Escape Adventures:  Galapagos Islands 7-12 July 2013

We only spent four days in the Galapagos Islands.  Jay and I had gone on a tour of the Galapagos Islands back in 2010 so we had a good chance then to visit all of the main islands and see the fantastic wildlife up close.  We were on a Linblad Tour that went to both Machu Picchu in Peru and the Galapagos Islands and while we were in the Galapagos, we sailed on the National Geographic Ship Endeavor.  The ship sailed from Island to Island at night and then we went ashore on the zodiac boats each day.  I'm posting a picture of the Galapagos Islands so you can get an idea of how it might look approaching from the south.  Santa Cruz Island is about 30 miles across so you can use that to size the rest of the islands in your minds or to plot distances for sailing around the islands.  Our current stop was primarily for rest and resupply, but we certainly hoped we would get a chance to see some of the wildlife too.  The Galapagos Islands belong to Ecuador and they are all a part of the national park.  If you arrive there as a private yacht, you must sign in with the local Port Captain at the Island you first land at and you can only stay at that island.  If you want to cruise from island to island, you have to get a special permit from Ecuador which takes a lot longer and is pretty expensive.  Even then, you have to hire a guide to sail with you from island to island and that also is quite expensive.  One thing I forgot to mention in my last post was that when we awoke on the morning of 6 July, we found this Swallow Tailed Gull sitting on the deck with a broken wing.  Apparently it had flown into one of the stays during the night and broke its wing.  I picked it up and made it as comfortable as I could, but it had a bone sticking out of the front of its wing and it was obvious he wasn't going to make it.  We put it on the back deck and eventually he just jumped overboard and swam off.

We first saw the Island of Floreana around 0515 on the 7th and then Santa Cruz about 0830.  We dropped anchor in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa Cruz around 1245 after Sailing 2585 nm.  It was a great relief for me personally to be there and Jay and I particularly had a great sense of accomplishment.  Sven had sailed to the Galapagos a couple times before on two of the Atlantic 57 catamarans that were built at Alwoplast.  As soon as we anchored, I contacted Johnny Romerez, who was the agent we had been coordinating with, and told him we had anchored.  He came on board around 2 PM and brought a Navy Officer with him to inspect the boat and to fill out the necessary papers for us to be there.  I also made arrangements with Johnny to have diesel delivered to the boat and I thought everything was taken care of so Jay and Sven went ashore to see the sights while I waited for the diesel to arrive.  Here are a couple of pictures of the harbor taken from the back deck and I've posted a video of the anchorage so you can get a better view at:
http://youtu.be/3MTXzNDLgMQ   Santa Cruz Anchor Site

Two new crew members, John Rohrback and Eric Buxton from the Seatle area had flown down to meet us in the Galapagos and would sail with us to La Paz.  I had put out a call for crew members to my teammates on the Ventura County Sheriff's Mountain Search and Rescue Team and one of my teammates, Kevin Matchet, responded and said his brother-in-law really wanted to crew on Escape and that he was an experienced sailor, spoke fluent Spanish, and was a professional bird expert specializing in Pelagic Birds or sea birds.  All of those qualifications appeared to be exactly what I needed so I started corresponding with John and after about two e-mails, he said he really hesitated to ask me, but  his friend Eric Buxton, who is also an experienced sailor, really wanted to come.  After a few more e-mails I found out that Eric had owned his own sailboat for several years and had sailed extensively in the San Juan Islands.  Both Eric and John were in their late 20's, in great physical shape, and were both experienced sailors—and they were willing to haul all of the repair parts Alwoplast was sending me to make modifications to Escape before we sailed the remaining 2136 nm to Baja.  Eric and John had arrived on the Island of San Cristobal on 7 July but neither they nor we had a cell phone that would work in the Galapagos so we communicated through e-mail which I was sending over the SSB radio.  Since Escape couldn't leave Santa Cruz, we decided that they would just catch a water taxi over to the boat on the morning of the 8th, which they did.  After we had made introductions all around they broke the news that, although the flight had been a good one in general, the bag with all of the repair parts did not make the connection somewhere and was lost.  They said LAN Airlines assured them that it would be there the next day or maybe even that afternoon.  Sven already had airline tickets for the 11th and we were hoping to have the repair parts so he could help us install them before he left.
Since we didn't have any of the repair parts and I thought all of our paperwork was in order, we all decided to go ashore and see what there was to see on Santa Cruz Island.  Since both Jay and I and Sven had all been on this island before, we had some good spots already in mind.  Sven suggested we start first with jumping from some 45 to 50 foot cliffs that he knew about from his previous trip.  We called the water taxi on the VHF radio and a couple minutes later they showed up at the aft steps of our boat.  Here are a couple pictures of the water taxis:

