I’ve been putting off doing a blog fromTahiti because I’m not sure what to say. Maybe if I had arrived here without first being in the Marquesas and Tuamotu I would find this place exotic and colourful. It is a very lusciously green island. Lots of tall volcanic peaks with palm trees, breadfruit, passion fruit, hibiscus etc – just like Marquesas.  It also has a coral reef down the west side of the island and therefore has great diving and snorkelling – just like the Tuamotus. However, the capital –Papeete– is a very unappealing town and feels unsafe after dark.  There is a lot of traffic, cruise ships, retired and newly married couples on tour. Not enough bars, restaurants, or shops to make it interesting. By contrast, the Marquesas and Tuamotus have all been peaceful and unspoiled. Overall I found it disappointing. It didn’t help that it was either overcast or raining for 10 of the 12 days we spent here.

Despite all this, I had a great time here mainly because this was a big stopover for all the Arc boats. The fleet had not been together in one place since the Galapagos, 2 months ago. By now everyone was keen to talk to anyone who was not on their boat and this meant lots of eating out and drinks on boats (mainly on Sapphire, mind you).

I discovered, just before arriving here, that my nephew Neil has a friend called Dan living here.  It turned out that Dan works on a boat in the marina we were staying in and that his girlfriend,Perrine, works as a diver out of the same marina.  It was great to have someone around with local knowledge. They brought us to a couple of really good restaurants. And Perrine took Gavin and Patricia diving. The restaurants were part of 2 hotels and Dan explained that the best bars and restaurants are in hotels and not downtown.

Dan and Perrine with crew of Sapphire

Boat Dan is working on

Sapphire on a Med mooring at Taina Marina

We had a few chores that had to be done while we were here. So we decided to get all these out of the way before exploring the island . By the time we got toTahiti we had cleared out the fridge, freezer, drinks locker and a lot of the goodies on board.  So this meant provisioning again on a similar scale to that done in Panama City. Our target when stocking up in Panama was to have enough provisions to do us to Tahiti – so that worked well.  Now we are provisioned again all the way to New Zealand. There are a couple of really good French supermarkets in Tahiti and that made the job easy.

Tahitii s almost the only place in the South Pacific where major repairs can be carried out. (Mr.Assam’s son on Apatiki has a small boatyard and can haul out boats under 15 tons).  There is a good shipyard here and several of the boats have arranged for lift-outs.  There is only one sail-maker and he is under pressure to get all the repairs done for various Arc boats in time for the next leg to Bora Bora. We needed to have a rip in our mainsail repaired. We only got it back in time because Scott went to the sail loft and helped with the sewing.

Another thing we wanted to do here was find out if Beatoo had arrived safely.  They were the boat that ran up on the reef in Takaroa and had to sail here using a makeshift rudder.  They arrived safely but are now waiting for a new rudder to be sent from France.  The stress of the situation has taken its toll on the crew. My favourite Beatoo crew member, Carlos, has decided to pack it in and is heading home to Spain.

At least 5 other boats have also had crew problems.  The Yorkshire couple I mentioned in a previous blog have also left the Arc and have flown to Australia. I’ll miss them. Some people have left one boat and joined another.  I suppose it is to be expected. A yacht, no matter how big, is still a small space to spend long days and nights on.  There is a knack to surviving and to not driving those around you crazy either.  I think we’ve cracked it on Sapphire.

Last thing we had to do was pick up Jerry (from Cork) who is joining the boat, having left us in San Blas.  Originally, I was to leave fromTahiti, but since I am now staying on until Bora Bora we will have an extra pair of hands.

With all chores done, rain stopped and Jerry on board, it was time to explore the island.  We rented a car and using Dan’s list of the hot-spots, we spent 2 days touring the island.

Tahiti is made up of 2 islands, joined by a causeway.  The main island, Tahiti Nui, is where most people live.  The smaller island is Tahiti Iti.  There is just one road that runs around the shore of Tahiti Nui.  It takes about 2 hours to drive around the whole island.  On our way around we visited Les Trois Cascade – 3 magnificent waterfalls.  Because of the amount of rain over the previous days they were flowing quite fiercely.  I could only take pictures from a distance as the spray was too much for the camera.  We passed a couple of impressive surfing beaches too. There is a headland called Point Venus where Cook was stationed for 2 years.  His job was to measure the transit of Venus across the sun. The reason for this was something to do with celestial navigation.  Anyway, whatever it was intended for – the project failed!! I’m sure Cook had a wonderful time here though.  He seems to have been very well received by the natives and how bad can it be to be surrounded by beautiful women with flowers in their hair.  Most women still wear flowers today.  A flower behind the left ear means you are married or not available and the opposite for the right ear.

Point Venus - with Jerry

Passion fruit - the juiciest I've ever tasted - plentiful in Tahiti

As with all the other islands we visited in French Polynesia, the local people are getting a great deal from France.  The old-age pension can be drawn once you reach 55. You don’t have to have worked and is equivalent to 600 US$ a month. Free education and health care. The government also provide a type of social housing whereby a 3 bedroom house is given for a cost of 1,000 US$ with the proviso that it cannot be sub-let.  You own the house after ten years.  I wonder if the French public are aware of the amount of money being pumped into French Polynesia.

Before the arrival of the religious missionaries, the Polynesians engaged in providing human sacrifices to the gods. Apparently, this was done on a voluntary basis. Only young men could volunteer. A number of tribal elders would get together and make the selection.  The man would have to be fit and good looking in order to please the gods.  He would then be given a drink to numb him and his throat slit.  As a reward his family would be given a prime piece of land.  A clever way to ensure a steady stream of “volunteers”. However, I bet the selected man pissed off someone on the tribal council!

Sacrificial alter

A few other places of note are the Paul Gauguin museum, which has no original paintings or sculptures(!), the Botanical Gardens which has 2 giant tortoises from Galapagos, a fabulous fish restaurant in Tahiti Iti and my favourite place of all, the indoor market in Papeete.

Amazing fish restaurant in Tahiti Iti

Band playing in the Papeete market

Next stop is the island of Moorea which is only 10 miles away. There is a regular ferry across but we will sail over and anchor there for a couple of days.  Dan has told us it’s not to be missed.

Our last stop in the Tuamotus was Rangiroa.  This is the largest atoll in the archipelago.  Each atoll in comprised of a number of small islands called motus.  Rangiroa is made up of 415 motus. Out of those only 2 are populated. Mind you some of the motus are just a mound of white sand with a single palm tree in the middle!! We decided to come through the Tiputa pass since it is relatively wide, is renowned for its good diving and snorkelling and has the largest village.

