Trip Dates:		October 2-11, 2005
Vessel:		The Deep Blue
Guides:		Luiz and Luiz ("Champi" and "Luchito")
Participants:		Eric Cheng (myself), Alexis Tabah, Carol + Doug Ebersole [coverage], Emile Litvak [coverage], Lena Goh, Paul Ng, Manuel Sam, Dick, Ruth, Heather, John Boll, Jan, Steve, Izumi, Tamaki

Hey, guys! This is an attempt at a shared journal during a trip to the Galapagos aboard the M/V Deep Blue from October 3-10, 2005. Please leave ongoing messages here from your computers, and I'll post the entire thing on the internet when we get home.

-- posted by Eric Cheng @ Monday, October 3 2005, 09:21 pm

Yaaaah, i'm the first one to post here. Worth missing that dive ! or maybe not ?

-- posted by Alexis @ Tuesday, October 4 2005, 12:14 pm

That dive was awesome - we saw a columbian drug runner plane underwater with a skeleton inside. He was smiling.

-- posted by Emile @ Tuesday, October 4 2005, 02:20 pm

The second dive was like diving in Hong Kong, a lot of sand, low vis, current and cold (in fact colder). Other than a sealion zooming past us for all of 3 secs it was like 34 min of exercise swimming against a mild current. Oh forgot we also saw a few 2cm lomg common blue striped nudibranchs which was the highlight of the dive.

The first dive was somewhat better - I'll call it the "shadow" dive - a lot of shadows. It was just as cold, low vis and slightly less current but there were the shadow of an eagle ray, a sting ray and ... yes ... hammerhead... taunting us. Imagine what we would have seen if the vis was more than 15 feet.

Anyways only way but up from now on.... I hope :)

-- posted by Paul Ng @ Tuesday, October 4 2005, 03:41 pm

It's the end of day 2, and most passengers have retired to their cabins after the initial shock of having to dive in 7mm suits in 58 degree water (F). :) As Paul noted above, our first dive at North Seymour was indeed a "shadow" dive. But I stayed a few meters further out from the reef than most others and seemed to have seen much more; I saw small schools of mobula rays and golden rays, a couple of manta rays, two (relatively) small schools of scalloped hammerheads, and two turtles. Schools of surgeonfish nipped away at the green layer of algae covering most of the rocks, and endemic nudibranchs had nearly universal coverage in some areas.

The descent into the thermocline was an intense chill, its oily shimmering the border between dense, yellow haze and the shocking clarity of cold water below.

Because I am recovering from recent illness, I elected to skip the second dive. I'm not sure why Alexis stayed out as well, but I'm SURE it had nothing to do with being lazy...

We're on our way to Darwin now, and once we arrive it will have been a 14-hour steam from North Seymour. There was whale shark excitement brewing in the air all evening, and most of us will sleep tonight with our fingers crossed.

-- posted by Eric Cheng @ Tuesday, October 4 2005, 09:59 pm

Call it intuition

-- posted by Alexis @ Wednesday, October 5 2005, 12:29 pm

At Darwin: I was really amused on one of the dives. Emile, a relatively new diver, spotted a large, free-swimming moray eel and moved in for a closer look. The eel suddenly darted ahead, which caused Emile to FREAK OUT and backpedal (as much as you can, underwater).

Yes, I started laughing -- and, I took a photo. :)

-- posted by Eric Cheng @ Wednesday, October 5 2005, 05:58 pm

Since I haven't posted yet, I'll need to catch up with Eric, Paul, and Alex.

The first checkout was fun as I'd never been diving with sea lions (not seals as sea lions have ears -- see I was listening to Champi's naturalist lecture). Carol, my wife, made the dive interesting as she surfaced behind the inflatable instead of the Deep Blue and proceeded to throw her fins into the boat and then tried to figure out how to get up such a small ladder! I then dragged her to the main boat and then we had one of the deck hands get her fins for us.

Yesterday the diving was fun but, as mentioned above, really cold -- especially for Carol and me, the wimpy Florida divers!

