can we help
+44(0)1983 296060
+1 757-788-8872
tell me moreJoin a rally

Menu

American Spirit II - Day 46; Motor Sail to Santa Cruz Island; Tuesday, February 18, 2014



Sometime in the middle of the night, I heard a commotion in the cockpit and when I climbed the steps and peered out I observed a large seal lion sitting on one of our recliner chairs in the cockpit. He had knocked down a container of pringles and a cup. When I say 'sitting' I mean sitting, now lying on it, sitting on it hike a person would. It was quite comical. When he saw me he turned and flew thru the starboard life lines and into the water. This event could have easily been a serious problem because when I went to sleep Monday night, I forgot to close the two doors to the downstairs cabin. If the sea lion had wanted to, he could have slid down the stairs into the boat's main salon down below. If that had happened we would have had a difficult time 'capturing' him and ejecting him from the cabin. With large canine type teeth, it would have been a dangerous affair. Our plan of attack would have been to wrap a blanket around him then lift him up into the cockpit. Dodged a bullet there!

Today is moving day. Moving the boat from San Cristobal to Santa Cruz, about 40 miles away. We weighed anchor at 7:50 AM. There were four other boats leaving for Santa Cruz at the same time.

At 8:30 AM Joel saw a whale behind and off our starboard quarter. What he saw was a large fin break the surface of the water. A boat behind us saw the same thing. Not really sure what type of whale it was; only that it was large. Based on what Joel saw, it was either a Byrd's Whale (13-15 meters), a Sei Whale (13.7-15 meters), or a Minke Whale (9-10 meters).

Our next entertainment were large rays on the surface, followed by a large ray (5-6 feet in diameter) flying up out of the water. The ray did this 3 times. Quite spectacular. It had a solid while underbelly.

At 11:30 AM came upon Isla Sante Fe , two thirds of the way to Santa Cruz. Waves could be seen for miles away crashing along the south and west shoreline, with spray flying way up in the air.

We anchored at 2:40 PM. Our Rally handbook recommended that we not only put down a bow anchor but a stern anchor, also. The reason was twofold: to keep the bow of the boat into the southerly swell; and because the anchorage is very small and there are a lot of boats in it. To set the stern anchor, we anchored the bow first, with a hundred feet of chain out. Then we let out another 100 feet of chain, dropped the Fortress anchor with 50 feet of chain on it, when pulled up the 100 feet of bow anchor chain. Now with both anchors set we won't swing at anchor. Unfortunately, not all the boats in the anchorage have 2 anchors out.

A short while later our Agent and the Port Captain stopped by the boat, took our Zarpe and Cruising Permit, asked a lot of questions and cleared us in to Santa Cruz.

Then off to town where we ended up at The Rock, a local restaurant with a World ARC Emblem on the front of it.

After dinner we booked a 1/2 day tour for the following day. $90 for the four of us.

We ended up back at the boat at around 7:00 PM. We were anchored behind a dive/small Galapagos cruise boat that was belching black smoke out of its generator exhaust. It was so bad we had to move the boat. We weighted anchor and did so.

After things settled down, we opened a bottle of Sangria Wine and played the board game Rummie. Janet won 3 times, Joel and Darlene each one, and Brian zero.

Brian Fox




Previous | Next