While the pass is wide it is still dangerous, with a reef spreading into it from both sides. There are also coral heads inside and outside the pass so we had to pick our way through carefully. On the way we saw a wrecked yacht up on the reef.  We reckoned it was damaged further out and dragged up on land for safety reasons.  It put the fear of the bejaysus into us none-the-less.  Once we were safely through and at anchor I realised that John must have a lot of faith in us to allow us bring Sapphire to all these atolls in his absence.

Heading for the pass into Rangiroa

Watching for coral heads. See reef on either side of the pass.

One of the unlucky ones.

Once through the Tiputa pass we turned right and found 5 other ARC boats anchored outside the Kia-Ora hotel.  A lot of boats use Rangiroa as their jump-off point for Tahiti since it is only a 24 hour sail away. As this is the largest atoll I was expecting, not quite a shopping mall, but certainly more than we found.  The village is mainly made up of Dive Centres and Black Pearl shops.  However, there were 2 supermarkets, one of which stocked BOTTLES of Heineken. I would have been happy to see Heineken of any kind but actual bottles. We had a well stocked drinks fridge that evening.

One of the must-do activities in Rangiroa is to take a snorkelling trip to the Blue Lagoon to swim with Black Tipped Sharks.. This is not the same Blue Lagoon of that atrocious 80’s film with Brook Shields. That was made in Fiji I believe. This Blue Lagoon is a lagoon within the main Rangiroa lagoon.  I presume it is a volcanic crater within a crater.  Not sure. Since it would have taken hours to get there on Sapphire, Patricia and I booked ourselves into a tour group on a speed boat.  This was an especially brave move by me for two reasons.

The first reason is due to an incident that happened outside Mr.Assam’s house on Apatiki.  You might remember he feeds a huge Nurse shark there everyday. The day before we left Apataki Patricia and I went snorkelling not far from his house, but far enough not to be in the way of his “pet” shark. As we were snorkelling I could feel something gently pinching my leg.  I, of course, thought this was Patricia trying to freak me out (as she often does) and so I ignored it.  Then I heard her screaming (sort of – since we were both under water). I popped my head up to see what was going on only to be told some huge fish had been following me and nibbling my leg. I shot out of the water like a nuclear missile. Both of us screaming our heads off.  Some of the Assam   family came down to see what all the commotion was about and told us that these were Remora fish and were perfectly harmless. So, back in we went.  Within a minute, my friend was back, latched on to my stomach and hitched a ride.  That was it. Friendly or not it was too close for comfort. I later found that these fish have little suckers on the tops of their heads which they use to latch on to the underneath of sharks.  I’m not sure why they do this. I must look it up. Either way, I wasn’t sure whether to be flattered or upset to have been mistaken for a shark.  And it did nothing for my confidence in the water.

Patricia feeding a Remora from the safety of the boat.

The second reason that swimming with sharks was a brave move for me is because minutes before we were brought to the shark-swimming/snorkelling spot, I fell on the reef and was bleeding profusely from both legs and one hand.  Earlier, the tour guide told us that these sharks are known locally as “plastic sharks” because they are so tame and uninterested in eating humans.  But you know yourself, there’s always a lingering doubt. However, I’m never going to get the chance to do this again so I hid my bleeding legs from the tour guide and hopped into the water along with everyone else.  Patricia was fearless and immediately snorkelled right into the middle of them. I hung back at first to see if any of them were interested in fresh blood. There were about 25 sharks, 3 meters long, swimming above a shoal of about 100 red snapper.  Both were beautiful.  Unfortunately we only have video footage – no photos. We were still coming to grips with the new underwater camera at that stage.  Earlier though we did take one shot of a baby Black Tip which I have below. It was an amazing experience.  The sharks are so graceful but boy can they move fast.

This is the life!! As I often told Michelle - we deserve a treat.....

Walking from the boat to the motu for lunch in the Blue Lagoon

Baby Black-Tipped Shark (you'll need to zoom in)

As some of you are already aware, Patricia and I booked in to the Kia Ora hotel for a night while we were in Rangiroa. The hotel was putting on a Polynesian show during dinner that night and a number of the boats were attending. Staying in the hotel meant no dinghy to negotiate at the end of the night so I did the dog on it for once. Cocktails, wine, digestive, more cocktails…..  A great night – but one I’d live to regret. Later that night we had a thunder storm with high winds that lasted 6 hours. I was happy to be in the comfort of a really nice hotel and not be out at sea. We were in a bure hut, the roof made out of palm leaves, and not one drop of rain got in.

Kia Ora hotel bar. Handy dock on the front.

Next morning we had to be up at 7 and on board, ready to lift the anchor by 8. (Orders from the skipper!!). I had had my long awaited tomatoes the night before (no chips) and was determined to see if there were oranges with the breakfast.  Not only were there oranges but, also pancakes and syrup, boiled eggs and croissants. Had to be done. Nothing better than a good breakfast to cure a hangover. We made it back on board on time.

Another boat, At Last, had left an hour before us and they kindly radioed back to us the conditions in the pass. This was really helpful as the water in the lagoon was very agitated from the storm the night before.  This was nothing, mind you, compared to the sea conditions outside the lagoon.  We had a horrible trip.  We started out with a reefed main and full Genoa. As the winds increased we decided to pull in the Genoa a bit only to find the furler was banjaxed and it was going to be quite a job to roll in the sail. So the decision was made to leave it up. This meant we were going to be travelling quite fast. The sea was very lumpy and the waves coming broadside which meant we were being pushed over and rolling a lot.  I was never so sorry to have eaten pancakes!!  For the first time on the trip I was sea-sick all the way. Maybe not entirely due to the pancakes of course!! But since we were down 2 crew, I had to grin and bear it. We flew along.  Passed 4 other yachts along the way. Encountered 2 cargo ships that were not on AIS and only appeared on radar long after a visual spotting. On the plus side the wind never got above 27 kts and while we had rain we missed all the surrounding squalls.  Some of the other boats we passed didn’t miss them and got winds up to 35 kts.  And because of the sea state a number of people were sick.

At about 7am we finally spotted Tahiti.  We will spend about 10 days here doing repairs, re-provisioning and taking on my replacement.  Originally I was to leave from here but am now staying on to do the Society Islands. Most of the Arc boats are staying in the town dock.  It is dirty and noisy but cheap.  We, and about 4 others, are staying in the beautiful Marina Taina, about 7 kms from the centre of Papeete, the capital of Tahiti. The marina has 3 bar-restaurants, a couple of shops, laundry etc. Now that we have shore-power we are running the air-conditioning all the time. There’ll be parties on boats.  We’ll have a great time.

First sight of Tahiti

Flaked out after difficult night watch. (And sea sickness due to excesses of the previous night)

Main Sail - before going off for repairs.

Supermarket too close to Marina for taxi - and too far to walk!!

