Galapagos Islands - Cruising Blogs

Looks like the crews of the World ARC yachts were busy there in the Galapagos Islands! Many blogs coming in from the crews as they traveled around the islands. They have now started sailing from the Galapagos islands to the Marquesas.

 

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Yacht: Southern Princess

We use 18 Litres per hour flat out. The locals provided less than 20 gallons per hour!

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno Isla San Cristobal Galapagos 00:54S 89:37W

Originally called Chatham Island in the days of Darwin and the British ruled the world. Very rolly anchorage with long swells coming in from the Pacific. Both sides of the entrance had breakers with the southern point having a well established surfing break.
Well what did we see? Me, not a lot and I think Irene even less. The WARC team were established in an upstairs bar/restaurant called the Hotel Restaurant Miconia. Food wasn't bad but they put the booze in the fridge a couple of hours before Happy Hour so consequently we had warm beer over ice on one occasion. I went ashore twice while we were here.

The harbour is full of seals which decide that they want to have a sun bathe and they launch themselves onto any vaguely level surface to lie in the sun. We kept our back swim platform up as a number of seals had laid claim to the back steps on a few catamarans.

Fuelling was offered by the local agent. Phew what a marathon! On the Thursday evening, three yachts had been offered the opportunity of refuelling by reversing stern to a large commercial concrete dock and they pumping fuel down onto the boat. Keoloha8 was first and under the circumstances the last that evening. They started at 17:00 and did not finish until after 20:30. They had to strain all the fuel to keep the dirt out and consequently the flow rate in the filter was a lot slower than that coming out of the pipe and fuel went everywhere. Southern Princess stood by for 4 hours before our turn was abandoned. We were advised that we would start again at first light 05:30 Friday. The due time saw us up and ready to go. Joseph, the young lad (17) in charge of this promised us "won't be long another 10 minutes only" from 05:30 to 07:30 when he finally arrived alongside in a water taxi with 190 gallons (we had ordered 200 gallons) of fuel in 10 & 20 gallon containers which we then siphoned into our tanks through a Baha Filter which traps dirt, insects and water; all in evidence.

Irene, Lorraine and I had booked on the 08:30 snorkelling tour to Kicker Rock and as the time approached, we sent Lorraine off while Irene & I persevered with Joseph. Now Joseph is 17 years old, he is impressed with his management role and he also had his mobile (never stopped ringing) and his VHF which he never stopped using while transferring fuel, mostly into our yacht but with monotonous regularity over our yacht as well.

To get the fuel into the bladder on deck, we had to elevate the container up to boom height which was even more awkward. The last of the 190 gallons went in at around 09:30. Joseph disappeared to get the extra 10 gallons and the order for Storyteller the next on the fuelling list. Storytellers order arrived and I asked Joseph for the 10 gallons. "No" he said, "This 190 gallons is for Storyteller and your last 10 gallons is coming in a minute with my brother". This duly arrived BUT then the little so & so made me wait until he had finished the Storyteller 190 gallons before he would come back to finish off the last 10 gallons for Southern Princess.

He arrived back on board with the siphon hose at around 11:00 and we then hoisted the container to boom height to get it into the bladder. Joseph is in charge of siphon hose and pouring while I juggled the filter over the flexible filling nozzle of the bladder. Joseph is balanced about 2' above my head. So the phone rings! The VHF crackles his name! And Joseph manages to answer the phone, talk in the VHF but he doesn't take much attention with the hose which ends up pouring diesel all over my head, up my nose, in my mouth, in my eyes, all over the dinghy, in the open lazarette locker and all over the whole bloody aft end of the yacht AND then he looks all hurt when I go off my trolley!

The oil slick seen off the aft end of Southern Princess at 11:30 was me having a swim. Used a whole container of hair shampoo getting rid of the stuff off my body etc, Irene poured a half bottle of Visine in my eyes and I showered on the swim platform before tackling the cleaning of the yacht. I have a salt water hose so with soap, buckets, scrubbing brushes I took an hour to clean off the yacht. the teak deck is horribly stained but it will bleach out with the sun eventually.

So fuelling took 4 hours on Thursday hanging about and 7 hours on Friday from start to finish. 200 gallons in 11 hours! Must be a record BUT why does it happen to me?

Thursday night (21:00 hours) saw one of the arriving catamarans (Williwaw II) lose the use of both motors while negotiating the outer channel. Tallulah Ruby II towed her in while I launched our RIB. We then strapped the RIB to the side of the catamaran and we steered her to an anchoring spot and help pull her anchor in for a safe night. Something always happening in yachting.

Lorraine enjoyed the Kicker Rock tour;

Grateful for my shore leave but feeling a tad guilty as well as I left John and Irene to the refuelling nightmare, I joined the 30 or so other yachties on the Kicker Rock tour, at 8.30am. Our catamaran headed first for a sheltered bay where we motored close to rocks and saw sea lions sunbathing, blue footed boobies nesting, large red Sally Lightfoot crabs, and frigate birds soaring overhead. Then we jumped into the 25deg water and swam with sea lions.

