Sky Dancer's 7 night itinerary offers a total of approximately 19 dives and 4 land excursions, and covers 565.5 nautical miles of ocean. It has only one very long navigation (15 hours from Wolf to North Seymour). Tender diving is the rule rather than the exception. There will be up to four dives per day including night dives at Wolf and Darwin. The first two days and last two days will be a combination of shore excursions with 2-3 dives per day. Most dives are drift dives along the cliff faces of off-shore rocks and pinnacles. Itineraries may be changed due to current or pending weather conditions or at the Captain's discretion to ensure the safety of the passengers, crew and vessel. All dives are dependant upon the skill level of the divers.

M/Y SKY DANCER
(8 day/7 night dive itinerary)

SUNDAY:

Upon arrival to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, San Cristobal, the crew of the Sky Dancer meets you at the airport and escorts you to your dive live-aboard. After the initial briefing, there is a mandatory check-out dive at Isla Lobos where we encounter sea lions. At sunset, we circumnavigate Kicker Rock (Leon Dormido), a vertical tuff cone formation that abruptly juts up almost 500 feet out of the ocean. Here we see blue-footed boobies, masked boobies and magnificent frigatebirds on the cliffs. MONDAY: In the south side of Seymour Island and no deeper than 50 feet deep, the northern channel is superb. It features an enormous "field" of garden eels, stingrays, a school of spotted eagle rays, white tipped reef sharks, and thick schools of grunts, snappers & goatfish. When Dr. Silvia Earle described Galapagos as "the fishiest place in the world", she had probably dived this dive site.

To the North of Bartolome, Cousins is an interesting wall dive. Although visibility is just fair most of the year, you can find white tipped reef sharks, hammerhead sharks, sea lions hunting, fur seals, and many sleeping sea turtles. A highlight is a resident school of up to 30 spotted eagle rays. If you are interested in macro photography, look for sea horses, frogfish, lobster, arrow crabs, cup coral, blue crabs, long nose hawk fish, coral hawk fish, nudibranchs, etc. A night dive here is possible.

On Bartolome, a lunar landscape stretches out in front of us. This young Island is inhospitable to most plants and animals. After a dry landing, climb 30-,inutes up a steep slope to the summit of a once active volcano. From the top, gaze out across a panoramic view including the famous "Pinnacle Rock", an eroded tuff cone. Down below, crystal clear water invites you to swim with tropical fish. Penguins often swim in this area.

TUESDAY:

We have two dives at Punta Vicente Roca, a wall dive, takes you in and out of a shallow, undersea cave. Here, encounter the Port Jackson or Horned shark, a species of bottom shark. The wall shows an incredible variety of sponges, corals and other invertebrates.

Located in the western part of the archipelago, Punta Espinoza, Fernandina is the youngest and most pristine Island found in Galapagos. Hundreds of marine iguanas, the largest colony in Galapagos, bask in the sun along the rugged shoreline. Observe sea lion herems with resident bulls carefully guarding their territory.

Flightless Cormorants build their nest on the point and Galapagos Hawk fly overhead. Evidence of recent lava flows formed by an active volcano stretch their way around the coast. Our dive at Roca Redonda offers advanced divers an excellent opportunity to see hammerhead sharks, groupers, jacks, reef fish, triggerfish, whales and dolphins. The first dive includes some rolling swells. Maximum depth is 80 feet. The second dive is intermediate, but also contains rolling swells. Maximum depth is 60 feet.

WEDNESDAY to FRIDAY:

We spend the next three days diving WOLF & DARWIN with up to four or five dives per day on Wednesday and Thursday and two dives on Friday before returning to the Central islands. Most experienced divers will agree, Wolf and Darwin are the best diving sites in the world! Sightings of the whale shark is common here. There are no land visitor sites here, just serious diving. At the Northern Arch at Darwin, Hammerhead sharks are not uncommon, nor are bottlenose dolphins. The reef contains many warm water varieties of fish found nowhere else in the Islands and is the most consistent place to see Hammerheads.

