Farewell Galapagos

Sitting Pretty

After rushing to the market early this morning for a final veggie top-up, I returned to the boat to find that plans had changed, a hiccup had caused a bit of a delay so we would leave tomorrow instead. Now, there were certainly no tears in my eyes over that decision as the chance to snorkel with the sea lions again was so appealing.

Paul remained busy on the boat but Lil, Otto and I hiked over to the other side with our snorkeling gear and managed an absolutely wonderful swim with the seals there. The young ones just love to play, twisting and turning in the water between us but every once in a while, big mamma would come along to keep them in check. We were all having so much fun diving down to play with them but, unfortunately, the water was a tad too cold for us to stay in for hours. We also sighted a fabulous octopus between the rocks and the usual variety of fish life.

We later hiked up to the top of the hill to get a view of the bay. At that height, we were basically at the same level as all the frigate birds, such graceful birds in flight. The topography is quite dry but wonderful scenery with all the lava rocks scattered everywhere. It’s almost as though the gods above collected barrels of giant pebbles and then tipped them all out onto San Cristobal. And here the parks board have done a wonderful job of creating pathways and benches, all done tastefully using the natural products from the island.

When we returned to the village to catch a water taxi back to our boats, we were, at last, given the opportunity to photograph my absolute favourite birds, the blue footed boobies. So, this time, these are my photos as we were able to get up really close.

We will lift anchor tomorrow morning to start the long journey to the Marquesas. That will probably take us close to three weeks.

PHOTO GALLERY:

The Veggie Market

Our Snorkeling Hole

Wandering along the Pathways

Lil & I at Charles Darwin Statue

The Anchorage

A Curious Pup InvestigatesLil's Camera

Blue Footed Booby

The Waterfront

Blue Footed Boobies & More

We’re making the most that we can here in Galapagos. A dive trip out to Kicker Rock proved to be a spectacular day. This incredible formation rises staight up high out of the sea. The photo gives some idea but it’s difficult to show the size. We dived between the splits at about twenty metres and could look up to literally dozens of rays and sharks gliding overhead. The rays were spotted eagle rays and the sharks primarily the slender Galapagos shark with the odd white-tipped and black-tipped in between. All were fairly small and not the least bit interested in a hoard of divers gawking at them. Our second dive was in search of the hammerhead sharks that are fairly common in the vicinity but the viz wasn’t brilliant and they must have been just too far away for us to spot them through the gloom.

Again, we were intrigued with the different varieties of fish compared to those in the Caribbean waters. Most spectacular are the many king angelfish that we had not seen on the other side, some of them quite huge. In addition, we saw turtles and, on our second dive, were entertained by a lone seal who performed constant water aerobics between us.

This was the first time we’d dived in a few years and the first time we tried to don our thicker wetsuits in more than six years. Not good! I’m told that wet suits when not used tend to shrink. I believe it and I’m sticking to that! After a major struggle with a lot of help, I finally got into my 5mm wetsuit, gathered up all my gear, jumped into the water and proceeded to panic. I simply couldn’t breathe in all that stuff. I thought I’d have to abort the whole idea but Paul convinced me to try without the jacket and, voilà, I wasn’t too cold. It turned out just fine. And just to clarify things, I definitely weigh less now that when we left Cape Town where I last wore the suit so that’s why I’m sticking to my shrinking wetsuit theory!

The following day, we took a two-hour ferry ride over to Santa Cruz. Two hours in an exceedingly uncomfortable and crowded boat. It was probably designed for a maximum of 15 people but it had at least double that. Our trip was primarily to visit the Charles Darwin research centre which was very interesting and, had we had more time, I’m sure we would have gleaned a lot more but the return ferry left at 2:00 which really didn’t give us an awful lot of time there. We were glad to note that we had chosen the right anchorage as when we passed by Academy Bay anchorage, the alternative choice, the boats were subjected to some rather large swells, making living aboard very unpleasant.

One of our absolutely favourite things here are the blue-footed boobies. They actually dance! As part of their mating ritual, they hop from one foot to the other dancing. Just too cute! I don’t have a very fancy camera and wasn’t able to get close enough to take decent shots so, forgive me, I’ve included a few I found on internet as no record of Galapagos would be complete without these funny, charming little characters. One early explorer noted that they were so easy to catch as they were “too silly” to run away.

It’s now time to move on, we’ve got a very long haul ahead of us to reach the Marquises, but Galapagos has been a wonderful stop.

