Buccaneer's Cove

Thursday May 30th afternoon

 

After our morning walk and snorkel we returned to the ship for lunch. Meanwhile the crew raised anchor and motored along the very impressive cliffs to Buccaneers Cove.

 

 

While some rested, Jenny and Holly took out the kayaks. When they returned, Drew kayaked and the panga took the rest of us around to the spectacular monk and elephant cliffs, where we jumped in for 'deep water snorkelling'.

In addition to some orange sun seastars and king butterfly fish, I saw lots of the yellow tailed razor surgeon fish feeding on the algae on the rocks. One white tipped shark swam past and another was hiding in a cave near a marbled ray.

Swimming around the point brought us into choppy seas that were quite a challenge, even for Drew in the kayak.

 

 

 

The Nemo motored slowly back along the cliffs.  Many layers of lava were exposed in the cliff face, and lots of seabirds were nesting on the ledges and niches eroded between the layers.

Sections of the cliffs were very red or pale tan in contrast to the usual black. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The three northern volcanos on Isabela were on the horizon with Fernandina rising in the saddle between two.

 

As we were watching the sun set, a few manta rays broke the surface. The crew even set the outer jib for the final leg to tiny Isla Rabida on the southern side of Santiago, where we dropped anchor at 1915 hr.

 

 

Diego gave his usual briefing on tomorrow's activities before a later dinner. 

 This is an example of our schedule that Diego planned for us everyday  -  for tomorrow on Isla Rabida.