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Firefly - Firefly on Isabela



Firefly arrived in Isabela on Tuesday after an excellent sail 45nm from Santa Cruz. The forecast was for little wind so we felt very lucky to have 12 knots from the South East and as usual the weather was perfect. While Peter is off on an organised tour we have a new crew. Barney and Juanita have joined us for a weeks visit to Isabela, the largest island in the Galapagos Archipelago. The island is off to the West and is geologically one of the youngest with a number of volcanoes that are still classified as active.

In the World ARC cruising notes the anchorage at Port Villamil is noted as being the 'jewel' of the Galapagos. It certainly is - surrounded by a reef which breaks the rolling swell so that its relatively calm for the yachts, with beaches of white sand and beautiful aquamarine water. The wildlife is also stunning with sharks seen as we entered the anchorage, and sealions and turtles patrolling the waters near to the landing dock and beaches. In the air there are pelicans, frigate birds, petrels and gannets. Just off the town there is a section of the beach which is reserved to allow the large numbers of marine iguanas some peace.

A taxi tour inland enabled us to see the Muro de las Lagrimas, a wall made by prisoners of a penal colony, a common use for the islands before they were settled. We then stopped at Poza de las Diablas to see the flamingos which are found in larger numbers to the west of here. The only 'special' birds we are still waiting to see are Galapagos penguins, albatrosses and the vermillion fly catcher. We have already spent a lot of time in the forested areas on Santa Cruz looking for the latter - during that tour the guide we had, Max, although excellent at speaking English - pronounced Vermillion so it sounded like 'Birmingham! fly catcher' Penguins were seen at Puerto Villamil recently so we are hoping to see them before we leave.

We are currently sharing the anchorage here with about 15 other World ARC yachts. Over the next few days they will all be heading off back to the East. Before departing for the Marquesas we all have to go back to prepare for the departure in Santa Cruz. This is both because of Ecuador's rules regarding yachts visiting Galapagos and also as Puerto Ayora is the biggest settlement so best for provisioning and re fuelling.

While the above descriptions of the environment and the wildlife make this place sound like paradise, some of the rules imposed via the National Park are restrictive and this stopover in the Archipelago would be better if we were free to explore all of the islands on Firefly (as opposed to being restricted to just 3 anchorages).

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