Letter from Atlantia May 2009

We motored away from Balboa away from the south end of the Panama Canal and out into the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone. This complicated phrase means nobody knows where the wind is going to come from! Indeed there was very little wind as we passed the container ships, anchored and waiting to go through the canal, and the busy dredger making room for them. We spent the first night about forty miles away at Isla Bona to scrub the bottom and to prepare for our 1000 mile voyage to the Galapagos. There was a trimaran in our little anchorage and they played the bongo drums all night. No doubt to scare away the natives. They managed, since the island was still uninhabited except by the Magnificent frigate birds and the brown pelicans, when we left early in the morning.

We caught the west going current out of the Gulf of Panama and as we left the land we were making 9 knots over the ground. Very useful as we passed a line of general cargo vessels making their way towards Panama City. The voyage took us eight days to the Galapagos Islands taking watches of three hours each, 24/7! The ITCZ was quite flat except where the sea appeared to boil with counter currents. These areas were directly above the meeting areas of the tectonic plates on the sea floor. It made us wonder exactly what was happening down there! We escaped to calmer waters near Galapagos and had company most nights of tropic birds and terns flying around the boat. No doubt they were trying to catch the flying fish which seemed to take off in flocks above the waves as they escaped our crashing bows.

A brown booby hitched a ride for 24 hours.

We were visited by dolphins and we saw some whales which we thought were Sei Whales. (similar to, but slightly smaller than the blue whales.)

We crossed the equator from north to south on the way. The first time Atlantia has done so. There was a small libation for Neptune and a glass of wine each for us. It broke our taboo on drinking whilst on voyage, but it was a special occasion.

We arrived at San Cristobal, the most easterly island and the centre of administration of Galapagos, about lunch time. We had motored the last 100 miles since there was no wind. We were greeted by sea lions and blue footed boobies as we passed a huge pinnacle of rock sticking out of the sea.

It looks like a football boot from one angle and a sleeping lion from another. The name is kicker rock, nae doot after the fitba, which of course they are all mad about in South America.

The Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador. Ecuador is the only known democracy ruled by Communists who apparently offered every man and woman a cash handout of a reasonable description if they were voted in. They were!! Galapagos is a long way from Ecuador though ( about 650 miles) and they are reasonably autonomous although there are still political rumblings. There was a presidential election during our 20 days there and the place was full of flags and the odd loud speaker. We tried to find out who won, but this seemed a closely guarded secret. Perhaps our Spanish wasn’t good enough to ask properly which is probably a bit nearer the truth. These are our last Spanish speaking islands for a while, the next being French and English.

The islands of Galapagos are all volcanic and black rocks seem to abound. We were restricted to visiting San Cristobal which cost us about $250 for mooring fees and clearance costs. It would have cost us a lot more if we had visited other islands, probably about $1500 U.S. for the four days we had thought about, for going to Isabella and Santa Crux. We decided to solely explore San Cristobal and go diving there instead.

We had a wonderful time visiting the giant tortoises and swimming with the sharks around kicker rock. Our dive guides on Chalotours were very pleasant and spoke good English. We can recommend them to anybody visiting San Cristobal. We went diving with sea lions and at one time when we were snorkelling in a shallow bay we had 16 black sea turtles around us.

It was of course at that point our ‘waterproof ’ camera decided not to be waterproof and nothing we have done since will persuade it to take another picture. We did however manage to retrieve most of the previous pictures which show sea lions in endearing poses.

The tour guides took snorkelling parties as well, to swim with the sea lions. One sea lion actually nipped Margaret on the leg. We were not sure whether it was jealous for Will or was just playing. In any event it did not break the skin so it was just the shock that was the problem.

The giant tortoises were wonderful. At one time there were at least 100,000 tortoises on the islands but the whalers, buccaneers, Jack Aubrey (master and commander fame!), Darwin and others decided they would be good as food and so the total number now is less than 1000 in San Cristobal, although slightly more on other islands. They have also developed slightly differently on different islands with different shapes of shell. Some domed, some flattened. They can live to 180 years old, if they are allowed to. There are sanctuaries on each of the islands nowadays, so it looks as if their future should be assured, but only just in time.

Funnily enough although discovered by the Spanish and annexed by Ecuador in the early 19th Century, the Galapagos were not really inhabited until the mid nineteenth century. Then one of the islands became the home for convicts and another for Norwegians who hoped to settle. Neither settlement worked despite the canning machinery sent out from Scotland to help! There is one surviving fragment of a canning machine in the museum on San Cristobal. It was only in the late 20th Century that the Ecuadorian government decided that Charles Darwin was a great hero and started a tourist industry.

