Land ahoy!
Sooooo ..... we are anchored in Wreck Bay!!! pos 00deg53.722S, 089deg36.773W The last 24hrs we just motored in windless conditi0ns and a wonderfully flat ocean, in the end we made it here with more than half our fuel to spare. We arrived at 4pm. I tried everything to catch a fish (that sailfish caught on the second morning was too big too keep): different lures, flying fish with a hook sticking out its belly, poppers, flashers, teazers, rapalas, yozuris you name it, all to no avail. Andy first spotted Isla San Cristobal, just a dark smudge on a dark and cloudy horizon. But it soon grew into a big island... the landscape looks a bit like our west coast after a drought, not tropical at all. Lots of it is just brown desert. We passed by this massive rock called Leon Dormido (sleeping lion), which turned out to be cut through the middle, two sheer sided cliffs facing each other a few meters apart. It will be worth googling a few pics of it. Whilst busy stowing the mainsail I looked back and saw one of the handlines had a fish on. Turns out to be a BIG beautiful Wahoo, just over 4 feet long (i measured it with a tape measure). We got the wahoo on board just as we arrived at Wreck Bay. Harbour master raised his eye brows at our illegal catch, Andy told him we caught it far away from Galapagos, i offered him a few steaks which he accepted with a goofy grin ... Lots of charter and cargo boats with a village the size of Simonstown. Josh had a swim off the transom and he was soon joined by a seal pup. Josh scrambled back onto the transom in a flat panic, the brown seal darting around was too much for him... and guess what? The seal pup climbed onto the other transom and lay there playfully waiting for Josh. And now for the good part: there are waves on both sides of Wreck Bay! Andy and I paddled from the back of shimmi over to the right hander on the east side of the bay for a quick sunset surf. There are water taxis in the bay which are $1 per trip (call them on channel 14) so we don't have to bother too much with the dingy. Cant wait to explore the village for trattorias and veggie market. Few nice sandy coves for the kids are a short dingy ride away. This evening we braaied a few wahoo steaks and washed it down with cold beers. As I am writing this the sea lions are making a crazy noise right next to shimmi. Its like a marine version of howler monkeys.
Anyway, thanks for following our progress, it means more to us than you think! Our emails will be more sporadic now that we are stationary. We will be here for around 2 weeks before taking on the one month Marquesas leg. We will try send some mails with pics from an internet cafe ashore during the next week.