Darwin Island Considered by many experienced divers as the very best dive site in the world, The Arch at Darwin island honors its reputation. It is warmer by a few degrees than the central islands. In one single dive you can find schooling hammerhead sharks, Galapagos sharks, large pods of dolphins, thick schools of skipjack and yellow fin tuna, big eye jacks, mobula rays, and silky sharks. From June to November, we can almost guarantee whale sharks in numbers of up to 8 different individuals in one single dive. The presence of occasional tiger sharks, black and blue marlin and killer whales, adds on to this amazing diving experience. If you still have time to look for smaller stuff, you'll find octopus, flounders, and an enormous variety and abundance of tropical fish. Darwin Island is the biggest jewel on the Galapagos Crown.

Wolf Island One of those magical islands, with several dive sites to choose from. If you want to see sharks, you are at the right spot. This is a place for schooling hammerhead sharks, large aggregations of Galapagos sharks, and occasionally whale sharks. Seeing dolphins, large schools of tuna, spotted eagle rays, barracudas, sea lions and sea turtles is common. The bottom is littered with hundreds of moray eels, many of them free swimming. Being several degrees warmer than the central islands, you can look for many representatives of the Indopacific underwater fauna.

SATURDAY:

Gordon Rocks, off South Plaza Island, an advanced dive, is famous for white-tipped, hammerhead and the Galapagos shark, large moray eels, spotted eagle rays, golden rays, sting rays, fur sea lions, sea turtles, Amberjacks, reef fish, sponges and black coral. Dive with wahoo, tuna, sailfish and other big pelagic fish. Divers consider the wall at Gordon Rocks one of the best dive sites in the Central Islands. The current is strong and the maximum depth is 100 feet.

Visit the Charles Darwin Research Station on the Island of Santa Cruz. Scientists from all over the globe work at the station and conduct biological research from anatomy to zoology. Get your picture taken with the giant tortoises. Observe year-old tortoises and learn about the captive-breeding program. Stroll through the town of Puerto Ayora (population: 10,000) -the largest town in the Galapagos. Buy souvenirs, mail postcards and absorb local charm in the social heart of the Islands.

SUNDAY:

The last morning, visit the Interpretation Center to learn more about the natural and human history of the Islands before returning to town toconnect with your flight back to the mainland.

For further information and booking inquiries, please contact Sacred Earth.

M/S SKY-DANCER
Itinerary (11 days/10 nights)

This Itinerary, besides the addition of Espanola & Floreana Islands, includes one extra day at Wolf & Darwin Islands.

ESPANOLA (HOOD) ISLAND

Gardner's Bay features the biggest biodiversity of the archipelago. During a dive here, you can see anything from the smallest barnacle blenny to whale sharks. Common inhabitants are large schools of yellow and dog snappers, Mexican goatfish, moray eels, sting rays, spotted eagle rays, white tipped reef sharks, pacific burr fish, guinea fowl puffers, bulls eye puffers, box fishes, king angelfish, three banded butterfly fish, barber fish and 3 species of grunts. If you venture in to the sandy bottom you may find red lipped batfish. At Punta Suarez, ESPANOLA, we witness the highest rate of endemic species in Galapagos. Sea lions noisily green us as we land on their beach. Curious mockingbirds peck at our shoelaces. From April to November, the waved albatross perform their wild mating rituals. Colonies of blue-footed boobies engage in "sky-pointing" to show off for potential mates. Masked boobies busily care for their young. Observe a unique specie of marine iguana identified with traces of red and green colorings.

FLOREANA ISLAND

We have a morning dive at Enderby, an eroded tuff cone. This dive spot often reveals manta rays, sea turtles, tunas, and sharks. Our next dive takes us to Champion Islet, a little crater, yields nesting habitat for a colony of boobies, hideouts for sea lions, and an underwater labyrinth of rocky shelves, coral and reef fish. We return back to Champion for a night dive. At the shallow sunken crater of Devil's Crown encounter a brilliant array of colorful large schools of reef fish, black coral and sea turtles.

At Punta Cormorant, we set foot on a green-sand beach alive with the sounds of sea lions. Follow a trail to a brackish lagoon, home of pintail dicks, common stilts, and the pinkest flamingos in the world. Wind your way past a rich variety of plants including morning glories, cut leaf daisies, Palo Verde and Scalesia. Sea turtles lay their eggs in the sand dunes. Rays swim in the shallow water beyond the beach.

For further information and booking inquiries, please contact Sacred Earth.