Mayday!

En route to Santa Cruz last night we received an AIS Mayday message as dawn broke over little Santa Fe island.    I contacted a small local cruise boat who came out to search, although they had not received it. It kept being repeated and finally the AIS MayDay position was that of a boat at anchor in a bay. The cruise boat went to investigate, but after about two hours we reckon it was an error in their AIS system (or ours perhaps). The Santa Fe gremlins also stopped our speed working, then our GPS. There's a strong magnetic anomaly there. Mystery!

In Santa Cruz we completed formalities all over again and then went off to visit the Darwin Research Centre a mile or so out of town. Excellent trails through cactus forest and then lots and lots of giant tortoises plus hundreds of babies. Most impressive breeding programme.

The Beagle

Following the phantom MayDay

We load up with new jerry cans of diesel to beat the doldrums

The Post Barrel

Mark in the Tortoise shell

In the Banyan treehouse

Tortoise with attitude

Sea-lions defeat the bamboo cane defences on a RIB

Huge Banyan tree with tree house above

Tin Tin's crew meet Charles Darwin

Lava tunnels

We found the Van Straelen Centre which looked as though it was being refurbished. Unlike Darwin there was no information about cousin in law Raymond"s Great Great Uncle which was puzzling.