Photo Gallery:

Our dive boat to Kicker Rock

Kicker Rock

Diving with the seals

Our Favourite Watering Hole

A Very Crowded Trip to Santa Cruz

But these two were just too sweet

Blue Footed Booby Photos
(internet pictures)

Great Frigate Bird

Touring Galapagos

This was snorkeling with a difference. We spent an energetic day firstly swimming out and along the waters edge in the bay where we are anchored. What a delight! We saw dozens of tropical fish quite different to those on the Caribbean side, were privileged to encounter many sea turtles, an octopus and we even swam with the seals. The seals are totally non aggressive and any approach is merely out of curiosity. We’d swam quite far with the current to get there so were somewhat exhausted after finning back to the boats against it but it was well worth the effort.

The next activity entailed a walk over to an educational, interpretive centre that proved very interesting and informative. We spent a couple of hours learning about the history of Galapagos and the environmental issues and were impressed by the various programs in place to ensure its future. These included the implementation of windmills, water conservation, limitations on tourism, wildlife protection projects, growing organic crops, eradication of alien vegetation and a host of other issues and we were surprised at just how many fruit and vegetables this volcanic ground can produce. We followed this with a short hike up into the hills behind to look at the birds and vegetation before sunset chased us back to the lights of the town.

The following day was our island tour. Instead of taking an official tour of the island we, along with Vagabond, chose to simply hire a taxi for the occasion. A fellow cruiser had recommended Carlos and we were lucky enough to find him. He proved to fit the bill admirably and despite his minimal English, he managed to impart a lot of interesting information. He obviously loves to show off his island.

We started the tour with a visit to the tortoise center where these ancient creatures live in a protected environment. The first one we encountered was apparently over 100 years old. Five years ago, they started a breeding program as the species was threatened with extinction. Even today, rats and cats are a severe threat to the eggs and baby hatchlings as they take some five years to develop sufficiently enough to be released into their natural habitat. We were certainly impressed with the efforts made to ensure their survival.

Playa Chino was next on the agenda, a beautiful white, sandy beach amid the black volcanic rocks; quite a contrast. We then stopped at a most dubious looking restaurant, which served an amazingly good meal, fortifying us prior to heading up to the volcano. Just goes to show you can’t tell a book by it’s cover.

Galapagos was created by volcanic action millions of years ago and we read that this one, with El Junco Lagoon, is the only fresh water lagoon amongst all the volcanoes on all the islands. It serves as the main source of water for the little village of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno where water is a very precious commodity. No sooner had we arrived, took a few photos, when the clouds came over and doused us with a refreshing misty shower to cool us off. Very pleasant after the day’s heat.

Our last stop was to hop around the volcanic boulders in search of marine iguanas. These chaps are so incredibly well adapted to their environment, that we battled to spot them at first. They are exactly the same colouring as the lava rocks and truly prehistoric in appearance. One of them sat on a rock right in the breaking waves and didn’t turn a hair (scale or whatever) despite the fact that a larger being would have been washed right off the rocks.

In the days prior to the mass pillaging of tortoises and other marine life, Galapagos must have been a truly amazing sight with huge land tortoises, flightless birds, strange lizards and the volcanic scenery. No wonder they have been of so much interest to scientists throughout the years and thank goodness they were recognized as a natural wonder and proclaimed a protected region.

We’re hoping to do a dive at a place called Kicker Rock where the hammerhead sharks abound. And we still have to get over to Santa Cruz to visit the Darwin Centre. Still so much to do. Fortunately, we’ve just received news from French Polynesia that Paul’s visa, which is dated 1^st May, won’t come into effect until we arrive. We thought it would begin ticking away on that date regardless and as we are running three weeks behind schedule, it would really cut into our time allowed there. The word “schedule” doesn’t really exist in this lifestyle.

PHOTO GALLERY:

The Tortoise Centre

Playa Chino

Looking down from the Volcano

El Junco Lagoon

Marine Iguanas

And, Oh so cute, Sea Lions

Sunset from Las Tijeretas

San Cristobal, Galapagos

WE'RE HERE!

Our Current Position is: 00 53,777 S
089 36,776 W

We thought it would take about six or seven days but we hadn’t reckoned on the incredible adverse currents and who’d have thought that the only wind we’d find was directly on our nose. How stupid, we should have known that when Calypso goes out sailing, she never finds absolute ideal conditions.

However, no complaints. It was great to get back “in the saddle” again and fantastic to know we are moving onwards.

Our biggest surprise was not catching a single fish. Not one! And this despite the fact that Paul put out at least three lines early every morning with a teaser line as well. Can’t believe it, no sushi, no sashimi, no nothing. We better have some luck on the next leg – three thousand nautical miles without catching anything could make for a very hungry crew aboard this boat.

