Floreana Island. Post Office Bay. 14th May 2017

Sunday 14^th May 2017

Floreana

Boat had moved overnight to Floreana Island– One of the oldest islands, with interesting human history of marooned whales, prisoners and colonists, bizarre disappearances and murders! Made up of numerous extinct volcanic cones with established scrubby vegetation.

After breakfast, went straight for a snorkel which was more of a drift dive past some rocks. Visibility much better and on two passes saw white tipped and one large black tipped reef shark, barracuda, green turtle, sea lions and a spotted eagle ray.  A further dive saw a manta ray hiding in the rocks. Had my go-pro, so some good shots.

Back to the boat to change, then on to Cormorant Point – two highly contrasting beaches. Our landing beach was of volcanic origin, composed of olivine crystals giving it a greenish tinge. At the end of the short trail where we saw batches of pink flamingos on a lake, was a carbonate beach of extremely fine white sand, formed by the erosion of coral skeletons – a nesting site for green sea turtles.  Here we could only paddle in the water but saw a load of sting rays in the surf. Also one green turtle that was probably waiting for dark to come in and lay some eggs in the sand.  Interesting sand diagram from a fantatisca crab. Pete spotted a penguin but I missed it.

Back to the boat and motored around to Post Office bay.  In 1793 James Colnett, the captain of a whaling vessel, established the wooden post barrel on Floreana.  Whaling ships, typically offshore for two years at a time, frequented the archipelago.  Outbound ships would drop off letters after rounding the cape and the ships returning home would mail them. We took the opportunity to partake in this amazing postal service, and collected two postcards to deliver to Wool and Essex for their intended recipients.  Some have written letters to themselves for collection in years to come, or for their children to collect.

Motored a little further to another part of the island and then we all went snorkelling off the beach.  Saw 5x giant turtle near the rocks and spent a good deal of time watching them eat off the rocks. Once back on the beach we were getting eaten by horse flies, so hailed a zodiac and got back to the boat for an early shower and some clothes washing. 

A pre-dinner rum to watch the sunset.  ‘soup, Ham, brussels, mash for dins. Watched the stars. Transferred to Espanola, choppy seas with a corkscrew motion. Not pleasant so I finished my blog and had an early night.  Horizontal was good and I didn’t feel seasick.  Iain reported that one engine gave up mid-way, but unknown cause.  Glad I missed it.