The last blog I posted was from an atoll called Takaroa. Luckily for me the local post office had left their broadband modem switched on over the Easter weekend so I was able to perch outside on the steps and use it to post the blog. Unluckily, sitting in the scorching sunshine has fried my laptop.  (Not helped by my literally sweating onto the keyboard). I’m using a rubber roll-out USB keyboard now to bypass the laptop and will hopefully be able to continue to write. If it wasn’t for the great feedback I’m getting, I think I’d throw my hat at it altogether. To add insult to injury, that same day, someone accidentally spilled a bottle of water over my iPod. It’s a complete goner.  Thank God for my iPhone – now more precious than ever.

Given all this, I just wanted get out of there before anything else went wrong. However, we needed to wait until lunchtime in order to catch the tide and move out through the pass.  In the last blog I explained about these passes and how the water flows in and out at certain times. The water runs through them at about 5kts. The pass in Takaroa has a coral reef running the length of it. So just before we left we took the dinghy out about mile to the start of the reef and drift-snorkelled along the edge of the coral and through the pass. For safety we took turns driving the dinghy alongside those in the water. All we had to do was lie on top of the water and let the current bring us along. This was the most amazing snorkel I’ve ever done.  (Catriona, I never thought I’d say this – but this beats the one we did in the Bahamas I’m afraid).  There was a huge variety of fish and coral. Alongside the reef the depth plunged straight down to 20 meters in places which meant we could watch the larger fish at the same time.  Unfortunately we were going so fast it was very difficult to get good photos. I tried swimming against the current a few times in the hopes of staying in one position, but was dragged on backwards. We had seen some small black-tipped sharks beside the boat the previous day but thankfully none appeared this day.  Apparently they are not dangerous but I’d rather not encounter them just the same.

We brought Sapphire out safely through the pass and headed for the atoll of Fakarava. (It might be worth having a look a one of these atolls on Google Maps or Google Earth as I’m pretty sure I’m not describing their structure very well.) We are doing all our sailing to the various atolls at night. Partly to ensure we only go through passes in broad daylight and also to allow us more daytime in the lagoons rather than out at sea. I hope I’m not putting a hex on it when I say we have had some of the most glorious night passages recently.  The sea and winds are behaving themselves. It is Autumn here and we have been blessed lately with an orange harvest moon.  It doesn’t come up until after midnight and the first night I saw it I thought a ship was on fire until it crept up more fully over the horizon. The constellations seem to me to have a completely different aspect down here.  For instance, Orion is lying on his side and slips down under the horizon making it look like he has fallen into the sea. The Plough looks wrong as well and The Seven Sisters, which I was able to sea nearer the Equator, seems to have disappeared. Maybe this happens in the Northern Hemisphere as well.  No doubt someone will correct me if I’m wrong!!

Never mind all that.  Fakarava was beautiful.  Totally unspoiled. Long stretches of powdery white sandy beaches. Beautiful crystal clear water. Coral, teeming with fish, sitting in a foot of water all along the shore. A concrete road – with speed bumps!! Patricia and I explored the shoreline in the dinghy and came across the White Sand Beach Hotel. This hotel has very fancy beach huts right on the water. It has its own deserted beach which, after chatting up the owner, we were allowed to use – including the sun-loungers. In return, we kept them busy all day making pina coladas. Not sure how we negotiated the dinghy out through the coral and back the 7K to the boat. Fakarava also has an airstrip and if – sorry when – I win the Lotto, I’ll be back. Long may it remain off the tourist trail.

Aqua aerobics at White Sands Beach

Stretching my sea weary legs

On our way out of Fakarava we came across this flock of hundreds of sea birds fishing. Looked like a cloud on the water.  We sailed into the middle of them with our fishing lines out but caught nothing. Thank goodness, because all we ever catch is tuna and I can’t eat any more tuna. A mahi mahi would be nice though.

After 3 days we reluctantly raised the anchor and set off on an overnight sail to Apataki. This atoll is one of the least visited by yachts due to its difficult pass into the lagoon.  However, we were on a mission. This is a bit of a long story but I hope you’ll get a kick out of it.

In 2007 a man called Graham Morse, his wife and a hired skipper did the same trip we are currently doing.  Afterwards he wrote a book about his travels and the people he met in various islands along the way. He wanted to send signed copies of his book to some of the French Polynesians featured but had no addresses to which he could post them. He is friends with John Charnley, the owner of Discovery Yachts – the company that built Sapphire. John Charnley was also taking part in World Arc this year and agreed to deliver 5 of the books for Graham.  Unfortunately, having reached St.   Lucia last November, he had to retire from the Arc due to his wife’s incurable sea-sickness. So, John O’Connor agreed to take the books and deliver them all.  First on the list was a Chinese man, Mr.Assam and his French Polynesian wife. All we had to go on was his name, his photograph featured in the book and an anchorage that we couldn’t find on our charts. We knew from the book that Mr. Assam met and married his wife inTahiti and moved to Apataki about 20 years ago because his wife had some land there. He set up a pearl farm which is now run by his son and grandson.

Each atoll has one village so this was our first port of call.  We rocked up to the usual one shop and asked if anyone knew a Mr. Assam who owned a pearl farm. We were, as you can imagine, treated with the height of suspicion. But we rattled off all the family member names mentioned in the book and eventually were given the mobile number of Alfred, Mr.Assam’s son. We were also given the GPS coordinates of the island they live on. (Atolls are made up of multiple islands.) So, off we went on a course for the given coordinates about 10 miles away on the opposite side of the lagoon.  Meanwhile, I rang the mobile number and tried to explain to Alfred’s wife that we were on our way with a gift for Mr.Assam senior. I thought the conversation went well and was complimenting myself on my French accent.  However, when we got within sight of the Assam’s property a fishing boat speed out towards us wondering what the hell we were up to.  Turned out to be Mr.Assam’s grandson, whose name we also knew. Who could resist? Eventually we were invited ashore and brought to meet the man himself.  I was expecting to see a frail old man.  Instead, there he was, looking exactly as his photo, taking a machete to a pile of coconuts at the side of his house.  He at once remembered Graham Morse and invited us into his house to show us a book he keeps of all visiting yachts.  We photographed him holding the Graham Morse book so that we could prove we had made our delivery. We also wrote in his book. Mission1 accomplished. The other 4 I’m sure will also be a challenge.  A couple of them are for the Cook Islands and I’m not sure where the others are for.

Oh! I nearly forgot.  While we were in Mr.Assam’s house looking at his book, his son came by and said something we didn’t catch. Mr.Assam ushered us down to the shore at the back of his house and there waiting patiently in about 6 inches of water was a massive Nurse shark. It seems that this shark comes by every afternoon and waits for Mr.Assam to hand feed him!! This shark is 9 years old and is about 3 meters long.  The noise she made when snapping the fish from his hand was truly frightening.

