Goodbye Galapagos!

We finished up our stay at San Cristobal with two more trips out to La Loberia, and a lot of shopping and readying for our July 12 departure.

I never thought I would find myself putting petroleum jelly on fresh eggs, but on the strong recommendations of two highly respected friends (Georgie and Ruth, who swore they will last for 2-3 months unrefrigerated!) we bought 90 eggs in paper egg crates. After covering the shells with vaseline we taped the crates shut again and stowed them in the pullman berth. Ziggy has already walked on them, but the shells are tough and I don't think he broke any. We paid .15/egg for them so John says that at $1/egg in French Polynesia we only have to eat five out of each 30 to come out ahead!

We decided to provision before the traditional Saturday market day since the supply ships had finished unloading by Thursday and nothing new would be arriving from the mainland until the next Tuesday. We were happy to have made that decision when we walked by a store on Saturday afternoon and saw that they only had one loaf of good wheat bread left. And it was also nice to have all the food on board and stowed so that we could relax and enjoy our last full day in the Galapagos.

Low tide on Saturday was at 11 AM which is exactly when we walked into the water with our snorkel gear for one final close encounter with the sea turtles at La Loberia. This time we counted at least nine of them and recognized the biggest female by the damage to the right side of her shell. She was probably struck by a boat since she has a dent behind her front flipper and a crack on the aft edge of her shell. This time there was a curious and playful sea lion which came almost nose to nose with my face mask. That's a bit closer than I would wish for with a wild animal, but at least I never saw its teeth.

The previous Sunday we walked out to La Loberia without our snorkel gear to explore the narrower path off to the right. To our surprise we discovered that this is where the majority of the marine iguanas are to be found. There were a few large groups communing in the sun on the warm lava rocks and we got some great pictures that day. John got a little too close to one group and a small iguana expelled the excess salt from its nose (like a big salty sneeze) which is what they do in preparation for running away from threats.

I made another double batch of granola and some more bran muffins because the first rounds of each were already eaten or given away to friends. We sent everything I could think of to the laundry since we won't be seeing anything as inexpensive as $1/kilo again. John went up the mast to the spreaders to fix a flag halyard that had parted. We had 100 gallons of water delivered to Nakia at $3 per five gallon jug from our agent, Bolivar. We stowed all the bits and pieces that invariably make their way out of cupboards and drawers while at anchor, and tried to anticipate and cushion the items that were most likely to bang or knock underway.

After a last pizza at Miconia with Don and Priscilla Saturday night we thought we were pretty set to go, but Sunday morning we were still busy. Sail covers came off; we moved gear from the quarter berth to the pullman berth to make our sea berth; Ziggy's litter box and the carpets got a good cleaning; John ran the Sunday SSB net; Bronwyn and the La Barca kids came over for a chat and to return the Galapagos wildlife book I had loaned them; we tied the dinghy on deck; John scrubbed the rocker stopper and the anchor chain when we jumped in the water for a final swim/bathe; I washed the breakfast dishes, and by that time we were hungry for lunch! But with a long toot on John's cow horn and CSN's "Southern Cross" playing on the stereo, we finally raised anchor, shut off the engine, and sailed out of the anchorage at 12:30 PM.

We based our departure date on being at San Cristobal for the maximum allowable 20 day stay and by total coincidence three boats arriving there after us also decided to depart for the Marquesas on the same day. We were the first boat out of the anchorage followed an hour later by Valiam (home ported in Mooloolaba, Australia). Bill and Linda soon appeared on our stern and we attempted to take some pictures as they went flying by us. I'm sure they will make landfall in less than 20 days. The next two boats to leave were Chautauqua (Don and Priscilla) and Taisho (with Bob single handing). They are the only other American boats we've seen since leaving Bahia. Amazingly enough our speeds have matched well enough to maintain VHF radio contact with them (but not visual contact) and we check in with each other a few times throughout the day and night.

