Monday 28 June 2010 (GALAPAGOS)

Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Isla San Cristobal, Galapagos, Ecuador; Monday 28 June 2010 בס"ד

We arrived at our anchorage at Puerto Baquerizo Moreno at about 1300 on Thursday. The agents and customs officials boarded and we waited for them to conduct their business before the off-watches were permitted to go ashore to be cleared in individually by customs. The 8-12 had the watch, so I had Thursday and Friday off. By the time everything official was settled, it was approaching evening. A few of us had a light meal and some cervezas and at 1730 a parade of “Los Flores Y Las Frutas” went by us on Avenida Charles Darwin. It was a nice surprise, and after it finished we made our way to meet with everybody at a restaurant where our agents had arranged a reception cocktail party. Well, ain't no party like a Picton Castle party, and it wasn't long before it broke out into a massive dancefest on the streets. After that, we made our way to a local bar and continued our dance party til late in the night. I then got a room a hostel and crashed.

Friday morning I met with Mitch and Brad and we rented bicycles. First we biked to the nearby beach called La Lobería, which is a sea lion refuge. In Spanish, Lobo means wolf, but they call sea lions “lobos marinos,” and I think that makes more sense since they more closely resemble canines than lions. Oh well. At La Lobería, we saw many several of them and I got some excellent photos and videos. We also saw marine iguanas, although they were resting in the shade of the shrubbery ashore and weren't active. We then biked back through town to the other side to find a frigatebird colony, but all we managed to discover was the empty interpretation center. No matter, we were hungry and so we returned our bikes and went to a cevichería where I enjoyed a delicious fish ceviche, which is like a cold soup thing. It was phenomenal. We passed by a hardware store after and I stopped to pick up some electrical tape. Then I found a wifi spot at a hotel lobby and went online to upload photos and videos. I spoke with Corrinn, and after a long discussion, I chose to end our relationship, which was sad business. After this I started feeling very ill, and got a room at this hotel and laid down for the rest of the night.

I woke up still feeling ill and took the 0730 skiff back to the PC on Saturday morning since I had the watch. After domestics, we up and loosed all sail, and since it is just our watch this of course means I get to do quite a few of them. I was determined not to let my illness stop me from working, and so I carried on through the day. Almost all of my time spent priming and painting the port side focslehead ladder, which I made sure to do perfectly. After lunch, we had to up and stow, and I stowed the fore royal, fore tgallant, main upper and lower topsls, and mainsl. When I was busting up the fore tgallant, I had a serious whoa moment when WT and I busted the sail over top the yard and it came back aft towards us, very nearly knocking us both off. It took me quite a while to reposition myself myself since I was leaning back and footrope was forard and I was not clipped in so I was hanging on tight. Nadja and I managed to make it right, and then it was on to the next after that. After the stow, I continued my painting until I finished then helped Leonard prime part of the taffrail. We then cleaned up all the paint, and I was in the paint locker putting everything away as it came and cleaning brushes. The fumes were making me even more nauseous yet, but I continued on. We then split up into two groups, one with Paul for heaving line throwing technique and practice, and another with Nadja for small boats coxn intro. I first did heaving line throwing, but felt more and more sick and thought I might do some heaving and throwing up of my own. Then I listend to Nadja's intro, but when it came time to get in the skiff, I just couldn't and ran for the head. Instead of vomiting though, I had massive explosive shits. This unpleasant business persisted until well into the night, and sucked the lifeforce out of me. I did watch “Block & Tackle,” the video about how Paul and other PC crew got a massive tree in the Granada rainforest and pulled it out over a week's time using block and tackle manpower back to the ship. The wood from that tree is now the keels of the twin schooners being built in Lunenburg at the Dory Shop. I stood my night watch at 2200, and the shits had slowed down a bit by then but hadn't stopped completely. Spratt stood it with me because she had to be on call for skiff run if the Captain radioed in or just for the final 2300 run anyway. I woke Paul at one point when a big yacht anchored near us was swinging very close to our bow, but he said it was okay. I then went to bed after my shift.

In the morning, Dr. Gary woke me and told me he wanted to check me out (he had been ashore Saturday). After a brief examination, he said I probably got E. Coli and gave me two pills of 250mg Cipro, one for 0800 and one for 2000. I took the first, and went ashore at 1000 and had a light brunch with some friends, but I felt shitty still so I spent the whole afternoon myself in the wifi loby, drinking Gatorades and using the internet. Now that the shits had stopped, my weakened body managed to get the “Panama Plague,” an ephemeral flu-like bug which had afflicted many of us on the passage here but I had been able to avoid. I managed to Skype with Alissa and Cliff, which was good. Later on, Karla go on but then Skype froze and I couldn't raise them again. At 1800 I met with friends for dinner, then we went back to a bed & breakfast where many had rooms for a mini rooftop party. I ended up crashing at around 2100 in Jo's room.

I slept in until 1000, then paid the bill for Jo, who left me money since she left early to return to PC to stand watch. I came down to the little breakfast bar downstairs where Paul, Shawn, Sophie, and Jehle were having coffee before going surfing at Puerto Chino. I had coffee and finished writing postcards and typed up my logs to date. I'm now going to look for friends to find the giant tortoises...

Found Paula, who was looking to go to Puerto Chino and we caught a taxi for that direction. First, we stopped and Paula picked up her sleeping bag she had left at the treehouse bar where she had stayed in El Progreso, a small village about halfway there. Then I was dropped off at the tortoise preserve Cerro Colorado. I checked it out and the tortoises were incredible. Very glad I did that. I then walked down the mountain to Puerto Chino and met up with Paula, Paul, Shawn, Sophie, and Jehle, and hung out with them while they surfed. They had told their cabby to return at 1530, and we headed back. On the ride back we talked about lots of stuff, including how Magic is my brother, which got to dinosaurs having dicks, which led to tortoises having dicks, and I asked the cabby, “¿Sabes si las tortugas gigantes tienen las vergas?” and he was like, “Claro, ¡las vergas que tienen son cuarenta centimetros!” and I was like, “¡Carajo! No mames.” Anyway, not to be too vulgar, but it was funny. Now going to catch late lunch/early dinner and then go online to upload all of this before heading back to the ship.

Oh darn, the island is having intermittent internet blackouts, so I managed to get some photos up but not the logs.