Aboard Dignity (Lagoon 420) Blog

Category: Cruiser Connections

  • The Grotto

  • First day out in the Galapagos

    While we had arranged with the folks from Sail Away to go to the Saturday morning market at 8am, we had learned that it was better to go much earlier. Furthermore we wanted to speak to Jackster on the 8am Pacific Net so we ended up heading in shortly after 6am. We hailed the water taxi and on the way in, David and Mary-Margaret from Leu Cat joined us. We ended up sharing a taxi to the market which was really a pickup truck with room for four so John and I had the fun of sitting in the back.

    The market had a lot of fresh fruit, veg, meat and fish. We picked up plenty including strawberries, ribs, chicken, pears. We left John in town to explore while we went back to the boat to put things away and handle the communications at 8am. We apologized to the Sail Aways when the arrived at 8am hoping to see them again soon. Unfortunately there was a lot of electrical noise in the area, despite our turning everything off, so talking to the Jackster’s on the net became impossible. It looks like we’re all in favour of a hook up in Isabella on the way out of the Galapagos. Even though we may not be able to go ashore we can swim with the penguins there (on the equator???) and it makes an excellent rendezvous/staging before the next 3,000nm jaunt.

    When we again headed ashore we shared the water taxi with an Australian couple living aboard a Lagoon 410. They know John and Jill aboard Stevee Jean so we were quickly chatting.

    We met John ashore and headed to the Darwin Center. Here we were able to see and get close to the giant tortoises that are unique to these islands. The center is involved in trying to rebuild the tortoise population in the Galapagos following near extinction from their being prized for food by whalers, pirates, etc. First we got to see the young tortoises which had been reared. Later we were able to descend into rocky enclosures and get close to mature tortoises. We even got to see ‘Lonesome George’, the last surviving Galapagos Pinta Tortoise.

    The center also kept a few land iguana, also part of a repopulation programme.

    After our visit to the center we walked to short distance back into Ayora to book our dive outing for Sunday (today) and have lunch. We’re all set up to visit Gordon Rocks today where, hopefully, we’ll get to see sharks, seals and sea lions.

    We spent the rest of the afternoon back on the boat. John and I emptied all our jerry cans of diesels into our main tanks. We have heard that we can get fuel locally a lot cheaper than getting it via our agent. We have also heard we need approval from the port captain so there may be hurdles to jump. If we can do this we’ll need to collect it in our jerry cans which will be a pain but it will save us a couple of hundred bucks.

    We finished the day BBQing half of the ribs we bought in the morning market and some chicken. It was a fine feast.

  • Old Friends

    The first thing we did upon arriving was to call our selected agent to facilitate our check in. In the Galapagos it is the law that we have to use an agent and we are unable to disembark until the process is initiated.

    We then set about finding an internet connection which seems to work ok except certain features just don’t work. Accessing our email using local clients doesn’t work so we have to go online. My Picasa picture uploader also does not work. But enough other things work for us to reconnect and see what’s happening in the world.

    Probably as a result of it being Good Friday it took nearly four hours for our agent to show up during which we cleared the boat and rested. As mentioned before I used this time to set up the dinghy and go and visit Leu Cat nearby. While waiting we heard from Sail Away on the radio who we’d met around Xmas/New Year in the San Blas. It’s not so much a small world but a narrow path we traverse.

    As soon as our agent had our passports we were good to go ashore. We took the same water taxi as our agent and went to explore the town of Ayora. Helen was immediately drawn to the supermarket right by the dock. Once we’d had the customary price check we were free to walk around the small town taking pictures. One remarkable thing about the place is how clean it all is which is a very nice change.

    We didn’t stay too long as we had a 5pm engagement aboard Leu Cat for sundowners. We took some ice as their freezer was having problems and plenty of beer/wine which we unceremoniously downed having spent the last week dry.

    After a few hours of pleasant company we went ashore to eat out. As we alighted the agua taxi we bumped into Tim and Ruth and kids from Kamaya who we met in Panama City. They’ve been here for a month and loving it. They’ll be heading west for the Marquesas about the same time as us which will be nice. We learned from them about a nice back street where the locals eat so we went there and had a very enjoyable meal.

    It was nearly 11 before we got back to the boat. We were exhausted. Nice to be in a new place and better to meet up with old friends.

    This morning we’re off to the Saturday market and later we expect to visit the Darwin Center.

    I’ll leave you now with the track of our crossing.


    View 2010 Galapagos Crossing in a larger map

  • Arrived in the Galapagos

    A brief note to say we’ve arrived safely in Academy Bay, Santa Cruz, Galapagos. I’ve already met David and Mary Margaret on Leu Cat after two years of chasing who are stuck here with a freezer problem. Right now we’re waiting clearance. More later. For now, here are some pics from our crossing.

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  • Rest of park/back in Quepos

    Going back a couple of days ago, we did go back to the park around 3pm. We landed ashore around high tide and right where we chained the dinghy to a tree there was a troup of white faced monkeys including one mother with a baby clinging to her back.

    We hung around there for a while before hiking the one remaining trail in the park we had left from the morning. This was a circular trail around cathedral point which climbed up, offered some spectacular views over the sea and then back down again. There were quite a few agoutis around which are the second largest rodents on the planet. We also saw one opossum and a few more monkeys.

    Back on the boat I had to fix the solenoid which allows the propane gas to flow into the boat. One of the wires had broken right where it went into the plastic of the solenoid when I’d removed the empty tank and we could not use the gas until it was fixed. I lengthened the wires while fixing this so that a repeat was less likely.

    Yesterday morning we decided to go for a dive nearby. We moved Dignity and anchored so we could dive straight off the back of the boat. Helen stayed behind as she only likes to go in when it is close to perfect viewing conditions. Ella, John and I were out for about an hour. Most of the time the visibility was pretty poor but there were a few patches where we had reasonably visibility. I saw three lobsters but all were tucked away so deep into the rocks I was unable to bring them in for lunch.

    Back on the boat we set off back to Quepos and lunch. In the afternoon I took Ella and John to shore along the way picking up Mike from Callisto. Mike and I took a taxi to the dive store where I dropped off our three tanks to be refilled then went to the propane shop to pick up our gas tanks. We then headed back to the dive store but as our tanks were not yet ready we went round the corner for a couple of beers. We picked up the tanks and a final taxi ride took us back to the dinghy where we loaded up and headed back to the boats. On the way I realized I forgotten to ask the dive shop if they had a spare fin strap so having dropped Mike and the tanks off I went back ashore and walked to the dive shop. I was able to obtain a new strap and on the way back picked up a spare remote control and some onions. The dinghy had worked itself onto a rock and in rectifying this I slipped and sat in the water getting quite wet and embarassed. Back on Dignity I completed changing the oil on the genset which I’d started earlier. By now, much of the afternoon was done with all the chores and all that was left to do was collect Ella and John from the shore.

    Today we’re out of here. We’re sailing (or motoring if our recent luck with the weather is with us) up to Herradura/Jaco where we’ll stay a couple of days before moving on.

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