Today was the first day at Darwin! Unfortunately, no whale sharks today but the other marine life was outstanding. We had schools of tuna, jacks, and (yea!) lots of scalloped hammerheads, along with the occasional Galapagos and silky shark. The water was much warmer than down south -- a balmy 71 degrees. However, the current was ripping! Carol and Lena both sat out the last dive of the day so I buddied up with Paul. Definitely my first dive with a man wearing panty hose! Don't ask!

-- posted by Doug Ebersole @ Wednesday, October 5 2005, 06:07 pm

We are leaving Darwin tonight after no encounter with the whale sharks. The diving was intensve (4 dives yesterday and 5 today). I am going to leave these islands advanced.

The staff of Deep Blue is fantastic. Everything is running smoothly. I am very pleasntly surprised by how thoughtful the whole process is and how all the details are covered once you get into the groove of diving. Glad to be here.

-- posted by Emile @ Thursday, October 6 2005, 08:35 pm

My body is trying to tell me something. After doing four dives at Darwin, I woke up the next day with renewed cold symptoms and a sore back. And so, I decided to take yesterday off to maximize the chances that I will enjoy the rest of the week.

Everyone else seemed to enjoy day 2 at Darwin very much; the current was much less strong, and shark and other fish activity had increased compared to the previous day. Still, no whale sharks turned up. It's mysterious that in September they disappeared from Darwin for two weeks, returned for the next two weeks, and are now gone again.

We did three dives at Wolf today, which were enjoyable despite low visibility and strong surge. There were quite a few large Galapagos sharks swimming around, and the usual schools of scalloped hammerheads hovered just out of reash of our cameras. Near the end of the second dive, we had a nice encounter with three eagle rays, one of which was quite large and had a jack swimming with it in tandem. As I was getting ready to do a safety stop, I suddenly felt like I was being watched. I spun around to face the blue just in time to see a dolphin disappearing into the murk.

I skipped the third dive; my cough isn't quite gone yet, and I don't want to push my luck. The reports from the dive were that red-lipped batfish were "everywhere."

My trophies for the day? Alexix Tabah, with camera in one hand and weight belt in the other (I helped him -- after I got some photos), and Emile Litvak giving me an OK signal with his near-empty tank floating up out of its retaining strap behind him. :)

-- posted by Eric Cheng @ Friday, October 7 2005, 04:12 pm

Well, we’ve finished our three days at Wolf and Darwin with no whale sharks. I guess that’s the problem with wild animals. They’re totally unpredictable. Three weeks ago, no whale sharks. Two weeks ago, none as well. Then last week, 19 encounters. This week, none again.

Oh well, even without “Mr. Big” the diving was great – lots of current and the occasional 10-15 feet of surge at 50 fsw, but great. Darwin’s Arch had lots of scalloped hammerheads, turtles, moray eels, and fields of garden eels. On one dive I watched as a Galapagos shark sliced through a school of fish – a very impressive site. The most enjoyable dive was probably playing with the sea lions and fur seals in 15 feet of water on Darwin Island.

After two days at Darwin it was off to Wolf which is a 2-3 hour ride away. I really enjoyed our day at Wolf as well. We had dolphins swimming with us on a safety stop, huge eagle rays cruising by, and a dive at the Anchorage solely devoted to the “so-ugly-they’re-cute red lipped batfish”. Again there were lots of scalloped hammerheads, but unfortunately for us photographers they were really deep. At Shark Bay and the Landslide we were cruising along at about 100 feet and they were probably 50-75 feet below us.

I’ve decided that Galapagos is a tremendous “visual” destination as you see all sorts of stuff, but a very difficult “photographic” destination because of the current, fair visibility, and the “big stuff” hanging on the edge of the viz making the photos difficult. However, that just really makes me appreciate the great photos that the pros (like Eric) get here! Most of mine will probably only be seen by my non-diving friends!

