Crash Bang Splash in Galapagos

The airport is only 10 mins away from central Guayaquil so it was a short hop to catch the ninety minute flight to Baltra (the island with the airport). I had only booked the trip about a week ago and paid less than half the brochure price - if ever you want to visit, get to Guayaquil and make some enquires, there is space at a fraction of the advertised cost as long as you have some flexibility on dates. 

Once at Baltra they relieve you of $100 as your entry to the National park. It is a short ride across this little island, a quick ferry crossing then a long straight tarmac road through the uplands to Purto Ayora where the boat was waiting to pick me up.

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 The first thing that struck me is just how big the islands are and the fact that they have 45,000 inhabitants. I thought it was barely lived in apart from occasional visits by Russell Crowe.

The Archipell II is a steel hull catamaran with 8 rooms for 16 guests and 15 crew to look after the very lucky 16. This is a "mid-range" boat.

All the other guests were sat at lunch and it didn't take long to discover that they had been on board for 4 days already and it sounded like they had already seen everything which was a bit worrying. By the way, notice how the table is in the middle of the room.

A nice family of 4 Americans, 3 German women (who looked a trifle fearsome), 2 girls from Israel (who were the same "closed" nature as the others I have met on the trip) and a good fun Aussie couple. I was to share a twin room with an Aussie guy who, whilst q nice chap he clearly "bats for the other side". There was another German couple who were meant to be on the boat but they were having the holiday from Hell, the latest trouble being that she was in hospital and pretty ill. They decided to leave the boat that evening. Very sad for them but my room mate and I were hoping that we may be able to have a cabin each - all heart eh?

After lunch we headed to the highlands to see some enormous tortoises - not Lonesome George as he had passed away about a month ago (and he lived on a different Island anyway). This fella weighs about 600 lbs They are impressive but they don't do a lot and want they do is done very slowly.

This is a "little" she tortoise.

A few beers in Ayora and then back on board for dinner (the food was generally excellent on board). We were to set sail straight after dinner to the big Island of Isabella and we were warned it would be rough........how right they were.

It was blowing pretty hard and the sea was quite lumpy but at 2.30 am a freak wave hit our side of the boat, the wave rolled the boat to quite an angle as it burst through our window and soaked Brendan, half soaked me and filled our floor with a few inches of water. Our window is about 4 or 5 meters above the waterline so it was a decent wave!

We were up pretty shaprish as you can imagine. The heavy dining table and chairs , in a few inches of water, had slipped across the boat and smashed in the wall on the otherside, several staff we out on the rear deck trying to hold on to some kit.

It later transpired that the chef and one of the waiters were sleeping on the rear deck benches and were nearly washed overboard! That would have been pretty serious as I don't think anyone else could have cooked breakfast.

It took a while to sort the boat and Brenden moved across to the other cabin as his mattress was hors d'combat (which suited both of us).

The boat returned to normal and we managed to get some sleep. In the morning the damage was surveyed and didn't look too bad, one dingy was damaged, one stair case was missing from the rear and one of the brackets had bent and pulled out of the hull.

I have to admit for the first few seconds I thought we were in serious trouble! We later heard from the Captain that there were three waves, the second being 7 meters high!!! He told us his hand was hovering over the May Day call button as the 2nd one hit.



i have been sailing a few times and have been caught out be the weather a few times but this is the worst I have experienced and I am glad we were not in a smaller boat.