TimeLine
exactly 10 days after our arrival, more like 21). D and M
both agreed that beginning an overnight voyage right as the
sun was going down was a bit more nervewracking since we
hadn't had the whole day to settle into our routines. Maureen
however, bravely took on the first watch at 7 pm (the kids
had decided to go for a nap in preparation for their watches,
for some reason the adults took pity on them and let them
sleep through the night). We were able to sail for only a
couple of hours, and then proceeded to motor the next 16
hours. Isabella appeared on the horizon around 8 am with
birds circling overhead. A few whales were spotted, always
in the distance, usually with just the sighting of a huge splash
of water following the breach.
Our friends on Nanoo had left Mazatlan simultaneously with
us, and were anchored off the east shore with a couple of
other boats but the anchorage looked extremely rolly to us
so we opted for the little bay around the corner. Meralee
(an old friend from San Diego) was anchored here, and even
though the waves were crashing into the cliffs close by we
decided to drop the anchor. Definitely our scariest
anchorage yet!
We took Duke to shore by the fishing village and were
promptly met by the warden of the island (bird sanctuary)
whose second and third comment included "no dogs". While
he was trying to spell "Tenacious" in his guest book, Duke
took advantage of his poor english and relieved himself on the
beach.
The island is a nesting ground for blue footed boobies and
frigate birds, iguanas are also found in abundance. We spent
one day hiking through banana groves praying that we
wouldn't get bombarded by bird droppings (without fail
every time you would stop and look up, you would be directly
under some nesting frigates).
Weather reports suggested that gale force winds were
going to be somewhere off the coast so we decided to head
to San Blas after two nights at Isabella. We found no wind
and motored 7 hours across to Mantanchen Bay (just south of
San Blas). Two whales surfaced for air immediately in front
of us, otherwise they were always in the distance. We got a
really great picture of the slick they left on the water ...
- M
with
the
iguanas
frigate looks
down upon us.
booby
blazing
Click Here to watch a movie of Mom whistling on her egg (3.8MB).
Click Here to watch Mom and chick (11 MB).
These movies are big, so only click if you have the bandwidth or patience.
and frightening. And in this Pano, we really are inside of a cove facing the big cliffs to the north.