Graham Morse' entry in Mr. Assam's book

Waiting patiently (Patricia staying well back - bottom right)

The Assam family home

Next stop, and last in Tuamotu, is Rangiroa.  This is the largest atoll and is apparently well known in the diving world. Patricia and I are booked in overnight to a luxury hotel called Kia Ora (wasn’t that a kid’s drink?) for a day of well deserved pampering and a night of eating, drinking and entertainment. I hope they have tomatoes.  And oranges. And chips. Mmmm. I can’t remember the last time I had a plate of chips…..

For our last night in the Marquesas we sailed half way round the island of Nuku Hiva to a small bay where we had arranged to meet up with a French and a Spanish boat, Beatoo and Ruby. The French guys had booked the one and only restaurant, Tante Yvonne, for dinner.  They had read about it in a French restaurant guide!!

The Pilot book for the area had warned us of large swells in this bay.  Having had no successful dry landings for the past week, we were very dubious about it.  And sure enough, once we swung into the bay we could see the other 2 boats swaying badly.  The guys were all aboard Ruby and I’m sure had already been through a couple of bottles of wine. Have they never heard about waiting for the sun to go below the yardarm? As we circled around, checking out the anchorage, they shouted across to us that the swell was not as bad as it looked.  Mmmm – maybe not when you are on the correct side of a few glasses of wine.  Anyway, it’s nice to have company and our French and their English is improving all the time so we decided to go for it.

While it was still light, Scott took the dinghy to a small landing dock to see how he might get us ashore.  He warned us of a swell of 4-5 feet, with large waves coming astern. The only place to land was on a set of steps carved into a high wall. There was no ramp and no dock. Timing would be everything!!.  When time came to go ashore we packed our finery in plastic bags and set off in swim gear in the pitch dark.  This has to have been our scariest landing yet.  When the swell was down the steps were too high to jump onto. So Scott held off until the swell was up, then scooted forward on a wave and roared “jump” before reversing back so that the dinghy was not bashed against the wall and overturned.  We had to land one at a time and could not hesitate for even 1 second when told to jump. Mercifully the steps were not slippery. It was an amazing bit of driving on Scott’s part – and for the first time we actually had a dry landing.  I tried not to think about how we would get back on board as, with legs wobbling from shock/fright, I got dressed on top of the wall.

Yvonne, of Tante Yvonne, was also the Mayor of the village.  She told us that Club Med were looking to build a compound in the Bay but she turned down the planning permission as she felt the local people would not benefit from it. Club Med provide all food and drink to guests within the compound. Brave decision – but I’m sure it would have provided employment at the very least.  On the other hand, the Marquesans are pretty self sufficient. They live well off the land and the sea without even having to farm. Everything they eat is growing wild, in abundance. They are always smiling and we didn’t come across anyone who seemed unhappy with their lot.

We had a lovely evening. As I’ve said before, people on the Arc have an adventurous spirit. They have great stories to tell about their travels and their lives. You would never be bored in their company.  I made sure not to drink much bearing in mind the lemmings’ type drop required to get back on the dinghy.  We all survived and managed to get back on Sapphire bone dry.  A great end to an amazing time in the Marquesas.

(There are some photos further down, but because of slow internet, this blog will be more words than photos, which are painfully slow to load.)

Next morning, 1^st April, we set sail for Tuamotu approx 4 days away. With Patricia back on board we now had 5 sailors and so shifts were shorter than for the 3,000 mile trip.  We each did 3 hours during the day and 2 at night. Looking at it now that makes 25 hours – something fishy there!!  Well, I did 3 and 2. Less than an hour underway we were joined by about 30 dolphin. I never tire of watching their skill at racing with us and playing in the bow waves. Sometimes they launch straight up out of the water like something shot from a submarine. These manoeuvres usually end in a belly-flop. I’m sure they are showing off. The weather for the first couple of days was fantastic.  Fair winds and flat water. Of course, it wasn’t to last.  The 3^rd night we ran into a storm. Lightening directly overhead was absolutely blinding. We changed direction 3 times in an effort to get away, but the system seemed to be going around in a circle.  At the front and back ends of these storms the winds are horrific.  On my watch, I decided to stay in the middle of the system.  Let it piss rain on me, but avoid any squalls at the edges. Eventually, it blew itself out and we went back on course. I think it might have been a baby cyclone, but am no weather expert.

As the Arc is now in a period of free cruising i.e. no formal leg underway at the moment, there is no radio relay.  However, there is an informal radio chat at 9.00ameach morning, which we keep forgetting to tune into. On April 2^nd Scott and I remembered and tuned in. When they heard we were on, one of the other boats asked us to give some details about the snooker competition on board Sapphire. What? We told them we have had a couple of poker nights – but snooker? We’re not sure where this came out of, but those on the call that morning were very disappointed to find there was no truth to it.  We think it must have started as an April’s Fools joke on the radio the previous day. The boat is big – but not that big.  Obviously some people think it is!!

Line of sea birds hitching a ride from the air behind our mainsail

On the morning of 4^th April we arrived in Ahe, one of the more north westerly atolls of the Tuamotu and therefore one of the closest to the Marquesas. The Tuamotus are known also as the dangerous archipelago. It is made up of about 70 coral atolls, none higher than a few meters above sea level. They are circled by reefs. Each atoll surrounds a central lagoon and some, but not all, have one or more passes into their lagoon.  The pass into Ahe is only reachable 3 hours before moon rise and 5 hours after moon set – or something along those lines. The lagoon itself is about 15km wide.  We decided the best time to go through the pass was the start of an outflow, in order to have enough depth. For the non nautical I’ll try to describe this.  If you imagine (at almost full tide) the lagoon is a saucer full to the brim of water.  Add a little more water (full tide) and the water will spill over the edge.  In our case, this over the edge water is spilling through the pass. It is an outflow that we would use to enter and leave the lagoon.  When we got in we were very surprised to find we were the only yacht in the whole lagoon.

The Tuamotus are completely different to the Marquesas.  The land is not at all fertile and the people live off fish and coconuts. They remind me a little of San Blas – if you can remember that far back.  There is only one shop on Ahe and because there is so little to buy it only opens for a couple of hours in the morning.  No fresh bread, no vegetables except for green peppers.  No fruit. No bug spray – ahhhh. We did get eggs though as there are lots of chickens on the island.

Ahe has at least 8 black pearl farms.  It’s a fascinating process which I will go into in the next blog as I hope to visit a pearl farm on one of the other atolls.

