Archipelago of Colon aka Galapagos Islands

South America » Ecuador » Galápagos
May 1st 2004

Published: April 5th 2009

Ok, random trivia. The Galapagos Islands are officially named the Archipelago de Colon; they are part of Ecuador and sit 960km off the Ecuadorian coast. They are also about 90%!n(MISSING)ational park. The only way to walk on the islands is with a Park Naturalist/guide. These islands were the inspiration for Darwin’s Origin of Species. The islands are famed for their vast array of wildlife, much of it endemic. (Pick word I learned). The islands are most famous for the Giant Tortoises that are found there, but I think the birds provided a more spectacular show.

But I get ahead of myself. I still had to get there and that was an adventure in and of itself. I was currently some 900 nautical miles away in Panama. (One nautical mile is about 1.15 statute miles … weird sailing term). The plan was to help my Uncle Paul sail Dreamweaver from Panama to the Galapagos. The boat is a 43’ cutter rigged Slocum. That probably means something to some people, for me though, it is a 43’ sail boat with a single mast.

The Passage

I met up with Paul at Balboa Yacht Club, just outside of Panama City on the west side of the Panama Canal. Dreamweaver was anchored just beyond the Pan-American Bridge, adjacent to the channel leading to and from the Canal. Of my time in Panama there isn’t really much to report. I was only there for a little over a day. The most interesting thing was watching the extremely large ships (cargo and cruise) going to and from the Canal.

Paul and I debated leaving Sunday afternoon with the tide or Monday morning with the tide. Actually, Paul debated I just stood there and nodded. I figured that was my job since I really didn’t know much about what he was talking about. As it turned out we left Sunday evening around 5PM. There was wind, so we decided we better use it. Good thing too because by morning it was gone.

Before I start this tale, a little more about this tiny ship. Dreamweaver has fore (front) and aft (back) cabins along with the main cabin. I got to sleep in the fore cabin because I was crew. It can carry about 160 gallons of fresh water. It also has a “water maker” to desalinate up to 400 gallons of seawater a day. This runs off of the generator. It also has a fridge and freezer, both of which also can be run off the generator or motor. The motor and generator are fed with diesel from a 120-gallon tank. Provision-wise, there was enough canned and boxed goods to last the average family of four at least a year. The fridge and freezer were both full, and we even had some stocks of fresh fruit and vegetables. Starvation wasn’t going to be a problem.

We used electronic charts, a laptop computer and GPS to track where we were and had been. There were also paper charts on board just in case. I found myself able to ponder over these charts for hours. Paul is also able to send and receive email over the SSB radio (essentially HAM radio). There is also a VHF radio for short distance communications. Oh yeah, I should mention that there is a sextant with instructions and an EPIRB. Luckily we didn’t need or use either of these.

Passage sailing is the most boring, tedious part of sailing… in my opinion. There are other parts that are probably more frustrating, and more pain in the ass, but not boring. The boat is at sail 24 hours a day, without much to see. Somebody has to be awake, and on watch all this time. During the day that isn’t so bad, but at night, well that’s not quite as much fun. At night we stayed awake in shifts. The first couple of nights were 3 hours on, and 3 hours off, and then we switched to 4-hour shifts. Watch duties are essentially the same day or night. You monitor the heading, wind direction, wind speed, sail flap (technically I believe this is called trim). The autopilot takes care of most of the boat steering. Every hour you make a log entry about where you are and where you are headed. That is just in case later you need to figure out where you’ve been.

The biggest watch duty seems to be looking out for other things on the ocean: ships, whales or flotsam. During the day ships seem easy to see, whales and flotsam not so much but maybe. Oh yeah, you are worried about running over a whale that is sleeping, not being attacked Moby Dick style. In any case, I think they can pretty much sink a boat. At night I didn’t even worry about the whales or flotsam. On the dark ocean, by the time I saw it, it would be too late - most likely. Ships were a big enough worry for me anyway. I was looking for the ships running lights, and then I have to figure out the pattern to figure out if we were going to cross. Red and green lights indicate port and starboard, while there are white lights on the fore and aft mast. At night, if you really get a good view of the ships hull, well think whales.

