April 4, 2012
We were up at 0530 hrs this morning in preparation for departing San Cristobal for Santa Cruz. The Wx had deteriorated during the night so there was a big SW´ly swell in the anchorage with rain and squally winds. Since we would have to set sail on a course of 274 degrees for Puerto Ayora and the wind and seas were out of the WSW at 250 degrees, it would be a dead "noser" to try and motor against 6-8 ft seas. The theoretical sailing angle of a sailing vessel is 45 degrees off the wind to one side or another. Most boats won´t point that high and require 50 degrees or so off the wind to make progress. This is called sailing "close hauled". It is as high as the sail boat can point into the wind and still make progress. If the wind is coming out of the WSW at 250 degrees, the best we could do would be 200 deg. or 300 deg. All that means that we would have to tack back and forth to get to our destination. This adds a lot of distance to the voyage. We need to make Acadamy Bay in Pto Ayora by late afternoon or lie ahull all night long waiting for daylight. All in all--stay where we are until the weather improves: that might be another 2 days.
Here is some info on restaurants and menus in Baquerizo Moreno. The morning breakfast is pretty straight forward with eggs, coffee, toast and fruit. The mid day meal is a "fixed price" affair with whatever the restaurant is serving that day. It consists of a soup with a small dish of popcorn on the side, juice, meat or chicken, and rice and a small salad of lettuce cucumber, tomato and onion. The average cost is $3.00-$4.50. The higher end has a little more. The restaurants are small "family run" deals, clean and good fare. There are no gourmet restaurants here, however, there is a good selection of meat, fish and chicken that is very well prepared and delicious. At the upscale end a meal will cost $8.00-$15.00. On the lower end one can get fried rice, chicken or meat for about $3.50. A large beer is $3.00. There is one restaurant serving pizza: $18.00 for a large one or $10.00 for a small one.
Although the islands can grow a certain amount of fresh fruit and vegetables, it is at a premium and not enough to supply the general population. Therefore, all food is brought in by cargo ships on a weekly basis. We had the same thing on Fuerteventura in the Canary Islands. There are two good bakeries in town. One has a German theme and the other one specializes in sweets and "flan" (egg custard). The German theme is marginalized and in no way bakes that great German bread we have all learned to love. Also, they have croissants but they aren´t the great ones that the French bake.
If you buy meat at the local market, they will ask if you want it with bones or without bones. With bones costs $2.25 per pound and without costs $3.50 per pound. We asked for two pounds of meat with bones and they went over and cut off a beautiful chunk of beef hanging from a hook and weighed that up so that it came to one pound. Then they had a tray of beef bones and they weighed out a pound of those: meat with bones! Phyllis made a wonderful beef stew out of it.
The islanders are a very simple, polite and educated citizenry with no pretensions. They are friendly, helpful and not in a hurry to get anyplace special. There is no crime to speak of and thievery is almost non-existent. Everyone knows everybody else living on the island. A very relaxed place to live. Fishing, snorkeling, diving, hiking and surfing are the main forms of entertainment. Since the island is a national park, there are strict regulations regarding trash, recycling and other forms of disposal. There are colored containers for each type of disposal: blue for plastic, orange for organic matter, black for general waste. There are containers in some stores for the disposal of used batteries. All used petrochemical products are handled by the garages and the one gasoline station on the island. The place is unbelievably clean with everyone participating. On top of all this are the sea lions which have taken over the beaches, parts of the maritime sea walk and any boat, dinghy or other surface that they can get on. Since they are on the endangered list and, for the most part only on this island, they are tolerated by all and have no fear of people. When walking along the seawall one has to thread their way through the hoard of sea lions that are totally oblivious to your presence. Some of the large males let you know just how close you can pass by them but no one has been attacked or bitten that we have heard about.
Here we are until the Wx improves.
No comments:
Post a Comment