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Lydia - Lydia's blog 8-17 Feb 2016. Las Perlas to Galapagos.



Monday 8 Feb 2016.
There is no doubt that the Pearl Islands, (Las Perlas, where in former times pearls were gathered from the oyster beds in the area,) is a perfect place for relaxed and interesting cruising with hardly anyone else about. There are many different islands covered with trees, shrubs, undergrowth and often with sandy beaches, often completely uninhabited. Mid morning "Chilli Bee" from Austria arrived and anchored half a mile astern of us. Athough we were in a beautiful location, the charts, both paper and digital, were not at all detailed and when we swam we found we only had
6 inches under our keel albeit on a sandy bottom. As a result we weighed anchor mid morning and set off for Playa Brava on the Islas Viverios, a cove which had a tricky entrance between a number of outlying rocks. This island had a radio mast but like so many islands in this archepelego the Pilot claimed it was uninhabited. However after a swim ashore where I got stung by a jellyfish in almost zero visibility, we discovered a road leading one way to the radio mast but the other way we decided to leave to explore on the morrow. We invited "Alcedo" to join us but she had already anchored previously where we now were and instead went to join "Chilli Bee" at Islas Ampon.

Tuesday 9 Feb 2016.
Did my washing on the after deck first thing before the sun got too hot.
Donald decided that we should stay where we are for the rest of the day. Now at low tide we saw the rocks which made this such a tricky entrance.
Steve, Alvaro and I went ashore to explore. However before we went inland we were fascinated by the behaviour of a numerous pelicans and cormorrants which are all massed together circling and diving almost to the shore having a feeding frenzy, presumably trapping and catching a quantity of plancton or krill.
Steve took a good video of this. We then left the beach and struck left along the road. After about half a mile the road forked left but we took the right fork to see if it led to the sea on the other side of the island. It was very hot and humid. In due course we came across a grass landing strip on our left and on our right what looked like a one story factory building with large rectangular fibre boards stacked up in rows outside. Beyond were three small wooden single story buildings which looked as though they could have been accommodation blocks. After travelling a little further north we came across a shack with a little leanto outside and a container behind which was clearly someone's dwelling. A few minutes later we caught a glimpse of the sea on the north side of the island. Rounding a bend we came across a little community with a covered open sided meeting place which appeared to have a bar inside and three or four people chatting inside who took no notice of us. The accommodation appeared to consist of containers with windows cut in which must have been very hot inside. There were two large tanks for fuel and an elderly fuel bowser with writing indicating it belonged to the State Security Dept. We concluded that the little community was there to service the all important radio mast possibly so Heads of State on Conditora island to the north could communucate with their embassies in Panama. We could see the island to the west of us separated by a channel with many rocks. There was no obvious landing stage here so again we concluded that the road that had forked left earlieron might lead to a landing point from where the community got their stores. We decided to retrace our steps and return aboard.

In the afternoon we were joined by the Finnish yacht Mearra Nieida with 7 aboard. They were planning to anchor alongside us until Donald warned them of the rocks close by which were then covered. Clearly their charts were even worse than ours. It was at this point the bow thruster suddenly came on for no reason for a few seconds. On further investigation we found that the forward automatic bilge pump was not working and the bilge had flooded to the stowage beneath the sail locker where the bow thruster was located and had short circuited the bow thruster. We emptied the sail locker of the spare dinghy, hankee and crusing shute to get at the bilge. We pumped out the bilge by hand and did our best to dry out the bow thruster putting WD40 in all places possible. Nigel on cooking for the evening meal and we had spagetti carbonara but alas no creme fraise.

Wednesday 10 Feb 2016.
Having allowed the bowthruster to dry out overnight, we restowed the spare dinghy and sails back in the sail locker and at 9am weighed anchor and set course to return to Conditora which was the RV for the ARC fleet prior to setting off for the Galapagos. On arriving at Conditora and anchoring roughly where we were before, the ARC organisers arranged a drinks and nibbles get together for the fleet that evening on shore, (2 beers but the nibbles never
materialised.)

