Ecuador Day 1 - February 16th, 2008
Southern Princess
John & Irene Hunt
Sun 17 Feb 2008 18:04
We arrived at 02:00, anchored off the
marina and collapsed into bed. We had been advised that we would enter the
marina at 08:00 so needed a few hours before going ashore.
Ha!
The marina houses the Puerto Lucia Yacht Club which
is part of a luxury resort (one of my correspondents Googled it and was suitably
impressed) and we finally tied up late in the day. Firstly "rub a dub dub"
arrived with three men in a small dinghy plus the driver. They were the customs,
police and immigration (two of them in uniform and big shiny boots, which you
can't ask them to take off) and as we were stuck outside they graciously arrived
to clear us into Ecuador, which they did with a minimum of fuss.
We had been in constant VHF touch with Rally
Control and then Storyteller was invited to go into the marina at around 11:00.
John Gilder took his lovely white yacht into the marina and promptly came back
out to anchor. The marina was a sea of floating crude oil scum. The channel
which feeds the marina runs through an old oil field and after all the rain was
oozing brown scum which was coating all the yachts in the marina. Later in the
day, the marina bought to us, out in the bay, 'sacrificial' mooring lines so
that we didn't foul our own, which we also have to pay for,not a lot but an
expense we shouldn't really have to incur.
Late afternoon(12 hours later) saw us tied up
in the marina. Our stern is tied to a couple of steel mooring buoys (they had to
move them so the berth was long enough) and the bow is tied to a stone wall
about 10 metres away. We are sitting in the greasy mess and our power and water
lines ashore are elevated as high as we can get them so they remain above the
scum.(Didn't make the high enough, this morning they are all coated in yellow
stuff. Will be horrible to clean). The sacrificial mooring lines are coated
in black ooze and the only way ashore is in the dinghy. Now our dinghy is white,
I spend an inordinate amount of time keeping it clean and now I have to stick it
into this evil mess. Ugh! So far we haven't been ashore! I will try again
tomorrow and see if I can get it in to the water between patches of stuff. Our
240 volt power is actually 190 volts (not quite a brown out) and the water is
undrinkable (non-potable) and if you fell into the sea water you would die! No
question; you would die! Storyteller's electrical lead is not long enough to
reach the shore; we have them plugged into Southern Princess so their batteries
can keep charged.
06:00 on the 17th; I am sitting here writing this
and the predominate smell is that of diesel or raw crude oil and the two stern
mooring buoys are clanging together in the surge that is sawing the yachts
backwards and forwards. Southern Princess was a blue yacht with a white water
line; not any more. Oh the joys of yachting. While here Irene has to provision
for the next 9 weeks, until we get to Tahiti, and the logistics of buying and
then ferrying to the yacht all this food is a bit daunting but it will happen
late next week and hopefully the oil will be gone by then. But I fear not the
plastic and other unmentionables in the water.Sydney Harbour is pristine
compared to most of the world
Lorraine Steele, our old mate from the cruise in
Fiji & Vanuatu in 2001 is joining us from here to Tahiti at least. Lorraine
arrives just in time to help with the provisioning. Poor girl!
Enough whinging! It is great to be here and Sue
Donovan, off Storyteller, spent the time at anchor yesterday corresponding with
a travel agent and she has a great trip planned for next week to Quito, Otavalo
and Cotachi. We fly to Quito and then the four of us have a car and driver for a
couple of days to show us around.
There is supposed to be wifi here and if so then I
can post a few more pictures to the blog site.
Today's Sunday and we are going to lunch somewhere
and a big sleep this afternoon to catch up on the zzz.
That's all for this epistle
JH