0:53.74S 89:36.88W

 

 

We ended up beating into the wind for the last 2 days of our trip here. Very strange to be living at an angle for so long but with the sea flattened out and the wind at about 12 knots it was fabulous.

 

The night before arrival we crossed the equator and as tradition dictates the youngest male had to dress up as a girl, so poor Ollie was woken from his off-watch slumber, thrown into a little beige number that Clare had chosen for him and the ceremony began. Neptune was given a healthy shot of extremely good rum over the side and the crew enjoyed a bottle of prosecco. The prosecco coming from an Italian boat whose dinghy we rescued in the San Blas islands.

 

We got into the Galapagos yesterday morning, sailing down the coast we saw our first sea lion and the the abundance of bird life became apparent. We had three hitchhikers who joined us for the the last night, sitting on the front of the boat they managed to stay all night and save themselves the 70 odd miles of flying required to get back home. They were red footed boobies, a relation of the blue footed that the islands are so famous for.

 

Getting into harbour in Baquerizo Moreno, turtles were swimming around the boat as we anchored and the infamous sea lions started to appear. The noise from the rocks as they squabbled clearly heard over the engine. They constantly swim around the boat looking for somewhere to dry out, so if you leave a bathing platform down or a dinghy you can guarantee that you’ll have one sitting on it by morning. Not only are they grumpy but they leave an enormous calling card!

 

Today we are off on a photographic extravaganza, hoping to find the sea iguanas and boobies. The tours here are breathtakingly expensive so we’ve decided to try local taxis and shanks’ pony.

 

It was a national holiday yesterday so the streets were filled with carnival floats and a huge firework display was put on in the local stadium. It was one of those displays that had the potential to end up on BBC world with the crawl saying that several tourists had been blown up watching a display somewhere! The people in charge were as much dodging the explosions as causing them. When the finale came the whole crowd moved back as the blue touch paper was lit. It was very good fun. I’ve never felt like I was IN the display before.