Blog

Dear F&F,
May 25-30, 2009

For me this week was all about \”hunting & gathering\”. Even though we do not expect to be at sea even a full 3 weeks, I am provisioning as if my next shopping opportunity is in 2 months. Wednesday is the day the supply ship arrives at San Cristobal from Guayaquil, mainland Ecuador. It takes them a full day to unload and deliver orders to each \”tienda\” (small shop). Consequently I went to 4-5 markets over 3 days to gather everything I wanted. The most elusive, but finally obtained items were bacon, plain yogurt & flour. White flour in packages all had baking powder already mixed in. I was able to get non-rising white flour from an unlikely shop with a big burlap sack on the floor. I plead with the baker to sell me a kilo of whole wheat flour. Mike bakes bread, so I wanted to make sure we had plenty of the key ingredient.

Scott\’s focus was making sure \”Beach House\” is ready for this long offshore passage. Sailing from the Galapagos to the Marquesas is the longest single passage we are likely to do without benefit of an \”intermediate stop over\”, ever. He inspected every fitting, all the lifelines, every halyard for wear & chafe. He cleaned the hulls & propellers. Changed the zincs on the saildrives, filled the fuel tanks and extra jerry cans.

May 28, Thursday: Mike was nearly the last person through customs. The poor guy was worn out after two full days of travel. The LA to Miami flight was fine, but he had a 3 hour delay departing from Miami, which made for a short night in a Guayaquil hotel. He described multiple forms to fill out & questioned many times about the swine flu scare. We saw people wearing white lab coats & makes walking around the San Cristobal airport. Seemed ridiculous, but that\’s the way it was. At least he was able to take the flight directly into San Cristobal & not have to take a ferry from Baltra airport & Santa Cruz, where we originally booked him. He packed light for himself and brought things from L.A. that we need for the boat.

We could have left Saturday, May 30. But we decided to wait until Sky Dancer returned to see if Scott could retrieve his prescription sunglasses & underwater camera part. This extra day gave us a more relaxed feeling. Scott & Mike did the two electrical jobs on our checklist with success. Today we took Mike inland to see the tortoises, iguanas & coffee farm. We enjoyed this taxi driver more than the first guy Scott & I used to tour. Since he traveled all this way, we wanted to show Mike a bit of the Galapagos. We have all been fairly relaxed & are psyched to leave. We are eager to on to our next \”neighborhood\”.

Last night was a political fiesta in town which may seem like an oxymoron, but that was how it was explained to us. We had eaten at a restaurant & were told it started at 8:00 pm. That is late for us to stay out, so we returned to \”Beach House\”. Even out here at the anchorage the intermittent speeches & music were clearly heard until 2:00 a.m. We got our Zarpe (exit papers) from Bolivar (our agent) today, so we are good to go.

Mike is an easy going, generally happy person. Very pleasant to have around. Thank you to his wife Beth for letting him crew with us! It will be interesting to see how the dynamic is for the 3 of us 24/7 over the next 2 plus weeks. He has never been seasick in his life. I made it perfectly clear how awful it can be for me. Since I did so well on the dive boat preventing seasickness with stugeron taken on a schedule, I intend to start with that. I may put on a patch after a week if I feel the conditions warrant it, since I don\’t like the idea of taking any medication for a long time. I am no longer eager to put on my trusty scopolamine patch since I developed a skin allergy to it & can\’t tolerate wearing it more than a day which is kind of a waste.

Having said all that, I am truly, truly hoping & praying for smooth sailing. A fun, fast, easy trip with plenty of rest. I know I have plenty of food onboard but the duty of planning & preparing every meal does weigh on me a bit. I did not write out my menu plan for even the first few days. I haven\’t had time or been in the mood. I did cook up a batch of chicken mole which is in the freezer in individual portion vacuum bags. As well as my first trial at pre-cooked & frozen scrambled eggs (with yellow bell pepper & onion, since at that time I could not find bacon). It would be nice if both our men could lose a few pounds on this crossing, but food is definitely a comfort item when at sea & there is not much opportunity for exercise.

