Santa Cruz, Galapagos

White Tipped Reef Shark

 From Isabela we back tracked to the east about 40 miles so we could visit our third island.  We also needed to get to Puerto Ayora, the biggest town here in Galapago, for clearing out of the country and to stock up on fresh provisions before setting off for the Marquesas – a voyage of nearly 3000 miles which will likely take us a month.  Once again we had to motor the whole way here and we now find ourselves crossing our fingers and hoping for the SE trade winds to reach this far north.   Otherwise this next passage could be very slow indeed!

Since we’ve been here we had a day of diving on North Seymour, a small islet covered in seabirds.  We found ourselves equally amazed at some of the tiny creatures as well as the “charismatic megafauna:”  the little, bright blue nudibranchs (sea slugs) as well as the White-tipped Reef Sharks; the field of Galapagos Garden Eels as well as the Spotted Eagle Rays.

We’ve been getting up at the crack of dawn both to make the most of our last days here in Galapagos and to get to the early market for the fresh produce.  It’s a challenge for us to stow enough fruit and veg for a month at sea, every basket is filled and we have a huge bunch of green bananas living in the cockpit.

Isla Isabela, Galapagos

We had a very calm over night passage from San Cristobal and arrived in Puerto Villamil heralded by a stream of penguins. They swam around the boat as we sounded the anchorage and immediately had us giggling. I contend that penguins are the answer to world peace – simply put all the world leaders in the presence of cavorting penguins and no one could possibly think about war. Everyone needs time with penguins! We certainly never grew tired of them. Over the 10 days we stayed in Villamil everyday at some point a few would swim after fish under the boat and we could don mask and jump in to watch them! We tried hard to get a photo, but they are so fast under water that the results were limited.

We had lots to keep us busy and the time seemed to pass too quickly in this protected anchorage. We rented bikes and rode out to the “Wall of Tears” which is a huge monument built of lava rocks by convicts in the 40’s. We found that the wall itself wasn’t as interesting as the journey, with lots of viewpoints and wetlands to stop and explore and tortoises wandering slowly along the road. On another occasion we took a horseback excursion to the top of Sierra Negra Volcano, the second largest caldera in the world. We did lots of swimming and snorkeling to keep cool and enjoyed the wildlife on walks to the tortoise breeding centre and flamingo ponds.

On the rim of Volcan Sierra Negra Caldera

Although this is the most protected anchorage that our permit allows, there is a paucity of yachts. Perhaps it is the level of bureaucratic toil required that dissuades more visitors. We had many visits to port captains and spent time waiting for paperwork to materialize every time we wanted to leave, or when we arrived in a harbour, but felt that it was worth the time we had to see this amazing place at our own pace.
We enjoyed getting to know the crews of ‘Pipstrelle’ and ‘Pacific Bliss’ and Heidi even managed a natural history lesson for the kids!

San Cristobal, Galapagos

We have been here in the Galapagos for only ten days and yet when we contemplate the amount of wildlife we have seen, and the adventures we have had it is almost overwhelming! We are definitely very happy with our decision to get an “autografo” permit which allows us extra time here in the islands. I won’t describe each day that we’ve been here, but some of the highlights so far…

We shared a taxi/guide with some folks from “Pipistrelle” and spent a day touring the highlands of San Cristobal Island. We visited the “Galapaguera” or the Tortoise breeding centre, where hatchlings are raised and returned to the wild. We also hiked around the old volcanic crater of “El Junco” which is now lush and green after recent rain and had lots of Frigatebirds (both species: Magnificent and Great) splashing in the water to clean their feathers.

We’ve spent several mornings walking the trails near the visitor centre, trying to decipher the different Darwin Finches, not easy without calipers for some species! We’ve also spent a few days with a picnic lunch on a beach called “La Loberia” (sealion beach) where we snorkeled in a natural pool, sheltered from the swell by lava rocks. This pool was filled with fishes and we’ve patiently managed to identify most of them. But the real highlight here was four very relaxed Green Turtles. They rested on the bottom while several wrasse cleaned their shells or they grazed the algae on the rocks while we hovered near them taking photos.

Stephen and Green Turtle in La Loberia

Yesterday we splurged on a scuba diving tour and visited the infamous “Kicker Rock” which is an interesting vertical rock formation, with a small channel running through it. We did two dives here and lost count of the Galapagos Sharks and we saw a few Hammerheads!

