01-05 to 01-10, Trips to Isla Isabel & Chacala

01-05, Thurs – We finished our preparations for the next adventure today and went for pizza dinner in the Marina. Yummy!

01-06, Friday – Passage to Isla Isabel. It was the most exciting passage yet for marine life!! It was a beautiful sunset on Mazatlan as we left the harbor. The lights were beautiful, the seas were nice and calm and the moon was full and bright. There were lots of fishing boats out but easily managed and it was a nice overnight passage.

01-07, Saturday –We were just approaching Isla Isabel in the dawn hours and it was a beautiful. I just came on watch at 6:00 a.m. and was looking out in the distance, I saw a huge water disturbance and then a huge fin come out of the water. As I continued looking in that direction I saw A LOT of water disturbances. There were hundreds of dolphins swimming around a pod of humpback whales!! They were breaching, slapping their tails and waving with their fins. It was beautiful! I wasn’t able to catch any of them on camera, but about an hour later there was another whale Dick spotted out in the distance, that was slapping his tail on the water and blowing water out his blow hole, jumping out of the water and splashing down. (It looked like he(?) was standing on his head in the water, slapping his tail over and over- D). I got some great pictures of it!! I also saw a huge sting ray jump about 8 feet out of the water twice. He was beautiful! Then as if that wasn’t enough, about a half hour later a whale came right up in front of the boat and blew water, slapped his tail down and submerged. I had to throttle back and turn to port so I wouldn’t run over his tail!! WOW!! Excellent!! Very exciting!

Isla Isabel had come into view at the last whale sighting and it is beautiful. We had to watch carefully for fishermen’s drift nets. This is very rich fishing grounds and there are many panga fishermen and big shrimp fishing boats. We pulled into the anchorage and found five boats anchored. We didn’t really like it because the bottom here is rocky and there are reefs around the shore. So, we tried the southern anchorage, but that was too small for us and even more dangerous reefs there. So, we went back to the other anchorage and found ourselves a spot we could live with. What a fantastic place this is!!

Isla Isabel is an isolated volcanic island, a protected national park and a World Heritage Site. As a matter of fact, Isabel is nicknamed “The Galapagos of Mexico”. The only thing on it is a fishermen’s camp in the southern anchorage. There are so many birds it is amazing! They have Blue-footed Boobies, Green, Red, Yellow and Brown-footed Boobies, which are only found here on this island and on the Galapagos islands. Also, I have never seen so many Frigates it is like being in the movie “The Birds”. We are going to the Island tomorrow to take pictures and explore. There is a big crater lake in the middle of the island where the volcano used to blow from, now filled with water, that we want to go see as well.

We napped of course after an overnight passage and enjoyed the beautiful sights in this anchorage.

01-08, Sunday – Another beautiful day in paradise! Very calm, sunny and lovely. We launched the dinghy and attempted to row ashore in this anchorage, but the surf was pretty big and there are a lot of volcanic rocks and reef along the shore. We decided not to go at that time as it was kind of precarious. We stopped at a boat by the name of “Cricket”, with Pat & Lynn aboard, and chatted with them for a while. They were out of Santa Cruz. So, we had lots to chat about with them. They have been coming down here for years, so had lots of interesting and educational experiences to share. They had been down as far as El Salvador & Ecuador.

The surf didn’t calm down, so we went back to the boat for a while. The tide went down after a bit and we could see the reef exposed now all along the shore. We tried again, thinking we could find an opening somewhere, but were not comfortable with it. Pat & Lynn had told us that most people go around the point to the southern anchorage and beach land there at the fishermen’s camp. So, we put the motor on the dinghy and did just that. Much easier landing area there and a shorter walk to the places we want to visit.