Ok, back to Sunday night and “I’m saailliing”. Paul took the first watch. Gary instructed me that if Paul didn’t take the first watch he would stay up anyway, so make him take it. Gary is Paul’s friend whose place I took in Panama, and he rejoined us in the Galapagos. I think I was had on that deal. I found out later that the passage out of Panama is one of the worst because of the lack of consistent winds.

When I came on watch the first night there was one ship off on the horizon. All told that night I saw three ships. I was surprised how the adrenaline from watching a ship on the horizon could really keep you awake all night, but it did. On my second watch, the moon had set and the night was very dark. Good thing, because now I could watch the bioluminescence in the boat wake. Very cool, it almost looked like the Milky Way trailing off the back of the boat. At one point in the night we were joined by a school of dolphins. I couldn’t see them in the dark, but I could hear them. The coolest part though was that I could see the trails they left in the bioluminescence. Really impressive to watch them dart around next to and under the boat.

In the morning the wind stopped, and we motored. We motored for over 36 hours, into late Tuesday night. At one point the alternator went out. So we had to charge the batteries from the generator and record engine time in the log. You have to know how long the engine was running so you know how much fuel you have left.

Monday night Paul tried changing the regulator to see if that fixed the problem. This was tried in the middle of the night because it seemed like a good idea. It was actually because we had to stop the engine to add some oil. Of course it wasn’t the regulator, but since no job can be simple, the ground wire on the regulator shorted to a hot wire and burned up.
Tuesday afternoon we finally changed out the alternator. Late Tuesday night the winds came back, luckily. Unluckily they were right on the bow… but we were sailing again.

Wednesday night was the night of “The Storm”. Ok it really doesn’t deserve the capitals or quotes but it was big to me. Of course it happened when I was on watch. The winds picked up from 10-12 knots to 18-21 knots. I wasn’t too worried about this. What did concern me was what I didn’t know: What should I do with the sails, how far is it ok for the boat to pitch over before we worry, how fast does the wind need to be going before I worry about it, stuff like that. So I woke up Paul and asked him. I think for the most part he just laughed at me while I stood on deck and got drenched in rain. I felt a little bit like Gilligan, was probably acting like him also. In the morning there was a pretty spectacular sunrise.

After a couple of nights the watches start to become routine. I could usually spend the 1st half hour watching the boat and the water, sometimes the stars. Though we didn’t see many stars. The moon was coming into full and when it wasn’t out, it seemed like it was cloudy. It was amazing how the sky could go from clear to cloudy and back again in less than an hour. I did spend lots of time watching the Southern Cross. It was really the only constellation I could easily recognize. The star charts we had on board just covered north of 20 degrees North Latitude. We were at about 5. My thought is that it’s governed by population centers and 20 degrees covers most of North America and Europe.

What else did I do on watch? Listened to music, read some, though this I didn’t like because whenever I looked up I was blind as a bat. I would spend at least one of my watches doing exercises, stretching my back and doing PT for my shoulder. I learned how to stretch out the simplest of tasks. For example I think I managed to take 45 minutes to make some tea and a sandwich one night. Go down to the kitchen and start the kettle…. Better go back up and look around, water is ready, go make tea, go look around again, go back and get out meat, go look around, make sandwich, look around. You get the idea.

When not on watch life is routine also. At night, you almost always just went straight to your bunk. You would usually take at least one nap during the day also, if you had first watch usually just before your watch. If you had last watch, well I took my nap right after breakfast, Paul usually took his later. When awake during the day not much happens either. Somebody had to cook breakfast, and somebody had to cook supper. We usually ate at around 2 or 3 and then just snacked at night. The only time I felt seasick at all was when I was cooking supper. It got real hot in the galley, and I would often need some fresh air. Other than that we would read, fix things, read, play cards, or read.

A couple of nights we ran dark, no running lights on. There was some concern around of potential pirates. I don’t really know the story and piracy is generally not a large concern in this area. But we decided why advertise ourselves if pirates were around. Of course this made me more vigilant on watch. I think I was more concerned about a boat not seeing us than pirates seeing us.

One of these nights we encountered the ghost ship. Paul had first watch and at dusk we noticed a very bright light ahead of us and off the horizon. We both figured it was a cruise ship. I came on watch and I believe it was gone. Paul had never got close enough to find out what it was, and he had said he saw it off and on all watch. Shortly into my watch, the sky lights up on the port horizon. I was thinking, “Oh shit, pirates”, but it wasn’t coming at us, so I just sat and watched. Eventually it was all dark again. Then several hours later, it was light again. I simply dubbed it the ghost ship, though in reality we think it might have been a fishing vessel.

