2/7/12  (There are some new photos published today going back to the Whale of a Day)

We came into town again today to do some grocery shopping and hit the internet cafe (the local bar actually)

The friendlyness here is so great.  We left the dinghy on the beach and the owner of the restaurant there said he would be glad to watch it for us.  Then while waiting for a bus, “Marta” pulled up in her pickup and asked if we needed a ride.  Turned out she was going into San Blas, so she gave us a ride.  So nice.

We’re having Dave from Free Spirit and Steve who is crewing this leg South for him, over for dinner tonight.  They are bringing fish and wine and we bought some steaks and veggies in the Mercado.  In the spirit of shopping in the Mercado in San Blas, here are some pictures.

Gotta love the fish lady

A look around town...

More San Blas...

More town...

First off; Happy Birthday to my Dad, who is 81 today (Feb 6)!

OK, today Ann and I went on a jungle tour. Our friends John and Tiffany from the sailboat Michaela, who are anchored next to us in Bahia Matanchen came as well. (Pictures tomorrow when we’re in town with the wi-fi)

We rendezvoused at Charisma and in our two dinghies headed into the beach at Playa Elita where we landed through the surf and pulled the boats high up on the sand. After asking the folks at the beach restaurant (a thatched hut with chairs and tables in the sand) if they would watch our boats and promised in exchanged to have dinner there when we got back, we struck out on foot down the dirt road to the main (two lane) road into town.

At the crossroad are some vendors who sell delicious treats like home-made banana bread and the most amazing macaroons. We bought a few treats and headed a hundred meters or so to the entrance to the jungle tour. It’s Mexican style. Basically, you have pangas with bench seats that will hold about 15 people that take you up into the mangroves and jungle. It’s real, not Disney. The pangadero doesn’t speak English, but we have enough Spanish so we get by.

Our jungle tour driver

Sometimes you’re making breathtaking speed around blind corners in a swamp that is barely wide enough for two boats to pass and guess what? At the epicenter of the corner you meet another speeding panga and miss him by about a foot at a passing speed of about 30 miles/hour. But, they know what they are doing. Good boatmen these and when they are not doing tours they are fishing on the ocean.

So, we were about 5 minutes into the tour and the guide slows down. We look to the side and there, not 20 feet away laying on a tree root a little above the water is a crocodile with his mouth wide open. Was he just waiting for one of us to jump in?

Just sitting there catching flies

Another Croc just a bit upriver

Turtle. The crocs will eat them if they can.

Turns out, the open mouth is how they cool themselves. Fast forward an hour of swamp journey and a half dozen more crocs of different sizes from 4 feet to about 14 feet, we arrived at the croc zoo. I think it’s there so if you don’t see any crocs along the way you won’t feel slighted because you can get right up to a croc in this place. You are only separated from them by a cyclone fence. In fact, I was able to touch one croc’s leg who was lying right up against the fence. It was not what I expected from these touch, prehistoric characters. It felt like, ah, well…a purse. Yup, kind of soft and supple under the tough leathery surface. Then he twitched and turned his three inch long teeth toward me and I yelped, jumped about three feet and decided I’d had enough crocodile touching for the day.

Too close for comfort

In the zoo area, we also saw a jaguar. One of the most beautiful animals I have ever seen. Just stunning colors and pattern.

All in all, a very successful tour followed by taking the bus into San Blas to walk around a bit including down to the marina where we ran into some friends who were staying there but coming out to anchor in the bay with us manana.

The end of the day included sunshowers on the foredeck with the almost full moon rising behind us and a fantastic, flame-red sunset in from of us.

The sunset shower.

We like this area and are going to stay another two days before moving on.

It’s a bay 3 miles South of San Blas.  Got in yesterday afternoon.  We’re in town today just checking it out and found a bar with wi-fi.

Posted some pictures going back to “Leaving Mazatlan”, so check them out.  Boobies, Frigates, Iguanas and the sea cave Ann Kayaked through.

We’re planning a jungle tour tomorrow, hopefully to see crocodiles.  Then some more of San Blas before heading South some more.  This is an interesting town.  More old style Mexico and not very big.  We’ll post some pics in a couple days.

