Galapagos, Isla Isabela

We ended up staying 3 days in Santa Cruz and while the swell was never as bad as the first night we were there, it never got much better. Again, we used water taxis to get to and from the dock, which was rather exciting with all the pitching and rolling, when one had to leap from boat to boat. When bringing aboard 10 gallon containers of fuel it was all the more exciting!

Having replenished our fuel, water and food supply and gone through the formal checkout procedures, we left just after sunrise on a Saturday morning for our final Galapagos destination: Isla Isabela about 45 nm away. It was a sunny day with a breeze of about 10-12 kts for most of the way, allowing us to average 6-7 kts. Coming in to Puerto Villamil on the island wasn’t too tricky once we spotted the 2 channel markers to guide us away from the reefs. There were about 13 other yachts and a couple of big cruisers at anchor in the snug, narrow anchorage. We were delighted to see a couple of penguins swimming around Brio as we set the anchor – already we liked this place. The town of Puerto Villamil is very small and the place has the feel of somewhere like Mallacoota 40 years ago – there are a few sandy roads, a bakery, some small hotels and restaurants. The giant tortoise breeding facility is a short walk out of town via a boardwalk built through international funds and as is the case with a lot of externally funded projects, it doesn't look like any funds are being put towards ongoing maintenance. The boardwalk passes a number of lagoons, in one of which we spotted a pink flamingo and in another marine iguanas. As we were to discover, there are thousands of marine iguanas sunning themselves on the jet black volcanic rock that has flowed in times past down to the beach. With their spiky, reptilian, slightly grotesque features, they make excellent photographic models.

We expect to spend a week here, perhaps more as the wind is forecast to drop out later in the week and we will need to wait for good wind to set off for the Marquesas as 3,000 nm is way too far to motor.