After transiting the Panama Canal, Barbara Ann spent a week in Panama City making last minute preparations for our long sail across the Pacific. We were anchored next to Emelia once again, and both crews were anxious to head out into the Big Blue. Las Perlas islands are located only 40 miles from Panama City. These would be our last stop before the Galapagos (or so we thought at the time). 
Austin, in Las Perlas, with the surfboard he bought in Panama City.
After a brief 2 night stay in Las Perlas islands, we made for the Galapagos. Do you remember the story about the autopilot mount breaking on the way to Cartagena? We got it fixed there, and continued on, right? Nope, the repair was not done right, and it failed again, a few days out of Panama City. Now, as per normal, things tend to happen together. While I'm below, trying to unbolt the autopilot, Tyler gets a terrific hit on our new Penn fishing reel. I got our steering squared away just in time to help him bring a magnificent black marlin to the boat. Luckily, he was only hooked in the bill, and managed to get free right after this photo was taken. How's that for timing? 
The day after our billfish adventure, Barbara Ann crossed the equator for the first time. I'm doing a bad job of playing King Neptune, but at least I have my trident. Tyler's hat reflects his recent angling encounter. Austin's theme is all about his new love, surfing. The Hunt crew are officially Shell Backs now. That's the name given to British sailors 200 years ago, after their first crossing of the equator. Prior to that, you're merely a polywog.
People often ask us if we're afraid of pirates, or if we're armed. The short answer is not really, and yes. Here's an incident that happened to us after crossing the equator off southern Colombia and northern Ecuador . This area is known as a higher-risk zone for piracy. On our 3rd night out from Panama, at around midnight, we spotted a 20' powerboat with 4 men aboard, heading directly at us at a fairly high speed. The boat was not lit and if we hadn't heard it, we probably wouldn't have seen it until it was right on us. I yelled for our rifle and pulled our powerful Q-Beam spotlight out of its locker. Suddenly, the boat turned to starboard, and paralleled our course at a slower speed, keeping a distance of about 50 yards. They began motioning and waving at us, and we finally figured it out. They were only innocent fishermen, warning us about their nets just up ahead of us. We had to laugh at ourselves as the adrenalin subsided. Lesson learned: never assume the worst about people in unfamiliar countries.
It was no fun hand-steering for 4 days and 3 nights, but we finally made it to Salinas, Ecuador. We stayed in the Puerto Lucia Marina (home to a few pelicans), repairing the autopliot base, again. The Galapagos are a mere 5 days sail away, directly west. 
We almost didn't go to the Galapagos; it was getting late in the season, and we had heard some negatives about how hard it was to clear a yacht into the islands. Luckily, we persisted and what a pleasant surprise they were. Here's the bay that was featured in the movie "Master and Commander". We swam with small Galapagos penguins and beefy sea lions right around the other side of the pinnacle in this picture. The water was cold, due to the Humboldt current that sweeps up the South American coast - wet suits are in order here. For a nice classy intro to these enchanted islands, visit: http://www.galapagos.com/
Most of the sea creatures and birds know little fear of man, due to the protection they enjoy here. This little guy would let us very near, but didn't really like to be petted.
The island of Bartalome is volcanic, and fairly new, geologically speaking. Tyler's B&W photo mode shows how stark some of these islands are. On this small island alone, you can find dozens of small volcanic craters.
Jackie shows how to do the low crawl through a lava tunnel on Santa Cruz. 
Some of these guys are way over a hundred years old. They didn't get there by living in the fast lane; about the only reaction you could get out of these tortoises was an occasional hiss.
We're hogging the shot here, but look on both sides of us and you can see the Galapagos marine iguanas; they're the only species of iguanas that can swim.
Of course the Galapagos has more to offer than pesky wildlife. The boys finally got to try out the surfboards they scored in Panama City. This beach, Bahia Tortuga, is home to an annual surf competition.
The time to venture across the wide expanse of the South Pacific ocean was finally here. After topping off all of our fuel tanks and buying last minute provisions, we were ready to go. Ahead lay over 3,000 miles of open ocean, with no rest stops. We anticipated the trip to take 3 weeks, more or less.
The trip across the South Pacific is known as the "Coconut Milk Run", since the weather is normally benign, and the trade winds can be counted on to push you west, toward French Polynesia. Here's Barbara Ann running downwind, with the sails in the "wing and wing" configuration - one sail to port, and the other to starboard.
There was many an afternoon spent enjoying the sunset, contemplating the mysteries of the universe. Not! Usually we read, slept, ate or talked about eating. Jackie did an incredible job of coming up with lots of delicious meals. Another favorite subject was how we imagined French Polynesia to be. 3 weeks at sea is a long time! It wasn't all relaxing sunsets and paperbacks. Lots of sailing hardware broke, or chafed through, due to the constant demands of pushing a 50,000 pound boat through the ocean at 7 knots.
The Marquesas & the Tuamotus archipelago
