Wfdnesday 20th June

Puerto Ayora
Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.

0 44.914 S
90 18.417 W

Yes we are still here; I just hope that immigration isn’t too concerned about which day we leave! Gerry took off ashore with Barry to try and sort out the fuel pump problem that seems to be the reason that Barry’s generator isn’t working. I stayed on board as I wanted to make up some “instant meals” for the trip. We have found that there are times when it is good to have something that only needs to be heated up rather than cooked from scratch and I made a couple of loads of curry, a couple of loads of chicken a la king, 2 meat loaves, some potato salad and some curried egg sandwich spread. I also prepared the snack box, chopped up the pineapple and filled our water containers for the trip. We are just about ready to leave. Gerry returned and fiddled with the computer until lunch then he went for a siesta whilst I typed up the blog notes. We are going ashore for our last dinner here – at a restaurant that is opening tonight, buying some bread and eggs and fingers crossed we will be leaving here in the morning, as long as we can get the stern anchor up!

Tuesday 19th June

Puerto Ayora
Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.

0 44.914 S
90 18.417 W

We had planned on this being our last day here in the Galapagos Islands so the day was dedicated to the last minute things that you have to do before departing. We gathered up the sheets, towels, boat documents, computer and trash and called a taxi to take us ashore. After dumping the trash our next stop was to drop the laundry off so we could be sure to have it back by the evening. We then made our way to the port captain’s office to clear out, that took us all of 5 minutes as when we showed him our documentation he said we were good to go and didn’t need anything else. This wasn’t quite true, we had to go to the police station and get out exit visa stamps in the passports; we saw the same lady at the police station that checked us in so that was a painless 5 minutes too, then we really were free to leave. We had decided to make a “must do” visit to the Darwin research facility that exists here and to that end we hailed a cab and for $1 we rode to the entrance of the research facility. There was no entry fee and we wandered in to the visitor’s interpretive centre where there were lots of information boards about the type of research work that the facility undertakes here in the Galapagos, obviously it deals with the world famous Giant tortoises, the Iguanas, the sea lions and the little penguins but it also deals with a lot of the bird and plant species that are peculiar to the place. We were surprised and a little disappointed that there was no guided tour of the place; we wandered about until we stumbled across the pathway leading to the giant tortoise breeding pens. Here we found that the tortoises were corralled according to age and the island they originate from. The newest hatchlings were this year’s and they were quite small, all were numbered on their shells. As they get older they are moved to larger corrals which are deliberately kept like the rough terrain of the islands, this is to “toughen them up” for when they are released back to the wild which happens when they are 5 years old. The research centre is careful to keep records of where the tortoise eggs come from so that they can be certain that they are returned to the correct place when they are old enough. We had been told that they only feed the tortoises on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, the rest of the time they have to fend for themselves, eating the leaves and grasses that are in the corrals. Whilst we were visiting we noticed that the tortoises in one of the corrals were being weighed and measured but there was no information as to how often this was done. We made our way around the enclosures on a 10 foot high wooden walkway and as we were going around we were stunned by the size of some of the cactus plants (trees!) that were growing there, I took a photo of Gerry between 2 of them to give some idea of how large they were.
The trunks of them were more like a normal tree than a cactus plant – they were hard and bark like, in fact we now knew what the light shades in one of the restaurants was made from – this bark from the cactus plants. We made our way to the larger corrals where a few adult females were kept for breeding purposes in one and 5 very large males were kept in another. You could walk around these corrals and touch the tortoises as long as you didn’t interfere with them. When we got to the male corral one of the largest tortoises was having a “domination moment” with one slightly smaller. Take a close look at the photo – we wondered if maybe there was a need for sex education or if the bigger tortoise was maybe coming out of the closet. We can tell you that the smaller tortoise underneath wasn’t very impressed and mad some loud honking noises as he moved out from under the bigger tortoise. We half expected to see the bigger tortoise roll off onto his back and wondered how he would right himself again but he managed to land on his feet right off so it wasn’t a problem. We saw lonesome George along with the 5 females that make up his Harem – I don’t think he’s lonesome at all! After the tortoise corrals there were a couple of corrals with Iguanas in them, orange and yellow coloured ones; they weren’t as large as the ones we had seen in Miami but they were just as ugly and one of them was shedding it’s skin which made it look even worse. All around the facility there were small finches that are specific to the island and we passed a group of ornithologists with huge cameras taking photos of them as they went around. We finished wandering around and made our way back to the entrance just as it began to spit with rain, luckily for us a taxi drew up almost as soon as we got there and we rode back into town, stopped at the bank for some cash then went to the internet café to read emails. Once we had finished with the internet stuff we walked to one of our favourtie cafes for lunch – they do a “meal of the day” and for $4 you get soup (pumpkin), a main course (chicken drumsticks in a mild curry sauce today), a dessert (orange cake) and a fruit juice (passion fruit and orange); each day the entire menu changes – it is a very cheap way to eat a decent meal. We met a couple of people there that we knew and were entertained by a story of an Australian boat that had arrived in dock “missing” the captain. As there were only the 2 people on board to begin with it sounds very suspicious, the other guy said that the captain “just vanished” somewhere on route from the Marquesas to here and he didn’t report it or put out a distress call as he didn’t know how to work the radio – does this sound likely to anyone? He did manage to get the boat the rest of the way here by himself, it all sounds very suspicious to us. The captain’s wife (who was not traveling on the boat) is reportedly a bit upset! I wondered why she wasn’t beside herself and ranting and raving, could there be any chance it was a contract job on her husband? There is an enquiry going on into it and we all want to wait around to heart the next installment. Having finished eating and gossiping we walked up to the municipal market for our last minute fruit and vegetables, I managed to buy all sorts – beans, asparagus, cauliflower, broccoli, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, melon, pears, grapes, mushrooms and zucchini to add to the rest of the stuff I bought the other day. There was almost everything available as long as you hunted and pecked through the various stalls; it wasn’t cheap though, at least double what it would cost in the States. Gerry decided he was tired and needed a sleep so we caught a cab back to the dock and made our way back out to the boat on the water taxi. Once we got to the boat Gerry surprised me by getting the dink into the water and going over to JJ Moon to help Barry try and work out what was wrong with his generator, it had quit working 2 days ago and Barry hadn’t been able to fix it yet. You would think that with all his recent experience of fixing our generator Gerry would have been able to diagnose the problem with Barry’s instantly but this wasn’t the case and they are going to take the fuel pump into the mechanic tomorrow to see it that is the problem. (Have you realized that this means we won’t be leaving as planned tomorrow?) Gerry returned to our boat with dirt dust and grease over his clothing, I wasn’t impressed as it will be 3 weeks until we see the inside of a laundry again. We went ashore to collect our sheets and towels and ate dinner along with a Kiwi couple that we had met in Panama, and then it was time to return to the boat for the night.

