Here’s some news: it’s absolutely freezing here! I’m wearing jeans, socks, a long-sleeve shirt, and a (thin) fleece jacket, and I’ve even dug out the blanket I was using in France to sleep under. That’s how cold it is on the equator. It felt like we were in the Galapagos for far longer than one night.
I wasn’t overly impressed with the clearing-in process. Nine people boarded the boat, all wearing shoes and boots, which wasn’t ideal. Then came the form-filling frenzy. After the forms, they took photos of the flare bag, the engine primary filter, engine water separator, jerry cans, and the steering position and I have no idea what they will do with this information. I spent some time organizing the fuel delivery while Adam dashed off to the grocery store. When the fuel arrived, we started the process of filling our tanks. Unfortunately, the pump only had one speed: maximum. So we had to pump into our water barrels and then use another great purchase from France– a submersible inline diesel pump – to transfer the fuel into our main tanks. It took two trips for the fuel guy, then it was time to clean up, make dinner, and hit the hay.
The following day, we had to go to immigration to get our passports stamped and fill out another form. This one had several questions but essentially asked the same thing three times: “What’s your name?”. Adam did another dash to the supermarket and I returned to Namarie to check everything and put things away to ready for sea. Then there was another boat inspection where most of the people from the day before came and took pictures of the flare bag and one of the engines. Finally, we got the all-clear to leave and headed back out to sea. There was quite a bit of traffic between the islands, but that dissipated as we got a few miles away, leaving us alone on the ocean again, heading for Tahiti.
I left home in January for a delivery and had left a comfortable buffer between that trip and this one. Due to various delays, that buffer shrunk, so it was a case of jumping on a flight to France almost as soon as I finished that trip. Leaving the Galapagos is a huge milestone for me, and it feels like I'm only 3700 nautical miles away from home, a number that’s decreasing every day.