We're getting bounced around quite a bit, but we're happy to be making good speed over the ground for a change. So no complaints about that! You can follow our progress at:

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=KE6HUA

Linda and John

More Galapagos

I meant to correct my first comment about the water taxis here at San Cristobal. The taxis aren't the fancy inflatables that we initially noticed running back and forth to the dinghy dock. Those belong to all the small cruise/tour boats. The water taxis are pangas with biminis, and have names like Sea Baby, Pio-Pio, and Petrel. We can either call "Taxi Aquatico" on VHF 14, or usually we just stand out on deck and wave one down. Sea Baby is our favorite because he's a very personable guy with a distinctive, more African, look, and Pio-Pio is the only one that has lights for running at night (but that doesn't stop the others from running until 11 PM!).

This past week we went for another snorkel at La Loberia. By the time we got there the sky was beginning to cloud up so we didn't have as much color (and it didn't feel as warm), but the turtles were all still there! We mostly hung out with them and watched one that was eating sea grass off the rocks. She got so close that John could have easily reached out and touched her (but didn't). I say "she", because we ran into Jorge (our land tour guide) and the folks off Valiam (accent over the "i"), and he told us that sea turtles are the opposite of the land tortoises regarding their size. With the sea turtles, the males are smaller than the females so as not to drown the female when they mate in the ocean. Isn't Nature thoughtful that way.

On Thursday we snorkeled in the cove below Frigatebird Hill, just off one of the trails at the Interpretive Center, so an easy walk from the anchorage. This is a little deeper water encircled by lava rock with some interesting nooks and crannies. No sea turtles there, but sea lions to swim with, and we each managed to spot an eel just before we were ready to get out of the cold water. The latter were hiding in rock crevices with only about six inches showing, and we haven't gotten the book out to try to identify them yet. There were also a couple of large schools of sardines and another small fish, and a smaller school of baby barracuda. I have to laugh when I think of how blase I've become about sharing the water with sea lions since just hearing about friends who did it years ago used to frighten me. I couldn't imagine getting in the water with anything that big, but it hasn't been scary at all. Of course we haven't been to places with alpha bulls, and the Galapagos sea lions in general seem smaller than the California sea lions. They seem to do nothing but sleep and play. I can't imagine when they find the time to go out for a meal. Maybe they do all their hunting at night, but it seems like even then all they do is blow raspberries on Nakia's hull and play with our rocker stopper (waking us up at 4 AM). Oh yes, we finally put out the rocker stopper to combat the swell that sometimes wraps in here.

Last night we went in after the 5 PM HF radio net to have a beer and watch the sun set. We ran into Peter and Ruth from Mud Skipper, invited them to join us at a balcony table at Miconia (the nicest restaurant in town, in our view), and ended up staying for dinner. Then we had a $1 soft serve ice cream cone and walked down to watch the festivities on the malecon. It looked like the whole city had turned out for music and speeches celebrating Ecuador's independence day. We're hoping they continue the activities through the weekend so we can pretend it's all for the Fourth of July in Los Estados Unidos de Norte America!

Happy Fourth everyone - have some BBQ'd salmon and strawberry shortcake for me, and cauliflower, shrimp, rice salad for John (that's tough to duplicate since it's a family recipe)!

Linda and John

Some pics, click to enlarge

A sailing fisherman at Bahia de Caraquez

Blue Bottle crossing the bar at Bahia de Caraquez


A blue footed booby (how can you tell?) on Isla de la Plata.

A masked booby and its chick on Isla de la Plata

Sailing on the equator, in the tropics, this is what you need to wear to get through the night. The cold water of the Humbolt current keeps it pretty cool at night.

Supply day at Isla San Cristobal

Linda hangs out with one of the locals.

A sea lion playing with a sand dollar.

A sea turtle hanging out under our tour boat.

First week in the Galapagos

We arrived at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (which is a mouthful, so it's more commonly called Wreck Bay in honor of a cargo ship sunken on the bottom), here on San Cristobal (accent over the "o") a week ago today so it must be time for me to submit a report. Last Monday, after a visit from our agent (Bolivar) and an official from the navy/port captain, we stayed on the boat resting and tidying up from the passage. Tuesday we joined Bolivar for a visit to Migracion and joined our friends on Wind Weaver for lunch on the brand new malecon before returning to the boat. Wednesday it rained and we stayed on the boat. Thursday we took a boat tour to Isla Lobos and Leon Dormido. Friday we visited the interpretive center and walked its trails. Saturday we snorkeled at La Loberia and Playa Mann. Sunday we hired a taxi guide to tour the Galapaguera Semi-Natural with a stop at the beach at Puerto Chino. Except for our arrival on Monday and our beach day on Saturday the weather has been mostly windy, gray and cloudy with some occasional drizzle interspersed by short periods of sunshine. The dreary weather coupled with the fact that we have to pinch ourselves to remember that we are in the fabled Galapagos (because, really, we are just living on our boat in yet another anchorage), may be what's dampening my enthusiasm, but here are some of the highlights.