Through most of the sailing we were beating into the wind. Let me tell you that the fore cabin is not the choice place to sleep when at sail, and especially beating into the wind. To get to sleep I would get into the rhythm of the boat and the swells. Every now and then something different would happen. Depending on how big the crash was I might or might not wake up. I learned to time some of it by the thunder of the sails. The Genoa (I hope that is the right name, jib sail. Some people call it the “Jenny”) above my head sounded like a freight train. But when the seas or winds changed, it would get quiet. I knew to prepare for a thumping. I did eventually learn, and slept a couple of nights in the main cabin where you don’t get bounced around as much.

One afternoon I was napping when I heard the sails stop. I thought, oh great the wind went away again. So I yell up to the cockpit to see if Paul needed any help, I really wasn’t ready to be up yet. His response was ‘blah, blah, blah’. I don’t really know but I figured I should get up and see. I got up to the cockpit to hear Paul yell, “we caught a Marlin” and to see it jump. Next thing I know I have the pole in my hand and I’m trying to reel it in… well or drown it as Paul said. Paul starts heading into the main cabin, to get his camera and I ask him to get mine. To this Paul replies, “You worry about the damn fish, I’ll worry about the damn pictures.” I’m reeling and reeling for what seems like an eternity - Paul would agree it was way too long. I think I thought I was catching a bass that I had to play, I don’t know. Finally, there is a very tired about 4-6 ft long Marlin alongside the boat. Yes, ‘Old Man and the Sea’ did occur to me more than once during this time period. Paul takes a couple of pictures with his camera and then we set the Marlin free. Lets see how good the pictures are that we took. Oh wait, the memory stick for the camera is down below in the laptop. “That’s why the camera was beeping,” says Paul. Yes this really happened; no I really don’t have pictures.

Tuesday afternoon/night we were faced with a decision, and a good decision at that. If the wind held we could arrive at Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz by morning. We might even have to slow down. Puerto Ayora is a point of entry and we would have to go there to find the airport and tours. Or option B, slow down and head for Isla Genovesa. This is one of the more northern Islands and rarely visited. It is famous for the red-footed boobies and frigate birds. We elected option B.

Just before I finished the first watch that night we heaved to. This is the method of turning the boat and the sails so the boat just drifts. I had actually gotten better at this. During the early stages of the trip, I could be seen at the helm with the boat doing slow 360s. My famous quote for this was usually, “The boat just turned itself around, I don’t know how it happened.” I really didn’t, but I learned.

For practical purposes you are now stopped in the water. This was necessary because we didn’t want to approach Genovesa (or any Island in the Galapagos) without good daylight. All of the islands are volcanic, surrounded by shoals and strong, unpredictable currents. I woke for my next watch on my own at 3AM. I told you, you get into a rhythm. I thought about lying there until Paul woke me up, but then I realize I didn’t hear him. So I called out… nothing. Oh shit, what could have happened. I really don’t think he fell overboard while we were heaved to. But I got up preparing for what, I don’t know. Well I found Paul, comfortable on his bunk, still in his jacket and safety harness, sleeping. Oh that was fun for me.

Galapagos Islands

Genovesa

‘Land Ho.’ I was dying to say that, and just after sunrise I did. We had made it to the Galapagos. It was now Wednesday morning and we had been sailing for 9 ½ days. Well we weren’t really done yet. But we were now motoring into the bay at Genovesa. The channel is very narrow and you have to line up on these two markers placed on shore to guide you through the channel. The bay itself is part of a volcano crater and once inside we were surrounded on 3 sides by high cliffs. I was impressed at how much vegetation I saw. I was expecting bleak rocks. Upon anchoring we were greeted by a rare lava gull that landed on the boat. Looking over the cliffs, reminded me of Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds’. The sky was literally filled with birds of all kinds: Lava gulls, tropicbirds, boobies and frigates. The boobies and frigates were the most dominate. To watch these birds fish. The boobies dive bomb into the water from 30 or 40-foot heights. The frigates either skim the water or steal food from the other birds. If their wings get in the water they won’t be able to take off again. Genovesa is the only place in the world to find the red-footed boobies.
We weren’t able to go ashore on Genovesa. So we just hung out on the boat for the afternoon and watched the birds above, and the golden rays below. I almost forgot to mention that we had two golden rays swimming below and around the boat for a while.