 These water taxi drivers were very skillful and could get you right to the dock and hold the boat there while you jumped on or off.  It cost a dollar per person to ride the water taxi so it was a pretty good deal.  It avoided the hassle of taking our own dinghy ashore, finding a place to park it, and of course worrying about the motor getting stolen, etc.  Once we got ashore we walked about 3/4 of a mile down some back alleys, around a salty swamp, and across an ancient lava flow field and then came upon this incredible canyon overlooking a very beautiful lagoon below.  Sven  led the way through the thick bushes along the

ledge to a rock outcropping that stuck out over the edge a little ways.  I looked at the drop and at the people swimming down below and remembered how it had been during my West Point training when we jumped 40' into the water simulating jumping off of an aircraft carrier deck.  I quickly volunteered to be the photographer and the medic for those who were crazy enough to jump off that cliff and thought that, although I hadn't brought my first aid kit with me on this hike, I could fall back on my training for the past six years with the Ventura County Sheriff's Mountain Search and Rescue Team to at least splint any broken bones and to pump air into anybody who got knocked out if they hit flat on the surface.  Here are pictures of Jay, John, and Eric jumping off the cliff.  Sven had hiked out to the diving platform and jumped before I had the camera ready so I didn't get his jump on film.  I also posted a movie of a couple of the jumps on YouTube at:
http://youtu.be/UBog-EcRnf0   Cliff Jumping 8 Jul 2013

We spent a couple hours at this site paddling around and jumping off the cliff.  There were a couple big fish in the pool, but I figured it was against the law to catch them so we just looked at the fish and then headed back across the lava field towards the boat.  Along the way I saw this Lava Heron hiding in the bushes so I got a good close up of him.  We also stopped at a local tavern to have a cold beer before going back to the boat.  From the path along the shore we came across this small bay in front of one of the local hotels.  It was really nice and seemed like a great place to take another dip.

A little farther down the path we got a pretty good view of Escape sitting in the harbor so I took this shot so you could see a view of the bay from shore.  While we were sitting at the outdoor table at the tavern, a huge frigate bird landed on the gate post just a few feet from where we were so I quietly lifted my camera off of the back of the chair where it was hanging and took this picture.  During mating season Frigate Birds blow up that red sack under their necks.  That really appeals to the ladies.  I had just sat back down at the table when this large brown pelican came swooping in and drove the Frigate Bird off of his perch as if to say, "if these tourists are handing out any treats—they're mine".  Since it was still early in the day when we left the pub, we went to the LAN office  downtown and inquired about the lost bag with all of our repair parts as well as our new VHF radio in it.

No luck, but John and Eric stayed there a couple of hours haggling with the agents at LAN explaining what had happened and how urgent it was that we find that bag.  The people at the counter were really nice, but they didn't seem to have much information or authority to make anything happen.  John's ability to speak fluent Spanish was a real help in talking to the folks at LAN.  While John and Eric haggled with the LAN agents, Sven, Jay, and I went back to the boat.  We were welcomed by this huge wasp, which I was hoping was not an omen of things to come.  He didn't sting us but all of his friends were inside the boat hovering around the fruit we had bought.  Once we got the hornets shooed out of the boat, Sven and I got all of the diesel cans out of the 

anchor lockers and dumped the remaining fuel into the tanks in anticipation of getting more fuel later that day.  While we were dumping the fuel into the tanks, we couldn't help but notice that there was a lot of dirt and debris in the bottom of each 5 gallon can.  Consequently, we left about half a gallon in each can so that we didn't dump any of that sediment into the fuel tanks.  We were starting to have second thoughts about Johnny Romerez because we'd already had a couple Navy boats stop by and ask us who our agent was and told us we needed to go see the Army officer at the port to get checked in.  