Everyone back on board, we up anchored, and headed for Kicker Rock, one of the Galapagos's most famous landmarks, a vertical volcanic rock standing 146metres high, a short distance from the coast. There's a narrow split through the rock, through which the sea surges and churns. Very dramatic, I was all ready to take photos then realised we were expected to snorkel through that! It took a while to pluck up courage but I'm so glad I did. I saw 3 hammerhead sharks, 5 or so Galapagos sharks (around 1m each), a family of sting rays circling sinisterly beneath us, thick shoals of reef fish, and more turtles. All in all an adrenalin packed snorkelling experience.

On the way home we returned to the first bay, the tide was now out and the water clear and turquoise. Everyone had a last snorkel, then got back on board and we headed for home. Then the guide did a head count, and a re-count, looked in both heads, then realised we were missing one person. 10mins later we were back in the bay where we found the lone Italian still swimming, picked him up, and headed home! A memorable day.

 

UPDATE: Southern Princess - Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz

After a 6 hour MOTOR AGAIN from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz we anchored in Academia Bay (Puerto Ayora 00:45S 90:18W ) with a fore and aft anchor. The aft anchor helps keep the bow into the swell which comes into the harbour all the time. It is an exposed anchorage.

The Galapagos are a surprising place. Permanent population 30,000 people plus the annual influx of 80,000 tourists has a major impact on the place. Some funny local rules. The water taxis which ply the bay carry life jackets tucked into awkward places on the boat however if you use your dinghy, the port police insist that you wear your life jacket at all times! Fuel at the pump is US$1.02 per gallon but they want to deliver it to your yacht at US$2.35 per gallon and their seems to be a dispute between the water deliverer and the pump owner. The service station is open strictly from 08:00 to 12:00 and then again 13:00 to 17:00 and not one moment more.

Lots of good restaurants and some very up market stores. One gallery we inspected is selling exquisite hand woven baskets at US$3,500 each!

Did you know that when the Spaniards first came here they were impressed with the giant tortoise, one of which looks like the saddle off their horses which is called a Galapagos and so they named the islands!

Our first tour was to Bartolome Island. Up at 04:15, picked up by water taxi at 04:45, an hours bus ride to Baltra at the other end of the island, a 3.5 hours boat ride to Bartolome a 4 million year old extinct volcano and apart from a few scrubby plants hasn't grown anything since. Could have filmed the moon landing here. A board walk takes you to the summit about 1000 metres up and some magnificent views. Galapagos is about the wild life; right? Animal count for the island visit; 1 water iguana, 2 or 3 lava lizards a bit like a small skink back home, some distant birds; Oh and an interesting bush which was still holding drops of water at 11:00 from the over night rain.

From there we went for a snorkel. Saw a couple of common reef fish chewing away at rather dead rocks, and while I could see my hand in front of my face, a fellow traveller snorkelled by 2 arms lengths away and I could not recognize him. A Galapagos white tipped shark would have had to tap me on the shoulder to get my attention it was so murky.

So that was our first day trip 9 hours travelling and 2.5 hours inspecting the delights. The Princess was not impressed!

Day 2 was North Seymour Island, a lot better. Blue footed boobies fishing, boy can they dive into the water, a blue footed booby rookery with newly born chicks through to fledglings getting ready to fly. One such fledging was huddled under a tree with his back to us so we wouldn't see him. A big bundle of white feathers trying to look like something else. I quietly crept in under the tree so I was along side and gave a quiet 'boo', the little head turned startled eyes to me and the look on the face was 'please sir I don't know what you are but I am sure you won't hurt me' and he then shuffled forward a bit to have a sniff.

One of our number with size 13 shoes wandered into the bush to take a photo of a frigate bird in a tree top with our watching where his feet were going. They strayed within 2 feet of a booby sitting over a new born chick and the booby did not even flinch, she just held her ground.

Frigate birds don't fish in the water. They steal from other birds, usually pelicans. On Santa Fe Island, we saw a pelican 'school for fishing and not letting the Frigate birds get your lunch'. The two fledglings are in the water close by the rocks with a bit of a breaking wave. Mum would show them how to get a fish and keep it well within their beaks to stop the Frigate's stealing. She then got on the rocks to watch. The youngsters had a go, the Frigates kept swooping and sealing scraps and every now and again the mother would launch herself at the Frigates to keep them back a bit. The two youngsters started squabbling over a fish with each bird tugging at each end and a Frigate just swooped and took it from between them. Talk about accurate flying!

The giant tortoise are amazing and one day I swam with the seal pups for a while. Mum kept a close eye on proceedings.

There is a strike going on ashore by the locals, the supply ship arrived and bought booze and construction material but not a lot of food. The supermarket shelves are not stacked and it looks like fishing to the Marquises.

Lots of great photos and our crew gifted Southern Princess with a fantastic book of photos on the Galapagos. Thanks Lorraine.

We head out again on Sunday for the 3 week journey to the Marquises and the weather reports are not good so it could be a long trip as we don't have enough fuel to motor the 3150 nautical miles (around 6,300 kilometres).

I won't be logging a daily report as long distant sailing is just plain old boring but will try every few days. The position reports go in each day and will be logged on the web site.

