Harmonie - Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal Island, Galapagos

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal Island, Galapagos

Harmonie

Don and Anne Myers

Mon 3 Mar 2008 18:43

00:53.726S 89:36.842W

We arrived in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal Island around 3pm on Friday (2/28). We didn't see much of the island because we had to leave the next day to get to Santa Cruz Island, where we were booked on a day tour for Sunday. We did have a few exciting moments on San Cristobal though.

The harbor was plenty crowded with almost all of the World ARC boats as well as some other non-rally boats (picture 1).

As soon as we got the anchor settled, Oscar was off like a shot in search of good surfing while Don went to the dock in a water taxi to clear in with the Port Captain. We had read that clearance into the Galapagos required fumigation (a team would supposedly come on board and fumigate the boat for cockroaches, etc.) and removal of all fresh fruit and vegetables. None of this happened. Don thinks it is because there were about ten World ARC boats clearing in with the Port Captain all at the same time and the group was keeping the Port Captain happy with a steady stream of beer. Hey, whatever works.

After clearing in, we had just enough time for a shower before heading in to town for happy hour and the usual social hour(s) with the other rally boaters after a long five days at sea. All the conversations were similar and went something like this:

'How was your trip??'

'Oh, it was horrible! I've never experienced anything like it!'

'Wasn't the current unbelievable?'

'Yes, and no wind!'

'We've never, in our whole sailing life, motored that long or that far.'

'And gone sooooo slow!'

'Yes, and gone so slow.'

'But we are here in the Galapagos now.'

'Yes, isn't it fantastic?'

'Yes, it's positively brilliant!' (This would be an English person...no American, French, Italian, German, Australian, Spanish or Canadian uses the word 'brilliant' quite so often and in so many different ways.)

I should mention that when we first arrived in the harbor, we anchored near a large catamaran that happened to have a sea lion sitting on a bathing platform at the back of the boat. We thought that was rather unique and proceeded to marvel over it and take some pictures. Then when we arrived at the dock on our way to happy hour, we saw about six sea lions lolling about on the boat ramp. They all looked quite comfortable and some were curled up and sleeping. We didn't think more about it until we headed back to our boat in the water taxi. It was dark, particularly dark, since we had forgotten to leave a light on, so when we hopped aboard you can imagine our surprise when we were greeted by a none-too-nice bark from a very large sea lion which had decided to make our back deck its home for the night. We had learned that the locals clap their hands to make a sea lion move....so we clapped our hands to get the very large creature to move off of our back deck and down the stern stairs into the water. We were successful, but as soon as the sea lion hit the water, it turned around, propelled itself back up onto our boat and settled in again. This happened about three or four more times - the clapping, the sea lion exit, and the sea lion return. Finally, we gave up, thinking what's the harm? Let him hang out on our deck for a while.

So we went to bed. Around 11:30 I heard Oscar arrive and subsequently yell when he realized there were not one, but two sea lions on our back deck barking at him. We laughed about it and let the sea lions be. By this time, one of the sea lions was crammed up against the screen on the hatch that happens to be the main source of fresh air for our cabin. Fresh air it was no longer. Sea lions smell like a wet, fishy dog. So we closed the hatch and suffered the night in our airless, hot cabin. At one point in the night, Don thought he could hear four sea lions cavorting around above our heads, but he couldn't be sure. In the morning Don went up on deck and one sea lion was still there. Don shooed it off the boat (and it stayed off this time), then surveyed the damage. The side and back decks, including the stern stairs were completely covered with brown, smelly sea lion slime and fur. They also left us a small, dead squid. Payment for lodging on our boat perhaps? At that point, we decided that although the sea lions were cute in their own blubbery, barking way, we wouldn't allow them to stay the night in the future.

Picture 2 shows the sea lion that greeted us in the dark on our back deck. Looking at the picture, even we have to admit that he?she? is kind of cute.

More Galapagos adventures in a day or two.

Anne