San Cristobal Island

It was a great day today:-) It has been a lifelong dream to visit the Galapagos and see the creatures made famous by Darwin's theory of Evolution.

We did a tour of San Cristobal Island. We hiked to Laguna El Junco which is an inactive volcano crater that is the only freshwater lake in the Galapagos. It was formed due to the impermeable ground and the rain water accumulation in the area. While we were there the fog came in to shroud the lake in a thick curtain.

Photo 1: Ross and Stephen at Laguna El Junco

This was followed by a visit to an area called La Galapagaguera where the fabled Galápagos giant tortoise (Geochelone nigra) live and breed. It was magic to see these revered creatures in their natural habitat. We also saw many varieties of Finch which Darwin used to prove his theory and countless Mockingbirds.

Photo 2: Galápagos giant tortoise

At Punta Carola there were many Marine Iguanas sunbathing on the volcanic rocks. They were so well camouflaged that it was difficult to find them.They have no fear whatsoever and allowed us to walk quite close.

Photo 3: Marine Iguana

The beach was also home to sea lions, rock crabs, lava lizards, blue footed boobies and terns.

A visit to the Centro de Interpretacion topped off a special day.

Safe Arrival at Wreck Bay

Arrived at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno (Wreck Bay) at 0540 this morning before dawn.

The sound of the sea lions was immediately evident. Ross and Stephen celebrated arrival with a pre dawn rum and orange juice.

After a few hours sleep we awoke to find a sea lion in the cockpit heading with some determination for the new cockpit cushions. She has since been named Raylene (by Ross as he is infatuated with her) and now knows that her place is on the swim platform. She has obviously “claimed” Salacia and has been there all day. We then proceeded ashore to deal with the required formalities and breakfast.

So far we are very impressed with the friendly quiet and quaint nature of the town. It is impeccably clean and the Ecuadorian Pilsener has Ross’s approval.

Salacia At Anchor in Wreck Bay

Crossing the Equator

Yesterday was a fun day as we crossed the line (equator) around 1830.

Chivas Regal was a fitting way to toast the occasion. All of the crew dressed appropriately and were duly anointed with equatorial seawater.

We were visited by King Neptune who blessed Salacia and all aboard and granted her safe passage into the southern hemisphere.

Much hilarity was enjoyed by all after the very “solemn” ceremony. We are no longer “pollywoggles”.

Anzac Day

A beautiful night at sea last night with clear bright moonlight until 0400 and then a magnificent starlight display until the first hint of dawn at 0600. The perfect sailing breeze and angle meant that we were all free to enjoy the celestial display.

The special thing about the night sky as our latitude decreases towards the Equator is that the constellations steadily rise above the southern horizon and disappear below the northern horizon. Our own Southern Cross was just visible in San Diego with the South Celestial Pole below the horizon, but is now some 30 degrees above the horizon with the Pole’s position easily locatable. In fact the beauty of our equatorial position is such that we can see both the North (marked by the Pole Star Polaris) and the South Celestial Poles.

A flock of Masked Boobies with their Phantom like black eye masks stayed with us for much of the night. They were riding the air pressure wave immediately in front of and to windward of our sails at an altitude which seemed just out of our reach. They would communicate softly in a series of rapid clicks like the sound of a ratchet wrench, just audible in the silence of night sailing. They reminded us of the same sort of behaviour that Dolphins exhibit riding the water pressure wave just in front of the bow of the boat.

What made the scene even more surreal later in the night was a very fine mist that accompanied a sudden drop in seawater temperature from 31 to 26 degrees as we approach the currents swirling around the Galapagos Islands.

After we each offered a silent prayer “Lest We Forget “ on our Anzac Day dawn, we enjoyed a special Australian breakfast of Eggs, Bacon and Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce (smuggled into the country in suitcases because, believe it or not, they are not available in the US or Mexico).

The dawn also brought the northernmost Galapagos Isle, Isla Pinta on the horizon to Starboard. The traditional Anzac Rum and Milk will come later, perhaps when we go a little “Troppo” later today when we all “Cross the Line” at sea for the first time.

220nm to Wreck Bay

220nm to go to Wreck Bay at the Galapagos Islands and we are starting to get excited. Not only the thought of arriving but also crossing the equator beforehand.

We have had good winds for the last 24 hrs SSW 15-20 so have been able to make up a lot of miles sailing. Darwin Islet will be abeam in a few hours.

