Lazy Days in Isabela

We have been extremely lazy since arriving to this island. I don't know of it is the heat and humidity that has tapped our energy, or if we have caught the 'island bug' which causes you to think and move more slowly and to postpone activities as there will always be time tomorrow.

We have a list of seven things we would like to do before leaving this island. So far, we have managed to do only one. We walked through a mangrove to the lagoon for a bit of snorkeling with the turtles. But now, after an afternoon with the other cruisers, we have a plan for the next five days - diving, a trip to the farm for some fresh vegetables, a boat trip to the lava tunnels for snorkeling, and so on.

We have been giving a little more thought to our crossing. There are several boats here and the discussion is around wind, weather, provisioning and what to do on arrival to French Polynesia. Time to get your atlas out once more. We are planning to arrive to Nuku Hiva in the Isle Marquise's which is about 3,034 nautical miles from Isla Santa Cruz, which is our planned departure point here in Galapagos.

If we travel an average of 5.5 nautical miles per hour, we will do 132 miles in 24 hours which means about 23 days at sea. But we will provision for 30 days at minimum in case we run into some doldrums and have to wait it out for a few days. We will be sending our oGPS coordinates to Michelle (my sister) on a regular basis and we are working out a way to share it on Facebook so you can track our progress.

Below you see the boats at anchorage at Isla Isabela. Some of them are leaving for the Marquise's as early as next week. We plan to leave some time after the first of April.