Monday 18th June

Puerto Ayora
Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.

0 44.914 S
90 18.417 W

A normal routine sort of day today. After eating breakfast we spoke to Abigail, ran the generator (not a hiccough to be heard) ran the water maker and then gathered up the laundry. We called for a taxi and took ourselves, the laundry and the laptop into town. After dropping off the laundry we hooked up our computer at the internet café and did some banking – isn’t it amazing that even in a far flung place like here you can still pay the wretched bills by the touch of a few computer keys? Then it was time for a coffee rapidly followed by an early lunch. I wanted to buy a couple more bits from the craft co op so we did a quick detour there on our way back to the boat, we also stopped to chat with Barry for a while, he was eating alone as Mags had gone diving for the morning. We stopped in at the grocery store for some soft drink on the return trip, unfortunately they don’t sell cans here and we ended up buying the large plastic bottles, there was also no diet coke so we will be limiting the regular coke that we had to buy. Back on the boat Gerry emptied out the transom lockers to see if they were wet, happily they weren’t but the air in them won’t hurt. I did some mending and replace the seat covers that had been off drying out and then it was siesta time. Gerry slept whilst I did some sewing – yes I finally got the stitching out! Around 17.00hrs we went back into town to collect our laundry and from there went to a café for an early dinner. Returning to the boat we decided it was time to put another Black Adder video on. Not the most exciting day but at least it didn’t rain and we are in a safe anchorage.

Sunday 17th June

Puerto Ayora
Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.

