We left San Jose in the Las Perlas archipelago on February 1, 2009 heading for the Galapagos but were forced to go back to the coast of Panama for shelter due to bad weather conditions.

We finally left on February 9 and on February 15, we made a landing in Genovesa where we only spent the night since it's forbidden to anchor anywhere but in 3 mandatory entry ports in the Galapagos. Ecuador being very strict about it, we made our way to San Cristobal, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno where we anchored among three other yachts.

As anywhere in the Galapagos, the agent or coast guard comes along rapidly since formalities must be done immediately upon arrival and an agent is more than recommended to "smooth" things over". For the formalities, the agent asked us for $ 120 just to do the paperwork and then with all fees, visas and all, we spent a total of $ 250 just to be there at anchor but then again, we didn't regret in because the Gapalagos is a wonderful "must see it, been there and bought the T-shirt" place in the Pacific no doubt.

As soon as we arrived on land, we were fascinated by the sea lions. They are everywhere and you really feel that this is their playground. We even had one jumping on our back platform in the middle of the night. We were not scared, just sceptical that if it would jump on the deck, it might fall in our cabin…and we wouldn't know how to get a sea lion out of our bed…

The town of Puerto Baquerizo Moreno is tiny and tidy with a few "tourists" restaurants (very good by the way!) and some local places where they serve the "almuerzo", the fixed menu which is, unfortunately, very much the same in South and Central America. The plate is either beef, chicken or fish with rice and beans and the eternal plantain banana. It's so boring and lacks so much taste that we only go for it when we have no time to go back to the boat at noon. We sometimes wonder why there is so little spice in these plates. Did they have to adapt to the American taste since 90% of the tourists are Americans?
Well, for them, there is also (obviously) the "inevitable" hamburger being served everywhere.

What stroke us in the Galapagos are the flora and fauna. While walking on the trails, we fully understand why Darwin was fascinated by these islands. We also followed the coastline watching the birds, the sea lions and the "famous" but very ugly iguana.

With a couple from another yacht we decided to go "round" the island with a driver recommended by our agent of course. He drove us to a turtle "nursery". The trutles are highly protected now against their natural and "human" enemies. From a hilly viewpoint we can see how beautiful this island is, one of the most beautiful of the Galapagos we were told with the only fresh water small lake which is actually in the crater of a volcano. It has a depth of 70m. Our last visit was the 3La Loberia", the playground by excellence for families of sea lions who just tolerate the fact humans come and swim there for a while but no way to get near, the female protects her kids and the male wants to show off, so …we just admire them keeping our distance

On February 26, we left for the longest crossing ever, a total of roughly 3.000 nautical miles to reach The Marquesas. We originally thought we would sail to The Gambier but had to give up the project due to the lack of "energy" we suffered on board due to the failure of our wind generator then the generator on the shaft. We hate running the engine to charge the batteries but had to do it for one hour and half every day because we needed the "power" mainly for the automatic pilot, a Must for such a long crossing.
We "caught" the Trade Winds at 5° South and happily sailed 174 miles per day until…flat calms for two days and instead of motoring we just dropped the sails, stopped the pilot and went to sleep!
The end of the crossing was rough with the return of the Trade Winds which are great but the South-Easterly swell can really make it uncomfortable on board, especially to cook.
Finally, on March 20, 2009 at 6:00 am after 22 days of crossing we anchored in the beautiful Baie des Vierges, on the island of Fatu-Hiva. The backdrop of green hills on the turquoise sea is stunning. We easily understood why Gauguin and the well-known Belgian singer Jacques Brel decided to come to The Marquesas to live,
it's just as close as one can get to the Paradise!
Moreover, the inhabitants are the nicest and most friendly people we ever came across, no stress, no rush just an great sense of humanity, generosity and happiness.