The best thing that makes it feel like it's not just another anchorage is the baby sea lion who is often joined by friends to play around and underneath Nakia. This is an absolute blast to experience because they swim under the hull blowing bubbles which you hear exploding, and you can feel the vibration in your feet through the cabin sole. They like to rub on the rudder and splash around the waterline as they chase each other around. One early morning I watched a dozen of the little ones porpoising across the bay, and it looked like one of them bonked right into the side of a yellow catamaran. Maybe they were going too fast for it to see the anchored boat in time. Then they played for a minute in the space between the two hulls of the cat. Ziggy watches their activities with wide eyes, and looks at us as if to say, "What the heck is that?"

Part of my problem with some of our travels is that I attempt to duplicate the experiences that friends arriving before us have raved about. I need to learn instead that we have to go off on our own adventures in order to create the best memories. That's how Oaxaca, Mexico ended up being mostly not so fun, while the Quilatoa loop in Ecuador was an outstanding trip. I had tons of detailed info from a friend for the former, and we mostly winged it for the latter. So where Carina raved about their all day boat trip to the NE tip of the San Cristobal, we had an okay time on a shorter version. We didn't have the experienced guide that they had (which added nothing special to our tour), and they went with a larger group of cruisers while we went with one couple and their two small children. Our weather was cloudy so the snorkeling wasn't ideal especially for Kicker Rock where you snorkel over a deep chasm making it difficult to clearly see the Galapagos sharks swimming far below you. It was our second snorkel of the day and I was too cold to stay in the water for long, but John spent some time enjoying the variety of fish hanging around the sheer sea walls. The better snorkel was at Isla Lobos where a large sea turtle stayed near the boat munching on "grass" on the shallow bottom. John found a marine iguana just under the surface of the water eating algae off the lava rocks. I had a curious young sea lion come by for a close up look at me before I had to get out of the freezing water (maybe 72-74 F), and then I watched from the boat as John engaged a group of 3-4 little ones by throwing a large sand dollar like a frisbee. It was delightful to see them chasing it down and pushing it with their noses or grabbing it in their mouths before dropping it for John to throw again.

Our land tour yesterday was nothing spectacular, again maybe because it was a mostly drizzly, gray day. The Galapaguera, where they keep some giant land tortoises in captivity for a breeding program, was lovely and interesting. The trails were excellent and we saw several tortoises of varying sizes. We had enough of a break in the weather for a visit to the beautiful white sand beach at Puerto Chino where the tourists were doing a little body surfing. We were running short on time and had to choose between lunch and a visit to El Junco Lagoon. Since it had started to rain in earnest we opted for food over the muddy trail and poor visibility at the lake. In retrospect we should have just gone straight back to the boats for lunch and saved ourselves the cost of the meal. Jorge, our guide, spoke excellent English, was extremely knowledgeable about plants and animals, and took great care of us. I would highly recommend him to anyone willing to pay $20 per person for this tour (a shorter version can be had for half the cost from the Spanish speaking taxi drivers); he can be contacted through Sharsky Tours on Espanola street just off the Malecon (through which we also booked our boat tour).