Wednesday evening we set sail for Santa Cruz, one more night of sailing. That night we would cross the Equator, around 11PM. Because the water was cold and the middle of the night we decided to forgo the tradition of swimming across the equator naked. We elected to have a glass of wine and fresh baked cookies. I know not a great Equator party, but at least it was something.

Sometime in the night three red-footed boobies landed on our bow. The sailed with us until just after sunrise and then took off. We of course took the long way around Santa Cruz, trying to maximize what we saw. I got a kick out of No Name Island, just because I liked its name. It really was nothing more than a big rock in the middle of the channels between islands.

Santa Cruz

Thursday afternoon we arrived in Puerto Ayora harbor. After several attempts, and even a dive we finally got the bow and stern anchor set. Paul went in to clear customs and whatever other paperwork had to be accomplished. I just hung out on the boat and watched the harbor. That was entertaining in and of itself. The boobies would dive bomb at random and in mass all around the boat. A little further out they were unloading a cargo ship onto floating containers that were shuttle back and forth between the dock and the ship by johnboats. This ship was unloading everything: propane, fruit, mattresses, vegetables. It was really impressive.

Once in town we found a travel agent - Johnny, and put him to work trying to figure out how to get me to Espanola to see the albatross and some scuba plans. Then we went to check email, eat, drink, and see the town. After dinner we tried a couple of bars. We played foosball on the worst foosball table I’ve ever seen. The men were made of metal, but not all of them worked. For ‘one last’ beer we decided to go and check out La Panga, the discotheque. I had seen a sign that said salsa lessons, now that could be fun. Of course we were the only ones in the place… but the bartender was nice. I think around 11:30 or so enough people had shown up and the teacher was there so there was some salsa teaching going on. Unfortunately I did not attempt any salsa this night, but Paul was very willing to try. This actually worked well for me; I managed to drag him out later than he wanted to be and got him to go dancing. Georgia if you ask nicely I’ll tell you the secret.

The next day the touristing would start. It started with a tour of the Darwin Center in the morning. This is the best place to see the Giant Tortoises. Let me tell you they are giants. Unfortunately it’s a like seeing them in the zoo. We did see Lonesome George, the last of his species of tortoise, land iguanas, and lots and lots of other tortoises at the center. This is also a good place to see the famous marine iguanas down on the dock. Of course they were just sunning themselves. Not very pretty creatures either.

After this we finalized our plans for the rest of my stay. We would scuba on Saturday… though we still had to figure out where. Sunday night we would board the Lobo del Mar for a 3-day tour of Floreana and Espanola Islands, returning Wednesday morning to the airport in time for me to fly out. I now had to go and change my flight plans, pay for my flight off the island and get more money. Not many places on Santa Cruz take credit cards and I was running out of cash. Unfortunately the cash machine wouldn’t take my ATM, or visa cards. I was told the bank inside would but I had to find a copy of my passport. It was now siesta time and all the copy places were closed. I never did get cash and actually just ended up borrowing some from Paul.

In the afternoon we took a tour of the highlands of Santa Cruz. This was probably really the only thing we did that wasn’t all that worthwhile. We first saw a couple of craters. Then we went to the Tortoise refuge, but we only found 3 tortoises and they were just sleeping in the bush. The most interesting part of this tour was the lava tube. This was just a giant tunnel in the earth carved out by lava. We entered at one end and walked about a ¼ of a mile coming out at the other end. It was wild how almost perfectly cylindrical it was in places.
Fiesta
After getting everything lined up for Saturday, we headed to the boat to get our gear together. We were both exhausted. I elected to come back to town to get some dinner. I figured I needed a good meal in me before my first scuba adventure.

In town I found most of the restaurants closed already, so I kept wandering. I did find an egg tossing competition in this huge gym. It looked like it was middle school kids competing. The winning team tossed the egg almost the length of the gym floor. I only mention this because it was an interesting local flare event.