0 44.914 S
90 18.417 W



Gerry began the day by fiddling with the generator; it was running slower than it is supposed to causing the voltage to be less than it is supposed to. He had to speed the timing to correct the problem, the trouble is that it is not the first time that this has happened and he is now pondering the cause. Having done a temporary fix he then began to tighten bolts and the linkage which had worked loose. You know how it goes - once you touch one thing another goes wrong, the linkage suddenly wouldn’t open and when he tested it there as no voltage to it, now it was a case of finding where the connection fault was – this is a fault that wasn’t there when he started out. It turns out that the fuse had blown – the issue then being why did the fuse blow. Gerry decided to by pass the fuse to see what would happen – the result was that it blew the next fuse in the chain. Now we had to replace 2 fuses and we still had no idea what was wrong. Gerry decided to go ashore and see if he could find fuses anywhere – on Sunday?! I elected to stay on the boat and clean the floors and continue with polishing the wood work whilst he called a water taxi and took off with the hand held radio to keep in touch. After being ashore for 10 minutes he called to say that everywhere was closed (duh!) but he was going for a wander to make sure and asked when I was coming ashore, I hadn’t actually planned on going ashore but obviously I was needed so I said to give me half an hour and I would call just as I was leaving so that he could meet me at the taxi dock. I cleaned up, showered and changed clothes then called the taxi and lastly Gerry. I was informed that he was just buying the batteries that we needed and he had found somewhere open to buy the fuses, he would be on his way back to the boat before I got to the dock, as the taxi was already on it’s way out to me we agreed to meet at the internet café after he had dropped the batteries back to the boat. We actually passed each other on route but finally managed to meet up as planned. Almost everything was closed but we found somewhere to have lunch and Gerry told the tale of having a taxi driver who told him that all the hardware stores were closed but when he walked up the main street he found one open and purchased the fuses, he then went a bit further to the battery store and although the shutters were down the side door was open and they were trading so he bought the 2 batteries we needed. His stroll around town had been successful. Following lunch we took a water taxi back out to the boat as Gerry was determined to fix the generator problem and he wanted to get the new batteries installed. Fixing the generator turned out to be simple – install new fuses and it worked again, he couldn’t reproduce the problem that caused the fuses to blow so we are still none the wiser as to what actually happened there. We are keeping our fingers crossed that it was a minor hiccough and it won’t happen again though we do have spare fuses now! Next came the batteries – we removed the 4D AGM (big battery!) that was acting as our engine starter battery and put the 2 new sealed lead acid batteries in the hole that the big one came out of. Gerry connected one of the batteries up to enable us to start the engine and left the other disconnected as a spare (just in case). The 4D that we removed (and yes it did take both of us to remove it) we shifted to the cockpit where we used it to replace the dead 4D that was one of our house batteries (runs all the electrics on the boat except engine starting). This leaves us with a dead 4D battery sitting in the cockpit at present, we are going to have to find somewhere ecologically safe to dispose of it – any one need a very large, heavy, dead battery? Once we had the batteries in place and had test run them it was time to sit back and relax until dinner time which was followed by a TV movie – in English for a change so we could actually understand what was going on.

Saturday 16th June

Puerto Ayora
Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.

0 44.914 S
90 18.417 W

Happy birthday Carol, very best wishes for a great year ahead.

It was overcast when we woke today; it seems like almost every day here begins that way and then brightens up by mid morning. The good thing is that the rain seems to stay away, at least where we are, I’m not so sure about higher up in the hills.
Gerry thought it was time for a cooked breakfast again and did a great job of cooking it. We caught the water taxi into town and were surprised to find that it was very quiet, I had expected Saturday morning to be busy with lots of people everywhere. Gerry wanted to go and buy the batteries to replace the one that has died on us and I wanted to go to the market to buy some vegetables, as both places were in the same direction we set together. I left Gerry at the turn off for the battery store and continued on to the market, it didn’t seem to be as full as when I visited it the other day. I found almost everything I wanted plus a few bonus things – basil and coriander amongst them. Having loaded up my bags I was about to begin the return journey when Gerry suddenly appeared at my side without the batteries. The store had been closed and as far as he could make out it would be open at 09.00hrs tomorrow, though we both find this hard to believe. I was glad he had turned up as it meant I didn’t have to carry all the shopping. On the way back down into town we spotted a store selling engine oil in 5 gallon buckets – it was the oil we use and had been hard to find in a couple of places. I was worried that Gerry was going to buy a bucket but they also sold 1 gallon containers when we asked; we bought 2 of them and then it was a toss up as to who would carry what, I ended up carrying the oil as it was lighter than the shopping. We made our way to the internet café and loaded the last couple of day’s blog notes and some photos and then decided to have an early lunch. By the time we got the food it wasn’t early any more but the pizza, fresh orange juice, coffee and ice cream was worth the wait. Once we had eaten we returned to the boat and stowed the purchases. A short siesta followed then we spent the rest of the afternoon in the cockpit watching the comings and goings on the water including the antics of a couple of sea lions that decided to frolic in the water near our boat. Neither of us was particularly hungry so we just had soup for dinner and then watched a movie before going to bed.