When we arrived in Ahe we discovered it was Holy week.  We were shocked! We had no idea it was Easter time and hadn’t stocked up on chocolates for the occasion. The population of the whole atoll is only 120.  The local school teacher told me there are almost 50 children there.  Seems like a lot given such a small population. On Easter Saturday the adults hid clues and Easter eggs all around the village and the children had a big egg-hunt. Tempted as I was, given my love of chocolate, I refrained from hunting myself.

Another dodgey landing at the village in Ahe

Coral reef.

Sapphire sitting at the end of Main St, Ahe.

We were due to leave Ahe in the early afternoon on Easter Saturday. We had the engine on, snubber off and were just starting to lift the anchor when we saw 3 yachts coming through the pass.  Turned out it was 3 Arc boats – one of which we are particularly friendly with.  So, nothing for it only switch off the engine and invite all 3 boats over to Sapphire for a celebratory drink. They were all in high spirits at the end of their 4 day trip from the Marquesas.  Sadly, having spent 3 days in Ahe totally alone, we are on a schedule (John and Gavin have to fly out of Takaroa in a couple of days) and had to leave. So, after an hour or so the party moved off to another boat and we headed for the pass while there was still time.

Or next destination was Takaroa – just one overnight away.  It has an air strip and John and Gavin are leaving from there to fly back to theUKfor a wedding. So for the remainder of our time in the Tuamotus we will be reduced to 4.

Celebrating arrival of 3 Arc boats in Ahe

Home!!

We arrived in Takaroa early the next morning.  The pass here is very dangerous so we decided to heave-to about a mile outside and take the dinghy in to have a look at the reef, currents etc. Before we got a chance to explore, a local fisherman came alongside and warned us that a boat had run up on the reef the previous day. He told us about a wharf that we could tie up against for 2 days as there was no commercial boat expected over the Easter weekend. This meant we could come through a wider pass and would not have to be at anchor either. This is the first time we have been attached to land since we left Panama City.

It turned out that the boat on the reef was our Spanish friends on Beatoo.  They had been swept on to the reef by a swirling current and have lost their rudder. It could have been much worse though.  They have cobbled together a makeshift rudder and are currently limping along toTahiti for a replacement.  Without a rudder they can’t steer and so hopefully this will last the duration.  For now, one of the other Arc boats is accompanying them.  But since Beatoo can only do a max of 5kts this will be a pain for the other boat. It is a long way toTahiti and so we are extremely worried about them. Later today, we will head back out to sea, back through the wider (but still difficult) pass when the tide turns. Wish us luck!

I wish I had paid more attention in English class or was a little better read.  My problem is that I don’t have a good enough command of the English language to do justice to the beauty of the Marquesas. Mind you I have some hard acts to follow since Herman Melville, Robert Louis Stevenson and Jack London have all spent time here and written about the islands.  Jacques Brel and Paul Gauguin also lived and died here. I have heard that Gauguin was actually re-buried in France some years ago but found no mention of that in the Gauguin museum on Hiva Oa.

The Marquesas is made up of an archipelago of 12 or so islands.  The Galapagos to Marquesas finish line was just outside the bay of Atuona, on Hiva Oa. We stayed there for about 5 days, recovering from the trip, celebrating with the other boats as they came in, touring the island and stocking up on fresh fruit and veg – and of course French wine, cheeses, pates etc.

We arrived at dawn. Once we got the boat settled on anchor and had a chance to look up and around us we were blown away by the lush vegetation, fruit laden trees and vibrant flowering shrubs and plants.  At first I thought I was just suffering from an overload of the senses having seen nothing other than blues and greys for 21 days.  However, we are here 10 days or so now, have visited 2 other islands and I continue to be overawed by the beauty.

There are no restaurants as such in the islands – mainly because they are not on the tourist trail.  When we eat on land it is usually by arrangement with a family who cook for visitors. Sashimi, breadfruit cooked in various ways and lots of fruit. I’m not making it sound very appealing but in fact the food is great – with the possible exception of breadfruit disguised as mashed potatoes.  Breadfruit soaked in coconut milk is gorgeous.

Arc boats at anchor in Atuona Bay - centre of photo (click to enlarge)

Atuona village - busy huh?

While we were in Hiva Oa John rented a 4X4.  The car rental guy’s name was also O’Connor.  We found out that there are 150 or so O’Connors living in one valley in Hiva Oa.  So we had to go check this out.  The islands are all volcanic and therefore consist of steeply rising ridges with lush valleys in between.  Each valley has its own tribe/extended family.  To get to the O’Connor valley we had to drive along a narrow trail around cliffs with 300 meter drops on either side. Some bends were so tight we couldn’t make them in one turn and had to backup a little before getting around. Luckily, the only time during this trip that we met an oncoming car was when we had pulled into a small lay-by to take photos.  5 minutes later and we would have been absolutely screwed as the track only had room for our wheels, the sides of the 4X4 hanging over the edge. Somebody would have had to reverse along the track.

On the way we came through a valley that had some quite intact Tiki statues. In ancient times these were carved from stone and represent important tribal chiefs.  They remind me somehow of Sile-na-Gigs, even though they have nothing to do with fertility.

O'Connor Valley

After 5 days onHiva Oa, with all but 3 Arc boats in the bay, we left for the tranquillity of Tahuata – a small island to the south. Here we had our first experience of how difficult it is going to be to go ashore in all but the 2 main islands.  There is a huge swell here with crashing waves at the shoreline.  This means jumping out of the dinghy when still in waist-high water or staying in the dinghy and risking being tossed out or washed over by waves.  Either way it is not possible to get ashore without getting wet.  I have a water-tight bag but cannot fit my good camera safely in it so a lot of the photos I’ll be taking will be with my not very good point-and-shoot camera. On the upside, since we are the only ones stupid enough to attempt these landings, we tend to have long, golden, palm tree lined beaches all to ourselves.

Our next stop was the Bay of Virgins on Fatu Hiva.  A tranquil island with grapefruit, lemons, papaya, bananas, coconuts etc literally falling off the trees.  There are about 10 houses in the bay along with a church and a small school. We spent a couple of hours walking around and only saw one car. The local people love to talk to visitors and my French is improving by the day.

Bay of Virgins

Not very virginal!!

A local man knocked this fruit from the trees with a big pole for us to take

While I am writing this we are in a bay on the island of Nuku Hiva. Yesterday, after another wet landing, we found what I can only describe as the Garden of Eden.  About 200 meters from the shore, hidden by the dense vegetation, is a village of about 5 houses.  Each house is surrounded by fruit trees and beautiful flowers.  All neat and tidy (but in a wild way as opposed to an English country garden way). I hope John is writing about this in his Arc log as he will be able to describe it better than I.

We found a house where the lady would have lunch prepared for us if we came back in an hour. When we finished, she sent us away with a bag of at least 50 limes she had just picked up from the ground around her house. And my favourite thing in the world at the moment – white pineapple.