I am reading a book bought here about a German family that were early settlers in the Galapagos. After finishing that, I will launch into Thor Heyerdall\’s \”Fatu Hiva\” which is about the famous authors experience in that Marquesas Island just before WW2. We have about 8 books on Costa Rica & the Galapagos that are now old news & unwanted weight that we will contribute to the dive boats library.

This is a new experience for us to do such long of a passage & to have a third person at sea. It has been 13 years since I last crossed the Pacific & due to my inexperience & lack of knowledge, considered myself a passenger. Yet I did keep the 2:00-6:00 a.m. watch for 2 weeks straight. We are going to start out trying a rotating watch schedule, but may revert to a fixed one if I am not able to get into a sleep routine. I am the most challenged sleeper & likely to be the crankiest crew member if not rested enough. I can\’t imagine a better choice of crew than Mike. I have complete confidence in his skills as a sailor, fixer of all things and someone who will \”go with the flow\”. He & Scott are kindred spirits, excited about the same boat & latest electronic stuff. With 2 happy guys onboard I should be in good shape. Some pre-departure anticipation feelings… I\’m sure I will relax a bit more once we actually get going.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
May 23-24, 2009

We had the opportunity to do 2 dives this morning at Gordon\’s Rock off the east side of Santa Cruz Island. Most of us went on the 1st dive. And NONE of us elected to do it again. Why? Because there was no visibility, nothing to see & arduous conditions. It was very strong current & surge, so hand over hand combat crawl along the rocky reef. Scott & I are so different in our athletic abilities. He can kick with his barn door fins against the 2 knot current while I am struggling, gripping, grasping, gasping, sucking down my air. Scott keeps looking over his shoulder wondering what the heck is taking me so long. I am finally able to signal him that it is time to ascend because I am low on air. He looks surprised since he has plenty. He who gasps ups mountains whilst I skip up them! In the water with strenuous conditions we are the opposite. C\’est la vie. I am finished. I am finished diving like a Navy Seal cadet. I am finished with the group travel. I am finished with twin beds. I am finished even of eating their food. Sigh. We came, we saw, we dove, we are disappointed.
The entire trip should have been at Wolf & Darwin dive sites. The rest was \”filler\”. Not worth the price of admission. The one opportunity we had to see the whale shark was spectacular, but when we learned that in August & September you can see 8-10 whale sharks on many dives it was hard to be content.

\”Sky Dancer\” motored and anchored in the main port of Santa Cruz. This is the place exactly 2 weeks ago tonight that Scott & I pulled in at 9:00 pm, searching for refuge & sleep after 2 1/2 days at sea & found no protection from the open sea & waves. A crowded, ugly anchorage.

We took their dinghy to shore before the scheduled group tour of the Charles Darwin Center. I did a flurry of shopping at the grocery store & returned to the boat with four large boxes of provisions for \”Beach House\”. Not the kind of souvenir shopping the rest of the crowd would be doing. I must have enough food for the 3 of us for at least a month. I had heard the grocery shopping was better here than at San Cristobal so wanted to take advantage.

We didn\’t see much new or different at the Charles Darwin Center from what we\’d already seen at the tortoise reserve on San Cristobal. Scott took some photos of the other divers posing with the giant tortoises. The town was ok, the usual tourist shops & some overpriced art shops. We got a pizza & still ate dinner later on \”Sky Dancer\”. We were eager to wake up at San Cristobal & move home.

Scott got a ride from the panga with all our dive gear & had to face the results of a week of sea lions onboard. It took him a while to hose off all the sealion poop. I meanwhile packed our clothes & got help transferring my four boxes of food to the panga & also got a ride over. In my haste I forgot Scott\’s sunglasses & part of his underwater camera equipment, but we were able to retrieve those later.