For dinner I ended up at La Garrapa again. It’s a good restaurant; I was just hoping to try something different. Besides it was right next door to La Panga… bad juju. I decided I could have one beer at La Panga, besides it looked busier tonight and I was curious. Well that was true, tonight in La Panga was a fiesta. I even got talked into trying to dance… boy I wish I had taken lessons the night before. One beer turned into 3 or 4. I blame that on the bartender; every time I got up she would throw my half full beer away. When I came back she gave me another. There were many cute girls at La Panga. Some were cute because they really, really were, some were cute because I was in Ecuador, and some were cute because I had been at sea with no women for 10 days. It was 1 or 1:30AM, time to go home, alone.

Scuba

I approached the day of scuba with excitement and trepidation. My only dives had been for certification. The water was cold-- 17-19 degrees Celsius, <65 F. We wore 7mm thick wetsuits. We were going to do two ~60 minute dives off Seymour Island. The dives would be to depths of between 40-60 feet. Hopefully we would see hammerhead sharks.

We didn’t see any hammerheads. We did see lots, around a dozen, of white tipped sharks, mostly sleeping. We also saw a large Eagle ray, a school of tuna, and lots of other fish. We watched one nudibranch try to eat another nudibranch. I didn’t see any turtles and that was disappointing but I was still pretty excited. I tried to take lots of pictures, which really wasn’t a good idea.

I managed to run out of air in about 30 minutes. I was able to stay down another 15 minutes until I sucked all of the guide’s air down. The 2nd dive I did much better. I gave the camera to Paul so I wouldn’t have to worry about it. I managed to stay down for the full 60 minutes, of which 55 was on my own air. One more dive and I would have made it.

Paul and Rich both said that they were a little disappointed in the diving. They were comparing it to diving in the tropics: warm water and lots of color and coral. But I really enjoyed it.

Saturday night we partied. Paul and Gary, who had just arrived, were kings of the pool table. I think they owned that thing for about an hour. Myself and one of the Swedes (sorry, I can’t remember his name) spent the night drinking Cuba Libres and Caipirinhas. Paul and Gary went home early, we closed the place down.

Lobo Del Mar

Sunday night we boarded the Lobo Del Mar just in time for dinner. I’m not sure about Gary, but I do know that this would be the first “cruise” that Paul or I had taken. We weren’t really sure what to expect. But a cruise is really the only way to see any of the other islands. As previously mentioned you have to be guided by a naturalist to set foot on any of the islands. To tour in your own boat, it costs you $200 a day per person, plus the naturalist, plus you have to crew yourself around. This cost $100 a night per person included the naturalist, food, and a crew to pilot the boat from island to island at night… not bad.

The Lobo Del Mar carried 16 passengers and 8 crewmembers. Most of the passengers were finishing an 8-day cruise. Though five had gotten off after five days, which is why there was room for 5 new people for the last three days.

Floreana

The boat motored through the night to get us to Floreana Island by morning. Sleep or lack of it was a big breakfast table discussion. I guess this was the first time the boat had really moved at night and some of the other passengers had trouble sleeping. After sleeping in the fore cabin of Dreamweaver, I didn’t even notice.

The first site on Floreana was the old post office, over 2 centuries old. It’s really just an old barrel that sailors used to leave mail in. When a boat came by going the proper direction it took the appropriate mail with it. It’s still used today, mostly by tourists sending post cards. We also visited another lava tube. This tube didn’t exit like the first, but it did fill with water during high tide. It was high tide and the water was very cold.

In afternoon, after our siesta we went snorkeling around Devils Crown. This was actually more impressive than the scuba the day before. It just seemed more lively and colorful. We saw lots of schools of fish. At one point I turned around to find a young sea lion right next to me. Scared the crap out of me. I saw some an eel and lots of starfish. Most impressive might have been the huge bull sea lion with a large tuna that it had caught.

After the scuba we had another landing on Floreana. This time we saw a lagoon full of flamingos. We also visited a beach with sea turtle nests. I saw one nest that had been freshly dug, because the turtle tracks leading two and from it were still there… these weren’t baby turtle tracks either. The baby turtles were getting ready to hatch. One of them screwed up and came out early though… bad mistake. It didn’t take long for a flock of Frigate birds to find it and snatch it up. We didn’t actually see the turtle come out, just the birds fighting over him.

