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Published: March 25th 2008
Crossing the Equator!
Clive and Rob on March 20, en route to the GalapagosBuenos Dias from the Galapagos, the symbolic homeland of Darwin's evolution theory!
The sail to the Galapagos was for the most part uneventful, other than the fact it took about 10 days to travel approx 940 nautical miles (1700 km) when we got caught up in the equatorial duldrums. Along the way, we were joined by dolphins, whales, sea turtles, mahi-mahi fish and various sea birds.
We were able to celebrate the equinox (point where the sun is directly over the equator, on its way north for the summer) here on March 21, literally just a few miles south of the equator.. so needless to say the sun is brutally strong.
Anyway, the Galapagos are an elusive treasure. It's a long journey to get here (though sane people just fly) and it's quite difficult to reach the outer edges of the islands where the most remote wildlife is abound. For boaters especially - there are strict rules (as well as completely random rules that seemingly change hourly) as to where you can go and for how long. Many of these rules are justified - the Galapagos Marine Refuge / National Park is very much threatened by destruction and
chaos at the hands of humans. Population on the islands has skyrocketed as tourism is really starting to take off. Raw sewage is a noteable problem, but moreso, the introduction of envasive species of animals and plants.
An impressive fact is that 50% of all species on Galapagos are completely endemic. Meaning, half of the creatures you encounter are ONLY found here. They are descendants of creatures that washed up in huge storms or flew to the islands long, long ago.
Sorry I don't have any grand stories to tell, but we don't have much time here! The trade winds are blowing west and we've got a long passage coming up; We begin sailing tomorrow towards Polynesia!
This next passage takes us to the Marquesas, which lies over 3000 nautical miles away! That's about 5600 kilometres. This is THE BIG HAUL; imagine 20 to 30 days without seeing shore and living in a space 34 feet long, nothing around you except sea and sky! This is what I came to do; it's the WATER adventure afterall!
So I'll be offline for nearly a month! Communications in the Marquesas are expected to be somewhat less developed (apparently
Galapagos Marine Iguana
Amblyrhynchus cristatus they stopped eating people only about 100 years ago... seriously), so please be patient.
Take care and enjoy thawing out!
Clive
PS - For those who skype, feel free to add me using my yahoo address.
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Gabi Thompson
non-member comment
We continue to live your adventure vicariously. I use your travel blog to teach my kids that instead of playing video games, they could actually live them. Ben was wondering how you pay for it -- I told him you had to WORK! Thanks for the unique education.