Now we are heading off to Isabel, the largest island in the Galapagos, where we hope to see some penguins!!!

Passage to Galapagos

Fresh Food for nearly 2 weeks

 I am a hands-on kind of person and not a voracious reader like Heidi, so when it comes to filling the few spare hours a day Heidi is far more attuned than I. That said I have chewed my way through “Beak of the Finch” at an evolutionary rate. It was a fascinating read but the concepts a little sleep provoking. Depending on the day, the motion of the boat, the heat, decides how much we rest. On a rough day just lying down to relax the muscles is a welcome relief at the end of a four hour watch. Thanks to Deborah and Rolf on “Northern Light” we have changed our watch rotation which is working well. For example one day Stephen does 0200-0400, 1000-1400, 1800-2000 (dog watch to alter the rotation each day) and 2200- 0200. This day he is also responsible for cooking. So that gives us each a day rest from the galley, and we look after ourselves for breakfast.

Narama´s Airconditioning System

To occupy time otherwise there is sailing, this can be a full time occupation in light air when Ernest (he’s our steering vane) can’t cope or if sail changes are required. At other times we may not touch anything for four hours. A curiosity with wildlife, trying to pull apart the different shearwaters is a little more difficult than the obvious red footed boobies. One night we sported a booby as a figure head on the pulpit. At least that was until I lost concentration and gibed the blooper sending him into the water. He was not too pleased considering the squawk I received, but took to the air and resettled on the solar panels aft where they usually take up residence after several fly bys and where they leave a pile of feathers and shit for me to clean up in the morning. Fortunately for Heidi, she can’t reach the solar panels. But we don’t shoo them away as they keep us company on our night watches.

Learning about the heavens above and how to derive our position from them is also a hobby and keeps the grey matter ticking. After much deliberation over pilot charts and recent ocean current information from fellow cruisers, our plan was to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec in a reasonable weather window cutting across from Salinas toward Puerta Madero and veering offshore once we got past around 94W, then head for 90W 5N to make our easting before dropping down to Galapagos at 89.5W 1S.

This went to plan fairly well, and as expected we had calms, and adverse currents. In hindsight we may have done better to gain more easting before crossing the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ). The ITCZ is an area where one can expect calms, increased convection causing thunderclouds, hence squalls and rain. It was quite wide and active as we passed so we had an exciting two days. The smaller clouds producing just a bit of wind and lots of rain were great, the first we have seen in over a year of cruising and we made the most of it, rinsing everything including our naked bodies. The more intense squalls came through at around 30-40kns with the wind waves calmed just a little by the associated downpour. It was quite the experience. We motored in calms as we dared to burn part of the 200L of diesel we carry and sat out others. Sitting out one of these calms only a couple of hundred miles off the coast of Guatemala we had two visits. One, by some shark fisherman who actually came over and asked if everything was OK, how nice! The other was a US Navy surveillance plane with one of those big domes on top. They actually did a low fly by on two consecutive days. Would be great to get the photos that I am sure they took!?

Our last day was the best sail with the wind filling from the east and we sailed right in close past Genovesa one of Galapagos outlying islands, how tempting the cove of its caldera looked to stop in, but rules are rules and we sailed on to San Cristobal for a friendly entry with agent Bolivar. We also crossed in to the southern hemisphere this day and paid our due respects to Neptune.

Few stats for the trip

Total Distance: 1187nm noon to noon as crow flies 1253nm by GPS

Number of Days: 15

Average Miles/Day: 79.4

Best Day: 107

Worst Day: 47

Number of sail changes: 55

Engine run time during calms: 72hrs

Water used: 140L
Hottest/coolest temp: 25/30.5 C

Galapagos Shearwater

Species List

Pantropical Spotted Dolphin

Spinner Dolphin
Pink-footed Shearwater
Black Storm-Petrel

Brown Booby

Bottlenose Dolphin

Red-necked Phalarope

Nazca Booby

Pomarine Jaeger

Galapagos Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater

Red-footed Booby

Laughing Gull

Wedge-rumped Storm-Petrel

Madeiran Storm-Petrel

Swallowtail Gull

Magnificent Frigatebird