Thursday 11 Feb 16.
We were up early to join in a HASH arranged for the ARC fleet involving a type of hare and hounds with false trails etc around the local area. Donald and Alvaro ran it whereas Steve and I and many of the other ARC crews had an entertaining walk. I got to know Venitia Hurbert from "Alcedo". It turned out she had done the AZAB (Azores and back) single handed in Robertson's Golly, the same yacht that Clare Francis did the OSTAR (Observer Single Handed Trans Atlantic Race) which she and I had taken part in 1976. Venitia knew Clare and also my fellow Royal Marine competitor also in a Contessa 26, Richard Clifford. Small world. Later that afternoon we had a "Skippers'
Briefing" giving us details of the Start the next day for the race to the Galapagos, what to expect in the Galapagos and weather briefings etc. At 7pm that evening the ARC arranged a BBQ on the beach for all crews and Prize Giving for the last race from Santa Marta to the San Blas islands. To our great surprise, (because we only sailed with the yankee and delayed our arrival at San Blas to be sure we were in daylight,) Lydia gained a 3rd place prize in class. Who knows what we might do if we really try!

Friday 12 Feb 2016.
Again up early to take rubbish ashore and return forms to the ARC. Secure dinghy and outboard and set yankee for start at 1100. Several yachts decide to leave early in order to get good anchorages at San Cristobal. The wind is on our beam so to begin with for the first few miles to get round the top of the Las Perlas islands before heading south with the wind astern to the Galapagos we sailed on the yankee alone with no main. As a result we were almost last until we "turned the corner", hoisted the hankee thus sailing with twin headsails with the wind of 20knots on our stern.
Having now a much larger combined sail area than a spinnaker and main together, Lydia picked up her skirts and flew. It was most satisfying to see during that afternoon and evening how we caught up and overhauled several yachts which had earlier been several miles ahead. Before midnight we had crossed the busy shipping separation lanes heading for the Panama Canal without mishap.

Saturday 13 Feb 2016.
Whereas the majority of the ARC fleet followed the guidance in the Panama Pilot advising to gain best wind in the doldrums to sail south crossing the equator at 84 degrees West then head south west for the Galapagos, Corango skippered by Peter Forbes and Alcedo followed Peter's Special Advisor's advice and followed the rhumb line. We continued to make excellent progress bowling along at 8-10 knots with the wind often reaching 25knots. In spite of our slow start we made 190 miles in our first 24 hrs. Just before midnight we saw the Malpelos Rocks light about 4 miles to port. Corango meanwhile reported a lack of wind and was motoring.

Sunday 14 Feb 2016.
As Net Contoller for the day Donald wished the ARC fleet a very happy Valentine's Day. Our crew had previously made arrangement for flowers to be sent to our nearest and dearest. Another rollicking day's sail with the wind increasing to 25-30 knots at times so we were surfing down the large waves but never in danger of being pooped. We did 205 miles in 24hrs making it a record day's sail for Lydia. Late in the afternoon we received a warning from Mearra Nieida a few miles ahead, of logs in the water, some of which were just below the surface. Later we identified some fairly close as seagulls were standing on them. Not good things to hit especially at night doing 8-10 knots! Memories of the film "All is lost" starring Robert Redfern.

Monday 15 Feb 2016.
In the early hours of the morning the wind dropped considerably down to10 knots or less. Donald decided to furl the yankee and take down the hankee.
04.30 All hands on deck under spreader lights to take down both spinnaker poles. We then motor sailing 240 degrees for San Cristobal. By 7.30 the wind had picked up sufficiently sail with full main, staysail and yankee. Since most of our washing had had to be taken in off the guard rails where they were drying when we dropped the spinnaker poles in darkness, Donald suggested stringing line across the backstays as a better place to complete the drying of the washing which worked very well. Mid morning the all important generator stopped owing to overheating. We tracked down the problem to a broken impeller which fortunately we were able to replace with a spare and all was then well again. The wind and sea continued to calm down during the afternoon and evening so as the moon came out we are sailing at about 7 knots on gentle undulating seas in perfect champagne sailing conditions. In the previous 24hrs we logged only 150 miles but still making good progress.

