The next thing i heard was the engine stop. I thought to myself, this cant be good. Then we just bobbed up and down in the waves, not moving anywhere. I decided to go up to the dining cabin to see what they heck was going on. As i walked up the stairs i could hear the captain trying to restart the engine without success. When i got to the top of the stairs, i saw just what i never wanted to see. The panel in the floor that goes down to the engine was open and all the crew members were crowded around looking in. There was a small amount of smoke filling the cabin and the floor was soaking wet with broken glass scattered around the floor. I thought oh my god, what the hell is going on???
I spoke with our guide christian and learned the following things; we didn’t leave our anchor spot from the night before until 3am. The navy had called our captain on the radio and told him not to cross the ocean to Santiago island. The waves were too big, about 4 meters high. We had only been at sea for 2 hours by the time i had woken up. We were still four hours away from our destination and ocean was angry! I could feel the sea sickness slowly creeping up on me. I also learned that the engine filter needed to be changed and that was why we had stopped there in the middle of no where. I headed back down to our cabin and told abbi what was going on. She told me that she was up and 3am already been throwing up. It looked like we were gonna be in for a long rough morning so i took 2 more graval, put on my rain coat and sat outside to get some fresh air.
It was way too stuffy in the dining cabin and i couldn’t keep my eyes on the horizon so i sat on the second deck where i could avoid the huge spray from the waves and try and focus on not getting sick.
Abbi soon came up to join me and quickly proceeded to the bow of the boat threw up all over the panga. I kept a close eye on the massive 4 meter waves hitting the side of the boat and i was terrified.
Abbi told me to look on the opposite side of the boat so i wouldn’t get so scared. I tried to keep my eyes off the big waves but i just couldn’t do it. I wanted to know when the huge wave was coming to capsize the boat so i could warn the rest of the team. ( of course thing never happened but in my mind at the time it was a total possibility.)
the captain came down to see how we were doing and gave us each another sea sickness pill. I sat up there for almost an hour waiting for the feeling to pass. I finally got so cold that i couldn’t feel my hands and feet anymore so i went back down to the dining cabin to warm up. The engine was back up and running at this point and we were on our way but still at least 3 hours from Santiago. I sat with some of our team members for a bit while the boat rocked back and forth, up and down. I looked around and saw that some people were really struggling. One girl from Austria was totally green and had her head resting on the table, the Spanish guy had his eyes closed while trying to eat some bread and being held like a baby from his wife and the lady from Holland had her eyes focused on the water and she looked like she was praying. I tired to look at a picture book of Galapagos island for a while until the third anti-nausea pill kicked in and i couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I went back down to the cabin where abbi had already gone and passed out and layed back down in bed. What a horrible way to start the day.
I woke up 4 hours later. We had arrived at island Santiago and i could here the tables being set upstairs.
I had a quick shower and made my way to the sun deck where the rest of the team members were gathering. We heard the lunch bell ring shortly afterwards and we went down to eat. Christian briefed us while we ate. As soon as we were finished lunch, we were to pack our bags and getting ready for a dry landing on the island. Finally! We had arrived and were going to get to see the island. Things were looking better.
We took the pangas over and landed on island Santiago. The whole island is made of hardened lava formations. There were no animals except a few lizards. There was no vegetation and no way any other animal could live there. We climbed over many different kinds of lava formations and learned that the last time this volcano erupted was 100 years ago. We wandered around and took some pictures and headed back to boat. We had a few minutes to get our bathing suits on for out next excursion.
By 3:00 we were snorkeling around the coast line of Bartalome island. The 2 islands are very close together and is is believed that they once were one volcano that has been eroded by the ocean over time to form 2 separate islands. The water is much colder here than it was on Genovesa. Its amazing already how different the islands are from each other. Its like they are each their own little world, divided only by 60 miles of water at most.We got a chance to sit and enjoy the golden beach of Bartolome after the snorkeling. While i sat there i saw a baby silky shark swim by! There was also a family of sea lions laying in the shade. By 5pm the pangas were back to pick us up and take us back to the boat for our next activity. One thing is for sure here; we always have something to do and our guide makes sure we are never bored.
We had a wonderful dinner tonight of potatoes and wahoo fish with olive tapenade. Not too shabby for boat food! And now we are watching movies. Again, the day started off rocky and ended up with perfection. Unfortunalty we didnt see any penguins today but im not giving up hope just yet, there are quite a few more islands to see... and tonight the captain is gonna stay in this nice calm bay so we all can have a good night's sleep. Thank god for that. Ciao for now.
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