Course / Passages / Panama to the Galápagos

Passage · Day 4

Panama to the Galápagos

2°S0°2°N4°N6°N8°N10°N92°W90°W88°W86°W84°W82°W80°W78°W76°Wthe equatorPanamaSan CristóbalTern, day 4137 miles to go
The track so far, solid; the rest of the way, dashed. Coasts simplified: not for navigation.

Tern, a 36-foot sloop, is four days out of Panama, bound for San Cristóbal in the Galápagos, and today she crosses the equator. The crew have planned a ceremony for the moment the navigator says the line is crossed, so you had better know when. The GPS antenna was knocked off in the locks and nobody can find a spare.

It is 0600 on Sunday, February 1, 2026. Last night's star fix, carried forward, puts you at N 00°59.7', W 088°20.5'. San Cristóbal is 137 miles away. Tern is steering 215° true at 6 knots through the water.

The ship's clock keeps zone time, zone description +6. Your watch was checked against the shortwave time signal: it is 21 s slow. The sextant has an index error of 0.9′ on the arc, and your eye is 8 feet above the sea.

Today

  1. 0843 Morning Sun line
  2. 1209 The noon sight
  3. 1219 Running fix at noon
  4. 1234 What the current is doing
  5. 1814 Checking the compass at sunset
  6. 1819 Planning the star sights
  7. 1844 Star fix at twilight

Every voyage is different: the date, the current, the sights and the stars change each time you sail it. Later stages start from the correct work of earlier ones, so one slip does not spoil the day.