Getting to Galapagos

A very Special Place

The Galapagos Islands (also known as the Archipelago de Colon), consists of 13 major islands and several minor ones. They are volcanic in origin with the oldest rocks estimated to be 5 million years old. The island group is a province of Ecuador, administered by the forestry service and protected by UNESCO as a world heritage area. Of course all of the animals and plants on the islands are protected as well. The islands are physically stunning, the black lava flows contrast with turquoise water, white sand beaches and green mangroves which are teeming with wildlife.​

Seals frolic in the shallows

​Nowadays tourism is a major part of the economy and small cruise ships are a popular way to visit the islands. The ships stay in Galapagos waters with passengers flying in from mainland Equador. It is possible to visit in your own yacht however it requires commitment: it is expensive, heavily regulated, overly bureaucratic and there are limited ports that you can visit. Use of an agent is mandatory and government and agent fees are high. Food and fuel all have to be brought in from the mainland and are also relatively expensive. Once you are there, you can find a range of  different tours including snorkelling and diving, visits to different islands and self-exploration. So was it worth visiting in ITIKI? Absolutely, we loved every minute of it (well maybe we could have done without the stress of the hull inspection, but more on that later)!

The islands lie on the equator at the convergence of the El Niño and Humbolt currents and in the “path” of the doldrums. Sailing the 880nm from Panama can be challenging and many people find themselves motoring a bit too much or getting caught with currents pushing them in the wrong direction. Fishing boats with long lines and drift nets can also be a problem and fellow cruisers in a monohull told us their story of getting one caught around their keel and having to dive in to unwrap it. We were expecting a challenging passage and decided to take on crew to share the fun! Morrie joined us in Shelter Bay marina, came through the canal with us and would continued on to Galapagos with us, before returning home to the US. He did a great job as crew, line-handler and hull cleaner and his fluent Spanish was a bonus!

Recycling bins

Special signage

Preparations

​There is a fair bit of preparation work to be done before departing for the Galapagos and we had sent this, along with a good deal of cash, to the agent before we left Panama. We used Johnny and Gian Carlo Romero of YachtGala. The main things we needed to prepare were:

1. Prohibited foods: We were given a list of prohibited foods to enter the area, that would be subject to confiscation. Either don’t bring them or we to eat them on the way. One prohibited item was beef, and as we had stocked up in Panama we requested that this be quarantined in our freezer on arrival.
2. Hull clean & Inspection: The other stressful requirement is the hull clean and inspection on arrival. Some agents insist on a certified, professional hull clean (in Panama). Cost is around $300 for a catamaran, plus marina fees. Our agent allows self-certification but regardless a diver will inspect your hull on arrival and either give you the thumbs up, or thumbs down. If you get the latter you need to head 40nm offshore, clean your hull, provide photographic evidence of your position and come back for another inspection. We did our own hull cleaning in Panama (Las Perlas) and a re-clean on the second last day of passage. There was a surprising amount of new growth!
3. Fumigation: You can have fumigation on arrival, or arrange this to be done and documented in Panama. Most Canal agents can organise a fumigation certificate and that’s what we did via our canal agent.
4. Bio-degradable products: You are expected to have a selection of bio-degradeable cleaning products. Since Martinique I had collected: phosphate free laundry detergent, citric acid toilet duck, vinegar spray and bicarb powder and finally found some dishwashing liquid in Panama. All set!
5. Waste Management: Signs placed on walls as a reminder not to throw waste overboard or discharge black-water tanks, as well as at least 4 separate bins for different recyclable materials.

Quite a bit of theatre involved!

Panama to Galapagos

A narrow band of wind from Panama to Galapagos

From Isla Chapera, the Las Perlas Islands of Panama, to Galapagos, Ecuador is 880nm. After a last minute check & clean of the hulls and sail drive we set off. Full main and genoa on a beam reach with wind 12-14kts, then peeled to the gennaker. Once we crossed the busy shipping channel, dodging ships heading into the Panama Canal, we changed to the spinnaker. We were making 7.5kts VMG for our first waypoint off the SW tip of Panama; here there is another big shipping channel, with lanes East-North bound and West-South bound, with a separation zone. We cross (at night of course) the westbound lane at right(-ish) angles and have to dodge a few ships powering through on the eastbound channel. We chugged on throughout the night but our dream run had to come to an end, with breeze dropping from 20kts down to single figures. Wind direction was shifting 30-40 degrees south of forecast. With the light weight of the Parasailor we managed to keep moving in the general direction of Galapagos, thanks in large part to 2.4 kts of current in our favour. The zing of the fishing line brought some much needed excitement one afternoon. Pretty quickly all our line was gone though and of course so was another lure! We saw a marlin leap in the distance and can only assume he was the culprit! We also had a few avian hitch-hikers as you can see below:

​Overnight we lost the wind completely and had to snuff the kite and motor for a bit. It filled in again in the wee hours but with a bit more south in it so we hoisted the main and unfurled the gennaker. We have had just enough wind to keep moving and fortunately seas are fairly flat. The current is still being kind to us and pushing us towards our destination. Lost yet another lure but at least they are biting!