In the early afternoon, John and Eric returned to the boat only to report that the bag with the missing parts still hadn't shown up, but said it might be there late in the day or the next morning for sure.  We decided there was no use just sitting on the boat so we headed to go shore again and hiked to the eastern end of the main street in town to the Charles Darwin Research Station.  At the station, they have all kinds of research going on, but one of the main efforts is to reestablish the endemic tortoise populations to the various islands.  In the olden days of waling and exploring, ships would stop by the islands and load a bunch of the large tortoises on board.  The reptiles could go for over a month without food or water so it was a good source of fresh meat on the boats.  Unfortunately, over time many of the tortoise populations became extinct or nearly extinct.  Tortoises lay a lot of eggs each year, but sea birds and other predators kill a lot of them before they can get big enough to fend for themselves.  The research station raises the young tortoises until they are big enough to survive on their own and then releases them on the island their species came from.  Here's a picture of Jay and Sven at the Research Center and a picture of one of the large tortoises, an iguana, and a mockingbird at the station.

After going to the Charles Darwin Research Station we checked again at the LAN office—still no bag, so we returned to the boat.  The next day, 9 July,  John and Eric went in early to check to see if the bag had come on the morning flight and since it didn't they decided to sign up for a scuba diving  tour.  Jay and I decided to take the mountain bikes we have on board and go ashore to explore.  We rode all around town and all around the Charles Darwin Research Station and then headed out the main road towards the airport.  Jay decided it was boring just riding out the long straight road (see first picture below) so he turned back and went to join John and Eric on a hike to one of the local beaches.  I continued on by myself for about 10 - 15 miles.  It was hot, but I liked the exercise after being cooped up on the boat for so long and I liked the peace and quiet as I pedaled along through the woods and looked at how the local people lived.

Here are a couple examples of houses I encountered along the way.  Note the clothes line out beside the blue house to the right and the banana trees to the right of the house below.  These people don't necessarily have a lot of possessions, but they are happy for the most part and seem to live a pretty good non-stressful life.  After an hour or so I came to a small village with dirt roads going out on both sides of the highway.  I took one of the dirt roads to the right that went out toward what looked like citrus orchards.  That's where I got the picture of this second house with the dog sitting in the driveway.  A little farther up the road, I saw a road that went back into some sort of complex that had what looked like a playground there.  As I got closer, I could see that it was a school and the sign below indicates it was donated by Linblad (the company I had gone on the tour with in 2010), National Geographic and some other companies.  The school was closed that day and there were no children or anyone else at the site so I just peeked in through one of the windows.  The classroom looked like it was for kids in about the 2nd or 3rd grade and had lots of teaching aids on the walls.

On the way back to town I was grateful that it was mostly downhill and about half way back I stopped to rest at a wide spot in the road and saw a sign that indicated that the trail leading away from the parking lot went to some lava tubes. I parked my bike and walked along the trail for about 1/4 of a mile where I came upon this lava tube.  Lava tubes are created when there is a large lava flow that eventually cools on top with molten lava still below.  After the supply of lava stops coming to the surface the molten lava still in the tube drains out and the lava tube is left.  This one is about 20 to 30 feet high down at the bottom of the picture.  

On the morning of the 10th, the missing bag finally showed up so I assigned everyone jobs to get as much of the work done as possible during the one day Sven had before he had to fly back to Chile.  The first order of business was for Sven to go up the mast to install the new pulley system Alwoplast had devised to prevent chaffing of the screecher halyard.  That took a big part of the morning because it's difficult to get up there and it's not easy working at the top of the mast even when the boat is in a relatively quiet harbor.  Here's a picture of Sven at the top of the mast.