By far the best time we've had here was one we almost missed out on. We hired a $3 taxi to run us out to La Loberia past the airport and just on the southern side of the westernmost tip of the island. It was a clear sunny morning but the wind was really blasting and waves were breaking on the lava rocks as we walked the trail to the steep sandy beach. After the freezing cold snorkeling of our boat tour I wasn't looking forward to getting into the water again. The tide was low and there was good protection from the surf in the shallow water but it still didn't look very inviting. John mused that it would take something very interesting like a sea turtle or a reef shark to convince him to get in the water. We stood there in indecision, ready to bail out on our snorkeling adventure, when we spotted a sea turtle coming up for a breath of air. Thus committed, we donned our gear and waded into an underwater Disneyland that has made the trip completely worthwhile. I still get excited just thinking about it! There were lots of fish, and the mixed lava rock and sand sea bottom was littered with mossy green spiny "decorator" urchins which had covered themselves with pencil urchin spines, shells, and other debris for camouflage. I could have spent hours examining their unique decorating choices. We spotted two free-swimming octopi (one very small one, and the other medium sized), and a long Tiger Snake eel hunting in the rocks. John dug the largest shell we've ever found out of the sand, which he discovered was intact because it still had the animal living in it (it goes without saying that we always return these where we find them). A couple of larger sea lions (one definitely a young male) came over to check us out without getting too close. But the highlight of the day was the sight of six sea turtles dozing over a patch of sand in the relatively warm shallow water. They hung motionless just over the sand or wedged next to a rock with their flippers extended in a completely relaxed position, and appeared to be snoozing with their eyes open in the calm water. At regular intervals they swam to the surface for a few breaths and then dropped to the bottom again to rest. It was magical! We hope to pay a return visit if we can get another sunny day with a relatively low tide.

They take siesta very seriously here and everything but the restaurants and a few gift shops are closed anywhere from 12-1 until 3-4 so I haven't done a bit of shopping yet. We also haven't visited either of the two largest grocery stores because we're still well provisioned from Panama and Bahia. But we'll be sure to check those out, along with the local produce mercado, before we leave for the Marquesas around July 12.

Linda and John

Day 6, Plata to Galapagos - Arrival!

Land Ho! at 6:20 PM yesterday, and I watched the sun set just to the left of Isla San Cristobal. We switched the watch schedule around so that John would be awake as we made our final approach. After sailing as slowly as possible we finally hove to for four hours. It was incredibly frustrating to have to put on the brakes just as our destination came into view. We had an uneventful night drifting slowly northwest until we could sail again at midnight. Finally we said, the heck with the record, and we fired up the engine just before dawn. So we still have not sailed entirely anchor to anchor yet (other than on day sails or short passages), but we sure achieved our longest continuous sailing passage to date. John figures we actually traveled a total distance of 534 nm.

We exchanged greetings with Windweaver, Mudskipper, and Spica, and set the anchor in the clear blue water of this well protected harbor. Our agent, Bolivar, and the naval inspector visited us shortly thereafter for coffee and formalities, and then we were free to lower our yellow quarantine flag. We're permitted to wait until tomorrow to visit Migracion, after a return visit from Bolivar and the Health/Agriculture inspector in the morning. Today we'll put the boat back together as a living space, catch up on our rest, and commune with the baby sea lion that has already paid a visit to rub on our rudder and check out Ziggy's rescue ropes. We don't use our dinghy here to get back and forth from shore (because of the damage the sea lions can do when they haul themselves out on the dinghies), but we may take a ride around if the breeze calms down later. The shore "pangas" are very nice large inflatables that look like tenders for small cruise ships, and which only cost .50 per person one way ($1 after dark). Along with assorted tour boats and fishing vessels, there are seven other cruising sailboats in the harbor with us, which is way down from the season high of 25 or so. The water temp is only in the mid-70s but it seems very clean for getting in and scrubbing the gooseneck barnacles off the waterline. We've been told the sea lions take a great interest in this activity so we're actually looking forward to it!

Linda and John

http://www.geocities.com/svnakia/map_app.htm?00,53.762,S,89,36.796,W,Isla%20San%20Cristobal,

http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=KE6HUA

Re: Galapagos Comment

Yes, you can take your own boat to the Galapagos, or rather, you can take your boat to one of the Galapagos Islands. Prices vary greatly. Hiring an agent to clear you into more then one Island can get very expensive. Once at an island you will probably have to hire a guide if you want to go to one of the visitor sites. Most areas are completely off limits.

Basically, we think we'll enjoy it more if we take a plane instead of NAKIA. At least it will only take 3 hours to get there and back instead of 6 days...