Ecuador
- Thread starter Sugardog
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
Came here hoping to read responses! Great question. Cruising Ecuador is one I don't think I've ever read about before. But I've always had an interest in *maybe* someday cruising the west coast of South America - with a run out to the Galapagos! The southern coast of Chile looks amazing...
Sabre602
Senior Member
- Joined
- Oct 19, 2017
- Messages
- 442
- Location
- United States
- Vessel Name
- Kingfisher
- Vessel Make
- 37' converted gillnetter/crabber
I was a naturalist guide in the Galápagos Islands in the 1980s living on a 50-foot trawler yacht and have cruised the archipelago extensively. Never cruised the mainland coast, though I've spent time on the coast and don't care much for it. Compared with the lovely people in the mountains and the rain forest, the coast was really seedy. Mind you, this was a loooong time ago.
One truth about that whole coast is that the weather there is more dramatically influenced by the El Niño phenomenon than anywhere else. Since it sits astride the equator there's a wet season/dry season thing that happens, though not too dramatically as the cold southern currents really moderate the climate. But during an El Niño year, when warm equatorial waters push eastward to the South American coast, the rains are torrential. The sea is full of large trees and other chunks of forest during those times; I'd hate to be navigating through that.
In general, the currents push southward along the coast before turning out to sea just north of the equator. Then there's an equatorial countercurrent that flows eastward toward the coast. It's a mirror image in the southern latitudes, though the cold Humboldt current coming northward is stronger than what comes down out of the Gulf of Panama. I would think that there are possibly countercurrents close to the coast that one could use to advantage, but have no experience in those waters.
One truth about that whole coast is that the weather there is more dramatically influenced by the El Niño phenomenon than anywhere else. Since it sits astride the equator there's a wet season/dry season thing that happens, though not too dramatically as the cold southern currents really moderate the climate. But during an El Niño year, when warm equatorial waters push eastward to the South American coast, the rains are torrential. The sea is full of large trees and other chunks of forest during those times; I'd hate to be navigating through that.
In general, the currents push southward along the coast before turning out to sea just north of the equator. Then there's an equatorial countercurrent that flows eastward toward the coast. It's a mirror image in the southern latitudes, though the cold Humboldt current coming northward is stronger than what comes down out of the Gulf of Panama. I would think that there are possibly countercurrents close to the coast that one could use to advantage, but have no experience in those waters.
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