A Nice Daysail to Isla Isabela, Galapagos

Re: Sunday, January 17, 2010

Moving from Port to Port in the Galapagos: Even with a cruising permit (the Autografo), we have to check in and out of each of the 3 main ports. We had arrived in Santa Cruz on Thursday afternoon, and provided our paperwork to Bolivar's cooperating agent in Santa Cruz. Visions, who arrived at the same time, did the same with their agent.

When we decided what day we were leaving, we called our respective agents to let them know that we were leaving early on Sunday.

It turned out that we paid $25 more for the same paperwork than Visions did. Visions' agent checked them in and out on Friday afternoon. They paid only $12.48 for each, in Port Captain fees. This is paid to your agent who then gives you the bill (factura) from the Port Captain with itemized costs. OUR agent checked us in and out late on Saturday afternoon. So we paid double what Visions paid, because we were on a weekend. When we protested having to pay double for arriving on a Thursday, we got rapid-fire Spanish. We later talked with Bolivar about this, who didn't give us any satisfaction either. He knows we are unhappy with what happened, though. Next time we will know better.

Before we left Puerto Ayora, we had to get our stern anchor up. Last time Visions was in Puerto Ayora, they had bent their big Fortress anchor trying to get it out of the firm sand. So when we deployed our Danforth off the stern, we bouyed the heel of it, so we could trace the line and pull it out backwards. Since it had only been there a day, it wasn't that hard to retrieve. (The last time we deployed a stern anchor, Dave had to don dive gear and dig it out by hand)

We followed Visions out of the harbor, and had a nice 35 mile beam reach to Isabela. We motored a little longer than Visions did, and so ended up ahead of them. But once we turned off our engine, they easily caught up and passed us. This gave us a nice opportunity to take pictures of each other under sail.

The entry into Isabela was easy--we had 2 sets of waypoints... one set from the Ecuador Cruisers Guide and the other from Visions (who got them from someone else). And Visions had been in there before.

We finally had our anchor down about 5pm, at 00°57.90S, 090°57.74W. The anchorage is in a nice mostly-enclosed bay. Much much nicer than Santa Cruz. If you're in the right spot, there is a nice sand bottom about 10-15 feet deep. There are rocks and some shoals, so don't go in any farther than we are, without having good light and a good knowledge of the tides.

On the way in, Visions called the Port Captain on Channel 16 and asked if it would be OK for us to come in in the morning to check in with them. They said that was fine. So we did show up at the Port Captain's office in Puerto Villamil at 9am, and though the process was slow, we got checked in, with no agent (neither of our agents have a cooperating agent on Isabela). It cost us each only $4.01.

Within minutes of getting the anchor down, we had 2 sea lions playing around our boat, and a pair of sea turtles mating nearby. We can see a Galapagos penguin colony from where we are anchored. The town is a sleepy little place that reminds me very much of a out-island Bahamas town.