Presently there are 20,000 tourists a year visiting the islands, with a permanent population of about 6000. Since this will work out at approximately six local people to each tourist at any given time, there is probably room for some expansion. They are being very cautious however and we are glad to have been there before any tourist explosion. Certainly the locals (mostly imported from Ecuador) are very pleasant and helpful and we were made to feel very much at home.

The town in San Cristobal, in what used to be called Chatham Bay and is now Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, has about 2000 souls, quite a number of small shops, one international bank, a police station, a university (from USA) outpost with about 500 students, and the harbour masters office.

The immigration office is brand new and for some reason is about a mile away from the airport and also a mile away from the harbour. One room is used in a really splendid facility built for 30 people. A taxi is required to visit them although this only costs about $2 U.S. The currency in the islands is the U.S. dollar and they still use silver coins for dollars, unlike the USA where they have been phased out. In addition to the sea lions, which play on the beach outside the harbour masters office,

and the giant tortoises and blue footed boobies, (the gannet is part of the booby family or visa versa),( this photo is of a young booby)

there is one species in the Galapagos Islands that will not be found anywhere else in the world. That is, the marine iguana.

This iguana is coloured black to merge into the colour of the volcanic rocks on the shore, and swims under water for most of its food. The food is the algae on the rocks, sometimes about 30 feet below the surface of the sea. There seemed to be plenty of these iguanas about, although our camera gave up before we were able to take a picture of one under water. There were plenty above water to snap though!

Despite the rather sleepy town, the authorities do not let yachtsmen go anywhere else unless it is with a national park guide. The minimum cost for one of these would have been about $600 to accompany us on a tour of the islands, so needless to say, yachtsmen tended to stay in the same harbour, either Chatham Bay (Wreck Bay or Puerto Baquerizo Moreno Bay) on San Cristobal, or Academy Bay at Santa Crux. We didn’t hear of any yachtsmen cruising in their own boat, although one or two did take the aeroplane or fast boat to other islands. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy their tours, especially the horseback ride to the volcano on Isabella. The volcanoes on all the islands are still classified as ‘live’ and indeed one of the remoter volcanoes erupted so strongly as to evoke an ‘ash warning’ for the surrounding 100 miles. Fortunately the wind was blowing the other way so we felt no ill effects. Our last tourist visit on San Cristobal was made to the volcano’s caldera.

On the way up the mountain (by taxi) we passed various plantations of bananas, coffee, oranges and other fruits and vegetables. They seem to get moisture from the considerable cloud cover surrounding the mountain. Indeed we bought some coffee beans which we hope we can share with you.

The caldera seems to have ferns and heath surrounding it that reminded us of the moorlands of Scotland. The water filled caldera is the only place in the world where one can see magnificent frigate birds actually flying into the water. They do this to take a bath. The fresh water rids them of unwanted salt which lands on them from the sprays of the ocean, or inadvertently dipping. The bath is quite deliberate. Clean birds indeed, as well as fabulous air acrobatics.

The island is supplied by numerous small ships that come in from Ecuador. Although the supplies appear plentiful and there are numerous small shops, the choice is not wide and the cost is about 60% up on that in Panama City.

The water taxis were cheap however at a dollar a ride, which is just as well since there appears to be nowhere to leave a dinghy on shore. We therefore took water taxis to and from the boat when we went ashore.

It was good chatting with the locals, even if it was mostly grunts and sign language. The small birds were delightful, and although there are only about three different types on San Cristobal each one has a subspecies of about seven different types, each one with a different shaped bill to accomplish different tasks ( cracking seedpods, ground foraging, simple fruits, etc.).

The herons, pelicans and storks were good too.

The juvenile Sally Lightfoot crabs were black, turning orange and finally red when fully grown. They were quite striking against the black volcanic rocks.

The most endearing memory of the Galapagos islands will be of the Australian friends we made there and the sea lions that sometimes sat on the back of their boats!!

The next leg is 3000 miles across the Pacific to the French Marquesas islands, Burial place of Gaugin. Robert Louis Stevenson also visited the islands in his travels with his family. More about that next letter. Hope you like the pics.

Love Atlantia

P.S. Will was 60 on the next leg!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep it quiet though!!