Arrival in Galapagos

Our Drifter Buoy

Rob and Bob deploying drifter buoy

Divers preparing to inspect our "bottom"!

Arrival of clearing in party!

Land - first time in a week

Iquana

Ubiquitous sea lions - smelly!

Arrival in Galapagos

Feb 26, 2015

What an interesting place this is! We were so excited to get off the boat and start exploring that I didn't take the time to write this blog entry for a few days.

At about 88 degrees longitude ( Galapagos at 89 37) we deployed our drifter buoy. This is a weather recording station that sends reports to NOAA. It will track such things as water temp and currents as it drifts in the Pacific. Each boat will deploy theirs at a different location. The position of each can be viewed online. The Atlantic has good coverage from commercial boats but the Pacific not as much so cruising boats are important in their deployment. It was quite large and heavy to be stored in the cabin so we were happy to have an opportunity to deploy it early in the trip!

We ended the passage Thurs am, motoring at a speed to arrive at the north tip of San Cristobal at sunrise. The next few hours we could see the coastline and the increase in animal life. There were many sea turtles, sea lions, dolphins, and a variety of birds. These islands are volcanic in origin with the east islands the oldest. It is obvious looking at them with the shapes of the lava flow and the large rocks of lava. At sea level it looks quite barren since rainfall is slight during the dry season which has just ended.

As soon as we arrived in the bay, the officials were out to the boat. There was the water taxi driver, 2 divers, and 7 others. The divers found the hull very clean after Rob and Bob's thorough scrubbing job. After about an hour with them checking things and us filling out forms we were officially in. Thanks to good preparations all the boats passed their inspections.

There are free mooring balls and water taxis for $1US a trip. You are not allowed to use your own dinghy. The first view ashore was such a surprise! There are sea lions everywhere, lying on the stairs up the dock, on the beach and rocks, on the park benches, in the fishing boats. Also on the rocks are large iguanas and red crabs. We just enjoyed the sights, took photos, and swapped travel stories with the other boaters.