Santa Cruz island, Galapagos. The morning felt like a blue bird day in the Sierras – everything was crystal clear and sparkling. The sea lions and brown noddies were chasing schools of sardines. Yacht owners sat in their cockpits drinking coffee.

I looked at the horizon past the anchorage and remembered those casual day sails when we had joked, “oh yeah, let’s keep sailing west, next stop Tahiti!” Today that was actually happening…

Two days ago, we hit our lowest point. The oven repair guy finally came, but instead of a pseudo-working oven, we now have no working oven. Let’s just say the repairs didn’t go so well. That terrible news came at the end of an exhausting day when we felt the crunch of departure, with unpaid bills pending and impossibly slow internet to get thing done.

Moral of the story: plan your departure day, then actually leave the following day! We were happy having an extra day to tie up loose ends. We got underway with a good nights sleep and a big smile on our faces. Our crew of four is Michael, Spencer, Sabrina, and Kristian. At 9am we were motoring in glassy seas aboard Aldebaran. Next stop: the Pitcairn Islands, about 2500 nautical miles away.