Days 17 - 19 March 28 – March 30, 2000

As we get closer to the equator we are getting lots of rain squalls, although with no thunder or lightning and not much wind either. In one very large squall, we just let the boat slow to almost nothing to allow the storm to pass as otherwise we seemed just to be moving with it. The weatherfax showed that a new convection zone had formed, right on top of us of course. We motored at least fifty percent of the time every day during this period. The wind would blow fitfully then just die, leaving a glassy swell. Clouds were welcome as sunny days left the boat extremely hot.

We found that we were motoring much more slowly than we should be at the RPM and from what other boats said on the net, figured we probably had a lot of growth on the bottom, even though it was clean at Punta Mita. So in the morning of day 20 we stopped, furled all sails and went swimming to clean the bottom which was absolutely covered in goose barnacles. The water is very clear when you are swimming and you can look down for what seems like miles into a dark blue canyon, seeing fish far below. The cleaning definitely paid off in at least 1½ knots of speed at 1800 RPM.

We have not caught any fish at all lately. There are definitely bites, because we have lost several lures. Steel leaders we bought in PV before we left just break and we are getting low on hooks. Vlad is now making his own lures and tying them without leaders.

One night around midnight we were visited by a large group of dolphins who swam round the boat for about half an hour. I don’t know if they were fishing for squid. There is a lot of luminescence in the water now. Sometimes it looks as though a lamp has been lit, several feet below the surface, then the glow fades. Our wake looks like a stream of photons. Just before we went in the water this morning, a whole fleet of the little velera jellyfish came sailing by. They are very small with round sails, they look like clear plastic Christmas ornaments floating along.

An addition to the "broken" list – we tried to pump out the holding tank and found that the pump was not pumping. Vlad thinks it’s actually the thru-hull that is broken, fortunately, in a closed position – the handle turns easily, which it never did before. So we have to dig out the manual pump out again. The list of to-dos for our next haul out is getting longer and longer!