Espanola

Tuesday morning we awoke anchored off Espanola Island. This was the island I really wanted to see. It is the nesting ground for the Albatross and this was the time of year to find them here. Espanola is also home to an unusual variety of marine iguana. Most marine iguanas are pure black but these have red bellies.

Seeing the Albatross was really special. These are gigantic birds. While most were just sitting on their eggs, we did see several in flight and several taking off. To take off they walk to the edge of the cliff and jump off. Because of their wingspan they really can’t take off from just anywhere.

The island is also crawling with blue-footed boobies, similar to the red-footed boobies but with very, very blue feet. It was mating season for the blue-footed boobies. To attract their mates the male will sit on a rock, arch his back and call out to the females. Once he gets her attention he begins to dance by lifting his blue feet into the air. An accepting female will land and begin to dance with him. Some of the boobies had already laid their eggs. The boobies nest on the ground, and as they do they form a white ring around their nest area. This ring is made from guano deposited as they circle around the egg. On Seymour, we saw boobies that had just hatched.
The scenery on Espanola is the most spectacular that I saw on the whole trip. Huge cliffs can be found in the area where the Albatross nest. These cliffs drop right down into the ocean, where they are greeted by spray and breaking waves. This is all very similar, but more spectacular, than the west coast of the US.

Seymour

The last stop was Seymour Island, nesting ground for more frigate birds. And wouldn’t you know it, it was mating season for them also. Male frigate birds attract their mates by blowing out their huge red throats. The trees of Seymour were just filled with frigate birds.

Every island had more than its share of crabs and sunning sea lions. The sea lions would show no fear and you had to walk around them if they were lying in the path. At one point we even had a sea lion climb into the dinghy on the back of Lobo Del Mar

Quito

After Seymour Island everyone disembarked the boat. About half the people caught a bus back to Puerto Ayora. A few others and myself hopped flights for the mainland. My time in the Galapagos was done. I now had about a half day to spend in Quito. Quito itself is way up in the Andes mountains, ~9000’.

After getting settled into my hotel room, I started out to see the town. Quito was the first town I’ve ever really been nervous in. I don’t think I really needed to be, but after listening to some of the people on the boat I just felt more uptight than usual. But that wasn’t going to stop me much. I managed to find the trolley through town. Though I got off at the wrong stop and had to walk about 4 blocks to find Plaza Grande. Of course I met a ‘friend’ who wanted to know why I was alone and what I was doing.

I finally made it to my goal though, Plaza Grande, the main plaza in old town. Old town is the historical district of Quito, and the main destination for tourists. It reminded me of cities in Spain. It is set up and laid out like many of them: narrow streets, lots of plazas, old churches and statutes. I didn’t have much time, so I wandered around sort of willy-nilly. Looked through some churches and museums. I started to run out of time, as I was told that I should be out of old town before it got dark. That didn’t really matter; I was tired and can only look at buildings for so long.

So I went back to new town to find a place to eat. While wandering around, as was accosted again, this time by a teen (I guess). He said something like “give me your money” but laughed and kept going. That pissed me off, because I hated the fact that
I must look really nervous. I didn’t really calm down much though, there was nobody on the streets and most were pretty dark. I did find a nice Italian restaurant (not really in the mood for rice and beans). After dinner I just went back to the hotel and crashed, I was exhausted and I had to get up at 4AM to catch my flight. I did take the time this time to study the toilet and find out that it does flush backwards, so that was bonus.

I was lucky I had a direct flight to the US. I guess you used to have to fly from Quito to Guayaquil on the coast to catch more flights. My trip was now over, it was well worth the time and time off without pay (if you want to know how I managed so much time off). I wish I had the time and resources to continue the trip to the Marquesa but maybe for another adventure.

References
Hotel in Quito: Amazonas Inn: Very nice and cheap
Panama and Ecuador both use US dollars, so no funny money to exchange, other than coins.
Both places were big on the Sacagawea dollar
Latitude/Longitude
Panama City, Panama: 8N 79W, Altitude: 0
Puerto Ayora, Ecuador: 0 45’ S, 90 19’W, Altitude: 0’
Quito, Ecuador: 0 30’ S, 78 30’W, Altitude: 9068’
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Reptiles
Birds