The food continues to impress. There are always multiple choices of entrees with each meal and a wide selection of fruits and veggies. And there’s always fresh fruit, snacks, drinks and even hot chocolate after the dives. Believe me after getting out of the cold water in your 7mm suit, nothing looks better than a hot shower and hot chocolate. It seems like we’ve had shrimp almost every day, along with fish, calamari, beef, chicken – you name it! The chef even makes different little decorations out of the food. We’ve had plam trees, birds, fish, whales, etc. Very cute! And definitely the best food I’ve had on a live-aboard! The after-meal discussions have been great, hearing about different dive locations, catching up on friend’s lives, etc. I even learned that Paul was a champion ballroom dancer for Singapore. (I guess that explains the panty hose under the 7mm wetsuit – just kidding!). It was really interesting to hear of all the “technology” that goes into the costumes, the hair, and the dancing at that level.

After cruising from Wolf for the last 17 hours, we’re now at Cousin’s Rock and it’s time for seahorses! More later.

-- posted by Doug Ebersole @ Saturday, October 8 2005, 07:47 am

Alexis is claiming that sea horses don't exist. Funny how things don't exist when you SWIM RIGHT BY THEM... (Cousins Rock)

-- posted by Eric Cheng @ Saturday, October 8 2005, 09:57 am

There are no sea horses in the Galapagos

-- posted by Alexis @ Saturday, October 8 2005, 11:31 am

Sunday

Yesterday was finally the day for finding seahorses for Alex. Unbelievably, he has never seen one. He swears they don’t really exist! Well, everyone else saw seahorses at Cousin’s Rock, but Alex missed them again!

After lunch it was time to snorkel with the penquins. When we arrived, they were just sitting on the rocks looking cute. For the longest time they didn’t get in the water. Then, all of a sudden one came darting by chasing after some bait fish. They may look pretty clumsy on land but in the water they are like little torpedos. Interestingly, they didn’t seem bothered by us at all. They would chase fish awile and then stay on the surface a few seconds before heading back down. One even “pecked” at Alex’s dome port. It was difficult to get good images (at least for me!) as they were moving so fast underwater, but it was really fun. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

Monday

This morning was the last dive of the trip. The original plan was to go to Gordon Rocks but there was a concern by the captain about the current so we headed to North Plazas instead. The morning tour of the island was great. It is breeding season for sea lions and there were many new pups. One mother that was suckling her pup had a fresh placenta nearby so we just missed the birth. Seeing a sea lion being born would have truly been amazing! Also, there were numerous land and sea iguanas, and we even watched a mother gull feeding her new chick.

Then it was off to the water. This was supposed to be a dive with sea lions, but someone forgot to tell the sea lions! I only saw one. The rest of the dive was spent looking at the tropicals and studying the macro life. I had decided not to take my camera on this last dive, and that turned out to be a good decision as there was not much to shoot. However, it was great to just relax and observe the marine life.

In the afternoon, we headed to Santa Cruz and the Darwin Research Station to learn about the giant tortoise replenishment project and visit some of the tortoises. Then we just walked around the town and headed back to Deep Blue for tonight’s “cocktail reception” with the crew!

-- posted by Doug Ebersole @ Monday, October 10 2005, 07:48 am

The moray eel incident didn't happen! Eric, a relatively new underwater spotter, confused me for someone else. I don't even know how to backpedal. I break for no one - no damn eels.

Despite no whale sharks this week, I had a great time. For a city slicker like me, being in these very primal environment is a rare experience. It makes me realize that I am just a more complex version of the creatures we encounter here underwater and topside.

-- posted by Emile @ Monday, October 10 2005, 08:19 am

Yesterday's day trip on Santa Cruz was a real treat. Not only was the Darwin Centre which houses some of the largest and oldest tortises in the world very informative about the restoration project in the Galapagos but most of the centre viewing section is built on stilts so as not to disrupt the habitat which the tortises have been placed to live in. The terran was a cross between equatorial forest with thick and, in places inpenetrable, woody scrubs and a texas desert with tall cacti.

The town was a real gem -- reminds me of Phuket before it was overrun by tourist. There were the usual tee shirt and trinket stores but also very high end art galleries (akin to those you would find in Carmel in California). Extremely pleasant and definitely a resort destination just to relax.

Everywhere you go you hear "Ola" (Hello). Great end to a challenging trip (photographically).

