San Cristobal - Galapagos –18 April 2024.

Charles and Joyce were up early as they had to be on the quay at about 7.00am as they were flying to Isabella, the largest of the Galapagos Islands They had breakfast and Keith and I waved them off. They will be back on 24 April, but Charles will fly home on 28 April. They should have a nice tour of a number of islands and as I write this they have sent some pictures and apparently saw penguins.

Angus text as well that he was home, but his luggage did not arrive. I wondered whether it had been impounded with a government health warning!! Apparently his washing was put in his bag but according to Charles had quite an odour. I do hope it is returned especially as he had bought quite a few tee-shirts for his family as gifts.

Mark, Corinne, Kieth, Ruth and I had a leisurely breakfast and then we decided to go ashore and to walk from behind the Interpretation Centre and visit the coves and cliffs that it suggested, as there was a diagram of these trails. It was a lovely warm day and we set off with our rucksacks containing our costumes, towels etc. The route was very well laid out and was built as a proper path through the lava rock boulders, shrubs, trees and cacti and you could hear the regular sound of birds and the odd lizard which scattered around. There were also a lot of finches – which Darwin of course discovered and wrote a lot about. After a mile or so we came to a crossroad and the right-hand fork went up and the left went down to a cove. I decided to go up and it took me up a number of steps to a viewing platform which overlooked the coastline and cove which I could see the others  arriving at, as they had decided to go own. After taking some pictures I caught them up at this cove.

The cove did not have a beach but some caves in the rock which were largely occupied by sea lions, who were also swimming in the bay. There were some steps down to the water level where a wooden platform had been built and there were some further stone steps going into the water. We could see a turtle swimming around and the sea lions. We changed and got in – the water being quite cool initially, but you quickly got use to it and it cooled you down. There was a lot of fish life under the water with little brown fish, some blue and yellow, silver long fish and lots of quite large parrot fish which were of different colours – blue, pink, brown, green, light blue etc. They were all feeding on the rocks and bottom. The sea lions swam around you and so easily bearing in mind they have quite large bodies. When we had enough we got out and changed and walked on where we came to a large statue of Charles Darwin on the rocks with a stone sea lion, turtle and giant tortoise He was only 24 when he came to the Galapagos and collected over 100,000 specimens in his time here. – see the picture.

We continued our walk and came across other viewpoints where we could see the coastline and views. There were boobies and frigate birds, pelicans and gulls flying around and you could see from the white on the rocks their favourite stopping places. We then came to a beach which is one we can just about see from Stormbird. We did not stop to swim but walked along it and there were signs indicating that iguanas were nesting but we did not see any. We obviously saw more sea lions enjoying the beach and surf.

The walk carried on round and we saw on the rocks amongst the sea lions Sally Lightfoot crabs. They are a most vivid red with other colours mixed in such as yellow, gold, purple, silver, orange and brown etc and are the most colourful and attractive crabs I had seen. They are about  3-6 inches in size.  Their underside is white, often bluish. Juveniles are much darker, almost black to start with small orange spots. They are predators and scavengers and feed largely on algae and animal detritus. Adults feed on other crabs including their own species and small crustaceans. Their common name comes from their ability to walk on water as they scurry from one rock to another.

We continued our walk and back past the Interpretation Centre to Playa Mann where we had a welcome drink and a second swim was had again with sea lions playing in the shallows. We then had lunch and Mark and Corinne went off to La Loberia beach again to see the iguanas and the sea lions and the nice beach. Corinne found this amazing.

We had to get permission to go to Santa Cruz tomorrow and I went to try to find the agent to get this. I was also trying to sort out our gas tank and were told this all happens in Santa Cruz. I also had spotted a very lovely book about the Galapagos and decided to buy it. This has some fantastic pictures of the wildlife and explanations and it will be a memory for me and will guide on our forthcoming tourist boat.

I had an ice cream and then met Keith and Ruth and we then returned to Stormbird and Corinne and Mark then joined us. We went out for supper and had an enjoyable Italian meal. Ruth and Corinne were now tired with jetlag and having had a busy day and so had an early night.

I am excited about moving on to Santa Cruz bit we will be back to San Cristobal on the 21st.  

I went to find the agent to get our paperwork to

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