Tuesday 6th March:  The South Pacific Ocean 05 17.0S  98 23.0W     

Today’s Blog by David

Bobbing along nicely at about 10  knots under spinnaker in an uncomfortable sea, now winding some of the miles lost yesterday when we had more sail changes than any of us found desirable. It’s a long story but in summary, it  cost us a few miles and allowed some boats to overtake us.

Here is a photo gallery of Galapagos Experiences.

Kicker Rock – San Cristobal

The Beach at Puerto Villamil, Isabella

Fore and Aft Anchors

IN Santa Cruz there is little space so vessels are asked to anchor with a second anchor out to the stern. The idea is that it stops you swinging as the wind and tide moves around the compass.  In that way  boat takes up less space so more boats can anchor in the harbour. That is fine provided everyone anchors fore and aft of they don’t then it can all go pear shaped.    In the following picture the catamaran did not have a stern anchor:

Visibility

When we arrived in  the Galapgos the visibility was pretty astounding.  In the UK visibility in the summer is often 5 miles or less, but can get to 20 miles or more after a cold front has gone though.  Sitting in Wreck Bay  at San Cristobal we could sea Santa Cruz,  over 40 miles away – about as far as Portland Bill is from the Needles! 

The following photo is of clouds which we estimated were 80 miles away.

Marine Iguanas

Ubiquitous

Land Iguana

Rarer Yellow blotches, shorter round tail (the marine iguana has a flat upright tail to propel them while they swim.= have developed on some of the more remote islands. There is some cross breeding between the species but the produce is sterile.

Whimbrel

Common or garden, not endemic to Galapagos

One of Darwin’s Finches

There are too many twitchers among our readership for me to hazard a guess which of them it is!

Galapagos Flycatcher

Galapagos Mocking Bird

A Lava Heron

Another kind of Heron (see note above)

Flamingos  (see note above)

A couple of Gulls with a Sally Lightfoot crab

Young Sea Lions

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And finally ……

Blue Footed Booby