|
We pushed out twin beds together the first night, and when they came to make up the room, (yes they do that!) they made the bed up as a double… very considerate! The boat seems well maintained and clean. The crew are very nice — many of them don’t speak English, but the dive masters speak English very well. They are both Naturalists too, so very knowledgeable about the wildlife both land and marine.
The other divers on the boat are very pleasant, and the majority are UW (UnderWater) photographers and most belong to the UPS (Underwater Photography Society) , so lots of equipment in the main saloon. It’s fun to see it all since we have our one camera with housing, with one strobe… we are quite a contrast to the rest of these folks. |
|
GALAPAGOS! |
|
Trip Log |
|
Now we are off to Wolf and Darwin, 123 nautical miles from Santiago. We set “sail” (we are under sail and motor right now) at 5pm this evening and due to arrive about 6am at Wolf. So far much smoother, but we are still in the central islands. At the briefing tonight we saw a video of a Lammer Law trip 2001, July. What a great video. They saw hammerheads… will we?? |
|
Day 3 It was a long and bumpy night. The bell went off at 5:45 am—it was still dark! Lots of jokes about doing the night dive first and off to get ready for the dive. Water was calm, we were anchored right near the south end of Wolf Island. The edge of the Island is a sheer cliff about 200-300 ft high. There were small plateaus where plants grow and birds nest.
Dive 4 — Wolf Island
The panga ride was easy and each dive the routine is getting easier. We get in our pangas, (there are 2) and line up around the edge. When we get to our site, the dive master says “uno, dos, ahora!” and on the word ahora, we all roll backwards into the water and go down. Right away on this dive was a Galapagos shark and a turtle and as I descended a big spotted moray right out in the open. As we made our way along the boulders, eels were everywhere, big and laying right out in the open. Saw many more turtles, (bigger that before) Lots of puffers, spotted and in their golden phase. And a variety of colorful tropical fish. There were butterfly fish, Tangs and Moorish Idols, parrots and King angels, to name only a few. The current wasn’t nearly as strong as we were led to believe. No hammer heads yet for Gene and I, but Kathleen saw a couple in the distant. Genes BCD had a leak in it and he had a hard time with buoyancy, so we held hands the whole dive and it was fine with just me doing floatation control.
|
|
Breakfast was good, eggs bacon and the usual “unusual” variety of cheeses and fruit juices, hot croissants and bread.
Hung out on the top deck and watched the birds. The cliff is filled with birds. We saw red footed boobies, (they have blue bills and red feet) The juveniles don’t have those colors yet and they are mostly gray.
Vampire Finches (feed on the blood of boobies when food is scarce). Frigates and swallow tailed gulls (the gulls sleep/rest during the day up on the cliffs and feed at night.. Only in the Galapagos!) We saw a tropic bird which has a very, very long tail, and when it flies it looks as though it is carrying a string behind it. The red footed boobies had some chicks up there on the cliffs, very downy white. The juveniles were very interested in our boat mast and rigging, but many couldn’t seem to land. They come down with their feet out-stretched but then “chicken out”.
When we were getting ready for our next dive, one landed finally on the awning over where we get ready. He was a maturing juvenile, his beak was faintly blue and his feet were light pink. He was curious and would look down, bite at things that were under him, (like people).
A curious thing about the boat, if you fall asleep out in public, someone paints your toenails funny colors. (I make a note to nap in the room) |
|
Trip Log continued |