Mehalah's Voyages: The Galapagos Islands. What can you say?

Date: 11th March 2023.

Location: Santa Cruz Anchorage, Galapagos.

What can you say indeed.

They are a long way from anywhere. Charles Darwin made them famous. There are lots of animals here but mostly they are sealions (very smelly), iguanas (very scaley) and tortoises (some very large). I'll put some pictures at the end because after all they are what makes this place famous.

After Panama it feels very safe here. I'll happily leave my rucksack on a bench whilst I go to look at a baby shark (shark, shark - for you Stu and Irish John). In a way it's quite quaint and not at all what I was expecting. Bahia Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal our arrival port still feels like a real small town where everyone knows each other and what they are up to. And then layered on top of that are the two big attractions, namely diving and nature. These they run very efficiently and they make a lot of money from them. Yet it doesn't seem to have gone to their heads.

A quiet street in San Cristobal

We watch as the posh inflatables ferry their passengers between the small nature tourist ships and the jetty and the dive boats set off for another day at Kicker Rock or one of the smaller islands.

Another tourist RIB on its way to shore.

I don't know what I was expecting really. Maybe a world of hard core diving enthusiasts and budding naturalists keen to learn every detail of the flora, fauna and geology. Instead like everywhere else there are lots of 'ordinary' people too. Young backpackers, sun worshippers and general tourists. Don't get me wrong I don't have a problem with any of this. It's just I think not what I was expecting. Maybe it's because we had to sail nine days to get here and when you look at a map we are a LONG way from anywhere else.

It's also surprising what you can do on your own here. Although much of the land is out of bounds or inaccessible (there are very few roads) there is still plenty to occupy us. What we do miss though is the insight to the islands you get by having an experienced guide with you.

Peter and Sally are keen hikers so we explored the coastline around the town on foot. Getting to the dock is an adventure in itself.

Boarding one of the compulsory water taxis to take us to shore.

The busy waterfront of San Cristobal.

Well marked trails lead from the interpretation centre to Darwin Cove and onward over a rocky volcanic landscape to an isolated cove where large iguanas sun themselves on the rocks and turtles swim just offshore.

Mr Darwin. What would he say if he came back today?

Daughters Jenny and Emma had bought us a field guide to the Galapagos. Darwin's finches feature in it. I was amused to see there are Large Tree Finches, Medium Tree Finches and Small Tree Finches here. That's not the size of the finch but the size of the trees they live in! Too many naturalists have put their stamp on things I fear as to me they all look almost identical.

The other thing these islands are famous for is the geology. These are very recent volcanic islands with a good number of volcanoes on show. One day we caught a taxi to one of these volcanoes up the only real road out of town. Bikes were loaded into the back of the taxi and we set off to the high car park from where we climbed to the water filled crater. Loads of Magnificent Frigate Birds here. Then down to the giant tortoise breeding centre (giant tortoises not a giant centre this time). After a quick trip to another beach it was back to the volcano car park where the bikes were unloaded. 17 kilometres of downhill with only one short climb had us back in Bahia in no time. Great fun.

There are several landscapes. Many still show the recent volcanic activity.

Our other excitement was a diving/snorkelling trip to Kicker Rock. 30 minutes in a fast boat with other yachties and it was into the water. The divers including Peter and Sally saw a lot of fish, hammerhead sharks and a ray. For us it was black tip sharks, one hammerhead that I missed and plenty of turtles. We finished up by snorkelling up a split in the rock and riding the swell with steep rock walls either side. But it was cold and snorkelling isn't my favourite pastime. I'm glad we went though. No fish pictures either I'm afraid as we don't have an underwater camera.

Approaching Kicker Rock.

Test dive for Sally.

Oh yes. I have to mention the sea lions. They were everywhere in San Cristobal. In the sea, on the beach, on the water taxi dock, in the dinghies, on the abandoned boats and even lying flat out on the benches along the pier. And do they smell! Coughing and oinking they will be my lasting memory of San Cristobal.

Sealions. They are everywhere!

Of course there were also jobs to attend to. The SSB radio is now working to some extend after installing a new ground system. The problem with the SatPhone appears to actually be the PC's USB controller - again not fixable here. And I was also unable to fix the AIS which appears to be working but only sporadically despite climbing the mast to clean the top connection in increasingly rolly conditions.

68' up. Shame I didn't fix it.

Later:

Tonight though I am sitting on the little seat on Mehalah's bow in a new anchorage on a new island, Santa Cruz. It's a beautiful warm, silky evening and I'm listening to my playlist and thinking again of how lucky I am. The world is good. But two nights ago back in San Cristobal the waves were rolling in from the west. We were completely exposed and the boat was being thrown around worse than anything we've ever encountered on ocean passages. Boxes were flying, bottles were crashing and we got practically no sleep. Next morning we quickly decided to organise our inter island Zarpe (visa), left as soon as we could and motored the 40 miles here anxiously watching the weather and using up valuable diesel as we went. Late in the afternoon we passed the oppressive looking island of Santa Fe, dubbed Scary Island, and just as darkness was looming we dropped anchor in this lovely spot.

Out internal Zarpe allowing us to move to Santa Cruz.

It's east facing and dead calm here. What's happening to the weather? Instead of the strong west going current and southeast trade winds that usually occur the entire system has reversed. There are three knot east going currents and westerly winds are raising nasty swells into normally protected anchorages. And there is little sign of change as of yet. Weird.

The anchorage at Santa Marta. Unusually calm. Cruising and cruise ships meet. Mehalah in the centre.

We, along with a handful of other yachts will probably stay here a week or so before moving on to our final allowed anchorage on Isabella Island. From there we will all make the 3,200 mile jump to the Marquesa Islands in French Polynesia, or FP or French Poly as it is known to us salty seadogs. We've found a good supermarket here for a final stock up and on Monday we have a fridge engineer coming out to try and fix the fridge. In the meantime we are using the freezer in short sharp bursts as a makeshift fridge.

There are five yachts or sailboats as the Americans call them in the anchorage at present along with twenty or so of the small tourist ships (small ships, not tourists). Us, two other British yachts, Mowser and Miles Away (each with two young children aboard), a smart Italian yacht and an aluminium Canadian boat with a young couple with baby on board. We are definitely the oldies at the moment.

Today we explored the town here a bit and tomorrow will be jobs day and a walk along the coastline probably with another swim thrown in. It's a hard life.

Footnote: Last night we heard that SV Raindancer that we saw briefly in La Playita anchorage hit a whale yesterday and sank. Thankfully this morning we heard that the four crew had been rescued from their liferaft 1,500 miles from French Polynesia by SV Rolling Stones, the Stones family who we had come to know well in Shelter Bay. More sobering thoughts.

And finally some Galapagos fauna...