Friday 15th June

Puerto Ayora
Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.

0 44.914 S
90 18.417 W

Today was to be an early start as we were doing a “nature tour” of the island. Barry had arranged a mini bus and tour guide for the 6 of us and we were to depart from the center of town at 09.00hrs. We all got in the same water taxi to go ashore, ensuring that we all made it on time! We found our minibus and tour guide and bundled ourselves into the van ready for the day’s discovery tour. Our guide explained that we could only cover part of the island in the time we had but that he would do his best to find as many of the rare birds and animals in their natural habitat as possible. After filling the minibus with fuel we made our way to part of the national park where we embarked on a walking trail which took us past a couple of craters formed by the flow of lava through lava tubes undermining the surface and causing the collapse of the tube roof. The craters were huge and could not be photographed in a way that would show their size unless it was from the air. As we walked along the track we spotted several types of bird that are rare and indigenous to the Galapagos Islands, the one that got the guide most excited was the flightless bird called a rail (? Spelling) of all of us the only person to see it was Barry, the rest of us were too far away from the guide at that moment. The prettiest bird was the Vermillion fly catcher, we saw one male and one female, the male has a beautiful bright red chest, the one we saw obliged us by posing for photos, the female was camera shy! The majority of species we saw were quite dull colours, they were well camouflaged in the dry vegetation that surrounded us. When we got back to the bus our guide suggested that we go to see the lava tube next, a short ride on found us climbing out of the minivan and descending into the bowels of the earth.
The lava tube that we were visiting was immense, steps have been put in place for tourist to access the tube and you can walk all the way through it from one end to the other. We opted not to walk through it but just to see the beginning few yards, it had to be at least 25 – 30 foot high and 20 foot wide at the start, our guide said that they narrow down in a few places to crawl space size – none of us wanted to be crawling along so we stuck to the entrance. To keep it safe for visitors lighting had been installed in the tube and it reminded me of the London underground – if a train had appeared around the corner I wouldn’t have been surprised. The thing that did surprise mw was how dry it was inside the tube, I had expected it too be a lot damper. Once we had finished taking photos and leaning information about the lava tube it was time to go and seek out the giant tortoises. Our route took us through a farm where they apparently migrate to, this backs on to the national park. We made our way into the park and very quickly spotted the first of these huge tortoises, munching its way through the vegetation.
We approached it slowly and quietly and began snapping pictures; it seemed not to be distressed by our presence and carried on eating whilst we got close enough to take comparative size pictures. We left it to finish its meal in peace and walked a short distance further where we found 7 tortoises wallowing in a shallow pool, they do this to rid them selves of bugs and coat their skin in a fine layer of mud to protect themselves from mosquito bites. They stunk! Again we took a heap of photos and then left them to enjoy the peace and quite they thought they had found. We spotted one more tortoise that honked at us before retracting his head into his shell, we then made our way back to the meeting point where we had a drink and toilet stop before heading off to the highest point for a panoramic view of the islands. When we reached the view point we had to climb a further 150 feet to the very top for the view, the steps were steep and rickety with a hand rail that was questionable. Luckily we all made the climb and decent without incident. The viewpoint overlooks almost all of the islands and according to the guide we were very lucky as it is normally cloudy at this time of year and you often can’t see the islands but today was only slightly hazy and we had quite a good view all round, it wasn’t quite clear enough for good photos though but we took some all the same. It was then time to return to town and find some lunch, we had done enough wandering around. We enjoyed lunch together and then split up to do a couple of things. Gerry and I went to buy a new battery for one of our hand held radios and then we stopped at the internet café to check email. Whilst I typed Gerry took off to reload our phone card and buy some duct tape (ours has vanished but no doubt will reappear now we have some new stuff). After we had finished with the internet we had an ice cream and made our way back to the boat for the rest of the evening.

Thursday 14th June

Puerto Ayora
Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.