-- posted by Paul Ng @ Monday, October 10 2005, 08:26 am

After having a crazy crab feast at Cangrejal Manny's, Emile, Alex, Paul, Lena and I were dropped off down at the steps past the end of the Malecon. We ended up spending a couple of hours in the Diva Nicotina/Cafe Habano (Cerro Santa Ana - Guayaquil) to buy cigars and have a couple of drinks. The guy behind the counter was a lot of fun; the best part of the evening was when Emile bargained for a small box of five $8 cigars and offered $50.

-- posted by Eric Cheng @ Monday, October 10 2005, 10:32 pm

While in Santa Cruz, I had the great pleasure of spending an afternoon and evening with Paul Stewart and Rich, both BBC Cameramen currently working on a Galapagos series slated for release sometime in the distant future. Paul and Rich did a lot of the production and camerawork (respectively) for the Blue Planet series (!). I can't wait to see what they manage to do in Galapagos. The demo DVD I've seen is impressive -- the best footage I've seen out of the Galapagos.

Also heard crazy stories about guides in the Galapagos. There are some strong personalities there...

-- posted by Eric Cheng @ Tuesday, October 11 2005, 05:04 am

Okay -- Here's my complete trip report. Note some of it is a rehash from my commments above

First of all, Ken from Galapagos Adventures (www.galapagosadventures.com) was outstanding! He was in constant contact with us through the year with updates, trip reports, and needed documents. He really made the whole experience effortless! If you are ever planning on going to the Galapagos I would highly recommend Ken to you. By the way, he books trips on all of the Galapagos boats, not just the Deep Blue.

Carol and I left the house Sunday morning with hopes of whale sharks in our heads! After our quick 38 minute flight from Tampa, we met up with most of our group in the Miami Airport. Eric and Emile had just flown in from San Francisco while Paul and Lena had arrived a few days earlier from China (Shanghai and Hong Kong, respectively). The last member of our group, Alex, had flown from Paris directly to Guayaquil, Ecuador. Also, while in Miami we met the “other group” from Kokomo, Indiana.

Once we arrived in Guayaquil, the staff of Galapagos Adventures took care of everything. After clearing customs and immigration, all of our bags were put on a luxury bus and we were taken to our hotel, the Grand Hotel Guayaquil. Porters then took all of our bags to our rooms and, after a get-together for drinks and snacks, it was off to bed. The rooms were very nice, clean, and comfortable.

Monday

After awakening this morning, it was back on the bus and back to the airport. Again, the Galapagos Adventures staff took care of all the details. They put us in the airport lounge while they checked in all of our luggage and got all of the plane tickets for us. When it was time to go to the gate, they gave each of us our tickets and off we went.

The flight to San Cristobal from Guayaquil was about 1 ½ hours. Upon arriving in the Galapagos, we each paid our $100 park entrance fee (cash only!) and then we were taken to the Deep Blue, our accommodations for the next week. The boat was great. The rooms were spacious with lots of drawers and a closet for storage. The private bathroom had a large shower. The salon was absolutely huge with hardwood floors and was equipped with a TV, CD player, and DVD player along with lots of books and magazines. The dining area was also quite large (again hard wood floors) with four separate tables (four chairs each) and buffet style meals. There was also an ice machine and regrigerator for beverages, etc. The dive deck was very nice with 16 stations, each having both an air and nitrox tank. Nitrox onboard is a membrane system of EAN 32. However, if rebreather divers need 100% oxygen onboard for rebreathers, that can be arranged if they know in advance.

After checking into our cabins, it was time for the “checkout dive”. As most of us don’t dive regularly in 7mm wetsuits, it was time to figure out our weights. It was to be the only dive of the week off the main boat. All other dives were from inflatable pangas. It also gave us a chance to make sure every piece of our gear was in good working order before leaving port. Everyone also was given an EPIRB locating device in the even they were swept away from the group. Definitely a good idea when diving in strong currents (sometimes > 3 knots) in the middle of the Pacific well away from land, other boats, and even shipping lanes!