We have had brown boobies around us since Acapulco. Often trying to land on the spreaders. Today they not only pooped on Ross whilst he was steering but also decorated our new mainsail. Not happy. For the “twitchers” among you, other birds we have seen include, Albatross (Waved and Wandering), Petrel, Frigate and Sooty Terns. Of course the usual flying fish. Ross and Cyndy now know their way through the bird book.

Heard from our friends Bill and Sue Grunn on Avante (Another J160). They are having a great sail from Galapagos to Marquesas, averaging over 200nm per day.

Time for afternoon drinks. All for now.

PS Cyndy just got boobied also.

Some Breeze at Last

Our current location is 8 deg 34.037N; 94 deg 56.162W. The breeze is 10 knots NE. We are finally having a good sail at last.

It has been really hot and humid with minimal wind. We are so pleased to have all of the opening portholes, hatches, dorades and fans.

The mesh sides and back to the binimi are a real blessing. The sides are extended forward 3 foot to the bottom rail in a triangle from the binimi and the design maximises shade without compromising appearance. The design caused a lot of comment and interest in Puerto Vallarta as did the boom awning made by North Sails.

The coolest part of the boat is definitely under the binimi in the shade and apparent breeze during the day. We take the sides down at night.

Abeam of Costa Rica in the Company of Turtles & Dolphins

We are currently abeam of Costa Rica and motoring at 8 knots in a convergence zone between 2 high pressure systems.

We should have enough wind to sail again tonight according to Clearpoint's prediction. Last night we had a nice sail in light to moderate conditions with misty rain in a local weather system. We have been using Clearpoint (http://clearpointweather.com/) for our weather prediction for the past couple of years. Our Australia to New Caledonia and Vanuatu cruise on our J130 Ragtime last year increased our faith in Clearpoint. We left Brisbane in a westerly using Clearpoint's predictions and had a fantastic downwind sail to Noumea.

There has been no traffic at all. When we left Acapulco we saw 2 huge container ships on the 1st night out but there has been nothing since.

Large numbers of birds, turtles and dolphins are our constant companions. For the past 4 hours we have seen literally hundreds of turtles. Every 100 metres there is at least one turtle and usually 5 or more in close sight. They are not afraid of us at all. They seem to be as curious about us as we are of them. When they are right beside the boat they roll over and have a look at us and give us a lazy wave of the flipper. We are not deviating from our course ... they are coming to us. We have been absolutely fascinated calling 1 o'clock ... 5 o'clock .... 9 o'clock

It is at least 4300 metres deep here. One of those wonderful special days that you will never forget.

Cyndy's brother Clyde is working in the Solomon Islands and traditionally the local fishermen have a symbolic Dolphin and a Turtle on board their vessels for protection. Clyde had a dolphin and a turtle carved out of single shells by local artisans for Salacia to keep her safe and they have pride of place on board in the main cabin.

We are amazed that each time we leave port we are escorted by schools of dolphins. In all of our years of sailing we have never had such constant guard of honor of dolphins and we can only put it down to the "Salacia legend" (http://salacia1.blogspot.com/2010/03/salacia-in-ancient-roman-mythology.html). By total coincidence, when we bought Salacia she had a painting of dolphins in the master cabin.

I have just heard another call of "dolphins" from the deck :-) This time it is a school of large dolphins. Up until now most of the dolphins have been tiny with a pronounced fin. Ross got splashed with the gymnastics.

So on that note I am off again to see how many more turtles I can see before dark. It is 6.25pm but it will be a late dinner tonight. I made a huge salad for late lunch so I will make dinner late tonight when it is cooler.

Departing Acapulco

The photos today are of Ross marking the spreader patch positions on the mainsail before we left the dock at Acapulco Yacht Club.

We left Acapulco at 2.00pm on Sunday afternoon and we had a lovely sail for the first few hours and we certainly chewed up the miles. Since 2am we have been motoring at 7 knots to conserve fuel with some wind assistance. We are carrying enough fuel to motor for 1000 nautical miles in the tanks and we are also carrying additional emergency fuel in jerry cans.

Our first sunset since leaving Acapulco was absolutely stunning:

Last night the generator went out on overload while we were making water so we went into "conserve water at all costs mode". Thankfully we have seen able to fix the problem this morning so we are fully laden with sweet "made water". The problem was that a piece of rubber had come off the bottom of the strainer and it was blocking the valve. Ross has also overhauled the salt water pump which was running slower than usual.