0 44.914 S
90 18.417 W

Today was going to be a bit of a mixed up day. Barry had arranged for the refuelers to come out and top up our boat along with Y Not and JJ Moon, apparently it was better to do a whole lot of boats at the same time. The time we were given was between 08.00hrs and 10.00 hrs. We got up well in time for the possible early session, which of course didn’t happen. By 09.00hrs I had decided to go into town and do some wandering around by myself, seeking out souvenirs and the market for fruit and vegetables. Just as I was ready to go Gerry vanished, I spotted him over on Y Not chatting with Ross and indicated that I wanted to get going, he obliged and returned to our boat offering to take me ashore in the dinghy so that I didn’t have to get a taxi – just as well as I had just missed one whilst waiting for him. Gerry dropped me off at the dock and then returned to our boat to await the refuelers. I met Mags on the dock, she had caught the taxi that I missed and like me was going to do a few chores by herself. I took off towards the shops, going to the furthest point first. I stopped at the fish market where the pelicans were waiting patiently for the scraps of fish that the fishermen would throw them. Alongside the pelicans this morning though there was a sea lion that appeared to have eaten his fill and was just basking in the sunshine. I had the camera out and shot a few pictures before you could blink, then I wandered down the pier that extends behind the fish market and peered into the water where there were a couple more sea lions frolicking around, chasing the fish and rolling onto their backs to float in the water. As I watched an enormous ray with a span of about 6 feet glided into the area, I have never seen such a huge ray before, I’m not sure what sort it was but I do know that the sea lions didn’t give it any grief. At about the same time a group of 3
different types of ray swam by me, these were light brown and had quite pronounced heads, I managed to get a photo of these ones as they were quite close to me, I had never seen these types of rays before – it was a morning of spotting new things! Having watched the wildlife for a while I thought I’d better get back to the shopping and continued to walk to the end of the main street where I turned back and began the serious art of browsing. I managed to find a few items to buy as I made my way back to the dock end of the street. Once I had finished with the browsing I thought I’d make my way to where the market was meant to be, no one we knew had visited the market yet and I wasn’t too sure of where I was going but followed the general map I had been given. Sure enough I found the municipal market, at the top of a long incline; it was comprised of several small stores which sold fruit and vegetables fairly cheaply. I bought a few bits and pieces, leaving the heavy stuff for when Gerry could be with me to share the carting it back. By this time my back pack and the bag I was carrying were full and getting heavier by the minute so I made my way to the internet café where I had arranged to meet Gerry at midday. I had no idea what time it was as I hadn’t worn a watch but I thought it wouldn’t matter as I could do my emails and load the blog site whilst I waited for him as it turned out it was 11.45hrs by the time I sat down to a computer and began typing. An hour later there was still no sign of Gerry and I had finished the internet stuff for the day so I packed up my bags and began to wander towards the dock, thinking I would return to the boat. A short distance before the dock I spotted Gerry walking towards me so I waited and we went off together for some lunch where he told me that the refuelers had only just finished with us (not that it took long as we only needed 40 gallons of diesel), they had refuelled Y Not first and poor Barry on JJ Moon, who had organised them in the first place, was still waiting for them to refuel his boat. Gerry had spent the time waiting to clean down one side of the boat – it was looking a bit unloved and grimy, of course now that one side was clean he was going to have to do the other side. During his cleaning a close up inspection showed that we received no damage from the side swipe we took but the trawler had left blue paint marks on our boat, along the toe rail luckily. Once we had finished lunch we caught a water taxi back out to our boat, as we passed the boats that were anchored close to the dock we saw one boat that the sea lions had taken a liking too and they had climbed onto it and were lazing all over the deck and transom of this boat. I got out the camera to take a picture and the very kind taxi driver changed course and drove me right up to the boat so that I could get a good close up shot of these cheeky sea lions.
Back at the boat it was show and tell time, luckily Gerry liked most of my purchases, not that it really mattered whether he did or not. We stashed away the fruit and vegetables and then it was time for a siesta – I tell you these people have the right idea an afternoon siesta is just the thing! Whilst we were reclining and reading we heard Barry on the radio asking when they were going to refuel his boat – this was now 15.30hrs and I have to say he sounded a lot more patient and tolerant than I would have done, as it turned out it was another couple of hours before he got his fuel but at least he did get it in the end. We radioed the other 2 boats to let them know that we were going ashore for dinner and they were welcome to join us, Sue and Ross had already got their dinner cooking on board but Barry and Mags decided to join us. We arrived ashore first and after watching a little of the volleyball which was being played on the foreshore courts we went for a pre dinner drink before walking to the restaurant where we were going to eat. We went to an Italian restaurant where Barry and Mags had eaten once before, the food was pretty good but they had no desserts except for chocolate mousse – oh well if I must! Barry told us of his frustration with the refuelling, considering he had arranged it all in the first place it seemed very unfair that he was the last to be done, still he was better humoured about it than I would have been in the same circumstance. Once the bill was paid we walked back to the dock and caught a water taxi back to our respective boats for the night.

