We arrived safely and are now at anchor in Admiralty Bay in Santa Cruz.  There are 29 yachts in the Blue Water Rally and so the bay looks very festive with our battle flags and rally flags flying.  We arrived, as expected, at 9am on Tuesday, clocks now adjusted to 6 hours behind GMT.  After two weeks at sea after leaving Panama the boat looked a mess.  The pollution in Panama dumped so much fine black dust on the yacht and on the mosquito netting covering our hatches.  I set to cleaning the galley and fridge, the Pikes did their cabin and corridor, Jonathan set to on the saloon and Allan on the cockpit. No point doing the rest of the yacht as no abundance of fesh water to do so.   

We all met for a Blue Water Rally 'Happy Hour' at 'The Rock' a bar/cafe in the town. Huge fun, great atmosphere and a very high noise level.  It was lovely to be able to chat to other 'First Mates' (wives) from the other yachts and find out their experience of the sail across. Much to my suprise, like me, they found it arduous as it is so hot and cooking and doing domestic work below decks can be very tedious especially with little sleep, something the guys find it difficult to understand I think. Some of them are flying back and not doing the long trip to the Marquesas.  One very brave couple have two very young children on board which must have made it extra difficult. We are forming a 'First Mates' support group and will be having a very girly night out on the town together.

Day two in the Galapagos and after sorting things out on the yacht we joined the others on a beach about two miles away, a lovely walk through the most amazing prickly pear trees. Lizards playing on the path and Darwins Finches using sticks to get insects out of tight spots.  We got to the first beach, a long stretch of long white, soft sand and a huge surf coming in.  Iguanas were sunbathing on the beach or belly  flopped down in the wet sand to cool off, huge pelicans diving for fish, and turtle tracks up to the sand dunes where nests are marked by poles and red ribbon.  The sea there has too much undertow to swim so we walked on to the next bay which is protected by a reef and mangrove and met the others.  We swam in blissfully warm water, no jelly bugs,  turtles popping up in the distance, the odd Iguana going for a swim and Pelicans diving for fish just next to us. We found a lovely tree to shelter from the sun.  Jonathan found a board of wood and made a makeshift sunbed, photos attached.

The Pikes chatted to a long boat owner and so we did the trip back by boat.  We saw Blue Footed Boobies, seals, Frigate Birds and had great fun going out from the cove through the large surf.  We were dropped off at the far end of the town where there were sea lions on the steps resting.  Had a lovely lunch at a cafe and virgin Mohitos to drink, very refreshing, the guys had beer.  Back to the yacht for a siesta and then on to The Rock for happy hour with the other Blue Water rally crowd.  We all ended up having dinner at the street food stalls at one long table down the centre of the road. Water Taxi back to the boat at 12.30 pm.