Today is Sunday,17th of March and we left the Galapagos Islands yesterday afternoon. We are headed south to find the trade winds before we can set a course for the Marquesas. Currently the Doldrums are around the Equator, therefore the Galapagos Islands. If we headed straight for the Marquesas it would take forever. As it is we’ve unexpectedly been able to sail ever since we lifted our anchor in Academy Bay, Isla Santa Cruz.
We ended up staying 9 days in Santa Cruz, topped with a dive with the sharks on Friday in Floreana (2 hour boat trip from our anchorage), photo as above. Santa Cruz is a wild beautiful island with lush flora changing from the highlands down to the sea.
We’ve seen Giant Tortoises in the Darwin Museum (research and breeding facility) and in the wild; Whales, Iguanas; Marine Iguanas (swimming across the bay avoiding the water taxis and other craft); Blue-footed Boobies; Rays (some of which flip high out of the water resembling a flexible dinner plate; this behaviour is to rotate the eggs on the females and to remove parasites); Turtles; Pelicans; Frigate birds; variety of Darwin Finches; White-tipped Sharks; countless tropical fish and of course, lots of comical seal lions.
We also went ‘caving’ in the lava tunnels, ending up on our hands and knees to make it back into the light.Last Monday our watermaker decided to pack up. This is crucial for our fresh water supply on board. Thanks to Eddie Scougall from the Oyster Support team, who identified a blown run capacitor to the high pressure pump and the loan of a new one from Richard Smith on Sotto Vento gave Eddie what he needed to fix the problem. We’ve also done a generator and engine check, replacing anodes and impellers as necessary to prepare for the 3,000 mile crossing. Debbie does the intricate replacing of ‘O’ rings and retrieving bits of impeller whilst Stephen does the taking apart and putting to together again. Sometimes simple tasks take a long time in this humidity and confined spaces. Naturally the language is not always savoury!
During our stay, we enjoyed many a ‘Happy Hour’ with the rest of the fleet; plenty of eating out at the various restaurants and even wriggled our bodies at the local nightclub - Discotheque de Panga.
Formalities for entering the islands started two months ago when Servigalapagos were appointed our agents and we had to file a crew list, copies of our passports and boat papers. On arrival we were boarded within a half an hour by our agent, Yvonne, a military official, national park official and the island immigration officer. Aside from the paperwork the national park official determined that we didn’t have any oranges onboard (apart from the ones we had squeezed the night before) and checked that our food in the ‘fridge and freezer were in good condition. The immigration officer then enjoyed a refreshing, cold glass of orange juice! We were cleared to go ashore that night but the following morning we took a taxi to an unmarked bungalow in the middle of nowhere to wait for an immigration police officer to arrive and stamp our passports. This process we had to repeat on departure. Every piece of paper, of course, cost money and with the agent, clearance and national park fees, they managed to shake 700$ out of us. Oh well, we guess the new fancy roads that they are constructing need to be paid for by someone. Apparently they get 1,000 new visitors arriving in the islands everyday.
Provisioning was mixed but on our final morning we visited the weekly vegetable/fruit market. The choice was outstanding as was the quality. Prices were fine - a huge hand of bananas for 1$. In fact every item was 1$. We had fun with a stall holder who only spoke Spanish and a local shopper (who spoke English) with choosing fresh goods to bring aboard. He explained how to cook some of the items (we still don’t know what they are) and how to use/eat them.
We hadn’t expected to enjoy the Galapagos islands as much as we did but the mixture of varied and abundant wildlife together with lots of fun with the fleet made sure we had a great time.
In great spirits, French Polynesian Islands, here comes Amelie!