Galapagos, Santa Cruz Island

The trip over from San Christobal was a hot and almost windless motor sail. But only 7 hours. Saw dolphins. Merc got some excellent video that I hope we can post sometime. Saw billfish jumping for their breakfast. Saw a shark meander by. But the best was 50 feet off our beam a Manta Ray did a show for us. Maybe 6-foot wingspan. The type that have the huge mouth with the two protuberances on either side. Cleared maybe 8 foot out of the water. Right next to us. First it came straight up and belly flopped on its white underside. I have heard they do that to get rid of parasites. Then it did it again but front flipped and landed on its black topside. Square and flat. With a nice whop sound. They it did it again but it did a complete backflip. Landed again on its white belly. That one must have just been for fun. No pictures and no video. A vid of the backflip would have been amazing.

The anchorage in Santa Cruz is pretty tight. And shallow. Bow and stern anchor needed. It is only the second time I have used a stern anchor and it was the first time with Merc and Bob as crew. Went fine though. Cheated. Paid a water taxi guy 5 bucks to take the stern anchor back and drop it. Hey, everybody does it!

Then onto a water taxi to ride into town. I love these water taxis. $.60 until 7 then it’s a whole buck. But as we made our way around town we discovered something truly disturbing. Its election time and as such the sale of alcohol is prohibited for THREE WHOLE DAYS. So everyone can sober up and vote. WTF you kidding me! I’m not voting! Put some rum in my rum and coke dammit! Oh the humanity.

New crew comes in tomorrow. Then another one on the 27^th.

New crew arrived. After a 48 hour travel day. From New Zealand. Iris. French girl. The “I”s in Iris are pronounced as “E”s. So it’s Eries. I think she will work out well. Next crew still a couple of days away.

New crewmember Iris with Bob and Merc on Seymour Island

It was Saturday night last night and a local dance club put on a show on the downtown strip. Traditional dance. It was very good and it was a local event. Not a tourist show. 90% of the audience were locals. Then at the end they drag you out on the dance floor. Didn’t know Bob was that white. Thought I couldn’t dance till I saw Bob out there. I’m friggin Fred Astaire! We cut us a rug. Or a large cement causeway anyway.

The ARC website is sometimes criticized for white washing the news. No bad news ever gets on there. But this trip takes a toll. I am going to ask our crew coming from St Thomas to load up on Alive and Motrin. Can’t get it here. I took a dive from a water taxi the other day and landed on my back and shoulder. The rotator cuff one of course. If I don’t have a couple of broken ribs then I don’t know what. Hurts like heck. And my already crooked pinky finger is a nice shade of black and blue. To bad busting it didn’t straighten it out. Can’t sleep. There is no position that does not land on something painful. Bob has a hip and thigh that keeps locking up on him. We are the walking wounded. Elsewhere in the fleet we have had a finger amputated by a wind generator, a broken hand (same incident), an ear torn off and sewn back on, and two people are currently in the hospital here. One for some infection. One for reasons I don’t know. Various equipment failures. Any where from minor to putting boats out of the rally. And we are about 2500 miles into a 26,000 mile run. But it sure is fun and never short of some story to tell.

Off today on a daylong trip to another island. Seymour, if I am spelling it correctly.

The trip was good. An hour bus ride over the island so we got to see more of the place. Old rickety bus with no suspension. Felt like getting kicked in my wounded kidney the whole time. That hurt. The snorkeling part was kind of a bust. Nice spot but a swell kept a lot of current running and the visibility was poor. Got a jellyfish sting on the top of my head. That is an odd sensation. Felt like I was wearing a heavy, itchy, wet, wool hat. Then we fed some voracious horse flies. They could bite you right through the rash guards we were wearing. Big ones like the Minnesota variety. Slow and dumb but they took their pound of flesh from all of us that’s for sure.

Then back in the boat and an hour to Seymour Island. They land you on the rocky coast from the dingy. When they told us where we would go ashore we all kind of looked at each other thinking they must be kidding. It is a very foreboding place. Did a couple hour walking tour around the island. Lots of iguanas, frigate birds and boobies. Love them boobies. Brutal place. Very arid. Everything has thorns on it. No water. Looks like everything is trying to get you. Even the rocks were sharp and jagged. Virtually no shade on the entire island. The vegetation is too sparse to provide any. It was mid day and hotter than heck. We are 50 miles from the equator and that sun gets HOT baby! Hard to imagine a tougher place to live much less having breeding colonies. No natural predators but nature is trying to kill you off for sure. Lots of Sea Lions there. Nice to see them in a natural environment. Rather than lying on a park bench in the middle of town. Or trying to climb Vivo in the middle of the night.

Nesting Frigget birds

The ever popular Blue Footed Bobbie

Mom and Pup. None of the animals or birds showed any concern over our presence there. They just do their thing.

Laundry day today. Pretty exciting. And going to find the fuel broker. You don’t just pull up to a fuel dock here. Oh no. Its find the broker, do some paperwork, pay $2 more a gallon then you have ever paid before. Then they deliver it by water taxi and you start the process of determining if they have given you crap fuel or good clean stuff. It will be an all day process if the fuel is questionable. Should be interesting.

But at least the moratorium on alcohol sales is done today. Big parade last night. The people with the blue flags won. Miles of cars and motor bikes and trucks parading through town. Honking and shouting. The green flag people are sad today. And I have no idea what the party distinction is. Just a couple of colored flags. We are happy its over. But it is a huge event here.

Well, the fuel purchase is done. Delivered sometime today “maybe” Awsome. Get to sit aroud on the nice hot boat all day waiting for fuel that may, or may not, show up. You met the guy in an open air café called The Rock. He has a little notebook whose cover is some little kid cartoons. Writes down your fuel request and takes the cash. So I count out $1,087.60. In full view of anyone walking by. And he has a bag full of cash. No receipts. Just a gracias. Its either a testament to how safe it really is around here or to how stupid the sailors are. I am hoping it’s the former.

All in all a fascinating place. Always a story.

M