About an hour ago we dropped our anchor into the blue waters of Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruise island, Galapagos. Not a bad postal address.
The officials arrive.
Can you find the Galapagos bee
We have cleared up the boat and put in place the requirement for staying in such a delicate ecosystem and now have to wait for customs, immigration bio inspection and safety inspection personnel to visit and check us in before we can leave the boat so have a few hours to kill. One thing you must learn is you never escape burocracy
Exactly 6 days ago less 10 minutes we pulled the anchor up from our last stop in the Pearl islands. In those 6 days we have covered about 970 miles which gives us an average speed of just less than 7 knots. Considering we slowed right down over last night to avoid arriving in the dark and stopped for an hour to swim, inspect the hull and evict any barnically stowaways the skipper says we did OK for a new crew.
In crossing the equator we have passed through the doldrums, an area of sea just each side of the equator renowned for light airs and fickle winds or just no winds at all. In the days of pure sail this area gained a fearsome reputation with ships becalmed for days and crews desperate for water. It also gained the horrible nickname of the horse latitudes as vessels carrying livestock often ran out of water and the animals would die!
These are not worries for modern boats however with reliable engines.
Before we left our predict wind passage planner indicated we may have to motor for 5 of the 6 day crossing so we must have had some influence with Neptune when we ended up running the engine for less than 48 hours including leaving and entering our anchorages. We sailed the rest!. ⛵ ⛵ ⛵ ⛵
The rule of thumb is that when boat speed drops to 3 knots the engine comes on, this only happened 3 times. The doldrums did live up to expectations in other respects, we had winds from every direction meaning time spent on a dead run, reaching and tight on to the wind. Also times we were goasting along with all sail set trying not to need the engine, (noisy, hot, noisy very hot, even more hot), to the first night when we thundered along under reefed genoa at 10 - 12 knots wondering what we had let ourselves in for and one quick squall which caught us out needing rapid reefing and everyone enjoying the 10 minuits of torrential rain to try and wash away the accumulated salt. Mostly we had 10 to 15 knots with the boat on a reach, perfect sailing.
We have eaten well, the fresh fruit and veg just about lasted, yoghurt and humus made on the boat and even a small g&t shared with Neptune last night whilst crossing the line, (the first this voyage, honest).
Whilst sitting here with the rest of the crew dozing, catching up with sleep after a busy night we have been visited by sea lions and a Galapagos Bee, have pelicans and frigate birds overhead and are surrounded by clear blue waters, unfortunately one of the rules here is no swimming off the boat, much to Heathers frustration
We also share the anchorage with several smallish cruise ships so their tenders constantly ply the waters. All a taste of things to come during our stay in Galapagos. Also a huge change from the last 7 days when we didn't even see another boat.