Nearing the end of the Ecuador-Galapagos Motorslog
Harmonie
Don and Anne Myers
Fri 29 Feb 2008 17:15
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00:59.568S 89:27.315W
Yes motorslog. That's a new word we've come
up with that we feel conveys the essence of this particular trip
perfectly. We were able to sail for about half an hour yesterday, but
after that had to revert back to motorslogging against the current due
to lack of wind. We continue to nurse our leaking transmission along and
have devised an effective maintenance schedule - every six hours we shut
the engine down and drift while Don pours the oil from the cranberry juice
collection bin back into the transmission. Then, just when Oscar was
thinking that this was positively the longest five days of his life, land was
sighted at eight o'clock this morning.
The Galapagos island of San Cristobal
is about ten miles away. We should reach the designated
anchorage on San Cristobal sometime this afternoon. We had
planned to stay there two nights, which would allow us some time to see the
island. Instead, our late arrival will cause us to stay only one night on
San Cristobal and then we have to move on to the island of Santa Cruz on
Saturday because we have a day tour booked for Sunday that leaves from
Santa Cruz. Since we are now in the Central Time Zone and have gained an
hour, we're hoping there will be time after the arrival paperwork is completed
to see a bit of San Cristobal. There is a bay not too far from where
we will be anchored that is famous for its colony of sea lions. In fact,
boaters are encouraged not to take their dinghy to this bay because the sea
lions find dinghies to be a nice place for napping and once in, are
impossible to evict. Our dinghy has been through a lot lately and
we'd hate to expose it to yet another trauma.
One thing we will miss when we finally arrive in
the Galapagos are the sea birds that accompanied us through each night of our
motorslog. As many as ten of these birds joined us hundreds of miles out
to sea and circled around the boat from dusk to dawn, never stopping to
rest. When dawn arrived, they slowly disappeared only to arrive back again
just after dark. We'd like to think they we hanging around because they
enjoyed our company, but we think the real reason had something to do
with fish they like to eat hanging around in our wake. The birds were
large and had white wings which picked up the color of our navigation lights
(red on the right, green on the left) when they flew near, giving the impression
of ghost birds trying to look festive as they coasted through the air in and
around the boat (they may not have realized that Christmas came and
went several months ago).
Oscar will be leaving us in either San Cristobal or
Santa Cruz - depending on which friend agrees to take him in for his stay in the
Galapagos (he has several acquaintances and friends that live on the
Galapagos Islands). He plans to stay for a week or so and then fly
back home to Salinas. He faired very well on his first sailing
voyage. It's too bad that he had to experience the longest
motorslog known to man instead of the exhilarating feeling associated with a
fast sail across the waves with only the wind and water to listen
to.
More in a day or two after we've had a chance to
experience a few Galapagos Island adventures.
Anne
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