We are well and truly into the Doldrums. The wind is fickle here, very light and shifting through 80 degrees now. In the olden days the square riggers might drift for weeks waiting for wind in this zone. To the north and south of us are the “horse latitudes”. These are so called because ships would reach this zone around 2 months out of England and the paid crew would throw the “dead horse” overboard! Fear not animal lovers! The dead horse was the term given to the period of time when a sailor was working off his advance pay (usually money left with his wife back home so he wouldn’t blow it all before he got back!) The expression “flogging a dead horse” comes from this time, there is no use trying to get more work out of crew who have already been paid! But I digress…

Although we lack breeze we still have good currents with us, not to mention a couple of Volvo D2 50s and a tank full of diesel! The Parasailor has been up and down like a bride’s nightie, but somehow we keep moving. 

At 15:12 on the 26th February 2023 ITIKI and crew crossed the equator. We are now in the southern hemisphere and the South Pacific! King Neptune’s representative made an appearance on the foredeck and performed a "crossing the line" ceremony so that Morrie and I were officially transformed from Pollywoggs to Shellbacks! Of course we were painted with "mermaid's blood", had to go for a dip to complete our baptism and finish with a tot of rum! Great fun. It’s a slow finish to our journey with no wind now so we motored the final few miles. 
 
We arrived in sight of land (San Cristobal Island) early Monday morning. Once it was light enough we stopped the boat and the boys went in to clean the hull again. Its amazing how much had grown in the 5.5 days of our passage!

Officials arriving on water taxi

Officials are bored now

The Moment(s) of Truth - The Inspection

Hmmm, this looks nice!

​We anchored in Wreck Bay at around midday and immediately the seals came to do a preliminary inspection. We have transom protectors to stop them invading, however they are very quickly taking up residence on the bottom step of the transom.
 
They clear out when the official inspectors arrived at 3pm. Six inspectors including immigration, health, quarantine, national parks and port captain, plus our Agent Gian Carlos came aboard. A diver arrived separately and went straight into the water to check our hulls. They took our temperature, looked at safety equipment and first aid kit, picked us up on our expired flares, looked in our fridge and freezers, inspected cupboards and wardrobes, took selfies as evidence…. It was quite a party. Well we passed muster and we are allowed to stay-phew! We can start breathing again - and we can start our Galapagos adventure!

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This is my seat!

Seals vs ITIKI

Seals rule this particular bay and port. As soon as a new boat arrives they are over to check you out. It is quite novel at first, they are so cute when they look at you with those big brown eyes. The transom curtains/protectors I had made on the way down, essentially to stop a following sea “pooping” us, were still in place and we thought this would be adequate to keep seals out. They started by taking up residence on the bottom step, which we thought was fine, but overnight we had a big, fat, emphysemic old seal coughing, snorting and farting outside our window for most of the night. Every time he jumped on and off the step, the boat shook and it woke us. Also they leave a smelly brown stain of their sweat and fur on the deck. They like rubbing themselves on the roughness of the non-skid deck. We looked around at other boats in the morning and decided a horizontal fender on the bottom step would deter them… No, it worked for about 5 minutes and then it was used as an aid to reach the next step.
 
One day when we had been out we returned to find a seal in the cockpit, fortunately just on the floor. He quickly exited when we arrived, jumping over the top of the transom covers. Little bugger – he knew he was in trouble as he moved pretty fast. We reinforced our transom defenses putting in extra fenders, surely this will defeat them! The ladder on the port side seemed to be acting as a deterrent initially, however they soon figured out how to wrap themselves around it. Surely that is not comfortable! They are using the dinky transom protectors to give themselves a leg up, those things finally have  a use! The next day we return to find not one, but two seals in the cockpit. One of them was lounging on the centre seat cushion, the other had the decency to stay on the floor. Again they were quick to depart, pushing through the transom covers and breaking the side clips! Took a couple of days and several washes to get the smell of seal juice out of the cushions. 

The barricades

When we are on the boat they are playing around the back and between the hulls. It sounds like someone is snorkelling under there. They have also taken to rubbing their undersides on the hulls. I am guessing they are enjoying the rough finish of the Coppercoat antifoul. Thank goodness we don’t have ablative or it would be all gone!
 
Our fortifications became more and more elaborate. We used our 20L emergency water Jerry cans to block the transom to prevent them pushing through and getting into the cockpit. The passarelle made a re-appearance to stop them jumping over the top. There were also ropes laced back and forth across the transom, making it almost impossible for us to get on and off the water taxis – we were prisoners of the seals in our own boat. It seemed like they were learning to evade our defences more quickly than we were learning how to keep them out! Eventually though we figured out that the vertical fenders worked best. If  you have enough of them and lace them together they can’t just push them aside, and they can’t climb up them. Still it makes getting on and off a little difficult, particularly if you are carrying a load of shopping! I think the ultimate score of this ongoing battle was Seals 4 vs ITIKI 1. Seals definitely rule here.

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