What an arrival, before tea on day seven we arrived at the anchorage we were spending the night as we slowed we were met by sea lions, mola, manta and turtles I only hope this welcome is not our only encounters with these special animals. Excited just does not capture the feelings.
The night of the prayer mat and the phone call to God. I woke to hear the Capt who was in the bathroom calling God! When I went to use the facilities a little later there was his prayer mat laid on the bathroom floor, after a check to identify the direction he was praying I realised that it was not to the East but towards the toilet, I am not sure that you can use the big white phone to reach God but clearly the Capt tried.
Today is Mola day, gas checked, under suit warming, excitement building, we had the briefing and were told the plan. Drop into the cleaning station, hang around for ten minutes and then to move off long the wall. We hung at about 25 metres for the ten minutes without sight or sound of a Mola. Reluctantly I followed the guide around the headland and along the wall, moving slowly up for the next 30 minutes. As we moved up the wall, we were buzzed by torpedo rays. The wall was covered in corals and fans. There were loads of reef fish in all of the bubble holes of the rocks caused by the boiling magma landing in the water. We broke the surface under a ledge on which were perched half a dozen blue footed boobies. Once back on the rib we rounded a corner into a small cove in the hope of seeing up close some Galapagos penguins, however there were none but there were a dozen or so Galapagos flightless cormorants and a pelican.
The second dive came around quickly we had not really had chance to rewarm after the first one when we were pulling on damp wet suits. We rolled in to the water am met at five meters, we were joined in the surge by a marine iguana and as soon as we had dropped onto the cleaning station at 22 meters, Franklin the guide had spotted a Mola in the distance, we held on and held our breaths as a shadow got larger and became clearer until the clear outline of a large six plus foot tall Mola came towards us. Met by a wall of bubbles it did not stay long but that 20 seconds were just one more breath-taking moment on a trip of dreams that could now be ticked off. When we decided that we were coming I wanted to come in Mola season just to see one of these massive and unusual fish.
A link to our sun fish encounter
As we moved off of the cleaning station I swam up a gully joined by a pair of playful sea lions and a cormorant who was catching fish as he went. Franklin also managed to find a sea horse and everyone queued up to take a photo of it, but by this point I was too cold and heading for a thermocline or the exit not caring which I found first.
A link to the sea lion encounter and another
A link to a Galapagos marble ray encounter
At the surface we managed to spot one of the Galapagos penguins the only penguin living in the northern hemisphere and a green turtle.
After the final dive we moved off around the top of Isabela crossing the equator again this time in day light making Wolf Volcano a clear marker. We all stood on the deck and cheered as we crossed.
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