Brisas Las Hadas, Beaches & Cliff Diving

The beaches here are like a children's book depiction with hundreds of families enjoying fairy floss, snow cones, games, massages and instruction. Every type of food imaginable is available from vendors and the range of merchandise is also amazing. Everything from life jackets to sunglasses, beads, carvings and kites is available from vendors with laden trays.

The photo below is of Stephen and Ross preparing to go ashore at the marina at Brisas Las Hadas, a resort whose architecture was inspired by a famous Moorish fairytale. Fantastic spires and arches adorn a nearly vertical maze of white adobe walls and red tiled roofs. The town has good chandleries, provisioning and transportation.

The cliff divers below were absolutely amazing!

Acapulco

We arrived in Acapulco a few days ago and the Acapulco Yacht Club is stunning. Kyle, who was one of our crew for the PV race, arranged an introduction and we are overwhelmed by the welcome we have received.

Ricardo Brockman has given us the use of his pen and his son Ricky came down to say hello after we arrived. Ricky Brockman and his brother Erik are here training for Olympic selection in the 49ers. They have/own 3 boats and they are match racing in Acapulco at the moment. They live in Mexico City and train here. Ricky also organised for a B & G expert to go over our instrumentation and for our hull to be scrubbed and for the topsides to be polished. One day we hope to be able to return the hospitality.

The next photo is of Acapulco Harbour from the Traditional section of Acapulco. The Yacht Club is in the background to the right. The Yacht Club arranged for Immigration to come to us at the Yacht Club and clear us on Friday morning so that we were free to leave Mexico whenever we liked over the weekend or Monday. We can't thank them enough for everything that they organised for us and for their incredible hospitality.

The photo below is of provisioning at the Acapulco markets. We hired a car and driver for the day and had a wonderful time exploring this gorgeous city. If you have a chance to visit don't hesitate!!!!!!!!!!!

The photo below is looking across at the Golden area of Acapulco. At night the lights of Acapulco are like a bowl of diamonds. Incredibly beautiful.

Safe Arrival at Bahia De Zihuatanejo

We have arrived at Bahia De Zihuatanejo after a pleasant overnight sail down the coast from Manzanillo.

It is good to get that part of the coast which is renowned for drug smugglers under our belts. We were all certainly alert during our standard watches of 2 hours on and 4 hours off in very pleasant balmy temperatures.

We continue to be thrilled with the performance of the boat. She lopes along and we are eating up the miles.

We are about to go ashore to explore after our showers in the air conditioning. It looks gorgeous from Salacia.

Definitely the life of the cruiser!

Jungle River Trip & Manzanillo

We anchored at Tanacatita overnight. We all slept well after the overnight passage from Puerto Vallarta. We also christened the cockpit table last night for dinner.

This morning we went on dinghy trip through the mangroves to the Tanacatita village. It is referred to as the Jungle river trip. The bird life was fantastic, fish abundant and the baby “mangrove crabs” fascinating.

At the end of the trip, we had brunch and a couple of ”Pacifico’s” in a Mexican Palapa overlooking the beach.

We returned to Salacia at lunch time and set sail for Manzanillo (35 Nm away). The wind freshened from the WNW to 20-25knts so we sailed under main alone. On arrival we dropped anchor at Bahia De Santiago (near Manzanillo) at 1630. Our top speed for the passage was 12.2 knots, which is not bad for main only.

I have just finished my second beer whilst Cyndy is cooking dinner.

The climate is just fantastic along this coast and it will be a shame that we are not able to spend a month here rather than 4-5days.

Forgot to mention how pleasing it was to see the RQYS burgee along side all of the other YC burgees at the Puerto Vallarta Yacht Club.

Sail to Bahia Tenacatita

We left PV at 1820 and were greeted by a school of dolphins as we exited the Marina. We had a rollicking sail in balmy conditions last night and anchored for brunch at Bahia Chamela. Heavy surf was breaking on shore and the anchorage had a pronounced westerly surge so we decided to cancel the proposed shore trip after brunch and explore further down the coast.

Careyes Cove was very popular and absolutely gorgeous but there was a lack of space in the anchorage, so we continued south with a poled out head sail to Bahia Tenacatita. It was a great sail and a gorgeous anchorage and a very pretty place to spend the night.