Happily the solar panels and 1 hour per day auto run of the generator kept up our batteries so the fridge & freezer stayed cold. It was a bit stuffy from being closed up for a week, but so nice to be home. We quickly switched gears. Mike arrives in 4 days and we plan to set sail soon after. Lots to do to get ready for the long offshore passage.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
May 23-24, 2009

We had the opportunity to do 2 dives this morning at Gordon\’s Rock off the east side of Santa Cruz Island. Most of us went on the 1st dive. And NONE of us elected to do it again. Why? Because there was no visibility, nothing to see & arduous conditions. It was very strong current & surge, so hand over hand combat crawl along the rocky reef. Scott & I are so different in our athletic abilities. He can kick with his barn door fins against the 2 knot current while I am struggling, gripping, grasping, gasping, sucking down my air. Scott keeps looking over his shoulder wondering what the heck is taking me so long. I am finally able to signal him that it is time to ascend because I am low on air. He looks surprised since he has plenty. He who gasps ups mountains whilst I skip up them! In the water with strenuous conditions we are the opposite. C\’est la vie. I am finished. I am finished diving like a Navy Seal cadet. I am finished with the group travel. I am finished with twin beds. I am finished even of eating their food. Sigh. We came, we saw, we dove, we are disappointed.
The entire trip should have been at Wolf & Darwin dive sites. The rest was \”filler\”. Not worth the price of admission. The one opportunity we had to see the whale shark was spectacular, but when we learned that in August & September you can see 8-10 whale sharks on many dives it was hard to be content.

\”Sky Dancer\” motored and anchored in the main port of Santa Cruz. This is the place exactly 2 weeks ago tonight that Scott & I pulled in at 9:00 pm, searching for refuge & sleep after 2 1/2 days at sea & found no protection from the open sea & waves. A crowded, ugly anchorage.

We took their dinghy to shore before the scheduled group tour of the Charles Darwin Center. I did a flurry of shopping at the grocery store & returned to the boat with four large boxes of provisions for \”Beach House\”. Not the kind of souvenir shopping the rest of the crowd would be doing. I must have enough food for the 3 of us for at least a month. I had heard the grocery shopping was better here than at San Cristobal so wanted to take advantage.

We didn\’t see much new or different at the Charles Darwin Center from what we\’d already seen at the tortoise reserve on San Cristobal. Scott took some photos of the other divers posing with the giant tortoises. The town was ok, the usual tourist shops & some overpriced art shops. We got a pizza & still ate dinner later on \”Sky Dancer\”. We were eager to wake up at San Cristobal & move home.

Scott got a ride from the panga with all our dive gear & had to face the results of a week of sea lions onboard. It took him a while to hose off all the sealion poop. I meanwhile packed our clothes & got help transferring my four boxes of food to the panga & also got a ride over. In my haste I forgot Scott\’s sunglasses & part of his underwater camera equipment, but we were able to retrieve those later.

Happily the solar panels and 1 hour per day auto run of the generator kept up our batteries so the fridge & freezer stayed cold. It was a bit stuffy from being closed up for a week, but so nice to be home. We quickly switched gears. Mike arrives in 4 days and we plan to set sail soon after. Lots to do to get ready for the long offshore passage.

Scott & Cindy

Dear F&F,
QUOTED HIGHLIGHTS FROM
Mark Twain\’s
\”Following the Equator
A Journey Around the World\”

p. 155
Sheep Dip
It is a stuff like tar, and is dabbed on to places where the shearer clips a piece out of the sheep. It bars out the flies, and has healing properties, and a nip to it which makes the sheep skip like the cattle on a thousand hills. It is not good to eat. That is, it is not good to eat except when mixed with railroad coffee. It improves railroad coffee. Without it railroad coffee is too vague. But with it, it is quite assertive and enthusiastic. By itself, railroad coffee is too passive; but sheep-dip makes it wake up and get down to business. I wonder where they get railroad coffee?

p. 300
Women\’s Suffrage
Men ought to begin to feel a sort of respect for their mothers and wives and sisters by this time. The women deserve a change of attitude like that, for they have wrought well. In forty-seven years they have swept large number of unfair laws from the statute books of America. In that brief time these serfs have set themselves free – essentially. Men could not have done so much for themselves in that time without bloodshed – at least they never have; and that is argument that they didn\’t know how. The women have accomplished a peaceful revolution, and a very beneficent one; and yet that has not convinced the average man that they are intelligent, and have courage and energy and perseverance and fortitude. It takes much to convince the average man of anything; and perhaps nothing can ever make him realize that he is the average woman\’s inferior – yet in several important details the evidences seems to show that that is what he is.
Man has ruled the human race from the beginning – but he should remember that up to the middle of the present century it was a dull world, and ignorant and stupid; less dull all the time. This is woman\’s opportunity – she has had none before I wonder where man will be in another forty-seven years?

