Isabela & Fernandina Islands
The ocean was flat calm this morning and, as I gave an optional wake-up call at 0615, the sun glowed orange behind dark grey clouds. For the first hour we enjoyed the breeze, the silhouette of the shield volcanoes Wolf and Ecuador and Roca Redonda in the distance to the north. Mobula rays leapt and flipped, we passed through a school of tuna that churned the glassy surface of the calm ocean and noddy terns and shearwaters dove on the tiny fish the tunas were chasing. Ernesto and I scanned the ocean and finally found what we had been hoping to see: a large pod of common dolphins bounding and splashing about a mile ahead of us.
We approached them slowly – in the Pacific these dolphins are often fearful of ships; I expect they have had bad experiences with tuna boats. But during the 32 years that I have sailed these waters, the common dolphins have become noticeably less afraid of ships around the Galápagos. I think they are learning that these ships are all friendly. This pod of several hundred dolphins let us push in among them and they leapt and flipped and splashed beside us, their smooth grey and cream bodies glowing in the early morning sunlight. It was a marvelous, nearly magical morning, and we headed for breakfast contentedly.
We counted down with the GPS as we crossed the Equator, blew the ship’s horn in celebration and then limboed under a banner the guides held aloft for us on the bow. Captain Carlos Garcia dropped anchor beneath the impressive cliffs at Punta Vicente Roca and the crew lowered our floating fleet of black limos: the Zodiacs.
With a knowledgeable guide and a sharp eyed “panguero” in each boat of 12 guests, we searched the shoreline and the surface of the sea for wildlife. On the rocks we spied perching blue-footed boobies, noddy terns, large black marine iguanas, brilliant red Sally-light foot crabs, our first flightless cormorants, a couple lone penguins and some sea lions and fur seals. We found over two dozen sea turtles and, best of all, several large mola mola - pelagic sun fish - in the water. VC Kirk slid off the Zodiac into the sea with his underwater camera and tried to photograph one of the molas.
After the Zodiac excursion we returned to the ship and donned our wetsuits. We went in close to shore and slipped into the turbid, rough water to snorkel. Although the conditions were far from perfect, we were all delighted to swim among the sea turtles, penguins, cormorants and sea lions. We’d worked up a good appetite, so we thoroughly enjoyed both the lavish buffet lunch and the well earned siesta that followed.
Our afternoon hike on Punta Espinoza, Fernandina Island was fantastic. Last week it poured rain here on us (this week we got the big rain storm while we were on North Seymour instead!). Today we had clouds and intermittent sun, perfect weather for a stroll across the pahoehoe lava flows of the youngest island in the archipelago. Huge piles of marine iguanas, a resting sea turtle in a tidal pool, dark lava lizards, a few nesting cormorants, the ever present and charming sea lions, a chocolate brown adult hawk and skittering Sally Lightfoot crabs entertained us as we followed a rocky trail. Once again we took dozens of pictures.
As the sun set in a magnificent burst of orange and deep red, we motored back to the ship. It had been yet another wonderful day in paradise.
