Rob and I were extremely excited to receive our Panama exit stamps in our passports and head out to the Galapagos archipelago. But before we set sail into the sunset we made a few stops around the Panamanian islands of Las Perlas… the scene for one of the many Survivor series.
Our sail to Las Perlas wasn’t a sail, but a motor because there wasn’t a breath of wind in the air. The sea was like glass and it was absolute bliss cruising through the water, sitting on the foredeck catching a tan! About seven dolphins came and swam in front of our bow and it was absolutely wonderful to watch them weaving and diving in front of the yacht, occasionally swimming sideways, one eye up as if to say hello to us watching from above. We arrived at the anchorage (just off a nudist beach of all places) at the island of Contadora with crystal clear, warm water. There was a possibility of another little hiccup in that Captain wanted to replace one of the membranes for the water maker and thought he might have to go back to Panama City, but luckily the supplier could fly it out to us. We thought it a bit strange that this wasn’t thought of while we spent two weeks in Panama City, but nevertheless, all was sorted out. Rob and I spent our time walking around the island (it took about two hours to walk the circumference) which is supposed to be THE tourist island. It has got a good network of narrow roads where people mostly use golf carts to get around. We also used the time to get into the water to scrape and clean the hull to get it ready for the Galapagos and got stung by lots of tiny jelly fish! Not badly though, just felt like irritating insect bites. There was also a “race” going on called the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers where a bunch of boats join and pay to sail around the world, so a flotilla of about 15 boats were anchored near us. They set sail on Friday the 13th, not very auspicious as sailing superstition says never leave on a Friday, never mind Friday the 13th!
After Contadora we sailed to another anchorage at Isla Canas, a bit of a rough sail for me as the wind caused quite a chop on the water. Two uneventful nights there, one with a beach “barbeque” where our yacht neighbours decided to burn their rubbish on the beach. There after we made our way south down the island chain to Isla del Ray. We anchored just off the inlet to a big river which we explored by dinghy. It would have been good to kayak as we could have then gone further up. Around this time we motored to a small village called Esmeralda to try and get some internet and cell phone reception to let the family know before we set sail. Internet was a no go but once we asked a local resident about mobile phones he pointed up the hill and led us to the village “communication centre” – a walk up a well trodden path to the top of the hill where they had set up benches to sit and place your phone in the exact location to get a signal, anywhere else and you don’t get reception. It was touch and go for us to get a message out as the signal was so fleeting!
We started our sail to the Galapagos on 17 February at 07h00 local time, and it took us eight and a half days to travel to 1000 nautical miles. For my maiden ocean crossing, it was a good sail! We caught some fish, Rob even caught a 7 foot marlin which he reeled in, and managed to get the hook out without being impaled. The marlin was much too beautiful to eat so after a quick photo, the lucky fish was released. We had two other occasions of marlins trying to catch the lure! We also caught dorado fish, which is a gold colour in the water but turns blue then silver when it is dead. The sad thing about catching this tasty fish is that they swim in pairs, so more than likely this boy’s mate was left to fend for herself. This sail was a real learning curve for me! We had good wind most of the time, with a few patches of quiet. Getting used to the routine of waking up for night watches took about four days. Rob was very good to me by getting up with me to start my watch so he could check all is well. Although night watch was only three hours, I was so tired after my first night at sea, the following morning I woke up, stood another watch, and then promptly fell asleep in the cockpit when Rob took over the watch! It took some time but I eventually got the feel for it, but I did have a few stressful moments where my jaw felt clamped in place from clenching it so tightly! No feeding the fishes so at the time I thought I was good for the rest of the trip!
The nights at sea were pretty amazing. If it was a clear night the amount of stars one sees was phenomenal. And the bioluminescence in the water is spectacular – it looks like glitter being sprinkled into the water. Seeing schools of fish and dolphins at night is quite an experience because they show up as this phosphorescent glow just below the surface of the water. The dolphin fins also leave this greenish trail in the water. Real Life of Pi stuff! My third night watch was windless, meaning the yacht didn’t have enough speed for the autopilot to work. I spent the entire watch at the helm steering manually. We didn’t see a single sailing yacht on the entire crossing, only a few cargo ships in the distance. We were visited a couple of times by dolphins, and I woke one morning to the sound of breathing outside our port hole as a pair of dolphins surfaced next to the boat. We could hear them squeaking through the hull!
It was on this passage that we crossed the Equator, but we have no idea when we did! All we know it was on 24 February. Ironically it was when we were speculating as to who would be on watch when we reached zero degrees latitude, and Rob checked the GPS and saw we were already in the Southern Hemisphere! Our last day at sea was spent motor sailing as we had minimal wind. Rob caught another dorado, and as he was cleaning it off the back scoop I looked up and all of a sudden saw a fin trailing the boat – a massive hammerhead shark picked up the blood scent and decided it wanted a piece of the action too! Luckily we had the engine on as the wash from the propeller prevented it from getting too close to us but we threw the carcass overboard which was promptly devoured and it left us alone after that!
Upon arrival, we anchored in a natural harbour formed by lava flow from the volcano on Isla Isabella (the largest island in the Galapagos archipelago). We had to wait to get cleared by the officials before we could get off the boat and go exploring. But the thing I was looking forward to the most… well, two things… doing laundry and washing my hair! At first glance the islands were not much to look at but in the bigger picture the scenery was pretty spectacular as it was all volcanic rock. The whole area is a nature conservancy and after dropping anchor we had two seals jump onto the scoops at the back of the boat to say hello. There was also a penguin colony on one of the lava outcrops (unusual for being so close to the equator but we reckon it is due to the cold Humboldt Current originating from the South Pole which brought them here). We got a bit confused with the time zone thinking we were still GMT -5 so got a bit annoyed when the agent was apparently late but noted much later that we seem to be an hour later at GMT -6. So our celebratory sundowners upon arrival started at 16h00 instead of the usual 17h00. Oops! Catch the next instalment for our amazing experiences in the Galapagos.