14^th – 17^th March.

Somewhere during this period did more washing – took it to laundry service this time.  Also walked to the famous Darwin Centre – what a waste of space.  If anyone wants to see how not to display nature then go here.  They presumably have a lot of people working there but there is a one falling down barn with a bit of bumph about tortoise and some tortoise enclosures and that’s it.  Not sure if we saw George, he has probably been dead for years, you would never know as it was difficult to suss out which was his enclosure.  Annie thought she saw his rear end though.  Good job you did not have to pay to enter. Although in one way we did have to pay – all visitors have to pay a $100 contribution to the park.

Somewhere during this period our stern anchor broke, the rope chaffed on the edge of the roller, so we had to lay that again.  Then one of the tourist books came in and accuse us of taking his mooring – he was trying to pick up our rear anchor buoy.  He then accused another boat, we pointed out where his mooring actually was as he did not seem to know.  Very arrogant shit on board who just kept telling us h was official tourist boat.  They anchored right next to us so we had to move the next day – when shortly after we moved they miraculously found their mooing and guess what -moved. 

Annie, Stephen and Patrick discovered roach ally – a street just lined with gill bars and tables and chairs in the middle of the road.  We ate there three nights on the trot, once with Camelot.  At last we got to taste the lobsters and pawns.

We discovered the fish market s had the local wildlife.

Patrick left us to return to France.  He missed the day we spent refuelling the boats.  You have to order your fuel off the navy and cannot fill up until you have the proper piece of paperwork.  This seemed days in coming.  We misunderstood and ordered more than we needed assuming we only paid for what we got.  Unfortunately we had to buy it all.  Fortunately Gunnar delayed in ordering his fuel so we were able to offload some onto him.  We also bought another couple of container so carry 200 l extra fuel now.

18^th March

Left Galapagos with Karacool for Marquesa’s.  Camelot and Marita III will follow on Tuesday.