Isabela & Fernandina Islands
Many of us arose early this morning, and by 0630 we were on deck enjoying the breezy but calm sea conditions, and searching the horizon for seabirds and marine mammals. Dozens of dark-rumped petrels, endemic seabirds that nest inland and have historically been threatened in Galápagos by introduced mammals, swooped by the ship and challenged us to take their pictures or simply try to see their trademark white foreheads. These birds have been brought from near extinction in the 1970’s back to a healthy population size, and we were thrilled to see so many of them feeding around us this morning.
A fur seal porpoised towards shore following a night of open ocean feeding, and Naturalist Sophia spied the spout of a whale far to our north. I asked the First Officer to turn our ship towards Roca Redonda and we scanned the ocean, but we did not see that whale again. Later Juan Carlos spotted another spout, and then some of us saw the gray back and dorsal fin of a medium sized Bryde’s whale as it dove and disappeared from view.
We blew the ship’s whistle as we crossed the equator and a wind-blown Canadian King Neptune fought to keep his toga on. He threatened to sacrifice our birthday girl Marie, but she got down on her knees and pleaded, and he was finally satisfied with a limbo line under an Ecuadorian flag banner. So we were finally allowed to navigate on and we anchored at Punta Vicente Roca along the spectacular cliffs of Northern Isabela.
Our next outing was a Zodiac ride along the coast; sea turtles, cormorants, penguins and pelagic sunfish were some of many highlights. We snorkeled in the protected bay among dozens of sea turtles that were feeding on algae and sea jellies or sleeping on the sandy sea floor. Penguins flitted beside us and cormorants dove to search for the bottom dwelling fish and octopus they feed on. We were soon all chilled to the bone in the cool waters of the upwelling Cromwell Current, but we returned to the ship with wide smiles of satisfaction on all our faces. Amazing…
While Photographer Dennis Minty was speaking in the Lounge in the afternoon, a small pod of bottlenose dolphin swam by the ship, now at anchor off Fernandina Island. Later as we began to disembark the dolphins returned and we hurried into the boats and were able to cruise alongside them. To our delight they surfaced gracefully and spouted next to our ship and our Zodiacs.
On shore at Punta Espinoza we found piles of marine iguanas and baby sea lions, large dark lava lizards, two juvenile hawks, cormorants and our first Galápagos snakes. As the sunset and the sky faded to oranges and pinks we motored back to the National Geographic Islander. We had our cocktails on the Sky Deck and asked Captain John to turn off all the ship’s lights. Juan Carlos used a laser pointer to identify the stars and constellations and we marveled at the Milky Way and the jeweled celestial beauty of the night’s sky with no lights anywhere to compete with its natural brilliance.
