After over a month at Puerto Ayora, Santa Cruz Island, Galapagos, the crew of MaaMalni had worn out their welcomed. The cruising permit had expired three weeks earlier, but as we were waiting for essential parts and could not leave, the authorities had no choice but to accept us.
Now essential systems are those that you must have to make any lengthy passage, such as water maker, ability to recharge the batteries and refrigeration. You know basic utilities: Water, Power and Cold none of which come with a 4000-mile extension cord or pipeline. And wouldn't you know it, we get to the Galapagos and things turn "pear-shape". And of all place, a port that is really inaccessible to the rest of the world. The day before we are to depart for a 24-day passage (read - no accessto anything but sun and salt), the water-maker high-pressure pump gives out and the generator gives up the ghost. Opps, of all the spares that we carry on board, and the list is extensive, we did not have a high-pressure pump (had ever other pump imaginable but not the really difficult to get high-pressure pump). So, frantic calls are made to the US. We start with a Florida dealer - none to be had. Then to trusty Fisheries Supply in Seattle - nada! Ah ha, Emerald Harbor Marine had the pump -Fabulous! Send it right out overnight to Florida (to private courier) and voila, it arrives 3 weeks later! Yes, 3 weeks. After all this is Ecuador where mañana has a whole new meaning. Seems that Customs is really slow in processing things and if there is any question about paperwork, the item will sit. Welcome, as the locals say, to "The Land of the Absurd", but more on that later.
In the meantime, the generator needed to be rewound, so it was sent to Guayaquil to the "expert" Luis, but as he has never seen a "self-exciting" generator before (yea, right like I know what that means), it got shipped back and forth twice to get it right. The good news is that while it weighed 65 pounds, the cost to send it by air was only $28! So that takes care of Water and Power, what about cold you ask. Well without a generator, we couldn't keep the freezer going? so we packed up the food and schlepped into the local hotel where we had freezer reservations instead of a room.
So whiling our time about town, we take tours and get to know the locals. And even end up writing a Port Guide for Cruisers. More about these adventures in future installments. We will close with telling you about weighing anchor. As we had 2 anchors out (the standard BIG anchor off the bow and a smaller stern anchor) as well as the 'flopper stopper' ( a device to help 'stem the roll' for the incoming swell while anchored), we knew we would have to carefully plan our exit.
We called a water taxi to assist Taking up the stern anchor is usually an easy operation as all you need to do is to pull the rode into the boat until you are over the top of the anchor where you giving it a small jerk straight up to 'break it out' and then lift the anchor off the bottom. Well after twenty minutes of pirouetting around the stern anchor, the little panga, with a very large outboard, had to cry "Uncle". So we decided to take up the bow anchor instead and then go back for the stern anchor. As the bow anchor with only a 130 feet of chain out had been down for a month it would have to be cleaned as it came up. Wow! the growth was amazing so after nearly an hour of cleaning the chain, 3 foot section by 3 foot section with a salt water wash down hose and 2 scrub brushes dipped in a Clorox solution (to try and kill the stink when the chain got buried in the locker), we finally were freed and ready to deal with the stern anchor. It seems that the small anchor that we used for the stern tie, a mere 35 pounds, had wedged itself into the rocks. So wrapping its rode around the windlass gypsy and using MaaMa's big engine, we were able to 'knock it loose" Good news as nobody really wanted to go diving and even the small anchors are expensive so you don't want to lose them. Phew!
And then it was off into the sunset. Stay tune for more installment across the "Milk Run" and the question is asked, where will MaaMa find the trade winds?