p. 336
Unspeakably hot. The equator is arriving again. We are within eight degrees of it. Ceylon present. Dear me, it is beautiful! And most sumptuously tropical, as to character of foliage and opulence of it. \”What though the spicy breezes blow soft o\’er Ceylon\’s isle\” – an eloquent line, and incomparable line; it says little, but conveys whole libraries of sentiment, and Oriental charm and mystery, and tropic deliciousness – a line that quivers and tingles with a thousand unexpressed and inexpressible things, things that haunt one and find no articulate voice.

p. 340
The walking groups of men, women, boys, girls, babies – each individual was a flame, each group a house afire for color. And such stunning colors, such intensely vivid color, such rich and exquisite mingling and fusings of rainbows and lightnings! And all harmonious, all in perfect taste; never a discordant note; never a color on any person swearing at another color on him or failing to harmonize faultlessly with the colors of any group the wearer might join. The stuffs were silk – thin, soft, delicate, clinging; and, as a rule, each piece a solid splendid purple, a splendid ruby, deep, and rich with smouldering fires – they swept continuously by in crowds and legions and multitudes, glowing, flashing, burning, radiant; and every five seconds came a burst of blinding red that made a body catch his breath, and filled his hear with joy. Ant then, the unimaginable grace of those costumes! Sometimes a woman\’s whole dress was but a scarf wound about her person and her head, sometimes a man\’s was but a turban and a careless rag or two – in both cases generous areas of polished dark skin showing – but always the arrangement compelled the homage of the eye and made the heart sing for gladness.

p. 347
It is all color, bewitching color, enchanting color – everywhere – all around – all the way around the curving great opaline bay clear to Government House, where the turbaned big native chuprassies stand grouped in state at the door in their robes of fiery red, and do most properly and stunningly finish up the splendid show and make it theatrically complete. I wish I were a chuprassy.

This is indeed India! The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendor and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genii and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of a hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birthplace of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great-grandmother of tradition, whose yesterdays bear date with the mouldering antiquities of the rest of the nations – the one land that all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for the show of all the rest of the globe combined.

p. 460-461
All day long one has this monotony of dust-colored dead levels and scattering bunches of trees and mud villages. You soon realize that India is not beautiful; still there is an enchantment about it that is beguiling, and which does not pall. You cannot tell just what it is that makes the spell, perhaps, but you feel it and confess it, nevertheless. Of course, at bottom, you know in a vague way that it is history; it is that that affects you, a haunting sense of the myriads of human lives that have blossomed, and withered, and perished here, repeating and repeating and repeating, century after century, and age after age, the barren and meaningless process; it is this sense that gives to this forlorn, uncomely land power to speak to the spirit and make friends with it; to speak to it with a voice bitter with satire, but eloquent with melancholy. The deserts of Australia and the ice-barrens of Greenland have no speech, for they have no venerable history; with nothing to tell of man and his vanities, his fleeting glories and his miseries, they have nothing wherewith to spiritualize their ugliness and veil it with a charm.

p. 478-479
Fruit Dorian
By all accounts it was a most strange fruit, and incomparably delicious to the taste, but not to the smell. Its rind was said to exude a stench of so atrocious a nature that when a dorian was in the room even the presence of a polecat was a refreshment. We found many who had eaten the dorian, and they all spoke of it with a sort of rapture. They said that if you could hold your nose until the fruit was in your mouth a sacred joy would suffuse you from head to foot that would make you oblivious to the smell of the rind, but that if your grip slipped and you caught the smell of the rind before the fruit was in your mouth, you would faint. There is a fortune in that rind. Some day somebody will import it into Europe & sell it for cheese.

