Diving Kicker Rock

 Kicker Rock, Leon Dormido, Sleeping Lion, Roca Pateadora.  Most places in the Galapagos have at least two names, the English name and the Spanish name, and then sometimes the translation of each of those! It can get a little confusing at first until you figure it out. Friends who are in front of us were messaging us about sailing past Kicker Rock on their entry to the Galapagos, but all our chartplotter identified was  Roca Pateadora.

Kicker Rock was our welcome to Galapagos spot and so it was nice to be able to return to dive it. It has a reputation of being the best dive spot around San Cristobal.

Kicker Rock is about 500 feet tall with many birds calling it home, Blue footed boobies, pelicans, frigate birds and tropicbirds among others. We had an approximately 2 hour boat ride to get to Kicker Rock because our motor catamaran had one of its two engines at the shop. It was a pleasant ride and we had a chance to talk with the other passengers.  There were 10 of us, 5 were diving and 5 were snorkeling. 

First trip ashore in the Galapagos

 Getting ashore after a passage to a new destination is always a learning experience.  Where do you take the dinghy? What can you access once you are ashore without a car? What if you can't take your dinghy, what do you do then? Among the many rules for private boats in the Galapagos is the rule that you cannot use your own dinghy, at any time, in any place. 

The Galapagos Clearance Dance

 What a flurry of activity!

Suddenly there are 9 extra people aboard Rhapsody, and one more underwater. All speaking at once, all asking us to fill out their forms first, please, all working frantically to fulfill their part of this dance. Such is the check-in procedure for the Galapagos Islands. The storm after our calm five day passage.

The Passage to the Galapagos

 At long last we are departing Panama, heading west. First stop- The Galapagos.

These are the notes I wrote during the passage and was unable to post them at sea. This is an issue I am still working on for future passages, but for now, here was our experience.

Total distance to go 895 miles

Where the heck is Sarah?

 Did she unfriend me? Is she ghosting me? Am I just missing her posts? Sarah who? I can't seem to find her on Facebook or Messenger. Sometimes all I can see is "Facebook User".

Visiting Grand Turk

 By Bob

Getting away from Provindenciales known to locals as ‘Provo’, the main hub of the Turks and Caicos island group out to the smaller, quieter, less tourist influenced villages that are along the edges of a large shallow bank where the ocean bottom rises from great depth to nearly none for many square miles is taking a step back from a distinctly ‘get there now’ pace to another less distinct pace, like leaving the fast speeds of the freeway to meander on two lane backroads. Even though our meandering is mainly over water, and generally we try to sail or motor in mostly straight lines from one point to another, we could feel the suddenness of our need to get somewhere diminish along the miles of bright aqua hues that are the Caicos Bank. 

 

The Underwater World of the Turks and Caicos

 The calm feeling of floating underwater, weightless and free (except for all of the scuba equipment we have strapped on). In the spirit of the jungle tours I gave you in Panama, (here and here) here is an underwater tour of TCI.