There are just 3 boats in the bay – the other 2 being Arc boats as well.  So we put the limes to good use last night.  We invited the crews of the other boats on board and made Caiparinas, played loud music, eat a lot of our French produce and had a blast. Not feeling too good today though!!

Main road to garden of Eden

The Banyan tree has it's roots on the outside

As you can imagine there is very little phone coverage, never mind wifi, in these parts. When there is phone coverage I can use 3G with a dongle to access the internet but this is too slow and too expensive to use for posting blogs. We are due to spend 2 more days on Nuku Hiva. One of the bays here has wifi and we will sail there this afternoon and try to make contact with the outside world.  In a couple of days, we will take off for the archipelago of Tuamotu, 4 days south of here. The Tuamotus are even more remote than the Marquesas.  We are due to spend 2 weeks there before heading toTahiti.  So, it is possible that the next blog will not be for about 3 weeks.  Bear with me…..

On the 4^th March we left the Galapagos and started on the long leg across to the Marquesas islands, 3,000 nautical miles away in French Polynesia. I got some very supportive texts from members of my family who have previously undertaken journeys of this length.  I think only people who have experienced blue water sailing, as it is known, will appreciate the anticipation I was feeling. Sick in the stomach actually.  So thanks to you guys for the support.

I was sad leaving the Galapagos.  It certainly was a trip of a lifetime.  And given that there are only 150,000 visitors to the islands each year, I feel very privileged to have been one. The Ecuadorian government and the people living on Galapagos are taking the conservation programme there very seriously and signs on it.  I hope it lasts.

We made it to the start line in the top 5 again but by the end of the first day we had steamed in to front position and stayed there for the first 6 days.  Unfortunately, we soon discovered that the ARC device for tracking our position was not working. I believe for the first few days it looked like we hadn’t left Galapagos.  In the end we emailed our position in to the ARC daily. Not an accurate report given that the other boats were on real-time.

I had been told that once we actually got going I would get in to the rhythm of things and time would pass very quickly. And sure enough, after the first 4 days the remaining 12 days were much easier. For this leg the watches were divided between 4 of us – my brother John, his son Gavin, the hired skipper Scott and me.  This meant we each had 3 hours on and 9 hours off.  I had my 2 favourite shifts of dawn and dusk. 6-9am and 6-9pm. We were blessed with an almost full and full moon for the first week. We were also helped by Venus and Jupiter, low on the horizon and casting bright beams over the water towards us.  We were right under the Milky Way and with the nearest ambient light being thousands of miles away had the best view imaginable.

Sunrise in the Pacific

For the first day and night we could see some of the other yachts but by day 3 the fleet was so strung out that we could no longer see them either by eye or by radar. Now we were truly on our own.

We came across a couple of fishing vessels on my dawn watch on day 2.  They didn’t show up on either radar or AIS so just as well I was still nervous enough to have my eyes out on stalks. They had nets strung out and we later heard on the radio that 3 of the other yachts got snagged.  The smaller of the fishing boats powered over to us looking for cigarettes. This was 500 miles from land. Imagine being stuck out there gumming for a smoke!!

After this encounter, apart from flying fish, we saw no other signs of life for about 10 days. We didn’t even see airplanes. The flying fish are amazing.  Their wings are as big as a blackbird’s and they can fly, very gracefully, for about 20 meters.  They must have lousy night vision though because at least 15 land on board each night and die.  Except one lucky one that landed beside me and I actually heard him flapping. I delegated the rescue to Gavin which he executed perfectly, using kitchen roll. Apparently, they are very slippery. Imagine!!  One of the unlucky ones landed on the fly screen of Gavin’s open hatch one night.  It flapped about so much that it managed to shake open the fly screen and land on top of him in the bed.  That one was not rescued.  And as if to get their own back, the next night while on his shift, Gavin was hit in the face by one. I suspect that one didn’t survive either. One other brief sign of life was a blue fin tuna Gavin caught and Scott made into fabulous sushi.

Flying fish (dead) on deck in the morning

Blue Fin Tuna – before….

…. and after…

Each boat in the ARC is equipped with an SSB radio.  This has a wider range than VHF – up to a couple of hundred miles I think.  Each morning at 9.00 all boats radio their position to one coordinating boat. So you get to hear the boats within that range and also track the positions of all.  There is another call at 7pm for general chit-chat or to seek assistance/advice from other boats.  Both of these calls fell on my shifts and so gave me a social aspect to the day. Gavin and I took turns on the chit-chat call so he could keep up with how the younger crews were doing.

The weather was very mixed.  We had good winds the first week, 18-25 kts. But we also had a few days and nights of rain.  I was cursing when I first got on board and saw Kevin had left my heavy (for Irish weather) sailing gear on board but was very glad of it on a few occasions. I had brought nothing with long sleeves and certainly no rain gear. We used a variety of sails and became quite adept at taking up and down the Parasailor and MPS sails in breezy conditions. These sails are not on the electric winches and so are hoisted and lowered by hand from the foredeck.  Under the Equatorial sun the teak deck is HOT – and we are in bare feet.  Brings to mind “The boy stood on the burning deck…..”. Once, I was holding onto the Parasailor  (as instructed – I might add) while it was half hoisted.  I had visions of being dragged overboard into the water and so sat down on the deck while hanging on. At least this way I might get sliced in half by the guard rail, but would not be left floating in the Pacific hoping someone found me before the sharks got me!! And then, of course, the inevitable wind shift. I was dragged across the deck just as a flying fish came aboard. Sadly, I sliced him in half with my knee.  Happily, I lived to tell the tale. Worryingly, I’m not sure anyone noticed my close call.

The night shifts were busy enough. Apart from ensuring we didn’t hit anything and nothing mowed us down, we had to keep the boat from rolling too much and the sails from clattering so that the rest of the crew could get some sleep. My shifts were particularly busy because at dawn and dusk the wind direction and speed shifted wildly and I had to constantly adjust the auto-helm – effectively hand steering.  I still managed to nearly kill us all one morning while below doing the ARC radio call.  I was keeping an eye on a rain cloud/squall about 10 miles long and some miles off.  However, what I didn’t realise was that it was pushing a wind of up to 35 knots on front of it.  When it got to about 4 miles off John arrived in the saloon for a shift change.  Thank goodness he did because within a minute we were both thrown across the saloon as the wind hit us broadside knocking the boat over.  We lashed up on deck and with both of us pulling on the helm together managed to keep the boat from broaching. This is when the boat is so far over the mast and sails are in the water and the boat is on its side.  We were within seconds of this happening.  Luckily Scott was thrown out of his bunk and came up to see what was happening. He was able to reef the main while John and I hung out of the helm.  If I was on my own I don’t know what would have happened. Lesson learned is – if there is a large rain cloud coming, feck the radio and anything else and stay at the helm.  The following morning I encountered 3 more squalls but managed them on my own because I was adjusting the boat angle before they hit.