Hope you are enjoying the reports,

Love to all

John & Irene

 

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Lady Kay - Galapagos

We left the Galapagos at 12.00 today. What a fabulous experience. We went on a 3 night tour on a very small cruise boat which took us to different islands so that we could see as much of the wildlife as possible. We snorkeled and went on land trails every day. The wildlife is quite amazing, the whole place is heaving with different species, and the most amazing thing is that they have no fear of humans. We have snorkeled with sea lions playing around us, and large turtles, rays and wonderful tropical fish swimming right up to us. It is not hard to be a wildlife photographer here. On land you have to step over marine and land iguanas and nesting blue footed boobies and magnificent frigate birds. We also saw sharks and Galapagos penguins, as well as giant land tortoises, including 'Lonesome George'. Darwin's finches rather lack interest compared to the prehistoric-looking marine iguanas, unique to these islands. We all feel very privileged to have been here. We shall include some of our wildlife photos on future logs, but for today we are sending a picture of Kerry cleaning off barnacles prior to our departure.

Kerry's blackberry hasn't worked since mainland Ecuador, so she won't have received any e-mails.

We're down to three because Hilton and Carrie decided to drop out as a result of an injury to Hilton.

Wish us luck on our big trip (around 3 weeks hopefully)to Marquesa Islands.

 

 

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Asolare - World Arc Leg 4 Day 1

After an amazing stay in the Galapagos we are now sailing again, this time en route to the Marquesas about 3000 miles away. Eight rally yachts are still in the Galapagos getting repairs completed and enjoying the islands a little while longer. The main fleet however are enjoying good breezes of 12 to 15 knots and even a little helpful current. We have had a strong adverse current on both leg 2 and 3 of up to 2.8 knots so this is much better and much more typical for this time of year. In about 4 days we should be far enough south to be able to take advantage of the Pacific Trade winds which should be from behind us for a change and enjoy some good down wind sailing! Attached photo is one of a series of underwater photos taken in the Galapagos. Amongst hundreds of fish and mammal spieses, sharks are always exciting to watch – this is a Hamerhead shark, named after the shape of its head, swimming past at about 3 feet away! I will attach a photo later of a much more scary moment – a very close encounter with several excited great white tipped sharks! I have all my fingers left to write this text so I escaped unharmed!

Capt. Peter

 

 

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Yacht: Ideal

Ideal and her crew set out for the Pacific crossing at noon on March 9th. We began with smooth seas and light winds, skirted a few squalls in the night and are now cruising along at roughly 8 knots over choppy seas. We've got 145 miles under our belt and are trying not to think too much about how many left to go. All in all, a good start to the journey.

 

 

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Yacht Cleone - Leg 4 Day 1 - She's Heavy but Willing

I don't think that Cleone has ever weighed as much, but we're doing over 6.5 knots towards our fist Waypoint.

There is always a buzz amongst the fleet on the day of departure, and a "racing" start makes it even more enjoyable. Whilst stop-overs are interesting and exciting, and none more so than the Galapagos, we are, after all, here to sail the world. So whilst sad to say farewell for the moment to our friends on other yachts, the pleasure of finally leaving the Galapagos was no exception. Sadly three or four yachts were left in the anchorage with technical probles or awaiting essential spares, with poor Basia developing a problem just as she tried to up-anchor. But the rest of us crossed the start-line in style, including Wizard who had finally managed to catch up by sailing direct from Panama.

From a sailor's point of view, the weather forecast was dire, with light winds and heavy rain predicted for much of the first week. Some of this has come true, and Elizabeth and the Skipper got drenched last night by torrential rain whilst taking in a reef. But that we were taking in a reef tells its own story; the wind has developed into a decent sailing breeze, mainly from the South West, backing to South South West or occasionally South for a time. We have therefore described a graceful curve amongst the islands, finally ending up on the Port Tack with the wind just forward of the beam as we run down to our fist Waypoint (thanks, Jimmy Cornell (World Cruising Handbook) and Commander's weather, from whom we are now getting a forecast from every couple of days) at over 6 knots. This speed is pretty good for two reasons. First because we did not expect much wind at this stage, and second because Cleone has never been so full of fuel, food and water. There must be a ton of water, nearly half a ton of fuel and goodness knows how much food, including the essential canned beer. But then this leg could easily take four weeks and you'd be amazed how much sailors need to eat!

So we will have a lot more time to write about it - you will be hearing from us.

James, Chris & Elizabeth
Yacht Cleone
At sea
01.45S 91,42W

 

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Storyteller - Day 1, Champagne Sailing

Twenty -four hours out from Puerto Ayora we have 15kts from 120 degrees, we are making 8.5kts in smooth seas and clear skies. It doesn't get much better than this. At the time we left port all the forecasts were for light and variable winds with squalls associated with thunderstorms for the first couple of days. We had some rain last night but at about 11pm the wind increased and it has held since then. The storms have cleared and we are making good progress toward 5 degrees south where we can expect consistent trade winds to take us across 2900 miles to the Marquesas.

All systems on the boat are working well after we replaced the salt water cooling pump for the freezer.

All of us enjoyed our time in the Galapagos and we will report on our activities soon.

John

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- World ARC