A last minute visit to the fresh fruit and veggie market in Panama City proved to be quite an eye opener. Tons of wonderful stuff but our ability to store was limited so we didn’t dare get too much; it would just spoil before we could use it. However, the outing was quite an experience.

We, along with our friends aboard Vagabond, finally left Panama City on the Wednesday afternoon, heading just to the nearest island of Taboga where we spent a quiet night tied to a mooring ball in a fairly picturesque village bay. As per the usual format, we had planned to leave a day earlier but as luck would have it, the first thing in the morning, the fridge died! Several hours of investigation and re-wiring had the culprit sorted out but Paul now had to repack all the tools he’d used which left things a tad too late. Decision made, let’s just watch another sunset from La Playita.

Early the next morning, we set out for the Las Perlas islands a further 40 miles south and had a pleasant sail to Isla Chapera where we dropped the hook between two islands with pleasant beaches. Our main task during this stop was to scrape all the growth from the hull acquired over a couple of months in the nutrient rich waters of Panama City where we had grown a virtual tropical garden beneath us. This certainly does not make for speed.

We spent the Easter weekend here, scrubbing and doing final preparations and were happily joined by our friends aboard Bamboozle, an English couple who were on the original trip from Cape Town to St Helena with us.

Unfortunately, Murphy stepped in again. We were hit with a fairly serious water-maker problem which could have meant us turning back to the mainland but thank goodness for Paul’s perseverance and Otto with his wonderful bag of tricks and resourcefulness, it was up and running by day’s end.

All three of us then made the trip down, with spinnakers flying, to the southwest island of San Jose, an ideal departure point for the long trek to Galapagos. This large island is apparently privately owned and the bay where we spent the night appeared to be miles away from any form of civilization; peaceful and remote, with very active fish life and the sights and sounds of macaws flying overhead.

The remainder of the trip was one of the sublime to the ridiculous, but at no stage did we ever experience a current in our favour. The first day was great sailing with the spinnaker then the wind reversed and we spent the next three pumping into the wind, waves and currents and getting nowhere fast. We then hit the doldrums and sat for hours wallowing in flat seas waiting for something to push us along. We hesitated to use our engine too much as we were concerned about running out of fuel before getting to our destination.

It had been our plan to cross the equator at around 84°W but, due to the currents, we simply couldn’t make it far enough south in time. We finally crossed at around 86° at one in the morning by which time all we had to offer Neptune was a cup of tea. Hope he doesn’t take umbrage.

This was also the time where I dug out a blanket. We haven’t used one since shortly after leaving Cape Town and here we are, approaching the equator and I was sitting on watch in the cockpit so cold I couldn’t feel my feet.

On the bright side were the dolphins. On several occasions, they played around us for hours and performed aerobatics right next to us, belly flopping so close that we actually got wet. What a sight! One of the other boats spotted a couple of small whales that they thought might be Orcas or pilot whales. It wasn’t until we got right up to Galapagos that we finally saw seals frolicking with curiosity as the boat moved through the waters.

So often when one is travelling in the company of other yachts, a day out and you never see them again. Amazingly enough, we saw a couple of yachts on the horizon quite often and Vagabond in particular, so that we arrived at our destination just an hour and a half after them and were able to keep in contact via VHF most of the way. A Dutch yacht that we'd come into contact with en route, was also visible on the horizon quite often and arrived at the same time. It was so nice to be able to "chat" while out there.

As we sit at anchor here on San Cristobal, the seals hop up onto any boat with a low enough scoop and, believe me, they seem to be able to climb to some amazing heights. Calypso only has a bumpkin (platform) at the stern that is much to high for them but they still try from time to time.

The Galapagos islands are a province of Ecuador which are administered as a national park. All native mammals, reptiles and birds are, consequently, a protected species.

The archipelago lies astride the converging El Niño current from the Gulf of Panama and the Humboldt current from the south. These currents flow side by side and can influence the water temperatures between the north and south islands significantly. Due to the plankton-rich Humboldt, fish thrive in the waters here and large sharks, tuna, lobster and crayfish abound.

We have anchored at Wreck Bay on the island of San Cristobal, however, the world renowned Charles Darwin Foundation Biological Research Station is on Santa Cruz some distance away. Unfortunately, strict regulations do not allow visiting yachts to move from one island to another without permits and advance permission so we cannot take Calypso over to Santa Cruz. Rather, we'll have to take a fairly uncomfortable ferry ride in order to visit the centre.

As we've only just arrived, we'll be looking into various tours available to make the most of our short stay here.

PHOTO GALLERY:

We were not sad to leave La Playita anchorage