We joined our new home, Umoya, on March 8, and immediately got to work replacing the trampolines. This involved cutting the old ones off, and then tying the new fancy black ones on, using small lengths of dyneema cord. Getting to do this was fun, as it is something we will have to do on our own boat, hopefully in the distant future. Luckily we had lots of people working on the project and it went quickly and relatively painlessly. During this process we learned that Umoya has air conditioning! Fancy.

Umoya is a 2020 Outremer 51 sailing catamaran. She was built in France, delivered during COVID, and sailed by her owners, Chris and Christine, all the way to Panama where we are jumping on board for the ride to the Gambier Islands in the South Pacific. Outremer is known for building fast, comfortable and safe cruising catamarans, and Umoya is a perfect example of this.

We checked out of Panama on March 12, and set sail around 2pm, pointed in the general direction of the Galápagos Islands. The first hour was somewhat nerve wracking for me, as we sailed very close to some absolutely massive cargo ships waiting their turn to go through the Panama Canal. We gybed, and headed slightly more west than south and the cargo traffic died away. As the sun went down we could still faintly see the Cambutal peninsula, and we went to bed for our first night aboard a sailboat underway.

Waking up in the morning we were out of sight of land! We threw out the hand line, and almost immediately caught a big eye tuna. At this point pretty much all my expectations for the trip were met. Anything from this point on would be icing on the cake! Chris grabbed the tuna, after dumping some cheap (at least I hope it was cheap) vodka into its gills to pacify it, and took it to the custom Outremer transom for cleaning and fileting. We had a poke bowl for lunch and seared tuna steaks for dinner. Both were among the best fish I have ever had.

We settled into our shifts, each of us doing two, three hour shifts per day. I had the 8-11 shift both in the morning and in the evening. This worked out well as it gave me time to wake up and grab some food, as well as having the evening to watch the stars come out. Chris and Christine were nice enough to take the graveyard shifts, so both Kate and I had fairly uninterrupted sleep.

Our passage to the Galapagos took 5 days. This was relatively quick as we later talked to a guy in a small monohull who crossed a week or two after us and took 11 days. The boat sailed amazingly, and there was more wind than we were expecting. Umoya carries 5 sails. The large, square top main is up almost all the time. The self-tacking jib is always mounted on a furler on the forestay, and is used both upwind and downwind in stronger winds. Then there are two downwind sails, a gennaker, which is approximately twice the sail area of the jib, and an even larger asymmetric spinnaker. The last sail is a flat cut code zero which is used for going upwind in light air, and is probably my favorite sail so far, as the sailing is really pleasant when the conditions are right for it.

Our second morning I woke up and there was a giant island! I was not expecting that! It was the Colombian island of Malpelo, and we crossed very close to the south of it. I again tossed out the hand line, and immediately hooked another tuna. I got it on board and into a bucket, while Kate poured some vodka into its gills. At this point I got complacent, and set the bucket down, thinking I would deal with the line and then the fish. Bad move. The fish flopped violently, and I grabbed its tail, but it wiggled free and back into the sea. No delicious fish dinner for us, thanks to my clumsiness.

The rest of the passage was marked by perfect weather interspaced with brief calms. We saw a pod of whales pass 50 meters off the bow. Multiple encounters with dolphins kept us cheerful. Once, while Chris was on watch he saw an enormous tuna jump clear of the water. A few seconds later the reel started singing, as the fish stripped off line at an alarming rate. Even with full drag, it didn’t seem to be slowing down. Eventually the leader parted ways with the line, probably a good thing, as I’m not sure it would have been within our capabilities to land such a giant fish, never mind eat it all in a timely manner. The day before our arrival we picked up a pair of red footed boobies, who were with us the remainder of the way, and left a nice big mess on deck, and down the side of the hull.

On the morning of the fifth day we spotted the Island of San Cristobal. We dropped anchor in the shallow, sandy bay, and spent the next two weeks exploring the island. There was good snorkeling a short walk from town, and we took a few short tours. Our favorite was the “360 tour” where we went all the way around the island in a small boat. We saw all kinds of critters during that trip, and it was fun to see so many different spots in a short amount of time.

We spent the next six weeks on four of the Galápagos Islands. From San Cristobal we went to Floreana, the least developed of the anchorages we were allowed to visit. Town was small and Max ran a one man economy, taking us up to his ranch and around the island to see some tortoises and the source of the only fresh water on the island. From Floreana we sailed to Isabela, which felt the most like a tropical vacation destination. There were palm trees and beach bars. We drove up to the crater of one of the many volcanoes, which was interesting. Isabela is the largest of the Galápagos Islands, and has had several relatively recent eruptions, which was evident looking into the crater of the Caldera. After several restful days we sailed to Santa Cruz, which is the most populous island, and has the biggest town.

It is Friday today, and we are setting sail for Gambier on Sunday. Things have been remarkably not hectic. We have fixed a few things, cleaned the boat, and gone shopping. We will do another shop tomorrow, and then leave after clearing out on Sunday. Amy, our fifth crew member, joined us a few days ago. She is getting an Outremer 52, being delivered in the spring of next year. The weather looks great, with a slight upwind sail to get clear of the islands before turning more west for a beam reach as far as we can see. The passage should take in the neighborhood of two weeks, and we are both excited to be at sea for that long! We are also looking forward to revisiting French Polynesia. We plan to spend a little time in the main Tahitian islands before we head back to the States.

So far the trip has been excellent. Chris and Christine couldn’t be more gracious hosts, and know a great deal about the kind of sailing we are going to be doing. We are learning a lot, and getting more confident for the delivery of our own boat, which is coming up fast! This week we received the first pictures of our boat being assembled in the molds.