06/12/2012, In the middle of the Pacific Ocean
Hi to everyone who is reading, we left port 7 days ago from Isabella Island in the Galapagos and are 908.76 nautical miles into our 3000 mile journey to the Marquises. Our longest passage since the Atlantic and we are doing it all on our own !
we had a great time in Isabella and managed to stay for 1 week on the Island, we had a very chilled time, swimming with the penguins, sea lions, marine iguana's and the sea turtles it was amazaing. If i was ever to go back to the Galapagos this would be my Island of choice. Dirt roads, not many cars or tourists, only around 2,000 people live there. we met a lovely swedish and ecuadorian couple who took us up the mountains with a lady called Sarah (who is the land owner) to collect fruit, Unfortunately i didn't wear the appropriate footwear or clothing (flip flops and shorts) and the bugs loved me that day. But we did get alot of oranges, passionfruit, sugar bananas, plantain, grapefruit, lemons and limes. I have been squeezing fresh juice since we left ..
we found out that you can check in at Isabella which we didn't know and met an agent there called JC , so if your ever going to go Galapagos by boat please make sure you contact JC (we have his details if anyone is interested) There are alot rules and regulations about the Galapagos and it is well worth doing your research before you arrive, Unfortunately we didn't but learnt lessons afterwards.
So smooth sailing so far, for the last 30 hours we have been flying our cruising chute and have averaged around 6 + knots so far and are making good progress.. VVe have been cruising alongside Samsara for the last 6 days and have been within a 5 mile radius the whole time which has been fantastic chatting every day on the radio,having our fishing competition and we even had an afternoon photo session with them getting some great pictures of there boat and hopefully they have the same for us ! But i am sad now because we can't see them anymore , Please come back :( x
we have worked out that if we keep on going like we are we should arrive in another 12 days time, but are in no hurry, we are enjoying each day, the lovely weather, calm seas and beautiful nights with a bright moon and so many stars you can't imagine x
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We took a walk up to the Charles Darwin Centre on Santa Cruz to see Lonesome George, who isn't so Lonesome anymore he has two ladies with him at the moment and they are trying to get him to mate as he is the last of his kind left ? He doesn't look like he wants a bar of them, he was on one side of the pen and they were on the other. We didn't actually get to see his face, we are going to go back early in the morning when it is cooler to see him again hopefully moving, We did manage to get a few pictures of his mates ! You can't believe how huge they are and move very slow....
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05/15/2012, North Seymour Island, Galapagos
Yesterday we took a day trip to North Seymour Island to see the Frigate Birds, The Blue Footed Boobies and the Iguana's, You can't believe how close you can get to these animals, they aren't bothered at all ! We also went to a lovely beach in the afternoon and saw Flamingo's in the wild which i have never seen before.
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05/11/2012, Academy Bay
We had a fantastic sail to Galapagos, it only ended up taking 7 days at sea, We had the wind in our favor and managed to save most of our fuel, well i think we only went through half a tank. We arrived late in the evening and our friends from Morning Glory and Nakesa came out in there dinghies to show us a better spot to anchor, It is so rolly in Academy Bay and its open to the sea so not very nice. We had loads of birds following us the whole way to Galapagos a Red Footed Boobie landed on our boat it was so funny watching it try and balance on the bow ! We also have now crossed the Equator which is exciting it was 10am in the morning but still had to have a tot of rum to Neptune, We are now in the South Pacific !! Wohoooo !!
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Las Perlas Islands
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05/07/2012, In the Pacific
We are on day 3 at sea sailing towards the Galapogos Islands, we have seen some amazing wildlife so far - a couple of sharks, lots of birds, dolphins and a turtle, The Pacific is teaming with wildlife its amazing, more than the caribbean sea anyway.
The first few nights at sea were very wet, lots of lightening all around us and lots of rain, its the first time we have ever topped up our water tanks to full with rain water and it only took around 15 minutes! We have been in contact on the radio with two other boats Samsara and Clementine. They are two Australian boats but we've just lost contact now as we are ahead of them by a few miles, we are waiting for them to catch us. We also got a massive marlin on our hook yesterday but thankfully it flicked itself off, it was the biggest fish i have ever seen on the end of a line, we were very grateful it got away because i couldn't have dealt with it.
A few hours later we caught a lovely sized tuna so we had that for lunch today and it was delicious, although I'm still pining for a Mahi Mahi (Dorado , its my favorite). It's coming up to 5 o'clock and we have taken on a tradition from Sulana which is drink time (tea usually) and listening to some Desert Island Discs Ahoy for now, another update coming soon.
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04/28/2012
This is what i will be doing the 4 weeks at sea ! Haahahhaaa, this sloath was up in La Playita Marina on top of the electricity box with its baby but we didn't manage to see it !
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I don't think James would have picked this one up, This was just before going through the Miraflores Locks !
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This is the view of Panama City from the anchorage !
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04/26/2012
We have had such a great time in Panama City, but i think we are just about ready to leave. All the provisioning is done and i really don't want to see another supermarket in the next 4 months of cruising which I'm sure we aren't going to see anyway ! We have installed a new water maker for the Pacific, we were lucky enough to find one second hand in Shelter Bay Marina for only 750 dollars what a bargain, it beats carting 5 litre water bottles back and forth from supermarkets and trying to find taps everywhere we go. We have also been waiting for parts from England for our wind generator which came quickly only 4 days until the parcel arrived. So its only fueling up with diesel and water tomorrow morning then off to Las Perlas Islands.
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