The dive at San Cristobal was not very exciting and very cold – 58 degrees. It was fun to play with the sea lions, however. I was wearing a hooded vest under a 7mm one-piece wetsuit and gloves. I tried 20 pounds of weight which was okay, but I wasn’t confident that I’d be able to hang out at 15 fsw on a safety stop in a ripping current. As almost all of the weights onboard were 4 lbs, I opted for 24 lbs for the week. A little too much but better than being too light. Actually, I wasn’t that cold despite the water temps. Maybe the anticipation of whale sharks, hammerheads, etc. was keeping me warm. The highlight of the “checkout” dive for me was watching as Carol surfaced behind one of the pangas and not the Deep Blue. She then threw her fins into the small inflatable before realizing she was not at the right boat. I helped drag her to the main boat as one of the crew got her fins from the panga! We’re off to a great start!

Tuesday

Today we dove North Seymour. The place was covered with common blue-striped Galapagos nudibranchs. We also saw several eagle rays, mobula rays, sea lions and turtles. Again, the water was quite cold – 58-60 degrees. Now it’s off to Wolf and Darwin – a 12-14 hour boat ride. We’re all keeping our fingers crossed for whale sharks.

Friday

Well, we’ve finished our three days at Wolf and Darwin with no whale sharks. I guess that’s the problem with wild animals. They’re totally unpredictable. Three weeks ago, no whale sharks. Two weeks ago, none as well. Then last week, 19 encounters. This week, none again.

Oh well, even without “Mr. Big” the diving was great – lots of current and the occasional 10-15 feet of surge at 50 fsw, but great. Darwin’s Arch had lots of scalloped hammerheads, turtles, moray eels, and fields of garden eels. On one dive I watched as a Galapagos shark sliced through a school of fish – a very impressive site. The most enjoyable dive was probably playing with the sea lions and fur seals in 15 feet of water on Darwin Island.

After two days at Darwin it was off to Wolf, a 2-3 hour ride away. I really enjoyed our day at Wolf as well. We had dolphins swimming with us on a safety stop, huge eagle rays cruising by, and a dive at the Anchorage solely devoted to the “so-ugly-they’re-cute” red lipped batfish. Again there were lots of scalloped hammerheads, but unfortunately for us photographers they were really deep. At Shark Bay and the Landslide we were cruising along at about 100 feet and they were probably 50-75 feet below us.

I’ve decided that Galapagos is a tremendous “visual” destination as you see all sorts of stuff, but a very difficult “photographic” destination because of the current, fair visibility, and the “big stuff” hanging on the edge of the viz making the photos difficult. However, that just really makes me appreciate the great photos that the pros (like Eric) get here! Most of mine will probably only be seen by my non-diving friends!

The food continues to impress. There are always multiple choices of entrees with each meal and a wide selection of fruits and veggies. And there’s always fresh fruit, snacks, drinks and even hot chocolate after the dives. Believe me, after getting out of the cold water in your 7mm suit, nothing looks better than a hot shower and hot chocolate. It seems like we’ve had shrimp almost every day, along with fish, calamari, beef, chicken – you name it! The chef even makes different little decorations out of the food. We’ve had palm trees, birds, fish, whales, etc. Very cute! And definitely the best food I’ve had on a live-aboard! The after-meal discussions have been great, hearing about different dive locations, catching up on friend’s lives, etc. I even learned that Paul was a champion ballroom dancer for Singapore. (I guess that explains the panty hose under the 7mm wetsuit – just kidding!). It was really interesting to hear of all the “technology” that goes into the costumes, the hair, and the dancing at that level.

After cruising from Wolf for the last 17 hours, we’re now at Cousin’s Rock and it’s time for seahorses! More later.

Sunday

Yesterday was finally the day for finding seahorses for Alex. Unbelievably, he has never seen one. He swears they don’t really exist! Well, everyone else saw seahorses at Cousin’s Rock, but Alex missed them again!

After lunch it was time to snorkel with the penguins. When we arrived, they were just sitting on the rocks looking cute. For the longest time they didn’t get in the water. Then, all of a sudden one came darting by chasing after some baitfish. They may look pretty clumsy on land but in the water they are like little torpedoes. Interestingly, they didn’t seem bothered by us at all. They would chase fish awhile and then stay on the surface a few seconds before heading back down. One even “pecked” at Alex’s dome port. It was difficult to get good images (at least for me!) as they were moving so fast underwater, but it was really fun. Definitely one of the highlights of the trip!

