The Grand Majestic -Espanola- Galapagos –24 April 2024.

We upped anchor after dinner and headed for Espanola the most southern of all the Galapagos islands and about 90km south of Santa Cruz. The swell was not so bad but even so it was not a full night’s sleep. Due to bird flu, we were not able to go to Suarez but were able to go to Gardener Bay which we anchored off in the early hours of the morning. engines throbbed and there was a bit of a swell which made sleeping quite difficult.

We were having breakfast early, so I was up and having coffee by 6.30am and breakfast at 7.00am. We were in the small dinghies to go to the beach by 7.45am where we had an hour to explore and swim. It was one of the nicest beaches I had seen in the Galapagos and was full of sea lions, sunbathing on the beach with the silence being shattered by male sea lions croaking and the odd female baying. The juvenile males played and challenged each other to wrestling matches with their necks joisting together. They are very tame and look at you with their eyes and trusting although you need to keep well clear of the males.

There were also mocking birds which came quite close to you and look quite thrush like and they are quite inquisitive. There were frigate birds, boobies and apparently there are Galapagos hawks although in small numbers. We wondered along the beach dodging the sea lions and came across hermit crabs carrying their houses with them and other crabs which came out of burrows in the beach. It was a beautiful beach with fantastic white sand and turtles also lay their eggs behind the beach. The island is low with green shrubs and little trees with a rocky outcrop at the top. There was a skeleton of a humpback whale at one end all intact. At the end of the beach we unfortunately saw a dead baby sea lion. I guess only the fittest survive here and it was very sad to see.

Once the beach was explored we had a swim in the lovely clear water with sea lions swimming around us – it is a little paradise. We went back to the boat and got our snorkelling gear on and then were dropped off bay some rocks not far away from the Grand Majestic. This snorkel was good but not as good as Devils Mount – however it did not disappoint and we saw many types of fish, often in shoals – surgeon fish, sergeant majors, parrot fish etc. We also saw a small turtle and a small shark and sea lions swimming in and out of the cave amongst us. It sounds quite blasé now but by seeing this we are very lucky and we need to protect this.

On return to the boat, we had a snack and a drink and we are off to Santa Fe which was not on our itinerary but due to the closure of Suarez. It is about 20km south of Santa Cruz and we sailed past it on both sides on our trip to and from Santa Cruz.

The trip took about 4 hours and we anchored quite close to shore on the east side. It was a low-level island with a number of low cacti trees and a rocky shore with a sandy beach at the end of the bay we were in. We were told that we would go snorkelling as soon as we anchored and so we prepared and off we went in the dinghies off a rocky outcrop where we got out of the dinghies. Louis led the way and this was a special snorkel as well and better than this morning in that we saw a lot of fish life of all types but in particular we saw a large ball of fish in the shallow at the bottom of the rocks. It was huge and I would say about 50metres long and 8metres wide and so dense you could not see the bottom. We also saw the usual sea lions but then two large white reef sharks appeared and swam around menacingly. The sea lions watched them and swam toward them and did not seem too bothered. We saw more surgeon fish, parrot fish, a yellow puffer fish and blue and back fish. There was such an extensive array of fish this blog must appear to be repeating itself. We carried on around the reef and came to an area with some coral but apparently there used to be more coral reefs.

It had been another great snorkel and we returned to Grand Majestic to change as we were going ashore to the beach for a walk. However, we had time for a hot chocolate (with brandy – which was a great addition -try it- it is delicious) to warm us up – even though it is not cold.

We went ashore on a lovely sandy beach which was covered in sea lions. We managed to sneak through and then put on some sturdy shoes to walk up through the arid landscape which had harsh green bushes, little trees and quite substantial cacti trees. There were lava lizards everywhere and then we came across a land iguana – different to the marine iguana and type we saw was only on Santa Fe. It was a yellow brown sort of khaki in colour and a good size bigger than the marine iguana. We saw 4 on our way round feeding on the vegetation and grasses. There were also lots of grasshoppers and insects. The walk was pretty through the cacti trees with views of the sea and the bay with Grand Majestic anchored in it.  We caried on with our walk which was circular and came to a smaller beach with seals. We unfortunately saw a sea lion with a ring of plastic round its neck. We were powerless to do anything about it and I hope it will be ok.

We returned to GM where we were given a coconut drink and a snack. There is far too much food and some eat it!! As we were snacking the engines came on and we upped anchor and headed for our night stop Santa Cruz – Puerto Ayora – lets hope it is not as rolly as when we were there.   

We came into Santa Cruz by 6.30pm when Louis described the next day’s activities. We had supper and chilled ready for the next day.   

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