A video of the Kicker Rock dive

sorry, if you're viewing on an iPad this video won't run!

Underwater world - and water restored aboard Maunie

Yesterday saw us join a dive trip out to Kicker Rock. Graham joined a divemaster plus three others for the dives whilst Dianne was with twelve people snorkelling along with a guide. Now you'll all be feeling sorry for us, we're sure, when we tell you that the water around Galapagos is much colder than we're used to because of the effect of the Humboldt Current; as a result we wore wet suits!

Before we even jumped in the water at the first site along the coast we were treated to the spectacle of male Frigate birds performing their mating display, ballooning their bright red throats- very impressive. Alongside them were Blue Footed Boobies.

Underwater, the sea life was just as impressive, especially for Dianne and the other snorkellers who were able to list turtles, manta rays, Galapagos, Black Tip and Hammerhead Sharks, as well as mother and pup sea lions swimming with them. Graham's dive was successful but not quite as full of sea life. However, he did capture some video of turtles and brightly coloured fish. Next time, the Go Pro camera will be carried by Dianne with her snorkel.

This morning was spent aboard with Graham dismantling the watermaker (no easy job) to find why it kept tripping out. With the excellent support from Jim McDonald, the Schenker agent based in Weston Super Mare, the parts kit and one of the interdental tools kindly provided by Becky Armer, we are happy to report that the watermaker is now working again.

 The disassembled watermaker with a bewildering array of o-rings

The re-built machine

Bird life and organic coffee

The bird watching is pretty special around here. At sea we've seen lots of Pelicans (surprisingly elegant flyers in spite of looking like close cousins of the Pterodactyl) and Frigates.

On land we've seen Mockingbirds and Boobies and a Finch so yellow it's almost fluorescent (but too quick to capture on camera so far).

On the boat, meanwhile, we've had another feathered visitor. Yesterday morning Graham awoke early to see a small heron perched on the flagstaff. He crept slowly towards it, camera in hand, but in hindsight could probably have marched straight up to it whilst blowing a trumpet as it was completely unperturbed. These photos were taken from about a metre away from it.

The natural way of the island extends to the agriculture here too. In the middle of the 19th century land was cleared and turned over to farming so bananas, papaya and other fruits grow alongside some veg crops which are sold in the busy town market - everything is organic. There is also a thriving business here producing Galapagos organic coffee which is very good, though Peter's 'coffee with chocolate' at the internet cafe was perhaps a little more organic than he was expecting.

The Galapagos wildlife, eye to eye

We had a brilliant tour of the island with Carlos, a taxi driver who for 25 years was in the Ecuadorian Navy (and sailed a tall-ship to Norway and Germany). As we hoped, we've seen lots of wildlife and not all of it terribly wild.

First of all the sea lions and fur seals are everywhere; playing around the boat and snoozing on the benches along the sea front:

We were tipped off to use the very good water taxis rather than inflating the dinghy to get ashore as they tend to take residence aboard unattended dinghies, presenting the returning owner with an interesting challenge:

Our tour took us first up into the highlands, with a hike up to an extinct volcano with a freshwater lake in it. The scenery and plant life reminded us of Scotland and, for the first time in 8 months, we were a bit chilly:

Next on the itinerary was a tortoise reserve.The Giant Tortoises of Galapagos became dangerously near extinction (there were originally 13 different species) as sailing ships of old discovered that the huge animals could be stacked in the hold, staying alive without food and water for months, to provide a steady supply of fresh meat for the crew. It's estimated that 250,000 were taken in a 30 year period. On San Cristobal, the remaining 3000 animals are all in the north-east corner of the island, very much at risk, so in 2002 a new reserve was built and a captive breeding programme started. Young tortoises, at the age of 5 (when they are about twice the size of 'British' tortoises), are being returned to the wild and the oldest inhabitant is about 100 years old.

Hearing a group of giant tortoises munching fresh greens, their deep breaths coming as contented sighs, is a delicious sound. We'll hope to post a video of the scene soon.

Finally we headed to the surf-pounded, black rocked coastline where the Marine Iguanas hang out to warm up after surfing. These really are dragons!

