabited island to
spend a lovely relaxing afternoon. These pristine islands remain remarkably unspoilt – we
chose one called ‘Chapera’ (location for a recent series of the US TV programme ‘Survivor’),
and had it to ourselves for the day. This destination was particularly apt, because Matt had
applied to be on 'Survivor' a couple of times in the past. Sadly, his audition tapes must have got
lost in the mail, because this is the closest he would get to stardom. Exploring ashore we found
only iguana lizards and legions of hermit crabs, with thankfully little trace of the televisual
invaders, affording us a moment of peace after he hubbub of the city. Pixie was in fine
photographer mode once again, capturing some excellent arty shots of the beautiful scenery.
Back onboard we gave the hull another much needed scrub to clean off the barnacles and slime
that had been colonising below the waterline since Cartagena, gaining Skardu a knot of
boatspeed! Later that evening, as the moon rose bright into a clear starry sky, we raised sail with
a favourable wind at our backs, picked our way through the reefs surrounding Las Perlas
Islands, and set off towards Galapagos.
Our fishing lines were soon out, and receiving plenty of attention. After a couple of good bites
wriggled free, Matt’s interest grew. As if to tease him we then hooked up two beauties at once – a
marlin (our first) on the rod, and a big tuna on the pushpit reel: after a worthy struggle both were
drawn near, only to have each break the lines and take our lures! Now Matt was obsessed… he
had to land a catch! The entertainment continued with our only initial sucess a squid that jumped
through the hatch into the fruit crate in the aft cabin(!!), until finally we coaxed a Mahi Mahi
alongside and brought it aboard with the gaff-hook – success! Eager for the whole experience
Matt followed through with Q’s lesson in gutting and filleting, serving up a fine trophy.
Leaving the Gulf of Panama after two days we ran into mixed conditions. Our course by
necessity crossed the infamous doldrums: a large area of thunderstorms, a strong counter-
current, and gentle shifting winds. The current gradually tried to drive us back to Panama, the
wind died then came round against us - forcing us to beat an inelegant zig-zag path - and we
struggled through two days of stormy conditions, all combining to make progress slow going.
Unsurprisingly, the new kids onboard were feeling a bit of ‘malaise de mer’, Matt soldiering
through occasional mild waves, while the usually talkative Molly became remarkably quiet and
retreated to ‘her corner’ of the cockpit, there to stay curled up for hours on end! For those of you
who have never put out to sea, it’s a miserable affliction, particularly when there is no respite in
sight, but tolerance levels usually increase after a few days of finding your sea-legs. For our part,
Mark and Q have thankfully raised their limits and had no troubles since the early storms of
Biscay.
In the midst of the doldrums we witnessed a very memorable highlight: late one night as we were
being tracked down by a huge and thunderous black squall cloud, we saw a wonderful display of
phosphorescent dolphins playing at our bow for a good half hour, while lightning struck close
behind us, illuminating the dolphins as they jumped! They were very playful, zigzagging in
streaks of light back and forth as though they knew they had an audience – it was a very special
moment, and a confirmed high-point for Pixie and Molly.
Then on day five the storms abated and we woke to glorious calm: no good for making
progress, but perfect for a mid-ocean dip! Casting aside thoughts of hungry sea-monsters, we all
took turns for a swim off the transom, towed behind on a long rope in bright sunshine, as we
peered down into the clear but fathomless blue beneath our hull, and spirits were refreshed
again. Amazing to think it was some 3 kilometres to the seabed beneath, and we’re but a speck
bobbing on the surface.
Recovering her spirits, Molly became inspired to be creative, proceeding to give excellent
lessons in onboard baking, the result being a delicious fresh focaccia loaf for lunch, and a
banana-cake for dessert! We could get used to this… and so we did, the treat being repeated
whenever the seas died down!
Occasional reports of piracy by rogue fishing vessels on this stretch in recent years had led us
to adopt a cautious tactic of running with lights off at night (against our usual principles!), and
steering a wide course around any other vessels encountered. Piracy on the high seas may
seem to belong to a distant era, but in a few hotspots of the world it remains a very real and
present danger, the pirates these days armed not with cutlasses, but sub-machine guns!! Thus it
was at 3am on the eighth night, some 850Nmiles from land(!), when Q spied a series of faint
lights strung out across the horizon. Flickering indistinctly in and out of sight, they appeared to be
a fleet of smallish fishing vessels, but proved difficult to pick up on radar. Altering course to
starboard, Q planned avoiding action by sailing around the group, only to discover further lights
into the distance on that side too. Surrounded now by lights stretching over the horizon in either
direction, it seemed our only course was to steer between a gap in the line…all very well until we
came to a grinding halt and realised we had caught a trolled net under our rudder! Some frantic
efforts ensued to avoid further entanglement, Mark, dangling off the rudder up to his waist, finally
managing to free the line with our boathook, so that we could resume our course. We hightailed it
out of there before any angry fishermen decided to seek reprisals! It turned out they were a fleet
of at least 8 fishing vessels trolling nets between them over a very wide area – at least 10Nmiles
– but too poorly lit to communicate their actions to others! No International Regulation navigation
lights in use here!
