Tortoga Beach

We walked out to this beautiful beach on Xmas day .A 5 mile walk in baking sun and heat........but definitely worth it!
The sea was turquoise and the surfers having fun.
Marine eguanas were crawling undisturbed along the beach.

Las Gietas

Christmas evening!

Christmas evening Galapagos Islands.

Happy Christmas and Happy New year

We are spending the Festive season  on Isla Santa Cruz, one of the Galapagos Islands.
We arrived a week ago. We are anchored in the bay at Puerto Ayora, the main town on the island. It is a very busy place which is buzzing with boats all the time.  Small cruise- ships come and go. Taxi- pangas and dinghies come and go. A freighter is offloading goods into pangas and barges and transporting to a small dock with a small mechanically worked crane. This is cumbersome and takes time..

The restaurants on the waterfront are all busy.

This is totally different from Isla Cristobal which seemed sleepy but nice.
We have been on a taxi tour to see the giant tortoises and also a lava tunnel and craters.
Yesterday we walked to the Charles Darvin Center in the town and saw the small tortoises which are kept  in enclosures till they are 5-7 years and big enough to live in their natural habitat on the islands.  We also saw a yellow land eguana.

It's all quite amazing.

It's Christmas and yesterday we saw a large nativity play taking place in the local park . All the local school children took part. It was wonderful. They were all so excited to do this. Our agent, Irene,  is a teacher a d she alerted us to this happening.
We have just bought water as out new watermaker works with the generator with 110v.  We have a problem with the generator as it runs wild to 75Hertz and has to be turned off.
Water here is $1 a gallon! We bought 80 gallons.

Happy Christmas and New year.

Isla Santa Cruz

Hans Christian  left us on Tuesday 16. December after a lovely time here. He had been off exploring Isla Santa Cruz and Isla Isabella on his own for five days  before he flew home to Denmark. He came back bright eyed and bushy tailed and talked about a Salsa- bar!.....the dance not the food!

We cleared out from Isla Cristobal and left at daybreak, 6.00 on 18. Dec.
We had a good sail on a reach and 10- 15 knots of wind and picked up a yellow buoy in the bay at Puerto Ayora,  Isla Santa Cruz at 14.00 after 42 Miles. The Capitania (harbour captain) did not understand our trying to ask for permission to enter, didn't reply, so we just went in.
A very rolly poly  day and night was spent before we let go of the mooring and anchored in the lee next to a couple of other yachts with bow and stern anchors. Lovely and calm till loud latino music  blared  out from the nearby restaurant and lasted till the small hours of the morning!
Compared  to Isla Cristobal this is a busy place with taxi- pangas, cruise boats, ferries, cargo transport in to the very busy tourist town of Puerto Ayora,  the main town on Isla Santa Cruz. When I say this, it is very low key as there is no proper harbour warf.  Cargo ships have to anker and  small pangas transport goods to shore  where again men are handling the goods. This is all to protect the invironment/ecosystem of these unique islands. I imagine this is partly why it is so pricy to travel here.
This town is very touristy and all the shops sell souvenirs in the high street.  The fish market is an experience of its own as sea lions, pelicans and frigate birds are queuing for fish with the other costumers.
Today we had a taxi ride inland to see craters,  lava tunnels and giant turtles. All very fascinating.

photos from Isla Cristobal, Galapagos Islands

There is always a lot to see and experience. This morning we went along the shore to see some blue footed  boobies.

Agua taxies at the dock in Isla Cristobal. 

Brown pelican posing on the rocks. 

Black matine- iguana on the rocks and Sally-  lightfoot crabs.

View over the bay.

Sally -llightfoot crabs on the rocks.

Young girls on the pier.

Blue  footed boobie. 

Blue feet!

Photos from Here.

Photos

S/v Aros Mear at the anchorage in Isla Cristobal.

Sea lion sunbathing.

My brother Hans Christian enjoying The Galapagos with us. 

Blue footed boobie!

Isla Cristobal, GALAPAGOS ISLANDS.

We arrived after 4 1/2 days great sail from mainland Ecuador Wednesday 3rd December.
Our agent greeted us and the next couple of hours we were busy being visited by a long string of officials. All was well and the diver gave us thumbs up for a clean hull.
Our real welcome was given by the tremendous amount of sea lions on shore and in the azur blue clean sea.
We were on the Galapagos Islands.  Now time to explore!

Puerto Moreno,  Isla Cristobal.