Tuesday 16 Feb 2016.
At about 3am I heard the yankee and staysail being furled and the engine started as we had no wind and the sea was glassy without a ripple. At about 5am still dark Steve on watch spotted the lights of a group of fishing vessels to port which were not on AIS. It just underlined that it is still vital to keep a good visual lookout and not rely on AIS to identify other vessels. At 10.15 we crossed the Equator and celebrated with glasses of cold Cava all round. Steve and I then set about rationalising and making a upto date list of all the food we have aboard so we are ready for the big provisioning before we start on the "Big Hop".

Wednesday 17 Feb 2016.
As dawn breaks we see looming out of the mist the dramatic north west coast of San Cristobal island in the Galapagos. The landscape unfolding before us looks something our of HG Well's novel "The Lost World" in Brazil. There are number of extinct volcanos rearing up to the sky and the land is covered by green vegetation. Along the shore as we skirt the coast we can see many dangerous reefs with great rollers breaking over them. Landing on such a coast looked well nye impossible. Ahead of us to starboard we saw the impressive volcanic plug of the Lion (or Kicker) Rock as a small steep sided island of rock rearing out straight out of the sea on its own. On the AIS we now saw a procession of ARC yachts all converging down the coast to the Finish Line off the port of Baquerizo Morena. ARC yachts Corengo and Into the Blue who started before the race are already anchored in the harbour.
Spirit V who is the fastest yacht in the fleet and Aliena are the first yachts in the race to finish. We cross the Finish Line at 12.05 and continued motoring into the harbour where we had to anchor carefully among other yachts and put out a stern kedge anchor as well. This operation required hailing a water taxi to take out our kedge and drop it when required. However the water taxi driver placed it a little too close to a large mooring buoy to which a fishing boat was moored which was to have consequences when we weighed anchor for Isabella a few days later.

Formal entry into the Galapagos is not simple, particularly for yachts.
Fortunately the ARC organisation helped greatly. As a yacht you may only visit three islands including San Cristobal which has to be your port of entry and Santa Cruz which has to be your port of departure. Each crew member has to pay US$120 as an entry fee and cruising permit. Before the crew can go ashore the yacht has to be cleared by a small army of officials.
The first hoop was to have official divers down to check Lydia was clean in every respect of barnacles etc. That morning seeing some weed on the rudder which had not been antifouled, Donald had dived over the side and scrubbed off the offending weed. We had taken the procaution as advised to have Lydia hauled out in Shelter Bay at the beginning of the Panama Canal in order that she could be professionally scrubbed clean. As a result we received a good chit from the divers. However one of our yachts who had simply hired a diver in Shelter Bay to clean their bottom was found to still have several barnacles on. As a result they were sent out 50 miles from the Galapagos with an official diver on board to ensure their yacht was squeaky clean before it was allowed to return to harbour. Having passed our divers' test we were boarded by about 7 officials in various uniforms who took all the entry forms we had completed, checked our passports again, then checked our medical bag for any out of date medicines, then checked our food lockers as we were not allowed to bring in such things as fresh oranges, opened meat of any kind or fresh milk and our tinned food was checked to ensure it was in date. We had to have official notices, (fortunately provided by the ARC) deliniating which were our recycle waste bags and which were organic etc etc. Fortunately although most this first inspection team had a smattering or more of English, Donald and naturally Alvaro spoke fluent Spanish which helped greatly. Alvaro who is young fit and handsome charmed the three lady officials who insisted in having their photos taken with them. Officially we still needed an inspection from a second team to check our yacht's equipment before we were allowed clearance to go ashore. Although the officials were working overtime it became clear that this second team could not visit us and give us final clearance until the following morning. However the first Customs Clearance team leader, very unofficially said we could go ashore that evening but not to divulge this to anyone. We hailed a watertaxi (US$1 each way) and had a good dinner ashore.

With all good wishes from the crew of Lydia, Nigel

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