The Two Year Goal

Caspar Craven Dreamed Of A Two-year Voyage With His Family. How Could He Make It Happen?
 

Surreal. Not a breath of wind tonight. The sea’s surface is flat and unbroken. The sky is utterly cloudless and filled with stars. A half moon lights up the entire picture. It’s so still it’s unbelievable. We are six miles north of the Equator and on the cusp of leaving the northern hemisphere. Nichola and the children are excited. This is their first crossing of The Line. Given we will cross around 2330, King Neptune in all his finery is on ice until the morning. The crossing of the Equator ceremony presided over by King Neptune (in this case me, as I have crossed several times before) will try each of the crew members for crimes in court. Inevitably, they will be found guilty and buckets of cold water will be dispensed over each of them.

Yesterday, we had our first Galapagos visitor. A large, unidentified bird (later identified as a red-footed booby) landed on the bows in the afternoon. It perched on the pulpit and didn’t bat an eyelid as four of us stood taking photos of it. It was content to just sit there and hitch a lift. We estimate it was about 40-50cm long – a big bird.

He left this morning and we’ve had various other birds visiting during the day. It’s one of the features of Galapagos animals that they have no predators and are fearless; they come right up to you. We’re hoping to experience more of this tomorrow as we should arrive in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz by mid-morning tomorrow.

The schooling has been all about South American geography and biology. Our two eldest children, Bluebell and Columbus, re-watched David Attenborough’s Galapagos this afternoon and made pages of notes. They are on their way to becoming child experts on the islands. Columbus, who has been slow to get going with his writing, is making great strides now and writing at length. It’s really great to see.