We are sitting here tonight enjoying a drink in the cockpit and reflecting on what lies ahead. In terms of prep, the fuel tanks are full, the gas tanks are full, the food shelves and nets are absolutely full, the hull is scrubbed, we have a course on the plotter and we are filling our water tanks and charging our batteries. We have a few things to do tomorrow, but we are getting very close. Another call with our agent in Tahiti assured us that all should be OK for our arrival. There was a slight kerfuffle amongst the Galapagos foreign yachts today when the word went around about all boats being asked to leave when their permits expired –but it looks like they will get that sorted out.

Today's picture - an encounter between a heron and a pelican - who do you think won?

So, as of tomorrow the blog will change. We will still try to do a daily update but it will be fairly short and text only, as we will be sending it out on the satellite phone, but will show our position. We will add pictures at the end of the trip. If you post comments we will not receive them until we arrive in French Polynesia and get back to normal wifi. We are aiming for a news-free voyage – it will be an interesting experience in this era.

We have been here way longer than we planned, and in fact longer than we have ever been anywhere, but it has been a safe and relatively comfortable home for Barracuda and her crew. We will miss the sea-lions on Enderby, the noddies feeding on the spoils of the big fish, the swooping frigate birds, the pelicans, the sharks, our ‘maintenance’ swimming, our lovely water taxi guys and Mariano in particular, Fast Hugo the fish man, our amazing agent Javier and his team at YachtGala, … We could go on. The Galapagos Islands and their people have been very kind to us. We so hope we will come back to the Galapagos again some day.