Galapagos is a collection of rocky islands almost 1000 miles west of mainland South America. As part of Ecuador all her supplies and necessary goods come from there. There is an international airport on Santa Cruz but flying in everything needed is both expensive and not possible.
The majority of goods arrive by sea. Last night the supply ship arrived at Isabela, an old, battered freighter probably 150 feet long. There is no harbour here, the only dock has at most 5 feet of water alongside at high water, much less when the tide is out. So Paula, the supply ship, has to anchor off in deeper water and be off loaded by smaller boats.
This morning at first light she was surrounded by an armada of the local skiffs, the same boats which do duty as water taxi, fishing boat and every thing else. Some were pushing stubby barges onto which the heavier pallets of goods were loaded, others just had the lighter supply's piled high and returned to shore. Even the latest addition to the islands truck fleet was picked up on the ships derick and lowered onto a barge. Pushing these (over)loaded barges prevents a challenge today due to a stiff breeze over the anchorage so they all crab slowly toward the key with their tugs working hard. All this seems incredibly labour intensive and time consuming but it works and has been doing so for many years judging by the battered state of the ship, skiffs and barges.
All this must be repeated once the barges reach the island dock, everything either either man handled or craned off and onto waiting trucks. How the vehicles are off loaded I don't know as I haven't seen a big crane on the dock.
Yesterday there were no potatoes available in the bar where we had a drink to watch the sun go down so no papas frittas, today, Heathers birthday we may be lucky.
To me, someone who loves watching the world go by this morning has been a great way to while away a couple of hours whilst doing odd jobs round the boat.
Tim