The next morning heralded Matt’s birthday – we didn’t, at that juncture, enact his girlfriend’s
request to slather him in his favourite French’s yellow mustard, however the occasion was
marked by the secret laptop production of an hilarious photo-montage birthday card depicting
Matt as the film ‘hero’ Napoleon Dynamite – whose impersonation he has perfected – and further
secret production of a chocolate cake, complete with melted Hershey’s Kisses and cream for
icing! Take it from us it’s not easy keeping such operations secret on a 41-foot yacht!!
__________________________
Crossing the Line:
Well, in true maritime tradition Mark & Q thought we should make a memorable occasion of our
first nautical Equator crossing, so - with some surreptitious emails back to our research
assistant Mark’s sister Lisa in Boston - we did a bit of research into Royal Navy traditions etc,
then proceeded to plan a full day's entertainment for the unsuspecting Skardu crew! We timed
the actual moment of crossing from Northern to Southern Hemispheres to just after breakfast on
our last day, and had a small gathering around the GPS to countdown the moment. Despite vain
searches for suitable momentous signs - brilliant flashes of light, a thin red line in the sea, glowing
neon welcome signs etc - all remained tranquil. Perhaps appropriate afterall. Tots of Ron
Zacapa, the finest 25-year-old vintage rum on the face of the planet - procured courtesy of Molly
- raised everyone's spirits and kicked off the celebrations, with the first tot of course being
splashed over-board to seek good fortune from Neptune himself.
M & Q then transformed into their roles for the day: respectively 'King Neptune' (clad in leopard-
print baggy trousers, black curly wig, gold 70's shades, Trident in hand) and the 'Royal Barber'
(clad in skeleton bodysuit, long white mullet wig, multi-coloured 70's shades, red 'monster'
gloves), at which point the remaining crew clicked that something was up! After suitable
incantations each were given their roles, and costumes to don: Matt became the 'Royal Baby'
(typically the ugliest codger on board!), Molly 'Queen Amphitrite', Lisa 'Princess Squid'...
particularly inventive was the use of our sparkly squid fishing lures as accessories for Pixie’s
attire, reflecting her endless fascination with the ‘Squid Vid’..! The Royal Barber then took his
place on stage, applying sparkly face & body paint to the girls, then shaving the boys' facial hair
into artistic forms: Mark's grisly became the 'Man-who-would-be-King', Matt got the 'Fu-Man-
Chu' treatment, and Q a severe form of 'Chops and Handlebars'...what an irresistible trio!!!
With all suitably out-fitted, the proceedings commenced. The 'Crossing the Line' ceremony is
traditionally presided over by King Neptune and his court - the 'Shellbacks' - and generally
consists of the uninitiated 'Pollywogs' undergoing a number of increasingly disgusting ordeals,
largely -- no, utterly -- for the amusement of the Shellbacks. Most frequently, it seems, crawling
around or through ship's slops is required. But all details are left to the cabin-fevered imagination
of the dastardly Shellbacks!
In our case, the Pollywogs' ordeals included, amongst others: pushing an orange with nose full-
circuit around the deck without losing it; climbing the rigging to the spreaders; reading passages
from 'Moby Dick' in foreign accents; swimming to the end of a double-length rope behind the
yacht and back... all while underway! Of course we can't divulge all the particulars of the
ceremony to the uninitiated, so the precise details remain a ship's secret!
To conclude proceedings we printed up fancy certificates to award to the grateful Pollywogs,
honouring their achievement with specific details of the date, time, longitude, and vessel upon
which the Equator was crossed, and conferring upon each the high honour of Freedom of the
Seas.
Shortly thereafter, as if by way of repayment for our earlier offerings to Neptune, we received a
fine bounty of two 8lb Yellow-Fin Tuna - caught and reeled in on our two lines simultaneously.
The delicious feast that followed provided a fitting end to the day.
Landfall was made at dawn the following morning, and for Matt and Molly on their first ocean
passage it was a special moment to see land again after 9.5 days at sea. Everyone was
genuinely excited at the prospect of discovering the natural treasures that lay in store on these
unique Galapagos Islands, and we weren’t to be disappointed…