Wednesday 13th June

Puerto Ayora
Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.

0 44.914 S
90 18.417 W

Having put our clocks back an hour yesterday we woke up early today! At least the sun was attempting to shine this morning. We fiddled about on the boat for half the morning with Gerry resealing the bathroom joins (we noticed that the wood work on the outside of the shower was getting wet and assumed there was a leak somewhere in the joints) and me cutting Gerry’s hair and then typing up blog notes and downloading pictures from the camera. We finally managed to get Abigail on the phone and had a chat with her which was good. A little later on, whilst I was still typing Gerry was outside and called out asking if I was ready to go ashore as there was a taxi nearby. I hurriedly saved my document and closed down the computer, gathered my shoes, sun glasses, cash, laundry ticket and locked up the boat, just as the taxi pulled up alongside our boat. We docked and made our way straight to the internet café where we checked email and then I attempted to load some photos from the last 10 days, it took me 11/2 hours and at the end I’m not sure that they have loaded even though it said they have – I’ll have to check it out tomorrow and I’ll be mad if they haven’t as it would be a wasted 11/2 hours.
• note to Ray Lopez – if you really know the guys who flew over us on the 4th June 120 miles off the coast of Colombia is there any chance of getting copies of the photos they took of us? We would like them for our collection! Please email reply (and photos) to svorpailleur@hotmail.com thanks.
By now Gerry’s stomach was rumbling (I don’t think it ever stops!) and we needed to find somewhere for lunch. Just as we were leaving the café Sue and Ross turned up to do their internet stuff for the day, we said hi and then continued on our way. We decided to try the café we had seen Mags and Barry at the day before and I have to say that we had a good lunch and it was reasonably cheap. Just as we were about to leave Mags and Barry showed up – they obviously enjoyed the food there the day before. We sat and chatted with them until their lunch order arrived and then left them to go and retrieve our laundry, unfortunately by the time we got there the place was closed – we would have to collect it later in the afternoon or tomorrow. We stopped for an ice cream and ended up having it with a slice of chocolate cake – not that this will surprise anyone! As we made our way to the taxi dock I took pictures of the statues that dominate the streets – larger than life statues of and Iguana and a blue footed Booby, there is also a large tortoise but that’s at the other end of the main street – I’ll get that one tomorrow. There were several iguanas sunning themselves near the taxi dock, they are quite ugly compared to the ones we saw in Florida; these ones are entirely black and fairly small but they seem reasonably unafraid of people as they just stay put despite people walking by them.
All alone the water’s edge there are hundreds of crabs, they have quite remarkable colouring and patterns on their shells but we are warned not to eat them as there is rat poison spread all over the island that may affect them (I’m pretty certain this is a ploy to preserve the crabs for local industry!) We’ve also been able to spot quite a lot of birds though as yet I haven’t been close enough to get pictures of the blue footed Boobys to go with the red footed ones from the Aves. The birds also seem to be unafraid of humans, especially the pelicans who are cheeky enough to roam along the paths near the fish market. We got a water taxi back out to our boat, as we passed by a couple of trawlers I noticed that there were sea lions sunning themselves on the swim platforms at the back of these boats – they must be fairly athletic to get from the water up onto these platforms. As soon as we got back to our boat Gerry was outside checking to see if there was any damage from our little incident yesterday – apart from some blue paint that they had left behind on our transom edge there appears to be no damage – lucky escape! Shortly after this it began to spit with rain – it had to be time for an afternoon siesta. We resurfaced at about 17.30hrs, caught a water taxi into the dock where we found the place to be alive with people. The foreshore reminds us a bit of Townsville in that it has a
n esplanade similar to the Strand but on a smaller scale, it is complete with walkways, a children’s’ playground, fountain, bench seats, volleyball courts, skateboard ramp, tables and chairs and food vendors there were hundreds of people wandering around, playing volleyball, playing cards or dominos, watching others being energetic and just enjoying the evening. We made a quick dash to the laundry to collect our washing and then headed towards a café for dinner. Once we had eaten we took a slow stroll back to the dock and took the water taxi back out to our boat for the night.

Tuesday 12th June

Puerto Ayora
Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.