This morning was the last dive of the trip. The original plan was to go to Gordon Rocks but there was a concern by the captain about the current so we headed to North Plazas instead. The morning tour of the island was great. It is breeding season for sea lions and there were many new pups. One mother that was suckling her pup had a fresh placenta nearby so we just missed the birth. Seeing a sea lion being born would have truly been amazing! Also, there were numerous land and sea iguanas, and we even watched a mother gull feeding her new chick.

Then it was off to the water. This was supposed to be a dive with sea lions, but someone forgot to tell the sea lions! I only saw one. The rest of the dive was spent looking at the tropicals and studying the macro life. I had decided not to take my camera on this last dive, and that turned out to be a good decision as there was not much to shoot. However, it was great to just relax and observe the marine life.

In the afternoon, we headed to Santa Cruz and the Darwin Research Station to learn about the giant tortoise replenishment project and visit some of the tortoises. Then we just walked around the town and headed back to Deep Blue for tonight’s “cocktail reception” with the crew!

Monday

Time to start heading home. After breakfast, we put out our entire luggage and gave Luiz (one of the guides) our tickets to Guayaquil. He then took everything to the airport to get us checked in. Carol and I both got “Deep Blue” shirts at the “Boutique” in the salon and paid for our week of nitrox -- $100 each, definitely not bad. Be aware that the boat doesn’t take credit cards so you need cash to pay for boutique items, nitrox, bar tab, and tips for dive guides and crew.

All in all, it was an outstanding trip. The only improvement would have been a whale shark encounter. Again, Ken at Galapagos Adventures was great as was the entire Deep Blue staff. It was really the life of luxury for the week with everything taken care of for you. Would I recommend this trip to my friends – certainly! However, it is truly advanced diving with cold water, moderated depths (80-100 feet on most dives), and occasional strong currents. Additionally, the diving requires climbing back into the inflatables after each dive which requires one to be reasonably fit – or to have a very strong boat driver to pull you back onboard! Finally, remember to bring lots of cash for park entrance fee ($100), nitrrox ($100), onboard bar tab/boutique purchases, tips for crew and guides (suggested $100 for guides and $60 for crew), and export tax ($25).

Here's a link to my photos from the trip: http://debersole.com/layout/0001/gallery_view.cfm?g=71

-- posted by Douglas Ebersole @ Tuesday, November 1 2005, 08:32 pm

Here's an example of the crazy "washing machine" currents we went through at Darwin. I've been using a Sensus Pro dive data recorder, and here's the profile for one of the dives. :)

insane up and down currents!

-- posted by Eric Cheng @ Wednesday, November 2 2005, 12:22 am

Reader Comments

Please leave me a message!

-- posted by Eric Cheng @ Wednesday, November 2 2005, 12:25 am

That profile is crazy! I'm brave enough to do a Galapagos trip - land lubber version! Look fwd to hangin' in ny.

- aLV

-- posted by al vinjamur @ Wednesday, November 2 2005, 02:19 am

1. Gotta love that surfacing penguin -- it's like an marine seraph.

2. Just to be counted as a data point, I prefer the HTML galleries over the Flash.

-- posted by Chester @ Wednesday, November 2 2005, 02:28 am

hey eric - you took away the fun of saying "mhmmm, afterbirth"! amazing photos, as always!

two technical notes: some of your two-line-captions are partly concealed by the images (flash gallery), and the "purchase prints" link seems to be wrong.

-- posted by markus @ Thursday, November 3 2005, 03:46 pm

Maravilhoso! Realmente vocês captam a "alma" do que vêem. Fantástico!

-- posted by Núbia @ Wednesday, February 8 2006, 11:41 am

Sir, Ur photos are too godd ,reaaly mind bowing. I want to subscribe fro monthly updtes or activities done by u . I am not a photographer but i love to see really good pics.

-- posted by Manish Verma @ Wednesday, September 13 2006, 11:32 am

I'm going diving in the Galapagos this June. I plan on shooting some underwater video. Any recommendations on what type of filter to use? Would you consider the water more blue or green? Thanks and great photos!

-- posted by Steve Haines @ Sunday, February 11 2007, 12:12 am

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