Squall approacing

We had a few significant dates during the trip.  The first was John’s birthday. While normally a dry boat on passage, we marked the day by having a really nice bottle of red wine with the dinner. Alex’s birthday was the following day.  Scott baked a cake.  He and I had managed to scrounge some ingredients, such as desiccated coconut, from some of the other boats before we left Galapagos.  And of course, St. Patrick’s Day.

There was a lot of confusion on the Arc radio call that morning.  Because we fly the US flag (the boat is registered in theUS) not all boats are aware that we are Irish. Also, a young girl on one of the American boats didn’t seem to realise that the English don’t celebrate St. Patrick’s Day!!  She asked one particularly narky English captain if he was wearing green and another if they had Guinness on board.  Luckily, the Ozzy boat put her straight before things got too out of hand and suggested that Sapphire was probably the only boat in the fleet with Guinness on board (we don’t). She got the hint. When it came to my turn to relay our position I finished up by playing 30 seconds of The Bothy Band’s Rip the Calico, down the radio. (I can hear Aidan groaning from here!!). At the end of the call, when all boats had relayed, we were radioed back and asked to play some more Irish music, which of course we did.

We decorated the boat, had an Irish breakfast, allowed ourselves several beers (no Irish coffee though – had to put that off till the end of this leg), had steak and kidney pie, cabbage and boiled potatoes for dinner. Almost authentic, and certainly not bad for the middle of the ocean. Gavin, having red hair, was designated as our leprechaun.  John, Gavin and I had each created a Paddy’s day playlist on our iPods and took turns playing music all day – except during sail drop and hoist!! We finished off the evening by watching a DVD of the Late Late Show tribute to The Dubliners.

Apart from all the sailing stuff on a leg like this there is also the ordinary day-to-day living. As you all know I am not a very girlie person, but I do go to the hairdressers every 4 to 6 weeks and to the beauty salon at least every 2 weeks.  So some of you I’m sure will understand my predicament after 10 weeks living on a boat.  The hair – well forget it.  It’s unruly at the best of times but now it has grown about 2 inches in this hot weather so the roots are well out. The older readers among you will remember an actor called Milo O’Shea.  His eyebrows were thicker than most men’s moustaches. The O’Connor family eyebrows, if left unchecked, would give Milo a run for his money.  And here is my problem.  I can’t see my eyebrows well enough to pluck them unless I have my glasses on.  If I have them on I can’t get at my eyebrows!! The rest of the grooming issues I don’t need to go into.  Just to say, if you are going to spend months at sea, you have to be prepared to leave your vanity behind.

We have 3 showers on board (4 if you count the outdoor one at the back of the boat).  All with hot water which is made on board each day by desalinating sea water. The tricky bit is showering when the boat is randomly lurching from one side to the other. There is a seat in my shower but until I am old and disabled I can’t bring myself to use it.  So, I am now quite an expert at wobbly showering. The last time the boat was attached to dry land, and therefore not rocking, was 5^th Feb.  Since then we have been at sea or at anchor.

Because of the shift system, the only time everyone is together at the same time, is during the evening meal. This means that people are not in each other’s faces all the time. It also gives you a lot personal time for reading, playing music etc.  Great.  And my favourite thing about being at sea at the moment is the absence of mosquitoes. I was well and truly savaged the last night we were in Galapagos because I had run out of deet. It was a concern since we were going to be 3 weeks at sea and well out of helicopter reach.  Anyway, no malaria or dengue fever – yet!!

By day 14 of the leg we were within 300 miles of land.  All of a sudden we started to see some wildlife. A variety of sea birds and a large group of dolphin who played in the bow wave for about 20 minutes.

Scott repairing the Parasailor

Sunsets are spectacular - but short in duration

On the morning of day 16, at about 7am, we heard the long awaited shout of “Land Ho”. It took another 2 hours to get to the finish line, at the mouth of the bay of Atuona, Hiva Oa, Marquesas. We were the 3rd boat to arrive.  The second boat, 12 Moons, just 1 hour ahead of us. The bay is truely beautiful.  I thought nothing could beat the San Blas, but this island is luciously green with towering peaks rising to 3,000 feet directly up from the sea……but Hiva Oa will be the next blog.  For now I will have my usual end of passage treat of half a bottle of dark rum and as little coke as I can manage.

Boat trip recorder showing distance travelled was 3,050 nm

Atuona Bay, Hiva Oa

Sapphire is down there somewhere, on the right, not visible from here. My mobile is not working from here and so I think will not work anywhere in French Polynesia, with the exception of Tahiti in a months time. Wifi is good on Hiva OA but we are off to more remote spots in a few days.  I’ll post again before we leave here.  After that – who knows.

Before I tell you about Isla Isabella I must share with you a story I read in the guide book Elaine lent me.  Apparently, the first resident of the Galapagos was an Irishman called Patrick Watkins. He was marooned here in 1807 and took to growing vegetables which he then traded for rum with passing ships.  (Why didn’t he just get on board one?). Anyway, it seems that after 2 years of this carry-on he stole a ship’s boat – the ones they used to row ashore in – and he and 5 slaves set off for mainland Ecuador.  Only Patrick arrived at the mainland and neither hide nor hair was ever found of the slaves.  I suspect there was some cannibalism involved!!

Anyway, back to reality.  Isabella island is the largest in area and smallest in population of all the Galapagos islands.  It is the youngest island by a few million years and has 5 volcanoes, some of which are still active. The main town, Puerto Villamil, amounts to a town square and 3 or 4 sandy streets.  This is more what I expected the Galapagos to look like.  We had a lot of trouble getting ashore and back as there is only 1 water taxi (finishes at 6pm!!) and the entrance to the harbour is surrounded by reefs.  The timing of the tides meant that we were always coming home at night on a low tide, using a torch to pick our way through the rocks.  Still, we managed. It’s amazing the trouble you’ll go to, to get ashore, when you know you are about to spend 3 weeks at sea. I completely forgot to take photos of the town. I’m only realising it now and am regretting it.

The sail over from Santa Cruz– well motor actually, no wind – took us 6 hours.  On the way we passed a volcanic crater in the sea.  Probably the next Galapagos island – if the planet survives our generation’s destruction. Don’t worry – I’m not getting on my hobby-horse – internet time is too expensive. We could clearly see 75% of the crater walls above water so of course we had to sail in. (Pictures of Flamingos not related to the crater – just thrown in cause I like them.)

The first place we visited was a nesting site for Frigate birds.  The males build a nest – if it can be called that – sit in it and inflate a red balloon around their throats in an effort to attract females.  If a female is suitably impressed, she accepts the male’s nest offering but wisely does it up to a much higher standard before laying any eggs.

