Day 4

Last night was a rough one for the tug and tow (sarana & batwing). We crossed the ITCZ and there were squalls everywhere and the seas were churned up like a group of failed weightwatchers showing off their cannonballs at the public pool. With our very limited maneuverability we were able to dodge most of the really big squalls, but not all of them. And towing a boat through those waves was a bear. Batwing had to try to hand-steer much of the night behind us while holding on for dear life.

We are still about 180 miles from Ecuador, but now we have a NE current setting us too far east. The wind has fortunately switched more to SW allowing us to point close to our destination, but it is very very very very very very very slow. Oh and did I mention uncomfortable? We've got about 15-20 SW with a lot of chop. It seems to be calming some, but we definitely have at least 3 days of this and we will be at the limit of our fuel. We might have to try an ocean transfer of fuel from Batwing to make the full distance.

As a backup I am going to alert the Ecuadorian officials of our situation and see if we can establish contact with them over the HF radio. This way if conditions get worse, or we have to cut batwing loose, or we just can't get them moving in the right direction we will have some kind of backup plan for getting them back to land.

{GMST}1|56.7|N|82|03.3|W|So slow|Day 4{GEND}

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