Isabela 00 57.851S 090 57.837W

Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Tue 13 Apr 2010 03:49
Sailed from Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz to Puerto Villamil on Isabela. It's about 50 miles and was a disappointing sail as the wind was on the nose the whole time and we had to motor-sail to get here in the light. However, we did see an eagle ray (4ft across) launch itself into the air and flop back into the water. The anchorage here is very small with lots of rocks inside, so not a place to try and anchor after dark. As it was, the anchorage was full and we, like 3 other boats, had to anchor just outside of the entrance with no protection from the on-shore swell. So we have a stern anchor out to keep the bows into the swell. Without it we would really roll. We've been told that 4 boats are leaving tomorrow so hope to get a quieter spot inside.

Isabela is by far the biggest of the Galapagos islands, but only has a population of 3200. The wildlife around the anchorage here is supposed to be very good. It got dark soon after we arrived, so apart from hearing sea lions going past in the water, we will check this out tomorrow. Had a great day trip on a tour boat from Santa Cruz to the islands of South Plaza and North Seymour, both at the northern end of Santa Cruz. Took over 1000 photos with the 2 cameras we had, so still sorting these to select 20 or so to go on the blog. They have a couple of internet cafes here so we should be able to upload them, but we did hear that the internet on the island had been down for 3 days - hope it gets fixed before we leave!

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