Tomorrow morning we will do the Jungle River, self guided dinghy trip. The excursion will take about 3 hours.

The bird and sea life is incredible in this part of the world.

Great Friends

The sign writer couldn't spell "Australia" so Ross donned his harness and hung from the stern to rectify the problem.

It is incredible how much time and effort Ross, Dian and Ron have put into "Salacia". They arrived for the maiden voyage a week before the start and worked from dawn until late every night in San Diego. It was their first trip to the US and they missed San Diego accept for Shelter Island where the yacht was berthed. When we arrived in Puerto Vallarta they again put in many selfless days getting the boat ready for the puddle jump with only 2 days to enjoy this wonderful part of Mexico.

It was fantastic having Dian with us for the maiden voyage and it was her 1^st yacht race. We were absolutely delighted to have her with us for this very special voyage. She was the chef for the race and each shift change, and her smiling face greeted the next watch with a hot drink. Moral was high due to Di's great culinary abilities. She is also now a wiz at packing spinnakers.

When the mainsail arrived all of our new friends in PV were clapping and cheering for us. Unfortunately, the mainsail arrived without the pins for the cars on the mast so we were delayed for another few days but we collected them this afternoon and as soon as there is enough tide we are out of here.

Ross is back with us for the next legs. We are all very excited to be finally leaving in 2 hours. Ross has just told me that he has scrubbed the fenders and we are ready to leave. Anyone who has had the pleasure of sailing with Ross will know that there is never a job left undone and Salacia is shining like a new pin.

The effort that these special friends have all put in to help us realize our dream is extraordinary.

Nearly Ready to Depart!

The rudder bearing arrived last night and we have installed it.

The main has been finally released and it is on a truck so we are crossing our fingers that it will arrive this afternoon. High tide is at 9.15pm so we are shooting for departure before then.

We are certainly mentally ready to go and “Salacia” is ship shape. The job list is finished and I just heard a whisper from on deck that we even have the “boom preventer”.

Baja Earthquake - No Impact for Salacia

Last night we had an email from Ricko saying that he had just heard about the quake and he asking if we were okay. It seems that there was a 7.2 scale earth quake in California Baja which is just north of us at 3.40pm their time. LA and San Francisco felt it however, we were just working on the boat. Ignorance is bliss.

We went to the beach bar to watch the sunset and have a wonderful seafood dinner. The meal finished with flambé strawberries cooked at our table and the chef was a real master of the flame technique. It was an exquisite way to finish a great day.

Still no rudder bearing or mainsail today. Close of business is approaching quickly and Mexican Customs are not answering their phones.

We hired a car and picked up the last minute things today hoping for an early departure tomorrow.

We had news last night from “Avanti” another J160 owned by Sue and Bill Grun of Telluride. They left PV 10 days ago and had just arrived at the outer islands of the Galapagos. When we arrived in Telluride in February there was a message at our accommodation from them and we met them for the 1^st time. We had a lovely time getting to know them and also caught up with them in PV before we returned to Australia.

The odds of two sets of J160 owners meeting in Telluride, Puerto Vallarta and with the same itinerary across the Pacific are incredible. I think that there have only been 33 J160’s built !!!!

Still in Puerto Vallarta

We are still waiting for the Mexican customs to release our mainsail! FEDEX also has our rudder bearing and we are waiting not so patiently for it to be delivered. We have certainly learnt that no amount of jumping up and down will work with the Mexicans.

We are all fuelled up and provisioned with nowhere to go. Very frustrating. Think good things for us re them releasing the beast on Monday.

On the positive side we are getting lots of jobs done while we enjoy PV. It is crazy here with everyone in holiday mode.

Everyone that goes past the boat says “Are you still here”. It has become a source of much merriment for all at the Marina.

Jobs like replacing the tread on the steps has always been on the “like to do list” and it is good to have these jobs done.

We have been reflecting on the race (maiden voyage) and the mad rush to have the boat ready in time.

Erik Rogers with his knowledge, enthusiasm and work ethic was critical to us making the race starting line. He was still working with us way past sun down each night and on the race was worth his weight in gold. When we got to PV all of the great crew pitched in to help put the boat back into cruising mode and Erik was again always the last to “down tools”.

I know that all aboard “Salacia” wish that we could clone him to always have an “Erik” on board. No body knows a J Boat like Erik.