After Sven got the new pulley installed at the top of the mast, he started installing the one-way valves in the bilge discharge hoses.   Jay and Eric removed the VHF radio that Alwoplast had loaned us and modified the panel above the pilot station so the new VHF radio could be installed.  Here's a shot of Eric modifying some of the electronics that had to be soldered before they could be installed.  While he was doing that, John Rohrback helped Sven by removing shelves in the closet and reinstalling them after Sven installed the one-way valves.  That saved Sven a lot of time so he could devote all of his time to the tasks that actually required his skills.

After John finished that task he went to the back deck to reroute some of the wires that go to the antenna farm by the radar.  Some of it was left loose and was flapping in the wind or not very well protected from the weather during storms.  Here's John working on that task.

Once Sven finished with the one-way valves.  He and I removed the bowsprit that we had repaired at sea and installed the stainless steel reinforcements Alwoplast had sent us.  By the time we finished it was after 10 PM and Jay had supper for us before we hit the sack.  Overall, it was a very productive day.  We didn't get to install the flappers that Alwoplast sent us to keep the water from coming into the engine compartments through the exhaust fan tubes, but I figured I could do that once we got to La Paz.  There wasn't a good source of any kind of building materials there at Santa Cruz.  We did buy a few items at one of the local dive shops, but we couldn't get stainless steel screws or any things like that.  

We still hadn't received the diesel that Johnny had promised us so on the morning of the 11th I called him again and explained to him that we were scheduled to leave on the 12th.  I was really unhappy because we had been visited a couple more times by the Ecuadorian Navy and each time they told me that we still hadn't registered with the Port Captain.  Johnny said he had turned in all of the necessary papers and not to worry, that the diesel would be there around noon.  I sent everyone to shore to get groceries and other supplies for the long trip to La Paz while I waited for the diesel to arrive.  

At noon there still was no diesel  so Jay went for one more swim off the back deck.  The water was perfect.  Around 2 PM a boat showed up with diesel and I got ready to have him fill our tanks the rest of the way up and to fill our five gallon cans.  I figured I needed about 68 gallons of diesel.  The diesel delivery boat had only been tied up beside Escape for about five minutes when the Navy boat showed up again and started asking the operator for his permit.  He showed them lots of papers and there was a lot of hand waving going on, but in the end, one of the Navy guys came on board and told me that I couldn't have this diesel because it was diesel that was left over from a delivery to another boat and for some reason, it couldn't be put in my boat.  He told me that I had to come with him to talk to the Port Captain.  Here's a picture of the Navy boat that I went to see the Port Captain in:

The Port Captain was really nice and fortunately for me he spoke pretty good English.  I had brought John Rohrback with me in case I needed a translator.  I was surprised to see that the Port Captain had also rounded up Johnny Ramerez and "slick" Johnny was explaining how it had all been a mistake that he really intended for different diesel to come to my boat and that he didn't understand that he had to file our papers showing that we were anchored in the bay, the same day we arrived etc.  The Port Captain chewed out Johnny Ramerez pretty good in words I didn't understand and then turned to me and said that this was an unfortunate infraction of their rules and regulations and that although Johnny had not done what he was supposed to do, it was the captain of the vessel who was responsible for making sure things were done right.  I assured the Port Captain that it was not my intent to disobey any of the Galapagos protocols and that I greatly appreciated the National Park and the work they were doing there.  He told me that there would not be any fines or other problems resulting from the unintended infractions and that it was OK for me to go back to the boat.  I pulled Johnny outside and told him he better find some diesel and get it out to the boat that night because we had to depart first thing in the morning.  I also told him that he wouldn't be getting the full fee he usually charged for his services and if he expected any fee at all, he better show up with some diesel.  That night, he did show up around 9 PM with some diesel on one of the water taxis.  The operator filled the five gallon cans one at a time as we handed them to him and we used a couple of them to top off the fuel tanks to the boat.  We finished with the fuel transfer around 1030 that night, and hit the sack.  We planned to get an early start the next morning.  

In the next post, I'll cover the departure from the Galapagos and the trip to La Paz.