Arrived Porto Ayora
Miss Molly 4
Bob & Peggy Wilkerson/Geoff & Merel Pettifer
Sat 14 Jun 2008 08:02
|
0:44.82S 90:18.54W
Yesterday morning after a boisterous nights sail we
arrived in the Galapagos. We made landfall on the island of Santa Cruz
and entered the port of Porto Ayora. A very open bay exposed to the full
extent of the South Pacific all the way down to Antarctica.
We were greeted by a very crowded anchorage with
4-6 feet waves going right through it. Also many of the boats had out a stern
anchor to keep them bows into the waves which made manoeuvring amongst them a
very tricky business.
Luckily we found a spot well in amongst the pack
and managed to get the anchor down. We then set about getting a stern anchor out
to keep us in line with the other boats around us. All went well and we had a
water taxi run out the stern anchor.
What a relief to get settled. The potential for
disaster was very high and with the combination of lack of sleep and the big
adrenalin rush to get anchored we were both a bit shaken.
We cooked a nice breakfast, washed the boat down
and grabbed an hours sleep before Ricardo, our agent, called us on the VHF.
To our relief he was very straight forward, very concerned about the anchorage
and was quick to tell us that this was not normal and it should subside in a few
days. As I write this the following morning it has indeed gone down a bit.
Ricardo had all the right answers to our questions and is a completely different
type of agent to the one we had in Panama who left a lot to be
desired.
We had a quick walk ashore yesterday and the town
seems very nice. Many nice restaurants with very reasonable prices. We even
managed to see a small procession of dancers quite by chance. A nice welcome
ashore here in Santa Cruz.
We ended our evening with drinks on our sister ship
"Fuerte" who left this morning for Isabella another island amongst the chain
here. We will next see them in Tahiti in August. We crawled into bed very early
after a quick sandwich and had a reasonable nights sleep considering the
motion. A bit like being at sea but without having to keep watch.
We will be here for the next 2 weeks and be leaving
for the Marquesas around the 28th June.
Cheers for now from
Geoff & Merel
|