The wind picked up today as we entered more open ocean waters. Our sleeping accommodations are basic with very narrow bunks. Our biggest concern was being thrown out of the bunks by the ocean rollers. Fortunately this did not happen.We make our first landing of the day in Gardner Bay where there is a wonderful long curved sandy beach. The morning is set aside for leisure – so we take a walk along the beach weaving in and out of the ever present sea lions. Further down the beach are rocks where we find more marine iguanas and red crabs. Also we see an American Oyster Catcher with its chick. We quietly stroll back to our landing point – we still have an hour to kill so I sit down to read while Jack and Emily decide play on the beach and in the sea. The only danger here is the sea lions constantly swimming along the shore line – on a few occasions nearly catching Jack from behind.
We return to the Guantanamera and move around to our second landing point of the day, Punta Suarez, a rocky landing point on Espanola. The landing is somewhat tricky due to the large pacific rollers crashing down on the island, but we make it without getting our feet wet. There are the usual sea lions and marine iguanas to negotiate when landing, but the main reason for our visit here are the bird colonies. The first colony we come across is the Blue Footed Booby nesting area. These wonderful birds are so named because they have, strangely enough, blue feet. Not a just a single shade but variants from robins egg blue through to aquamarine. They have a strange waddling walk that makes them look somewhat comical on the ground. We have to carefully step in between the homes of nesting birds which seem to be pretty impervious to our presence; even those boobies with hatchlings in their nests. We climb the hill that takes us further into the island. Here we see close up the Galapagos Hawk, the top of the food chain around these parts. Leaving the hawk behind we come to an area which 
Washington refers to as the “Airport”. This is the area where the Galapagos albatross nests. There are thousands of pairs who come to this one island to mate and nest for their entire lives. Unfortunately on this day there is not one to be seen in the area – although we catch a glimpse of a single bird flying high above the island. This time of year the albatross live out at sea for months on end only returning for a short period to breed. We do get to see an egg – which is large and the thought of passing this would make your eyes water. From the 'airport' we continue to the rugged cliffs at the top of the island, which is where the Nazca Booby nests. These are quite attractive birds but lack the distinctive blue feet of their cousins. They balance precariously high on the tops of the cliffs huddled on their nest – again we are lucky enough to see fledglings at various stages of development. Just being close up to this wildlife is absolutely mind blowing and such a wonderful experience. We sadly have to leave this wonderful place and return to our floating home. After another wonderful dinner we set sail again.
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