Galapagos - What a place - ready for 3000 miles

So we are nearly ready to leave these fantastic islands - and what a trip it has been, following in the footsteps of Darwin ( I don’t think he went to the suish bar though) , is a real treat . Never have we seen such diversity of God creations , evolution in so many ways . - gee it maks you wish you had paid more attention in school , ( every school should come here on a school trip ….) Of course we saw all the big and old things , from the endless types of birds ( I can see 12 year old school boys getting a big laugh out of referring to seeing boobies all day - blue footed that is ) , Sea lions, Giant Tortoises , Ginant Turtles , Iguanas Marine and land , Look at the photo albums .

   

For us the highlight had to be seeing nesting boobies 4 feet away ( these animals are not fazed at all by people ) to swimming with Sharks , both hammer head and white tip- alas a certain amount of camera shake made some of the shark images unprintable - but we will work on the photoshop ! Coupled with amazing snorkelling nearly every day . - check out the photos they are amazing !

Don’t worry we have not forgot we are here to sail around the world , that part is going well - operationally we are well prepared , but not without its hassles , despite been a series of islands , it is totally unfriendly to Sail boats with regards to support and supplies , getting diesel is a complete nightmare - our experience ( as the first to try) was such that everyone else has decided to take jerry cans by dingy , then by taxie to a local ( 5K away) petrol station . - and we will be filing a formal report as soon as we leave the protected waters about the local jokers who refuelled K8 - adding a couple of gallons to the pristine waters of the pacific and covering the decks of K8 .

Food and water have not been that easy to come by and everything depends on whats coming on the supply ship - and we can only expect acces to supplies to go downhill form here , thankfully we are well stocked , with lots of frozen stuff , and rosie has been teaching all how to " blanch" fruit and veg ! The next leg starting on Sunday 9th is the big one ( I heard some ask were we ready for the big push - makes it sound like WW1 ! - or giving birth!) . But over 3000 miles of water ahead of us in a single leg is the longest most of us will ever have sailed at one time - so lets hope all goes well .

Some how , I have been appointed the Irish Cultural Attaché ( memories of Les Patterson) - and am trying to round up volunteers for the K8 St Patrick's Day party - we fear we will be ahead of most boats, but everyone on board is coming ! The biggest challenge is find a couple of cans of Guinness for the stew. As we will be mid Pacific we will issue the Lat and Long co-ordinates at least 24 h before the party , as we have to pick up the band,meet the caterers, visit the fancy dress shop etc … all good fun ..

The race organisers are having a tough time , as a group( only about 10 boats ) we only got thrown out of one restaurant - and they have no sympathy for our request for Series 3 of TV series Lost ( thank you William for 1&2 we are now addicted ), and for the need s for Guinness) - they say some people have real problems like no generators … :-(

All told we are a happy bunch and ready for the next islands - Daniel is settling in well , and has fixed the main saloon Multi Media system ( hurrah .. Surround sound TV again )