We have enjoyed the Galapagos Islands immensely. We were first at San Cristobal in quite a tight anchorage. On going ashore you find sea lions lying all over the benches and the beach. We booked a trip to Kicker Rock on a small powered catamaran. We stopped for snorkling at an island on the way and then the experts snorkled at kicker rock swimming through a split in the rock of some 20 yds wide it was quite a long swim to the other side but they saw manta rays sharks colourful fish etc.
Andante was hit by an unkown boat at 0300 in the anchorage this chipped the transom and pushed the pushpit inwards. We can live with this for the time being.
Moving on to Santa Cruz we anchored with a stern anchor to prevent swinging. There were plenty of water taxis to take us ashore. We were booked on small cruise boats here to take us around several islands with a guide. We were really well looked after on the boats visiting Santa Fe, Espanola and Floreana. On each island there was snorkling and walking before and after lunch. Each island has a slightly different species present but overall we saw land and water iguanas, turtles, giant tortoises, frigate birds, blue footed boobies, tropic birds, lizards,flamingos and sea lions.
In spite of receiving a forecast for light winds until we reach the trades we have got perfect sailing conditions a close fetch in force 4 with a little help from the current doing 6.9 kts over the ground. We were late starting again as we had to wait for George and Grayson the engineers to finish the mast track. They flew out to Galapagos from Equador to finish the jobs that several boats needed completing. We are still having problems with the autohelm and I now regret not getting a sensor which attaches to the quadrant sent out with the new crew. It is an intermittent fault which is getting worse. Raymarine did not return my telephone call or reply to my email!
Dave if you are reading this perhaps you could get a new sensor from Mark to send out with the next crew. All for now Bob Andante of Mersey.