Where the Southern Cross and Big Dipper Meet

First meal ashore!

On January 15, 2025, Gary and Crew Brian and Allan made landfall in Puerto Ayora on Santa Cruz island in the Galapagos. It was a long, bouncy ride for the boys, but otherwise a fairly uneventful passage (read: no major breakages). The clear in process involved 10 authorities, everyone from Immigration, Customs, Parks, Navy, Police, Port Captain, Agriculture, Diver (to check that the hull was clean), to our agent. All of them crammed into Sea Rover’s cockpit for an hour or two, but thankfully the check in process went smoothly. Soon after the officials left, the boys went into town and had a celebratory dinner. The next day was spent putting Sea Rover back together and cleaning for the arrival of the wives. Mari, Velvet and I arrived at about 4pm the next day after an uneventful 2 days of travel involving 12 different modes of transportation!

The only cactus you can hug!

After a celebratory glass of champagne, a swim was in order as it was insanely hot. Having left 0 degree temperatures in Vancouver the day before, 27 degrees with humidity was welcome, but hard to adjust to. As I remembered from last time, the anchorage in Puerto Ayora was extremely rolly! Thankfully it didn’t seem to bother anyone but me, but I was land sick every time we got off the boat, which we tried to do at least once a day. There is no place to tie up the dinghy to go ashore, so we used the yellow water taxis, which run 24-7. We enjoyed a number of dinners off the boat (it was too difficult with the swell and heat to cook on board) and tried out a number of the cheap restaurants offering a set menu for $6 US. Most of the dishes in the Galapagos involve fish and rice, but who can complain about that?

Wild tortoises on Santa Cruz Island

The 6 of us did an all day paid tour to the island of Santa Fe, about 12 nm south east of Santa Cruz. We did two really good snorkels, the second where we got to play with sea lion pups while the big daddy patrolled the beach. We then stopped at one of the local beaches to check out some marine iguanas and ended up helping to push one of the other tour boats into deeper waters after they had marooned themselves on a sandbar. Not sure what happened to their guests, but the tour operators were happy to head back into port.

The 4 crew headed over to Isla Isabela for a few days of exploring while Gary and I stayed on board in Puerto Ayora. We visited the Darwin Center again, then did a taxi tour to a ranch where the local giant tortoises hang out. They are wild and come and go as they please, but the ranch has a few watering holes so they seem to like it there. Our guide was excellent and so we learned quite a bit about their life cycles, habits etc. And we even saw a pair mating!

En route to San Cristobal

After the crew came back from Isabela, we packed up Sea Rover and headed off for an overnight sail to the island of San Cristobal, 40 mn to the east. It was a clear, moonless night and so the stars were incredible. At about 3am I looked out and saw the Big Dipper to the north AND the southern cross to the south! This must be one of the only places on earth where that is possible. I said goodbye to the Big Dipper about halfway to Easter Island on our passage in 2018, so it was nice to see it again (from the boat). The best part of the night was watching the dolphins play in the bow wave. We watched them streaking through the water in a bath of phosphorescence for almost an hour. They make different noises than the ones that used to swim with us in Chile – further proof that we are indeed moving farther north. Gary and I took turns doing watches in the cockpit while our crew slept. Everyone was up before 6am though in time for our 6:30 arrival in Puerto Baquerizo Moreno on San Cristobal. There were only 2 cruise ships in the bay, so we had the choice of pretty much any spot we wanted. We opted to anchor in basically the exact same spot as in 2018. It was good to be back.

Watching the wildlife

Our crew spent a few days doing tours and walking around the town and then it was time to move on to the next leg of their trip: Peru. Gary and I have spent the last 2 weeks anchored in the bay. We were the first sailboat to arrive here, but were joined the next day by another Canadian boat. And then a Belgian/American boat. And then another Canadian boat. And so on. It is clearly now Cruising season. There are 7 Cruising boats currently anchored around us, with many more on their way from Panama, including the World ARC, which will bring over 30 boats here by the end of next week! It will be interesting to see how they fit in amongst all the mini and large cruise ships that come in and out every day.

We have spent our time here working (me), doing boat jobs (Gary) and hanging out with the other Canadians (both). We’ve made it in for lunch a few times (set menu for $6) and for dinner once. Once again there is no place to leave a dinghy and so we are reliant on the water taxis. Unfortunately they only run until 6pm, so doing things in town in the evening has been a challenge. On the weekends we’ve walked to a number of different beaches for a swim and snorkel. While there isn’t much coral to speak of, our wildlife sightings have been pretty good. We saw 2 octopus and a stingray at one beach, and about a dozen sea turtles at each of the other beaches. Plus the regular tropical fish that live in these waters. We’ve had some close encounters with friendly sea lions as well.

