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5th – 17th May 2005
dawn revealed our landfall. All onboard were full of anticipation of the wildlife experiences to be
discovered on these unique islands, and in fact, our first few hours in the Galapagos were
probably the best of all.
Instead of heading to one of the two official ports of entry, we took a recommendation from Judy
Lin (a friend of Mark’s who had sailed this route a year before with Gregory Borel aboard the
French yacht ‘Urios’), and anchored (somewhat illegally) for our first morning in a small
protected cove on the north-east corner of Barrington Island. This uninhabited island was made
famous when the slightly loopy French sailor Bernard Moitessier spent 6 weeks there after he
aborted his winning position in the first solo around-the-world sailing race in 1969 (the infamous
‘Golden Globe’ won by Sir Robin Knox-Johnston). As an interesting aside, Gregory had steered
‘Urios’ into this tricky anchorage by following navigational directions from an old paperback copy
of Moitessier’s book... and forwarded us the same details so that ‘Skardu’ could do so too!
Moitessier had fallen in love with Barrington, and we wanted to see why... it only took us an hour
to discover the reason.
We had anchored in a delightful cove with aquamarine waters and two white beaches at the
head, dramatic cacti forming a silhouetted backdrop high against the sky, bright red crabs
crawling across the nearby rocks, pelicans and blue-footed boobies dive-bombing into the water
around us, and a large colony of sea lions on the adjacent shore. It didn’t take long to be
personally introduced to the fact that the Galapagos wildlife truly is tame and unafraid of human
contact! We were soon the only boat anchored there, and found ourselves swimming with large
greenback sea turtles, shoals of huge brightly-coloured surgeon fish, and a large group of sea
lions. Initially the fearless sea lions would playfully dive-bomb us, taking delight in our surprise,
but after a few minutes of warming up to us, they were soon darting and pirouetting all around us,
playfully gnawing on our fins, kissing us with their whiskers, and biting our arms like little
puppies! Occasionally if you got too close to the pups, the LARGE mother would blow bubbles
in your face or give your fins a good tug to show who was boss. A unique and breath-taking
experience!
Hundreds more sea lions adorned rocks or lay lazily sunning themselves on the beach, quite
happy for us to come within a couple of feet. On the shore we discovered close-up both the large
brown scaly land iguanas, and the smaller black marine iguanas, and groups of blue-footed
boobies resting from their incessant fishing. The setting was wonderful, made all the more
special for having it entirely to ourselves! Barrington was truly an exceptional beginning, and we
had to admit thereafter that it was hard to live up to that first special experience.
That afternoon we sailed into the main centre of Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz Island, and
dropped anchor amongst the multitude of tourist guide boats that are based here, alongside the
handful of other yachts that make the long passage here each year. The small town proved to be
an enchanting place, and a good base from which to explore further afield (private yachts are
limited to three anchorages in the islands, unless you fork out an astronomical figure for a
cruising permit... beyond the means of ordinary cruisers). Thus we visited the Charles Darwin
Research Station, and took a trip inland to track down the giant 150-year-old tortoises roaming
wild in their native habitat. Extraordinary creatures, our particular favourite was a huge old male
caught devouring passionfruit from the tree, with the fruit smothered and dripping down all over
his face as he feasted! We were also lucky enough to witness a couple mating...apparently they
take 6 hours over the ritual, one atop the other – nothing happens quickly in their world!
Molly then had to fly back to work in St Lucia, via Quito, her extended vacation sadly coming to
an end all too quickly (such are the limitations and frustrations of working life!). Seeing the giant
tortoises in particular had been the fulfillment of her childhood dream, and we were relieved she
got a good taster of the islands during her brief visit.
We had heard tales of the immense variety of underwater life around the islands due to the
convergence of two major ocean currents, so the next day we took a diving trip to a couple of the
top advanced dive sites - Gordon Rocks (east of Santa Cruz) and North Seymour Island. We
had huge expectations of seeing masses of hammerheads, whale sharks, sting and manta rays
etc, but sadly visibility was only 10-15meters. Nonetheless, we swam amongst huge shoals of
large deep-ocean pelagic fish, got really close to about 20 white-tipped reef sharks and a couple
of large green sea turtles, saw rays in the middle-distance, and lots of reef fish, moray eels,
stone fish etc, but sadly only saw a couple of faint shadows that the dive master claimed were
hammerheads - we'll have to believe him so we can wear the T-shirt!!! The guys left waiting up
on the dive boat above us saw tons of hammerheads on the surface while we were down
below....rotten luck!
The next day was Pixie's birthday and we had a great night out. We got her a huge chocolate
cake baked locally, went out for dinner, joined up with a group of local expats celebrating another
birthday, drank loads of capirinhas, went dancing, and rolled home at 3.30am!
Mark, Q and Matt then booked to travel on 'Sulidae' (a 100-year-old Danish wooden sailing
boat) to visit more of the outlying islands, leaving Pixie behind to set up her next phase of life in
Puerto Ayora. She found a lovely little apartment, has secured a few diving-instructor jobs, and
met a friendly bunch of expats and locals, so we’re sure she'll be happy there for a while... at
least until she can’t resist the lure of the next destination.
The 3-day tour of the northern islands aboard 'Sulidae' was relaxing and enjoyable; the old boat
was full of traditional charm, we were well looked after and fed aboard, the rest of the passengers
were fun and interesting, and it was great to let someone else do the navigating and sailing. We
had an excellent Naturalist guide aboard who brought the daily excursions ashore to life with his
fascinating knowledge, but in truth neither of us would say it was as special as our first day at
Barrington Island. We clambered over lots of barren volcanic and lava formations (but there is
only so much desolate landscape we can take!), saw marine and land iguanas, more sea turtles
and white-tipped sharks close up, a pair of penguins, a couple of lonesome pink flamingos,
hundreds of frigate birds, squadrons of blue-footed boobies dive bombing schools of fish with
deadly accuracy, and the usual reef fish snorkelling. One notable first was three whales seen
blowing their spouts from the deck of Sulidae on the last evening...we think they were probably
humpbacks, but we were some 200 yards away, so too far to get a good look.
Then it was back to Puerto Ayora to provision, take on fuel and water, check out with the Port
Captain etc. All took quite some time to organise, including tracking down new supplies of yeast
(enough to keep a commercial bakery going for 6 months!), and buying fresh fruit & veg at the
Saturday morning market. There was a half-chance that Matt might remain on board and join us
as far as the Marquesas, but job opportunities and relationship woes combined to steer him onto
a plane for Quito at the last minute, so it's back to just the two of us after all. Finally, we spent an
extra day solely working on writing journals, updating our website, and sending out a long-
overdue update email to friends back home.
Departing Santa Cruz at midnight, a 40-mile overnight sail took us to the westerly island of
Isabela, where we spent a day and a half exploring. Given it's the largest island in the Galapagos
(70x40 miles) it has a population of a whopping 1,200 people, of which 1,100 live in the only town,
a sleepy place with no paved roads. We rented bikes for $3 and went on a 3 hour ride down the
coast, stopping to explore lava tunnels and take pictures of yet more marine iguanas. The next
day we joined a tour and rode on horseback up through the misty, rainy weather to the top of the
volcano in the middle of the island. The crater on this volcano is almost 10km wide, and the
steep inner walls formed an escarpment that faded in and out of the mist... amazing. Bit of a hike
to see steaming sulphur vents, then a canter on the horses back down through thick vegetation,
a last stop at the local bakery to buy fresh bread, then aboard Skardu mid-afternoon Tuesday
17th to raise anchor; time to head out westward into the Pacific, and set our course into the setting
sun day after day for weeks to come!