Sea lion pup.looking for mum.

progress photos

I I have a new hat with logo: s/s Aros Mear

David is on the foredeck with our dinghy. He is fixing the wheel - brackets,  so we can run her up sandy beaches.

David loves polishing. Here he is giving the  cocktail shaker a new look!

This is our cabin as it looks when there is no projects on the go. I just love.

It's mango season. Every second tree is a mango tree.Yum- Yum!

David is in the midst of clearing the wc tube with hydro-cloric- acid.Nice job!!

Our liferaft is being serviced.

This is a six man raft.

Progress

We have been living on the boat for two months now and it has been a busy time, especially for  David but I have been helping where possible.
David is amazing as he never seems to get tired when he is in a project, and nothing can stop him.
First he renewed two toilet pumps, and then he started on the major project being the new watermaker, which  can produce 20 gallons per hour comparing to 4 gallons from the old one.  All the parts we brought along from Panama. But of course there was couple of fuses missing which we managed to receive when a fellow cruiser returned from the US. However, one of them was wrong. Hopefully the company,  Defender, in the US, has sent the right one to Hans Christian, my brother in Denmark who in flying out to join is tomorrow.The watermaker cannot be tried as we are moored up river and it requires good sea water. We have to be patient till we are back out in the open Pacific Ocean again.
In servicing the main engine we found that it wouldn't start.  A good local electricial engineer managed to find the fault and fixed it. Thank goodness for that!
The toilets on a boat is always a worry in case it  or both pack it in. We worried that there was a  problem, and rightly so. Both tubing systems  were clogging up! ( we have two heads/ toilets on the boat). Over time (alkaline) urine and calcium in the water calcify / crustates inside the tubes.  We thought we had avoided the problems, as we always pump 20 times and occasionally put vinegar through and also hydrochloric acid. ...............Not so! The toilet systems had to come apart and cleaned out. A job we do not wish to repeat in the near future!

Our liferaft needed to be serviced,  so we took it to a company in Manta, 97 km from here and saw it being blown up, quite a sobering experience, which I hope I shall never see  for real.

Yesterday we cleaned the bottom of dinghy on the beach. Even if we lift the dinghy out of the water each night there was quite a growth of seaweed and barnacles. We also cleaned the dinghy chap (cover) in fresh water so it's all as good as new.
I have been repearing sails and bimini cover on the sowing machine. So now we are almost ready to leave.
A problem has arisen with one of the batteries. We have tried to get them all replaced but with no luck. Gel- batteries seem to be unavailable in Ecuador. David has disconnected the duff battery and so far so good it is working.

My brother Hans Christian flies out tomorrow and joins us for the next step of our  our adventure: THE TRIP TO THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS.
We have got our visas extended so that we can stay in Ecuador for another six months. The reason for this is that we are planning to spend around two months in the Galapagos Islands.  We have contacted an agent on the islands and he has sorted out all permissions and paperwork for our stay there.

Darvins islands,  the Galapagos,   are 600 Miles due West from here, mainland Ecuador. It will take us six days to get there. This week we have arranged for a diver to clean the bottom of the boat. It has to be spotless on arrival. The authorities send down a diver to check, and if they are not happy they will send you 40 Miles out to clean the bottom.
We are also required to have a fumigation certificate to certify that we do not carry any illegal creepy-crawlies such as cochroaches,  woodworms or termites.

Hans Christian leave us again mid December.

I look forward to the Galapagos Islands as a child looks forward to Christmas. I am sure it will be really great.

Our planned day of departure from here is Friday 27. November.

The big parade with hourses seen from Alberto's condo.

Horses dancing on the malacon. 

Beautiful horses!

See the two dogs dressed up!

David talking to rider (cowboy).

Heather and Ron.

Patty, Gitte and Heather.

Stephen and Ron.

Kim and David.

Tony,  Jinnie and Alberto.

Soldiers marching with Ecuadorian flags.

The PARTY watching the parade.

More from Bahia

And arrival of s/v Grace.
Images from around the town's waterfront.

S/v Grace enters the anchorage under assistance. She altered course to Puerto A misted.  She had then off from Panama heading for The Marquisas Islands and had engine failure. 

Cruisers on the dinghy dock. David is 2nd left.

The beacon at the end of the point of Bahia at low tide.

View of the malacon. 

THE BEACH at low tide.

The anchorage from the dock

Fishing pangas

More photos from Bahia.