Pups having a snooze

San Cristobal is known for its sea lion population. There don’t seem to be nearly as many as there were in 2018, but there are still quite a few around. They seem to really like boats. They spend a huge amount of time swimming around the perimeter of the boat, then diving below to blow bubbles on the hull. They do this all day and all night. It is very weird. We aren’t sure exactly what they are doing or why, but it seems to make them happy.  We have also enjoyed watching the frigate birds, blue footed boobies and pelicans feed on the fish ball that seems to come by every morning.

Overall, it has been a serene few weeks. The only black mark is the boat traffic. There are a HUGE number of cruise ships here. Most are small, with between 16 and 30 passengers, but there are 3-4 really big, several hundred passenger ships (Celebrity X, Nat Geo, Silver Sea etc). There is almost constant boat traffic from the dinghies ferrying passengers to and from shore. And there is always one that has a loud, extremely annoying generator. We are always thankful that we didn’t pay thousands of dollars to be on that ship! There is more garbage around than previously (the towns have removed all the public garbage containers for reasons that are unclear to us) and it has a bit more of an exploited feel than before. The wildlife isn’t as abundant, but we are coming out of a hard El Nino year, which is typically quite challenging for the animals here so that is perhaps not surprising. And of course there is H1N5, or bird flu. We hear a lot of sea lions coughing. None of the guides will talk about it so who knows if it is a thing or not. But, we still feel extremely privileged to get to spend so much time living in and exploring this special place.

 

Swimming lazily along the hull at dawn

Baby marine iguanas 

A Passage in Pictures

Still in Algarrobo. Look at that clean bottom!

Sea Rover II has been on passage for 15 days and has ~650 nm to go before reaching Puerto Ayora in the Galapagos. The passage has been slow and rolly, two of Gary's least favourite things. While no one is seasick anymore, the Captain still finds it difficult to sit down below at the Nav Station to work on the computer. Instead, the Crew have been sending me select photos from their trip. In lieu of a written post, I thought I'd share the passage so far in pictures. 

As they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words"...

Prepping the boat for passage. 

Motoring out of the marina in Algarrobo. Bye bye Chile! Thank you for a wonderful 6 years!

First boat invader! Brian and the Squid.

Watch your step!

No land in sight!

A new invader! Allan and the first flying fish. Must be in the Tropics!

Motoring along in light air...Brian and Gary.

Algarrobo, Chile to the Galapagos - Week 1

As conditions on board Sea Rover for the last week have left a bit to be desired, Gary has asked that I write a few posts about their progress to date. He and I have been talking daily, thanks to Starlink, which is switched on once or twice a day when they are running the engine to charge the batteries. It has been nice to communicate by means other than just emails sent through the satellite phone. It is so different from our last ocean passage in 2018!!

I think all on board would agree that the first week was a hard one. Algarrobo is not a protected port, and so once you are out of the shelter of the marina breakwater, you are in the full ocean swell. To make it worse, wind conditions were light, but the sea state was significant (over 7 feet with a 7 second period - perfect barfing conditions). Gary and Crew Brian and Allan all succumbed to the mal de mar fairly quickly. In an effort to get off the coast and find some wind, they motored a fair amount the first few days. Even though Starlink was running a lot of the time, we didn't hear much from the Crew. After a few days of this, they decided they needed to conserve fuel and so the boat went dark while they bobbed in the waves and all privately hoped to die. Here are some snippets from some of Gary's emails: "The first week was as expected, brutal. 2-3 m seas with no wind.  What wind we did get was luckily not as forecasted and came from the bow otherwise our progress out of that zone would have been even slower. We had a few things break on the engine and a couple of sailing blocks explode which kept us all busy fixing things when we weren't barfing.  None of us ate anything but dry crackers for the first 3 days."

South Pacific dive at 30S76W

But then things started to look up. The promised wind started to fill in and their stomachs started to settle. By Sunday the boat was moving, food started to be consumed and spirits started to look up. Then the first 'issue' happened. Our MaxProp refused to feather, and after repeated attempts to get it to lock in place, Gary thought 'oh oh' and looked out the back of the boat. Yup, they'd caught a line. Here is the story in Gary's words: "Yesterday we finally made it into some good consistent breeze and had the potential for our first 100NM day. That was thwarted by a blob of poly rope snagged on the prop causing the prop to rotate and heat up the gear. We had no choice but to dive the boat in 2 m seas and no way to slow it down below 1.5 knots. After an exhausting 3 hours in the water I managed to clear it without drifting away from the boat much to the relief of the boys tirelessly managing the many lines attaching me to the boat." 

