From
Galapagos
I don't have much for news except we did get the autografo today- yahooey!
We've moved into a new weather pattern- frequent rain showers. Supposedly it does this in April, however today, we have rain, wind & waves coming from the west, rolling right into this area they call an anchorage which clearly is NOT! It wasn't exactly predicted on the weather forecast but you sure can see it on the satellite image. It makes for a slow day on the activity side and a lot of wondering about whether it will get worse, better and if so, when? Plus we have this big dive boat anchored right in front of us which makes us nervous but it is also over our anchor so we couldn't leave even if we wanted to. I can think of a lot of other things I'd like to be doing now! Our agent says it would be better to sit it out one more day and then head to Santa Cruz on Friday since that anchorage can be worse than this one! So I guess that is what we're going to do.
Yesterday, Jon & I took a taxi up to El Progreso, the farming area of the island, to go for a walk. We've had to get creative at dreaming up what else we can do here! Because it's higher, it is a lot cooler, but it still gets plenty of rain so is very lush & green. We walked up to El Mirador where there was a great view next to a dilapidated church. I can't figure out why so many places have this feeling like there was once a great idea, a lot of work put into building whatever it was that they had in mind and then some years later, it all falls to ruin. Or it was never finished. We started seeing it in the Bahamas and it hasn't stopped. Anyway, we had a great walk on a long, dirt farm road and then on the main paved road which was equally quiet. But then it started to pour and so we hailed a pick-up truck cab that happened to go by and rode down into town in the back since we were all wet and couldn't ride inside. The cabbie took pity on us and it was gratis, plus Jon found $10 on the ground in town so there was another bonus! That makes Jon ahead of us Charlie! When we got back into town, we were scanning the streets near the park looking for the lady we bought delicious mangos from a few days ago but she wasn't there. Instead there was another lady & her son setting up for what looked like an evening of BBQ & fried food. The son was fanning the coals using an electric hairdryer (this was a first) and the lady had just finished cooking fried dough pockets stuffed with chicken so we had to try those! They were really good and by the time we finished we had 2 new dog friends. Jon kept telling one to "sit" and then I remembered these dogs are Spanish so I said "siente te" and she sat down!
On Monday, we walked over a swimming hole that has a nice wooden dock platform and several resident sea lions. After going for a swim, we sat on the dock for a long while just studying them. Basically, they have puppy dog eyes, they pick & rub their fur just like a dog, they're very fidgety, constantly twitching and moving even when asleep & they spend a lot of time rubbing themselves with their fins or on rocks. They're fairly ungainly on shore but they get around just the same; they just make it look painfully hard. They remind me of what I feel like on a passage- I have to think a long while about what I need to do and then muster up the ambition to finally get up & get it done as if it's a big project.
I tried to do some drawing last night since that is one of the things I'd like to make time for on this trip but there was just too much motion on the boat to do it. Even on a good day there's swell. So I made some brownies & we watched a movie. We also made a stir fry with some local beef. Not the most tender meat I've ever eaten! But definitely edible and the fresh green beans we had with it were really good. I can't wait to get underway again and hopefully catch a fish. I also did some interior varnishing recently. There's just too much humidity here I guess. The table turned out just so-so and the trimwood in the head just won't dry- it is still tacky. Now I'm not sure what to do with it in order to recoat it. Meanwhile, I did the whole toerail outside and it turned out great. For me, varnish is a big puzzle. You never know what it's really going to look like after it dries.. or maybe it just won't ever dry! And on this boat, you're never done; there's always more that needs doing. It's hard to keep it all looking nice.
From
Galapagos
Today we noticed an octopus has crawled into our cockpit up through the scupper. We've certainly never had this happen before; usually it is just little crabs that come up.
Well, that's the exciting news from here. Tons of fun every day! It's time to crack an Old Milwaukie beer and say: " It just doesn't get any better than this!"