p. ?
Boating on the Ganges
We made the usual trip up and down the river, seated in chairs under an awning on the deck of the usual commodious hand-propelled ark; made it two or three times, and could have made it with increasing interest and enjoyment many times more; for, of course, the palaces and temples would grow more and more beautiful every time one saw them, for that happens with all such things; also, I think one would not get tired of the bathers, nor their costumes, nor of their ingenuities in getting out of them and into them again without exposing too much bronze, nor of their devotional gesticulations and absorbed bead-tellings.

p. 504-505
Benares View & Monkey
The most conspicuous feature of Benares is the pair of slender white minarets which tower like masts from the great Mosque of Aurangzeb�.There is a great view from up there – a wonderful view. A large great monkey was part of it, and damaged it. A monkey has no judgment. This one was skipping about the upper great heights of the mosque – skipping across empty yawning intervals which were almost too wide for him, and which he only just barely cleared, each time, by the skin of his teeth. He got me so nervous that I couldn\’t look at the view. I couldn\’t look at anything but him. Every time he went sailing over one of those abysses my breath stood still, and when he grabbed for the perch he was going for, I grabbed too, in sympathy. And he was perfectly indifferent, perfectly unconcerned, and I did all the panting myself. He came within an ace of losing his life a dozen times, and I was so troubled about him that I would have shot him if I had had anything to do it with. But I strongly recommend the view. There is more monkey than view, and there is always going to be more monkey while that idiot survives, but what view you get is superb. All Benares, the river, and the region round about are spread before you. Take a gun, and look at the view.\”

p. 523
Hot Weather
I believe that in India \”cold weather\” is merely a conventional phrase and has come into use through the necessity of having some way to distinguish between weather which will melt a brass door-knob and weather which will only make it mushy.

p. 525
Bamboo
What a soaring, strenuous, gushing fountain spray of delicate greenery a bunch of bamboo is! As far as the eye can reach, these grand vegetable geysers grace the view, their spoutings refined to steam by distance.

p. 536
Hand-Car Rail Descent
I had previously had but one sensation like the shock of that departure, and that was the gaspy shock that took my breath away the first time that I was discharged from the summit of a toboggan slide. But in both instances the sensation was pleasurable – intensely so; it was a sudden and immense exaltation, a mixed ecstasy of deadly fright and unimaginable joy. I believe that this combination makes the perfections of human delight.

p. 609
Captain vs Scot
The captain has this peculiarity – he cannot tell the truth in a plausible way. In this he is the very opposite of the austere Scot who sits midway of the table; he cannot tell a lie in an unplausible way. When the captain finishes a statement the passengers glance at each other privately, as who should say \”Do you believe that?\” When the Scot finished one, the look says \”How strange and interesting\”. The whole secret is in the manner and method of the two men. The captain is a little shy and diffident, and he states the simplest fact as if he were a little afraid of it, while the Scot delivers himself of the most abandoned lie with such an air of stern veracity that one is forced to believe it although one know it isn\’t so.

p. 616-617
Sailing
I do not know how a day could be more reposeful: no motion; a level blue sea; nothing in sight from horizon to horizon; the speed of the ship furnishes a cooling breeze; there is no mail to read and answer; no newspapers to excite you; no telegrams to fret you or fright you – the world is far, far away; it has ceased to exist for you – seemed a fading dream, along in the first days; has dissolved to an unreality now; it is gone from your mind with all its businesses and ambitions, its prosperities and disasters, its exultations and despairs, its joys and griefs and cares and worries. They are no concern of yours any more; they have gone out of your life; they are a storm which has passed and left a deep calm behind. The people group themselves about the decks in their snowy white linen, and read, smoke, sew, play cards, talk, nap, and so on�..

I myself am wholly indifferent as to when we are going to \”get in\”; if any one else feels interested in the matter he has not indicated it in my hearing. If I had my way we should never get in at all. This sort of sea life is charged with an indestructible charm. There is no weariness, no fatigue, no worry, no responsibility, no work, no depression of spirits. There is nothing like this serenity, this comfort, this peace, this deep contentment, to be found anywhere on land. If I had my way I would sail on for ever and never go to live on the solid ground again.

p. 699 & 703
South Africa Diamonds
A very few people in the world have seen the diamond in its home. It has but three or four homes in the world, whereas gold has a million. It is worth while to journey around the globe to see anything which can truthfully be called a novelty, and the diamond mine is the greatest and most select and restricted novelty which the globe has in stock.