Happy New Year from Sea Rover!

"Today (December 31st) we finally seem to be getting in a rhythm. We haven't had to change the sails since this morning and there is talk of raiding the snack cupboard for a post dinner snack. We are doing 2 hours on, 4 hours off which seems to be working for everyone on board. The boys have stepped up their game in the kitchen so we won't starve."

Thanks to Starlink, I was able to ring in the New Year with Gary on a WhatsApp call. He was able to talk to a small group of us for a few minutes before the clock struck midnight. I think the Crew were able to connect with their families as well, so it was a special moment for all.    

The wind continues to blow (apparently things are 'sporty' on board at the moment) but they are making reasonable time and distance north. From the tracker it looks like they are about a third of the way there. Fair winds and following seas. 

Permission Granted to Leave Chile!

Sea Rover and Crew in Algarrobo

Despite some paperwork hick-ups, Gary and Crew Brian and Allan managed to successfully leave Chile on Christmas morning en route to the Galapagos. 

Sea Rover's boat visa expired at the end of September, but due to a number of issues, we knew we would not be able to go down to Chile to sail her away until December. In July we started the process to request a 3 month boat visa extension. We sent in our request and received a nice letter back stating that we had to wait until the visa expired before we could formally request the extension. So, on September 30th we sent in our request. And heard nothing. We flew down to Santiago on December 1st and rented a car from the airport. This would enable us get to Algarrobo, a 1.5 hour drive from the airport, where Sea Rover was patiently waiting on the hard in the Confradia Nautica del Pacifico marina. But more importantly, it would also enable us to drive to the town of San Antonio, an hours drive south of Algarrobo, where the nearest Aduana (Customs) and Immigration offices are located. 

As we were very concerned  about Sea Rover's official status in the country, we immediately headed to the Aduana office in San Antonio after we arrived. San Antonio reminded us a lot of Puerto Montt - a working port and definitely not a tourist destination. The drivers are impatient and generally insane. After a very scary drive through town, we found the office and went in to find out what we needed to do to make Sea Rover legal. Thankfully one of the staff spoke excellent English and we were able to show her our previous correspondence with the Aduana in Punta Arenas, where our last boat visa had been issued. The wonderful staff immediately got in touch with the Punta Arenas office and promised they would get it sorted in a day or two. And true to their word, we received our extension until December 30th a few days later. There had been talk of us potentially needing to pay a fine, but the extension letter didn't mention it and we didn't hear anything further so we assumed everything was in order.

On December 16th we returned to San Antonio to start the official clear out process. I was flying back to B.C. on the 17th and would be returning the car to the airport and we hoped to have all the San Antonio trips completed before Gary no longer had a set of wheels. Gary's first stop was the Aduana, where he was informed he couldn't clear out until we had paid our fine. No problem, he said, but we haven't been contacted about a fine. Could they tell us what it would be? He would happily pay it that day. Of course fines are dealt with by a different department, the 'Illicit Traffic' office, to be precise. While this office had been contacted by the Aduana a full 10 days before, they had not responded to us. The kind Aduana staff contacted the Punta Arenas office again, who then contacted the Illicit Traffic office, who then assured us we would have the fine by the end of the day. The end of the day came - no fine had been received. No fine was received the next day as well. On Wednesday, Gary emailed the Punta Arenas office and was once again assured that the Illicit Traffic office had been contacted. Nothing was heard on Thursday. At this point our Crew were running out of jobs to do on the boat and were getting antsy. Spirits were low as they wondered if they would ever be allowed to leave.

On Friday Gary found his way back to San Antonio on public transit. He returned to the Aduana and pleaded his case. The next week was Christmas, and if he couldn't get this sorted before then, it was very likely we would overstay our visa extension, which would cause an even bigger problem than we already had. Despite it not really being their problem, the Aduana staff once again went above and beyond to help. One of the staff, who also thankfully spoke a bit of English, started making phone calls. After a long day of backing-and-forthing, the fine was agreed upon and issued. Thankfully it was reasonable and Gary went to the bank and paid it right away. As the Aduana was closed for the weekend, he returned to the boat (on the 'chicken bus') to make final preparations to leave early the following week. 

Gary and Crew Allan and Brian

On Monday he was back in San Antonio. The Aduana cleared the boat and stamped the official exit paperwork (known as a zarpe). The visit to the Immigration office was a bit rocky, but in the end they also stamped the zarpe. Another trip to the Port Captain's office, and Sea Rover and Crew were cleared to leave the country.

The boys set sail the next day. As conditions have not been conducive this last week for sitting at the computer for long periods of time, Gary has asked that I write a few posts on his behalf based on his texts and emails to me. Stay tuned.