0 44.914 S
90 18.417 W

We slept in late: we were catching up on the sleep we had missed out on during the transit. When we surfaced it was overcast outside, we are beginning to wonder where all the sun has gone! Our morning was spent onboard. Gerry wanted to do an oil change on the generator and drain the racor filter. He also transferred the rest of the diesel from the jerry cans in to the fuel tank, surprisingly we still have about 40 gallons of fuel left, much more than we expected. Whilst he was doing these jobs I began one of my own – cleaning the woodwork inside the boat. During our 10 days at sea the boat has been closed up and there has been very little sunlight and fresh air getting below deck and because of this there is a fine patina of mould beginning to grow on all the wood surfaces. I started at the bow and began cleaning and polishing the wood, it was quite satisfying to see it restored to its normal state. I only managed to get the front cabin finished and will have to continue through the boat over the next few days to get it all done. We’ve had to open all the lockers up to get air through them and dry them out; the dampness seems to have invaded everywhere. As soon as Gerry had finished his jobs we gathered our stuff together and called a water taxi to go ashore. Once we were reached the dock we decided to drop off our laundry and then go and have lunch before anything else; we walked to the farthest end of the main street along the water front where we found a small café and ate there. Having eaten our fill we took a slow wander back the same way we had come, we found Barry and Mags just about to eat lunch at another café along the way and we stopped and chatted with them for a while, discussing plans for having the re fueling for our boats done at the same time and planning a tour guide to take the four of us plus Ross and Sue around the main tourist points of interest. Once we had sorted out these few details we took our leave and continued on to one of the internet cafes where I paid the fee for an hour ($2) and proceeded to read and answer my emails. Gerry took off for the store where he had been told he would be able to buy a new battery and to the phone store to see if he could get a card for our phone. A little over an hour later he reappeared, having found out the details for the battery he decided that he would buy 2 but it means a trip back to the store in a taxi as it is much too far to carry one battery let alone two. He had been successful with the phone and managed to get a card for our old cell phone so we can now dial out (at some enormous fee!). We bought ice creams – a special treat as we can’t keep ice cream on the boat, and made our way back to the taxi dock where we picked up a taxi and returned to our boat. A short afternoon nap followed and then we radioed our traveling companions to see if they were interested in going ashore for dinner, everyone was game for the trip so we arranged to collect everyone in a taxi at 19.00hrs. At this point we found that we needed to turn our clocks back another hour; we were an hour ahead of everyone else for the second time! Just prior to the appointed hour we heard a loud anchor chain being lifted and went out on deck to see what was moving. Out side it was dark and we could make out a large trawler behind us that was beginning to make its way out of the anchorage. For whatever reason its captain chose to motor through the anchored yachts, coming between us and our nearby neighbour, we were quite alarmed as the gap was quite tight; sure enough we were justified in being alarmed as he side swiped us with his stern despite us yelling at him that he was far too close and we had our lights on so he could see us. As soon as he hit us the crew came running to our side of the boat yelling and waving that it was alright. Alright for whom we wanted to know as they kept going and the 20 something foot motor launch that they were trailing behind them came closer to us. I yelled out to Gerry that it was going to hit us too and tried to fend it off, it still managed to bounce off our toe rail as it went by. The vessel didn’t stop, didn’t radio to see if it had caused damage or even to apologise; it just kept going and it was too dark for us to tell the extent of any damage it may have caused. As it was time to go and collect the others for dinner we gathered together our cash and a torch and jumped in the water taxi with the others and related our tale. As Mags and Barry had been hit by the a swinging fishing boat the first day they were here we joked that only Y Not is left to get hit in this anchorage – not really funny but you have to make light of the situation. We went to the Angermeyer Point restaurant which was a very nice restaurant set out on the point of the anchorage and overlooks it. The food was very good but I thought it was a little light on the vegetables but then I guess Gerry and I eat a lot of vegetables so maybe I’m being unfair. When we had finished our meal the wait staff called a water taxi for us and we returned to our respective boats for the night. And very shortly afterwards it was time for bed.