It is an exciting kind of fishing, and you feel a fine thrill of pleasure every time you detect the glow of one of those limpid pebbles through the veil of dark sand. I would like to spend my Saturday holidays in that charming sport every now and then. Of course there are disappointments. Sometimes you find a diamond which is not a diamond; it is only a quartz crystal or some such worthless thing. The expert can generally distinguish it from the precious stone which it is counterfeiting; but if he is in doubt he lays it on a flatiron and hits it with a sledge-hammer. If it is a diamond it holds its own; if it is anything else, it is reduced to powder. I liked that experiment very much, and did not tire of repetitions of it. It was full of enjoyable apprehensions, unmarred by any personal sense of risk.

If you\’ve read the above, I just saved you 682 pages of bother!….The book was 712 pages, \’nuff said!

XO Cindy

Dear F&F,
May 22, 2009

Only 2 dives scheduled this morning, both at the same site off Isabella Island. We did the first dive & it just wasn\’t interesting enough to do again. We know that there is always a chance to see something you didn\’t see the first time, but overall the diving has been hit or miss. Yesterday one of the 4 dives we did was outstanding. The others, not great. For me, the not great parts are: very rough sea conditions which make the dinghy ride to the site uncomfortable. However, mostly the rides have been fairly short, so that is tolerable.

It turned out that the flooding of my dry suit was user error. I\’ve had no problem keeping dry on the inside if I completely close the waterproof zipper. I did wear my wetsuit a few times in the warmer northern islands. In my wetsuit I typically back roll off the dinghy then kick down head first. I tried that stunt exactly once in my dry suit! I must do a feet first descent because of where the exhaust valve of my suit is located on my upper arm. Any air in my suit is up at my feet & there is no way for me to get it out & descend. Meanwhile the swell is bobbing me about feet up at the surface & it takes me a minute to realize I must right myself to vertical – head up – in order to drop down on the reef.

All the divers from the dinghy back rolling in at once & try to descend with their gear, not always conscious of who is around them. So, I\’ve gotten conked on the head with a tank, kicked with fins & pawed at with flailing arms. Just with that description, I am afraid those of you who were all signed up for the next dive class just bailed out. But let me tell you what else you are missing…

Surge & Current: We had been warned at every site, except for today, that there is strong current. What is strong? Even 1-2 knots is hard or impossible to swim against. We must pull ourselves hand over hand on the rocks. This of course, hoping to not accidentally grab a moray eel or sea urchin. Mostly where the shark action was up at Wolf & Darwin Islands we were instructed to drop down & hang on to the rocks. Just wait & watch. Scott is always out in front with his video or camera eager to get the best shots as often the animal life is best right at the beginning of the dive before a large group of divers scare the sharks away. YES, we scare the sharks away. I, his buddy, do my best to stay with him. I often stay a bit shallower & behind him, but try to be where we can make eye contact when he looks around for me.

Mostly I am watching Scott but also trying to keep an eye on the rest of the group (4 other divers plus Edwin, the dive master). There 2 pangas for our 2 groups of divers, so we are requested to stay together as much as possible so they don\’t have to search too far for us as we surface. Scott has a good eye & figured out quickly that the sharks are patrolling the rocky reef at about 80 feet deep. They are filling our tanks with Nitrox, as they did at Coco, so we can stay that deep for about 20 minutes.

The second dive yesterday was non-stop shark action for the full 20 minutes. Many Galapagos & hammerheads swimming slowly against the strong current. Meanwhile I am trying my darndest to wedge into a spot where I can stay put & not fly about in the current. It is not just left or right current flowing, but also an up & down surge that really makes it tough to keep your position. I am so glad I have my \”low volume\” mask because I feel the pressure of the streaming water rushing against my head & imagine it could tear the mask right off my face if it was a bigger mask with more air space inside.

