Floreana Island
Today we woke up at Post Office Bay on the Island of Floreana. Post Office Bay is one of the interesting historical sites to visit, since eccentric people like the Ritter’s, the Witmmer’s family and the very weird Austrian self proclaimed Baroness, Eloisa Wagner de Bousquet came to live here for a lot of different reasons.
The Post Office system-barrel was set up by an English whaler named James Colnett who came to investigate the whaling grounds; and he thought of a way for the whalers to send mail home to their loved ones. Whalers spent up to five years at sea at a time and that was a long stretch out of touch with their relatives. So whalers who were heading homeward bound had the obligation to stop in Post Office Bay, collect the mail and once they got back to England, they would hand deliver it.
After sorting through the mail and taking what we could deliver, we went back on board and while we were having breakfast, we motored towards Champion Islet. On the way we found bottle nose dolphins which bow rode with us for while.
The NG Islander dropped anchor and we went for a panga ride around Champion Islet. We were delighted to find a couple of the rare Charles mockingbirds. These birds used to be numerous on Floreana but are now reduced to small populations on Champion and Gardner Islets. We also saw tropic birds in their nests, swallow tailed gulls, sea lions and a variety of short, stout prickly pear cactus endemic to Floreana.
Next on our program was snorkeling and had a “whale of time.” We swam among thousands of fish, white tip reef sharks, streamer hog fish, king angel fish, dusky chubs, striped salema, large schools of yellow tail surgeon fish, Pacific green sea turtles and we were joined by some playful sea lions who twisted and spun around us.
We had lunch while the ship navigated to Punta Cormorant, the northernmost point on Floreana. In the afternoon some of our guests went kayaking, while others went to the beach and some enjoyed a siesta; at four o’clock we all went ashore to visit Punta Cormorant. Here we saw flamingos mating and displaying a very nice courtship. We also saw white checked pintail ducks, the olivine sand formation, a lovely fine white sand beach which is a major sea turtle nesting area, and sting rays in the shallows.
Back on the landing beach again, we all went back on board and gathered for the evening briefing. In the evening, VC Jeff Litton showed his preview of this week’s video – what a marvelous time we have had!
