Galapagos

13th March 2009

00.53 S 089.36 W

The trip to Galapagos took 7 days and was fairly uneventful, apart from crossing the equator of course, when we broke the rules and had a can of beer with which to toast Neptune! We had mostly light winds, although we had one day with up to 30 knots, and the last day we had 0 knots and had to motor. For me the surprising thing was the cold nights. How come that as we are sailing close to the equator the nights are feeling colder?

We saw a few dolphins on the way and a pod of 3 whales close enough for us to hear the blow from their spouts! We arrived at San Cristobal, one of the Galapagos Islands, on Friday. It was fabulous coming down the coast. The island is volcanic and we could see several craters of various sizes. The land looked pristine and there was no sign of human habitation until we arrived close to the town and anchorage at Wreck Bay. We were pleasantly surprised when we arrived by the very warm, friendly atmosphere and the quirkiness of the buildings, most of which are unfinished, we think because they have to pay tax once work is complete. Despite Galapagos having a huge tourist industry there is no sign of large resorts or hotels and the anchorage is largely occupied by fishing boats with a small number of yachts and tourist boats. The regulations for yachts are strict, we cannot go to any other anchorages and we are only allowed to stay for 3 weeks, probably a good thing or no one would leave!

One of the first things we noticed, as we looked for space to anchor, was the seals sunning themselves from some of the other boats. On some of the fishing boats there were possibly a dozen or so! And one of the yachts had 2 in residence on their swimming platform. Once we were set we were able to watch as some of them played in the water beside the boat. They are as agile as dolphins as they dive and leap out of the water and their speed is unbelievable.

We did an island tour on the first day. After driving almost the length of the island and walking around the reservoir, a volcanic structure which provides most of the island’s water, we visited the Giant Tortoise Sanctuary where they have a captive breeding programme to try to ensure the survival of this dying species, for which the Galapagos are named. The young tortoises are kept in pens to protect them from the feral cats, dogs and rats who find them to be a tasty treat. The larger ones roam freely on the surrounding land but tend to keep close to the ponds provided by the sanctuary, where they can drink and find shade. Some of them are huge and grow up to 90 kilos! They are amazing creatures and, it seems, a little grumpy. We witnessed one or two incidents of tortoise bullying, where the big boys threw their weight around and moved others on with much clashing of shells.

We went on to see the marine iguanas down on the coast and on the nearby beach we found young sea lions playing in the shallows. This beach is about 3 miles from town so we have been back a couple of times, in the early evening, to swim and snorkel, usually with only a couple of other people around. The young sea lions seem to enjoy coming out to play and swim around, nipping our fins and performing their aquabatics within touching distance! Priceless!! Fortunately the big ones keep well away – otherwise I think we would have to! As if that isn’t enough the bay is also home to turtles and we have seen up to 20 in there at one time, they come in all sizes with deep shells up to about 4ft long. They seem unconcerned by our presence and carry on as though we were not there. I expect we will walk out there a few more times before we are done.

We have been hiking up the volcanic paths, along the coast, to see the birdlife, particularly the Blue Footed Boobies who can be found on the rocks, usually in pairs. Their feet are a beautiful shade of light blue and very distinctive. We also went on a dive at kicker rock hoping to see the hammer head sharks but sadly visibility was poor and we were disappointed. A second dive at Isla Lobos had us back in the water with the seals and it was fun as they were attracted in large numbers to play in our air bubbles. There were also marine iguanas under the water feeding on the grassy rocks.

Galapagos has been a wonderful stop but, unfortunately we won’t be visiting the other islands in the group as we would need to buy a special permit, I expect we will sail close by on our way out though and see as much as we can from the sea.

Our next passage is 3200 miles to French Polynesia and we expect to be at sea for at least 3 weeks, maybe more as the winds will probably be light. We are looking forward to it, but we still have another few days here to enjoy before then!