Floreana Island
Eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of 2000… gotta be a lucky day! And it certainly was!
I called the bridge at 0610, when I heard the National Geographic Islander’s engines starting to slow down as we entered Post Office Bay to anchor. My anxious question to the first officer was, “Are they there?” and he responded with an excited “YES!” So, although I had planned on making a discrete and optional wake up call, I sounded the ship-wide “ding ding dong” and announced that there were three humpback whales resting in the bay. We lowered our fleet of Zodiacs and almost all of us headed out for a slow panga ride beside the whales.
These humpbacks, a calf and we assume two adult females, have come from the cold southern waters to give birth and breed in this warmer equatorial zone. There is a whale watching business off the coast of Ecuador based on the yearly visits of the humpbacks; these whales come more seldom and in low numbers, between July and September, to Galápagos. This is the third week that we have had the luck and the privilege to approach these three individuals slowly with our Zodiacs, to hear them breathe, see them spout and roll and dive. We spent a half hour with the whales and then motored in to land on the crescent beach of Post Office Bay.
We sorted through the post cards, taking those we could hand deliver, and then returned aboard for breakfast. Meanwhile our crew moved the ship to anchor off the small Islet of Champion. Here we had a fabulous snorkeling experience. The water was crystal clear and a vibrant deep blue despite cloudy skies. We wiggled into our wet suits and boarded the Zodiacs. When we slipped into the chilly water and gazed into the blue there were so many fish of so many species and so incredibly close to us that it felt as if we had jumped into an aquarium! A six foot white-tipped reef shark cruised below us and soon we were joined by several graceful, swirling sea lion teenagers. They had as much fun spinning with us and as we had with them, and when we decided to move on along the shore they followed us.
After lunch and siesta, we offered two rounds of kayaking. The afternoon weather was perfect – cool and gray; none of us need more sun on our burnt backs and shoulders! We watched the sea lions along the coast and some of us saw sea turtles. Then the sun came out and we disembarked on the greenish olivine beach at Punta Cormorant for a walk. There were only a few flamingos in the brackish lagoon, but over a rise and down we went to a lovely fine white sand beach. Sea turtles have nested in great numbers on this beach during the last few months and now the hatchlings are emerging. Frigates patrolled the beach, alert to the tiniest movement far below them. We saw them dive and pull hatchling turtles from the sand. The luckier little turtles, in the lower layers of the nest, will emerge tonight after darkness falls. As the sun set behind a silvery cloud, we stepped into the Zodiacs and returned to the ship. We have had both a lucky and a lovely day in the enchanted islands of Galápagos!
Eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of 2000… gotta be a lucky day! And it certainly was!
I called the bridge at 0610, when I heard the National Geographic Islander’s engines starting to slow down as we entered Post Office Bay to anchor. My anxious question to the first officer was, “Are they there?” and he responded with an excited “YES!” So, although I had planned on making a discrete and optional wake up call, I sounded the ship-wide “ding ding dong” and announced that there were three humpback whales resting in the bay. We lowered our fleet of Zodiacs and almost all of us headed out for a slow panga ride beside the whales.
These humpbacks, a calf and we assume two adult females, have come from the cold southern waters to give birth and breed in this warmer equatorial zone. There is a whale watching business off the coast of Ecuador based on the yearly visits of the humpbacks; these whales come more seldom and in low numbers, between July and September, to Galápagos. This is the third week that we have had the luck and the privilege to approach these three individuals slowly with our Zodiacs, to hear them breathe, see them spout and roll and dive. We spent a half hour with the whales and then motored in to land on the crescent beach of Post Office Bay.
We sorted through the post cards, taking those we could hand deliver, and then returned aboard for breakfast. Meanwhile our crew moved the ship to anchor off the small Islet of Champion. Here we had a fabulous snorkeling experience. The water was crystal clear and a vibrant deep blue despite cloudy skies. We wiggled into our wet suits and boarded the Zodiacs. When we slipped into the chilly water and gazed into the blue there were so many fish of so many species and so incredibly close to us that it felt as if we had jumped into an aquarium! A six foot white-tipped reef shark cruised below us and soon we were joined by several graceful, swirling sea lion teenagers. They had as much fun spinning with us and as we had with them, and when we decided to move on along the shore they followed us.
After lunch and siesta, we offered two rounds of kayaking. The afternoon weather was perfect – cool and gray; none of us need more sun on our burnt backs and shoulders! We watched the sea lions along the coast and some of us saw sea turtles. Then the sun came out and we disembarked on the greenish olivine beach at Punta Cormorant for a walk. There were only a few flamingos in the brackish lagoon, but over a rise and down we went to a lovely fine white sand beach. Sea turtles have nested in great numbers on this beach during the last few months and now the hatchlings are emerging. Frigates patrolled the beach, alert to the tiniest movement far below them. We saw them dive and pull hatchling turtles from the sand. The luckier little turtles, in the lower layers of the nest, will emerge tonight after darkness falls. As the sun set behind a silvery cloud, we stepped into the Zodiacs and returned to the ship. We have had both a lucky and a lovely day in the enchanted islands of Galápagos!
