Day 1
Motoring out of Bahia De Caraquez. Glad to be on the move again.
As we glided into the clear blue seawater again, a pod of frisky bottlenose dolphins joined us.
Day 2
I woke up, pulled on my pants and walked groggily upstairs to where Mum was sitting on watch. Logan was already up and was checking the AIS for ships.
Bright blue, occasionally gold mirror like creatures took my breath away as I glanced down at the clear blue water speeding past. I told Dad and we stopped the engines. Grabbing a bucket I raced down to the bottom deck and started scooping up phytoplankton and jelly fish. One looked like a thin thread with brown knobs attached at regular intervals and another like an eyeball with hairs sticking out either side. Another looked like an ants abdomen with two dangly legs out each side, and one especially spectacular creature was a ribbon like thing with tapered ends, a cross section in the middle and fluttering edges that seemed to glow green.
Five hours later. As the sea was as flat as a millpond we watched the sun fall beyond the horizon. We were discussing where all the bubbles came from in the flat, seemingly endless ocean when we came to a decision. We would stop the boat and have a look.
As the way fell off us, I scooped with my bucket, sending the bubble spinning within the bowl. On closer inspection it was not one, but lots of tiny bubbles linked together and as we turned it over we were startled to find a tiny purple shell attached to the bottom. As I touched it a squirt of purple ink squeezed out the bottom causing me to drop it hurriedly.
Our theory was that each night the creatures make the bubbles to rise up from the deep to feed, then before sunrise they eat the bubbles and fall back down to the deep again. I popped it back into the sea and scooped again as I saw an uneven black shape floating past. I gasped as I held my torch over it, it looked like a little blue dragon.
Later we found out that this was really a kind of nudibrach that eats Portuguese man of war and takes on their venom!
Day 3
Day 3 was a normal hum ho passage day. We saw another pod of dolphins in the morning and at about midday we stopped to inspect a new kind of jellyfish.
Day 4
"Land Ahoy," dad yelled, pointing to a position off the port bow. Looking that way I became aware of the low lying island of San Cristobal only a few miles away. As the channel markers slid by, a group of maybe 20 rays put on a spectacular show, flapping up to the surface then gliding down to the deep again. Closer in, two turtles popped up and a sea lion played on the bow. We were already seeing some examples of the Galapagos I thought.
