"We're anchored in Puerto Ayora in Galapagos.
"For once all the hyperbole is justified. The wild-life is mind-
blowing. We walked to a beautiful beach this morning with
masses of marine iguanas - prehistoric looking creatures up
to a metre
long, completely unafraid, though rather bad-
tempered!
"Yesterday we went to an island for some snorkelling, and there
I was minding
my own business, looking at the wonderful fish,
when suddenly I was
surrounded by 20 or 30 sea-lions, all
determined to play with me.
They would aim for me from about
30 metres away, swim at me at high speed,
and then at the last
moment, swerve away and dive up out of the water.
There's no
doubt they were having a whale of a time, know what I mean.
"There are also sensational birds, especially the blue-footed
boobies.
They hover about 50 metres in the air, and then dive
bomb down deep into the
water. It is of course swelteringly hot as
we are virtually right on the equator -
at midday we have more or
less no shadow.
"The message we are getting from the boats out ahead is that the
Southern
Trade winds haven't yet established themselves.
Nevertheless, we will
probably set off tomorrow morning for the
Marquesas - the longest haul we
will have on the whole trip, over
3000 miles.
"We had a wonderful surprise when we arrived at Puerto Aroya.
We hadn't expected to see Tony and Liz Pearson (who are on
a cruise in the area) but they had their itinerary changed and
were standing on the deck of their boat when they saw Hygeia
come into port: couldn't believe it! They only had 4 hours before
their boat set off, but they came on board for a drink, and we
had dinner together in town, which was really nice."