Frankly I do not love this kind of diving. I always imagine I am in Navy Seal training. And then I remember that this is an elective activity & start imagining all the other things I could have done with the money we spent on this trip…. Sigh. I try not to dwell on the negatives too much. The sharks are intriguing, but for me no comparison to the thrill of swimming with the manta rays or whales. But there are no manta rays or whales here. At least not at this season. We were very lucky to get the glimpse we did of the whale shark on this trip. It is usually seen only in August, September & October.

Blue Water Time: Our dive master Edwin usually gets bored of hanging out on the reef after 30 minutes or so & motions for us to swim out into the open blue water. Sometimes he has us kicking against the current 15-20 minutes. Sometimes he lets us drift. I think he is amused by his control over us. I don\’t mind getting the exercise with kicking & always have plenty of air, so it is still safe even if I am huffing & puffing aerobically. It is harder for me in my dry suit to maintain a stable depth as we swim shallower & do our 15 feet deep safety stop. This is because it is not made of neoprene, & has no inherent buoyancy. I either add or exhaust out air from my suit or my Buoyancy Compensator jacket (BC). As the waves are crashing overhead, it can be a bit like a washing machine & I don\’t love that part. But when groups of 2, 4, 5 or more dolphins started circling us I forget all the effort & am happy to be there, happy to have that experience. We have only swum with dolphins in the wild a few times. They are not usually that interested in divers. They are often intrigued with moving boats, but divers are too slow & awkward in the water to hold their interest. There a lot of either dull or uncomfortable times & some amazing experiences. That\’s what keeps me going.

Comfort & Boat Life: Several of the other tourists continue to be seasick. I have shared Sandy\’s Stugeron medication from Mexico with several & keep taking it prophylactically myself. Knock wood, I have not been seasick. My ears however are completely waterlogged, so my hearing is poor. I diligently put in my vinegar/hydrogen peroxide brew to kill any sea critters, then use my special ear dryer. Today is my 4th day on the antibiotics so I have not missed any diving due to my ears. Last night was the first time I had actual pain & had to take something for it. Otherwise I can mostly ignore the itchy canals. It is just as well the diving today was not that great because I will have until tomorrow morning to keep my head dry.

We motored 3 hours to Santiago island, then hiked there this afternoon. I love to walk, hike, stretch my legs, but unfortunately it was hot at 3:00 p.m. with the sun beating down on us & no breeze. We affectionately refer to these mis-timed outings as \”death marches\”. The islands are not green, lush & beautiful. They are stark & rugged. Black lava rocky outcroppings. Scraggly brush, some cactus. A few indigenous birds. We had another opportunity to see the marine iguanas. Which we already saw during our land tour of San Cristobal so rather BTDT (been there done that). My apologies for sounding so blase about the Galapagos – it is all really fine, but not spectacular, fabulous, you-should-have-been-there. Rent a DVD & enjoy the Galapagos from the comfort of your own home. Or if you are a scuba diver, only come in August through October.

Books: I finally finished Mark Twain\’s interminable \”Following the Equator\” – thank God! It went on & on forever with so few wonderful paragraphs that made me smile or I think clever; I dog-eared only about 10 pages out of the hefty 712. I plan to write down the choicest bits & then leave this tome, with it\’s deceivingly romantic title, on the book trade table for some unsuspecting passenger to pick up for their flight home. I plunged into \”Sister of My Heart\” that Karen (who is a Sister of My Heart) loaned me & am happy to report that despite it\’s setting primarily in India, it IS a page turner & I am enjoying it during these long passages between islands. Mark Twain may have journeyed around the world, but that un-recommendable book spent 75% of the time in India. Not a place I\’ve ever yearned to go & that book did nothing to dissuade me. \”Sister of My Heart\” is a novel, so I can enjoy the imagined scents & sights of this fascinating country without the reality of Slumdog Millionaire (last years Academy Award winning film which Skye warned me is \”not a Cindy movie\”).

Two more dives tomorrow, land time at Santa Cruz Island where we first pulled in but soon left its miserable anchorage & then Sunday morning Home Sweet Boat. We came, we saw, we dove. Time for this one to return to my own floating home & prepare for the big journey ahead.

Scott & Cindy