San Cristobal - Galapagos –13 April 2024.

We had a good night’s sleep and woke to another sunny day and all was quiet in the anchorage. We had a leisurely breakfast of bacon and eggs and coffee. We decided we would go ashore and go to the visitor centre and take it from there. At least this is what we thought it was. We took the water taxi ashore and then walked along a walkway along the shore and then reached what was called an Interpretation Centre.

We were out of the town and there was a wooden walkway to the centre which was lined with trees and cacti and we saw a number of finches in these trees – the famous finches which Darwin studied. The centre talked about the foundation of the Galapagos which emerged about 5 million years ago from numerous volcanoes and several of the islands still have volcanic activity. The marine diversity (including the weather and the animals) depends on the ocean currents. The cold Humbolt current adds its waters to the south equatorial current which bathes Galapagos with nutrient rich waters which feeds the marine life cycle. Warmer waters come from the Panama Current which is fed by the North Equatorial counter current and this provides the ideal environment for the development of the tropical marine ecosystem. From the west the Cromwell or Equatorial Undercurrent sweeps in and when it meets the Galapagos it upwells, especially on the coasts of Fernandina and western Isabela, bringing deep waters that are rich in nutrients which are brought to the surface.   

The key thing is that until recently the future of humans here depends on the islands. Today, the future of the islands depends on humans. A lot of income comes from tourists, but the conundrum is that this tourism has to be sustainable and not cause more damage. This is very difficult to balance and when I see these larger cruise ships – I think what do they do with their rubbish and sewage? The centre certainly makes you think and they had a number of pictures of the islands say in the 1960’ and then in the mid 2000’s. The development of the towns and urban spread etc is huge and somewhat depressing. This is such a special natural environment and it has to be preserved and protected.

This was strongly illustrated to me when we went to the beach near the centre where we snorkelled and swum with small sea lions in the water swimming with us and around us. It was magical and how many places in the word can you do that. After our swim we had a drink at the local café and we could see Stormbird at anchor in the bay.

I went off the get my haircut and I had been longing for this since the Caribbean. It is odd but it felt so good to get a proper haircut as I had felt like the wild man of Borneo for some time. I joined the others for lunch and after we went off to the bakery and I showed Mark the market where we bought some fresh fruit and vegetables. We returned to meet the others at the ice cream shop where we all had an ice cream and chilled near the sea lion beach where they were all sunbathing and belching and farting and fighting. They do male funny noise and sometimes sound like sheep.  A number of us bought some nice Galapagos tee-shirts and Mark even bought some new swimming trunks!!

After the haircut I spoke to an agent about a tour of the island and I suggested this to the guys. We went and spoke to the agent who spoke good English and it sounded a good idea where we do and 360 degree tour of the island but will stop at 5 places on the way round and it should give us a good sense of the island.   

We returned to Stormbird and guess what we saw the water taxi who had let us down the night before and Mark gave him a piece of his mind. He did look rather sheepish. We cooked a roast chicken with potatoes and broccoli. Whist this was cooking we sat on the aft deck and watched the word go by including a guy who swam from the beach round us and back. That is quite a long way. It had been another good day and we now have a far better sense of the island and how it works.  

Opportunity for any Readers/Sailors.

In late May 2024 we shall be in the Marquesas in French Polynesia, and we will then move through to the Tuamotu’s before getting to Tahiti about the end of July 2024. There may be some space on Stormbird during this period should any sailor/reader be interested in joining for this period or part of it in what must be one of the most distant and beautiful places in the world.

In addition, in year two I will be going up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and probably across the Indian Ocean to Cape Town and I will need some more crew.

If there is any interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

The blog will continue as we head off to the Galapagos and beyond.

If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com  I can only upload one picture a day and visit our website www.stormbirdgoesglobal.co.uk