Cruise of the Confidence 11-Jan-2014

O800: Isla Isabel

21*50.541N 105*52.923W This anchorage has a history of swallowing anchors due to its rocky sea floor. David attached a trip line (line of ropes with a small round fender on the end) to the crown of the anchor. This will allow us to retrieve the anchor should it get caught in one of the rocky crevices. It also lets other boaters know where your anchor is.

 

 

3 other boats in the anchorage. Ariel is from Sweden and we first saw her in Neah Bay. This boat had come through the northwest passage in 2010. Then they spent quite a bit of time in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest. They started their adventure in Sweden and plan to be on the water for another 6 - 7 years. Now that is an adventure.

Isla Isabel is an isolated volcanic island lying 18 nm off the coast. It has been nicknamed the "Galapagos of Mexico". It is a World Heritage site and is well known for the population of birds, including the blue-footed boobies, the brown-footed boobies (their feathers are brown but their feet are green) and frigates. There is also a large population of frigates. We just saw one of the males proudly displaying his red colors to attract a female! And I was all excited because I thought this was such an unusual thing to see. But then today, 11-Jan-2013 we took the dinghy to shore and they were all over. Doing their mating call, puffing up and mating. There were also a lot of females sitting on their nests - I guess the mating thing was successful.

 

We continued on our hike and ran into a fisherman who had just found a large population of iguana's which he was just too willing to show us.

 But I still hadn't seen the blue footed boobie, except the ones flying around, but then you cannot see their feet. We found the crater lake, which was a disappointment. There would be no fresh water swimming today! Then we continued to the side of the island overlooking Las Mona's. 

I got all excited again yelling at David (quietly) to get the camera because there was a blue-footed boobie sitting on the rock. He just laughed because as I looked around we were surrounded by them. A few did their mating dance for us. One had just laid two eggs which were the same pale blue color as their feet.

Fred and Ginger doing a little blue foot soft shoe!

 We also managed to see a couple of brown footed boobies - which are really a light green color and so are their eggs.
 

 

We walked along a beautiful beach made of golden coral and back lava. Then back to the boat for a much needed swim and shower. I feel like we just spent a day in a National Geographic documentary. Del and Carole would have loved it. Just wish we had a better camera to capture some of this.

 

 

 

Our plans were to head to San Blas on Sunday but weather blew in from the East/SE at the start and then turned to the NE. Winds probably peaked at 25 knots. Both us and Ariel IV brought our dinghies and kayaks on board and battened down the hatches. We could see a lot of lightening on the horizon and wild looking skies and a double rainbow. We got a little bit of rain - enough to clean off the boat. We were on watch all night which was not a difficult thing to do as no one could sleep anyway with all of the rocking and rolling. If felt like we were under way all night. But our anchors held and except for lack of sleep the night was uneventful.

Storm Watching

 

 

So our plans to leave have been postponed. Woke up to a sunny hot day - good day to do some snorkeling. I made healthy apple and carrot muffins with pineapple marmalade and fresh cantaloupe. And a toast to my brother with fresh coffee - Paul is 65 today. I am sure his day will be spent watching football and drinking something other than coffee. Sorry we could not call but there is no contact with the outer world from where we are. We did finish the day toasting Paul with Cubra Libre's (rum & coke & lime).

The snorkeling was great. Spent a couple of hours in the water and though the coral was nothing exceptional the fish were. It was a bit too murky for good photos.