Commodore
February 13, 2023

Monday 13 February – We finally arrive at San Cristobal island in the Galapagos

Not a breath of wind in the morning but there was the welcome sight of land. It was a tricky watch with land and other Arc boats around us. The anchorage is the far end of the island. We had a lovely view of Kicker Rock, a dramatic rock sticking out of the sea with a dramatic split down the one side. When we were here 30 years ago our tour boat we were on took us through the split, which was very dramatic.

Approaching Kicker Rock

All smiles with land in sight

Looking back at Kicker Rock as we passed it

The split in the rock reveals itself

We finally crossed the finish line of the Arc, 3rd boat in around 9am. Isabel the big Oyster got in last night and Amanzi was just ahead of us after our equator crossing joint celebration. It was quite a dramatic entrance for us into the harbour, as we landed up getting into enormous waves between two buoys that were warning us not to enter. As the size of the waves got scarily big, Rowan thankfully got us out of our spot of trouble. We anchored and immediately Rally Control (the Arc yellow shirts) informed us the divers were going to check our bottom and a team 11 entry officials would be going to each boat in order of arrival from 2pm onwards. We passed the bottom inspection mid morning which was a great relief. Shortly afterwards a boat with about 4 officials arrived and asked to come on board, they were the Coast Guard, they had seen us make our perilous way into the big waves between the marker boys and wanted to check us out and see that all was ok! They were very friendly and amenable, checking our boat papers and then departed. We were warned that the seals would be on our boats before we could blink, so we were told to barricade our sugar scoops (the back staircase on each hull). We had all 8 remaining fenders tied across the back, we lost one big round fender when we were leaving Shelter Bay and we have no idea where we lost our other big round one. This meant we did not have enough deterrent for the bottom platform and it very quickly became an irresistible platform for the sea lions! Would be lovely if they didn’t make such a mess!

Inspections were taking roughly 40 minutes each so it was around 4pm by the time our inspection started. They poured onto the boat, 7 around the table filling out endless paperwork, one guy checking through our fridge and freezer. He found two big chunks of meat that he said we couldn’t eat in the Galapagos, they were sealed and return to the freezer. A medic on board checked our medical supplies, he then spent most of the time speaking to Widge and Edmund giving them tips on where to visit. We gave them each a cold coke which went down very well, but somehow I managed to miss out one guy, who after a while asked if he could have a drink of water. When I realised he didn’t have a coke I asked him if he would like one, he readily accepted and it caused great hilarity that he had been left out!. One woman out of the whole bunch took our photos and stamped our passports. Loads and loads of questions and we were finally through the whole process. The only thing that we failed on is they did not like the absorbency pads we had bought for a fuel leak, we have to get special marine ones. What a relief we were finally free to go at 5pm.

The Inspection crew

One of the boats coming in after us in the pouring rain

Sea lions on board

The Arc had organised happy hour at the hotel they are based at on the waterfront. We were warned not to take dinghies down as there is no dinghy dock, the harbour is full of water taxis and we were told to use them to get back and forth to land. The harbour was teeming with marine life. Hundreds of sea lions occupying all the benches, fat black iguanas lying on the rocks in the waves and brightly coloured Sally Lightfoot crabs everywhere. When sally lightfoot crabs hatch, they are black with small red spots, each time they change their shell, the spots get bigger until the crab is eventually all red. They have a symbiotic relationship with the iguanas, the crabs eat skin parasites and dead skin off of the marine iguanas.

We caught up with Amanzi and Renegade, we were pretty tired and hungry. We went to a sushi restaurant a few doors down with Amanzi. It was delicious food, good to be back on land and safely into the Galapagos.