We started walking to the trail that would take us up a bluff and were immediately engulfed in birds!! Birds in the trees, birds on the trail, birds in the air!! (And you could walk right up to them, absolutely no fear of people – D) It is nesting time too. It was mostly Frigates in the lower areas sitting in trees, in the air, on nests or watching over their darling white fluffy chicks. It is truly a sight to see. As we climbed the bluff (REALLY STEEP), we started running into the Boobies. They were not too happy to see us walking by their nests, but we got great pictures of them as we went by. The Blue-Footed Boobies are my favorites and the prettiest. Their feet are soooooo blue!! They nest on the ground . (You had to watch where you were stepping and could walk right up to a nesting Mama. Mama would squawk at you and stand proudly over her eggs, but as soon as you passed she settle right back on her eggs – D) We got to the top which had stunning 360 degree views! We worked our way over to where a trail was supposed to be to get down. We managed to figure out how to get down from there. It was not marked and we had to kind of push our way through some of the overgrowth. There are so many birds, nests, babies and the majestic male Frigates with their bright red necks that blow up like a balloon, that you almost miss the Iguanas! We did see a few though.

We also found our way to the crater lake named “Lago Crater” tee hee. It is very pretty and serene. There were birds and iguanas everywhere.

We went back to the boat and prepared for tomorrow and our day-long passage to Chacala, had dinner and watched a movie.

01-09, Monday – We got up at dawn, raised anchor and set sail for Chacala. It started off as kind of overcast today and we had some wind, so we were able to motor sail. About 2 hours into the trip a whale stuck his big fin out of the water very close to the boat. I had just looked up to do a scan of the water and there he was! He did some more waving, slapped his tail and humped under the surface. He didn’t come back up though, so it was a short bit of excitement.
The fishermen’s nets were a problem the entire way across, so we had to keep a vigilant watch for the little black flags attached to floating poles. They are very difficult to see and you don’t know which way the line extends from the pole other than that it probably goes windward. Some of them had a little plastic bottle at the other end of the net, but again very hard to see. Also, we watched for the pangas because where there was a panga there were nets.

Since this is such a rich fishing ground and we were cooking along about 6.5 knots, I decided to FINALLY fish! YAAAAAAAY! Rudy…. Charlie….. I caught my first fish!!!! Looks to be a blue or blackfin tuna, about 18 inches long and around 8 lbs. We had to slow down and bring it on the boat, drain the blood, clean it, filet it and then clean up the mess. Very exciting! We got a couple of 2-pound filets out of it. Will have that for dinner tomorrow.
That pushed our arrival time out to about 5 o’clock in Chacala, but also the time is now one hour later. We are now on Central Time. What a lovely anchorage! We got settled in and will explore it tomorrow. Our friends, Bill & Brenda, on “Tahnoo” are here also, so will have lunch with them tomorrow as well.

01-10, Tues – We rowed ashore, checked in with the Port Captain, very nice fellow, and then walked the trail to the beach area. It is very lovely! (It is known as an eco-tourism spot, with a rich gringo gated community on the north end and a ritzy, exclusive Yoga spa on the south end – D) The Port Captain recommended the first restaurant for breakfast, so we had our breakfast there. They had really good coffee and the food was very tasty! After enjoying our meal, we walked down the beach past all the palapa restaurants (a half dozen or so and a small local hotel– D) and then back on the street side behind the beach . (Main street was all of about 4-5 blocks long, a couple of small tiendas and a few more small local hotels – I think you could walk every street in town in an hour - D) When I say street I mean cobblestones, sort of. There are round stones pushed into the dusty dirt. (Only two of the streets warranted the cobblestone treatment the rest were dirt – D) There are a handful of souvenir/artsy crafty/trinket kinds of stores.

Bill and Brenda met us at one of the palapa restaurants for lunch. The fish tacos were terrific! We met some folks who were traveling through the area and had interesting conversations. The margaritas were very good there too. Too good! ( and strong – D) We hung out there all afternoon and headed back to the boat for a quiet evening. (It was somewhat of a rolly evening but uneventful – D)