So, all in all, a pretty amazing day and there's a lot more to see!

A video from the voyage

Here's a little video shot on Graham's new GoPro toy:

Safely arrived in Galapagos

We are delighted to report safe arrival in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal at about 16.00 local time. The wind died this morning so we had to motor for about 5 hours but it gave us the chance to have showers and tidy the boat en route.

 

We were still in the process of anchoring when a water taxi arrived alongside and Karmela, our local agent / fixer came aboard. She speaks not a word of English so Graham's dreadful Spanish was called into action; we gave her the required bits of paper and she said she'd return within the hour with the officials. Sure enough, 30 minutes later the taxi returned with Karmela plus a lady from the National Parks office (who manages the strict quarantine regulations), the Port Captain (an Ecuadorian naval officer) and Pablo. Not sure what Pablo's role was but he smiled genially, especially when we offered beers all round.

 

Karmela did her stuff with consummate ease so the form-filling needed little input from us. The quarantine officer eyed our net of oranges hanging under the spray-hood and explained that they were not allowed here and therefore we had to make them into orange juice "NOW". We nodded and agreed and then said we'd rather do it in the morning if she didn't mind, which seemed to be ok after Karmela said a few calming words; I'm sure some of the oranges will be converted to juice. Apart from that it was all very jolly and we are now officially legal visitors to Galapagos -  though Karmela will take our passports to immigration in the morning for the final act of bureaucracy. The downside is that it's cost us $600 US dollars, including the obligatory $100 each for National Park permits so, as we knew  in advance, a visit to Galapagos ain't cheap! Still, we just couldn't sail past the place.

 

Already we have a taste of the wildlife, with sea lions swimming around the boat (they try to climb aboard if you have a bathing platform at the stern!) and Frigate birds wheeling above us. The anchorage has perhaps a dozen yachts, several of which we recognise, and the town looks small but inviting so we're heading ashore for a meal with Heidi and Peter from Stormvogel. We'll tell you more and upload some photos in a couple of days' time.

To Galapagos - Day 8 and Maunie crosses the Equator

Maunie leaves the northern hemisphere (see position,top left) with Stormvogel (grey triangle) not far behind

 

Our position as at 10.00 UTC, 1st May:

 

00 degrees 11 minutes SOUTH, 88 degrees 48 minutes west

 

We crossed the Line (as we seasoned explorers call it!) at ten minutes to midnight. We could not have possibly asked for better conditions; we had a steady Force 3, calm sea, a sky bursting with stars (the Milky Way very bright) and phosphorescence in the water creating a glowing wake behind Maunie as though she had some of those underwater bling lights lit. For those not familiar with said bling lights, I should explain: there are certain types of boat owners (usually motor yachts) who like to demonstrate their wealth and disregard for environmental impact by lighting their boats like Christmas trees, thereby demonstrating the power of their on-board generators. The latest toys are underwater spotlights which leave an anchored boat sitting on a cushion of glowing water – quite a striking view but utterly pointless and presumably confusing for the native sea life. Anyway, I digress; Maunie's illuminated wake was totally natural but no less eye-catching.

 

There are certain important rituals to be observed upon crossing the Equator for the first time. Chiefly amongst these is the offering to King Neptune. Dianne and Graham celebrated the moment with a bottle of sparkling Normandy Cidre (bought in Martinique) but we felt Neptune would expect something more exotic and fitting.  A delve into Maunie's not very extensive drinks locker revealed the very thing – a bottle of Becherovka (a wonderful aromatic gin-like spirit) from that well-known seafaring nation, the Czech Republic (hello to Jiri, Nina, Mik and Adela in Prague). A liberal tot was poured into the sea and we felt that Neptune was happy. Thirty minutes after our crossing we were hailed on the VHF by Stormvogel who completed their own.

 

It was quite a special moment and we still can't believe that we are here!

 

However, import things lie ahead, like reaching port before nightfall. We had been making good progress but as we write the wind is fading away with 60 miles to go so it seams that we'll have to start the engine for the final leg/ Ah well, we've done pretty well (there are tales of some boats having to motor nearly all the way from Panama to here if they are unlucky with the ITCZ. We'll do a quick post when we arrive.