(Baby Frigate on the nest. It was lashing rain – again- so got raindrop on the lens. Also couldn´t be bothered zooming in but if you click on the photo you should get a better view)

Next we visited The Wall of Tears. The building of the wall was an exercise in futility and human cruelty that puts me in mind of the famine walls back home.  In the 1940’s mainland Ecuador set up a penal colony on Isabella of around 300 prisoners. They were forced to build a wall by stacking huge lava rocks on top of each other and were only given one glass of water per day each. I don’t know how anyone could survive here on 1 glass of water a day never mind those doing hard labour.  The wall served no practical purpose. It was just a wall. They say “the strong cried and the weak died”. There was one breakout when 70 prisoners made it to the mainland but all were caught and returned to the island. The prison was finally closed in 1959.

The last trip we made was a trek on horseback to the top of Volcan Sierra Negro. This is an active volcano which last erupted in 2008 and is still smouldering.  The horses were the usual trekking types – sure-footed, stubborn, like only one position in the group and will bite the ass of any horse that gets in the way.  I was glad of all those horse riding lessons I took when I lived in Belgium, because the guide kept shouting from the back for the horses to gallop and the terrain didn’t lend itself to comfortable galloping.  My horse seemed a bit shocked at first that I was able to control him but we quickly came to the understanding that for this day I was the boss.

After about 2 hours hard riding we came to the rim of the volcano. We were blown away by the sight.  The caldera is 10K in diameter and is still steaming.  It is filled with hot rocks and the sulphur can be easily seen. It was impossible to catch on camera so I’ve taken a video. However, for the blog I’ve taken a few and hope you can get a sense of it.

After a leisurely picnic at the top we headed down. We knew this was going to be even trickier than coming up.  And of course, as it does every day, it poured down with rain.  By now we were so sore, in all sorts of places, that none of us could be bothered getting off the horses, putting on a rain poncho, and getting back on.  Too much energy and pain required. So we got soaked.  On the other hand the horses loved the cooling rain and with renewed vigour started to tear downwards through rivers of mud. It was an absolutely hair-raising experience.  I was so glad to get off the horse that I didn’t care about the fact that I looked and walked like an ancient, bandy-legged cowboy.

Sore bottoms or not, we set sail at 6.30am next morning returning to Santa Cruz. See – its not all fun and games. All the Arc boats are now gathered here in Puerto Ayora. We will fill up with water and fuel, do some pressie shopping, sort out any online stuff that needs to be done, skippers will attend a skippers briefing and all going well we will set off for the Marquesas, in French Polynesia, on Sunday. However, we have had a setback.  The impellor on the generator is broken and none of the 6 spares on board, supplied by the boat builders, is the correct size.  Luckily our skipper met a mechanic in a hardware shop who sounds like he has a shed similar to Colm´s garage.  He had a hunt around and found the part we needed. So now we are just waiting for the extra spares to be shipped here from the US.  Seems impellors are always breaking so we need more.

Whenever we do get away, hopefully on Sunday with the rest of the boats, the next leg will be around 3 weeks. 3,000 nautical miles. I’m trying not to think about it too much as to me this is quite a daunting undertaking. 21 days with the same 5 people in a space no bigger than a caravan – a very posh caravan mind you – God knows what weather conditions ahead, beyond helicopter reach. No – best not to think about it. At least I will have 3 weeks without being eaten alive by mosquitoes. They are wrecking my nice tan.

I will be sad to leave the Galapagos.  It is an extraordinary place and I’m sure there is still more to see and do. Mind you, we didn’t do too badly. We’ve certainly made the most of our time here. Thanks to John who arranged all our tours.  I think we have seen way more than any of the other crews owing to his thirst for new places and experiences. There will be no more blogs from me for a few weeks.  The Arc Fleet Viewer will be up from Sunday onwards. So until the Marquesas, adios.

Not much to be said about the tortoises that I haven’t already covered.  On Santa Cruz, in the Darwin Research Centre, there is a tortoise called Lonesome George.  He is so called because he is the last survivor of his species, as far as anyone knows.  Even if they found a female of his species, Lonesome George is 150 years old. Would he really be interested in all that at this hour of his life?  Anyway, I can’t tell you much about old George because we never made it to see him.  The day we went to the Darwin Research Centre in was 42 degrees with about 80% humidity. We walked 2K in this damp oven as far as the Centre only to find there was another kilometre to go to see George.  I wear factor 50 on land (85 at sea) and I was still frying, so I gave up.  If the temperature goes down to the low 30s I might give it another go.

Tortoise creche

The Marine Iguanas are for me the strangest creatures we’ve come across.  They live off algae that grow on rocks on the sea bed.  They dive down and feed for about 20 minutes before coming up for air.  Because they are eating under water they take in a certain amount of sea water so, when they come back on land they sit on the rocks or sand squirting salt out from a hole in the tops of their heads.  They are amazing climbers and I been standing on cliff tops about 30 meters above sea level when up pops a marine iguana having climbed the whole way.

Marine Iguana - Nesting area

Blending in - looks like a sculpture

 

 

 

From Santa Cruz we booked a few all-days trips. Booking organised trips with good National Parks guides is the way to go here. They know where all the wildlife hang out and can pick out the best snorkelling and dive spots. So for this blog I have nothing to say that isn’t better said with photos. I have no underwater ones yet as they have to be developed the old-fashioned way, then scanned to jpeg before uploading. Don’t hold your breath…. Just to let you know though that the snorkelling has been fantastic. No fishing in permitted in the region so there is an abundance of fish. There is a huge variety of colours and sizes and you literally swim through shoals of fish with the occassional turtle and shark. We are also often joined by seas lions who expect you to play with them. I found them a bit scary as they come up behind and under you and appear magnified underwater. Because I don’t like to play with them they tend to poke their noses into the front of my goggles which has the opposite effect of what they want. It scares the bejaysus out of me so I blow bubbles at them to get my own back!! The first place we went to was Baltra and the Plazas in the north of the island. This is the home of many land iguanas. They are a yellowy colour and about a meter in length. They eat the prickly pear cactus.

Land iguana - been in a fight. See the blood on his neck!

Eating a cactus bud

As this is the wet season the ground cover is in full colour and the prickly pear is blooming. The iguana were eating the buds but when these are finished they will eat the fleshy spiny parts.

Ground level cactus - don't know what it´s called

This part of the island is also home to the blue footed boobie and the masked boobie.

Blue-Footie boobie - seriously!!

Million year old lava flow

Masked boobie

And no blog is complete without the ubiquitous seas lions.

 Next blog will be from Santa Fe and Isabella featuring marine iguana and saddle-back tortoises.