Monday 11th June

Puerto Ayora
Isla Santa Cruz, Galapagos Islands.0 44.914 S
90 18.417 W

The sun began to rise behind us casting a reddish tinge to the clouds as we slowed down to make sure that we didn’t arrive at the anchorage in the dark. We began to see the masts of several yachts already at anchor and headed towards them. The water was very calm with some long interval swell and every now and again we could make out “things” bobbing along in the water and then vanishing – they were sea lions, Gerry hadn’t been hallucinating. The anchorage was still in sleep mode as we motored into it at 07.30hrs. We spotted Y Not almost immediately as their cockpit cover stood out, we decided to take a slow turn around the anchorage before deciding where to drop our anchor. JJ Moon was fairly easy to spot as they had told us about a fishing boat next to them that hadn’t put out a stern anchor and had drifted into them during the night; once we spotted the fishing boat it was simple to see JJ Moon. After our reconnoitering of the anchorage we picked a spot and without too much trouble dropped our anchor in 24 foot of water, it set quite quickly but as the anchorage is quite small with lots of boats at anchor and a constant swell the advice is to put out a stern anchor as well. We dropped the dink off of the foredeck and into the water, attached the outboard motor, tied our spare anchor line to the stern of the boat and then Gerry motored out with the anchor in the dinghy and dropped it about 80 foot behind us. Once the anchor was in the water we winched the excess line back into the boat, we were now held firmly between the two anchors and hopefully wouldn’t encounter any problems of drifting into other boats. By 07.50 hrs we were able to say we had arrived! We celebrated our arrival with some coffee and toast, Gerry went over to say hello to Ross and Sue on Y Not whilst I began tidying away the cockpit mess. When he returned Gerry informed me that Ross and Sue were going into Immigration to complete their formalities at about 09.30hrs, we were going to tag along to do ours at the same time. With just under an hour before we were going into town we hurriedly had showers, put on clean clothes and gathered our documentation and money together. Everyone uses the water taxis to get into town and back, they arrive after being called on channel 14 on the VHF radio and cost just 50 cents per person each way, the regulations dictate that you must wear a life jacket in the water taxi so we duly donned them – the taxis are well equipped with enough for all passengers. We were dropped at the dock and made our way to the port captain’s office to check in. At the reception we were directed to a very pleasant naval officer who spoke very little English but managed to convey everything he needed, we filled out the appropriate forms and were presented with our clearance papers (we could stay for up to 20 days but could not sail / anchor around any of the other islands here without further paper work) and the bill – it cost us $180.64 to clear in which was better than we had expected. A word to the issue of fumigation certificates here: we had been told in Panama that we were required to have a fumigation certificate from the previous port of call when we arrive and clear in at the Galapagos Islands. We didn’t bother getting one whilst a few people we met did (not that they were actually fumigated – it was just a bought certificate costing them $25 each – we wonder if this is a scam by the Panamanians to make a few more dollars). At no time were we asked for a certificate but other boats used an agent to clear in here and the agent insisted that they needed the certificate. If it is a government requirement (not actually proven) to have a fumigation certificate it doesn’t seem to be one that is enforced. We had also heard that if you arrived without one then your boat would visited by the authorities and doused in fumigation powder for a phenomenal fee – this too didn’t happen. Whilst I relate this for information purposes I caution that it is “buyer bewares” – this was our findings and may not apply to the next boat to arrive here, it may also be a different story if you check in at any of the other ports in the islands – I can not say for sure. Anyway after checking in with the port captain we were directed to attend the police station for immigration clearance, the police station was a short distance away and we had no problem finding it and getting our passports stamped with the visas – at a cost of $15 each, the visa is good for up to 90 days. The last part of clearing in was a return visit to the port captain to show our visa stamps and pick up our clearance papers, it was all painless and quick and everyone we encountered was polite, helpful and efficient. Sue and Ross also finished their clearing in details (they had arrived on the weekend and had to return to day to complete the formalities). The four of us then made our way to store where Ross was having his phone looked at – they had experienced some problems with their very expensive NARA world phone. The store seemed to deal with all things required for boats from phones to computers to fishing gear, Gerry asked about a battery to replace our failed one and was directed to another store – it was the one thing they didn’t deal with! Mags and Barry turned up whilst we were in the store as they needed to purchase a new laptop computer, theirs had had a “water accident” on the trip across and no longer worked. Once all the transactions were completed the six of us went to one other store – to sort out cell phone stuff, then we decided it was beer o’clock and availed ourselves of the services of a nearby bar and restaurant. Following lunch there, the food was good and cheap, we split up and Gerry and I headed back to our boat as the lack of sleep was rapidly catching up with us. We laid on the bed at 15.30hrs and the pair of us were fast asleep by 15.31hrs. After 2 hours we woke, a little less tired but also a little more refreshed. We spent the remainder of the evening on the boat, neither of us having the desire or energy to do anything else. We did the mundane chores like running the water maker and chilling down the fridge / freezer, typing blog notes and washing dishes. Finally it was time to hit the sack again, tomorrow was going to be a busy day organizing tours, finding a battery and generally getting our bearings.