North 21 degrees, 30 minutes; West 105 degrees, 14 minutes, or about 3 miles South of San Blas San Blas, according to our guidebook was “discovered” by Hollywood when John Huston filmed “Night of the Iguana” here with Richard Burton. We anchored here about 1600 and are relaxing after a 9 hour downwind sail from Isla Isabel.

We were anchor up at 0645 this morning and slipped out of our little cove to a typically beautiful Mexican sunrise. The sail here was delightful. Once again, we saw at least a dozen whales, many of whom were breaching and otherwise practicing their acrobatics. Less than ¼ mile from our anchorage, as we were leaving, one came over to say “goodbye” by doing barrel rolls, each time waving his flukes in the air as if to wish us bon voyage.

I was struck during our quiet downwind journey by how nice it is to be fairly “off the grid”. The sunshine is powering our solar panels, which in turn provide electricity for navigation equipment, lights refrigerator and particularly the watermaker, which turns seawater into drinkable fresh water at the rate of 6 or 7 gallons/hour. On top of that, as we were sailing, our fishing lines provided yet another dinner. Around 1400 as we were approaching the coast, we got a “hit” on the handline. We were using a cedar plug and a Sierra Mackeral (also known as Cerro Mackeral) conveniently made himself available for our dinner. Ironically I was just thinking about how I was going to cook some of the chicken we have in the freezer when the clothespin on the line snapped signaling a fish on. We haven’t caught one of these since Geoff and I did last year up near La Paz. They are considered a delicacy in Mexico. They don’t keep well, so you won’t find them in any local stores but they are one of the most delicious of the pelagic fish (in my opinion). Ann’s getting a salad ready right now and I’m about to heat up the cast iron pan to gently fry the fish in a little olive oil and a squeeze of lime to go with the last of our green beans that we bought in Mazatlan.

Tomorrow we check out San Blas….

P.S. We’re going to be back in the Bay Area starting March 4th for a week to get our taxes done before leaving on the “big jump” to the South Pacific.

We are now “one” with the whales.

Last night, still anchored at Isla Isabela, we woke in the middle of the night to singing. Who could be singing out here in the Pacific Ocean? Listen carefully what could that be? Oh my goodness, it’s the whale song resonating with Charisma’s hull! Sometime in the early morning hours we just listened in awe as we were fortunate enough to share an ancient communication. Beautiful.

Woke up to a slightly overcast day and decided we would take a ride in the dinghy “around the corner” of our cove. Around the corner turns out to be the Pacific Ocean. The full Pacific swell was in place albeit light. Up and over 3 foot swells we went, which in our dinghy seemed more like climbing small buildings. We were very exposed, no longer tucked into our nice cove on the South side of the island. Manta Rays were jumping around us as we motored around the island. Did I mention we brought a fishing pole too. Silly us. I’m not sure what would happen if we had been lucky (?) enough to hook a 40 lb tuna or 50″ wahoo. I think it might look like “old man and the sea”. Anyway, as we’re traveling along, Ann shouted; “Whale!” Actually it was two of them and they were about 50 yards away or as Ann noted; “too close for my comfort”. Fortunately they just did a few mild aerobatics and then dove, no doubt intent on continuing their breakfast. We looked at each other and just said; “Wow”. What else can you do when you have a private whale show in so intimate an environment?

“What else” turned out to happen as I continued in my quest for fish later in the day. I decided I would dedicate the day to catching more delicious fish. So, off again in the dinghy with fishing pole in hand. This time, I drift fished out of our cove into the deep blue. The first indication that I wasn’t very near land anymore was an aerial show from several manta rays who were jumping in a line that got me thinking that if they didn’t stop I’d have a very large manta ray in the dinghy with me! It turned out they only (!) got about ten feet away before veering away. Really, a little too close. So, now that the manta ray show was over and none ended up in my lap, I settled down to more fishing having gotten a couple bites a little earlier. My next indication something was amiss was a loud; “BOOM”. Yipes! I turned around in time to see a full size humpback whale breach-that is jump clear out of the water while spinning around at the same time-less than fifty yards from my frail little inflatable boat. Basically, he was towering above me. Fifty yards!! That’s about how far you chip onto the green over a sand trap. While I was thinking that, he jumped again. Thirty yards! Then again. Twenty yards! OK, that’s about the length of a small backyard swimming pool. His splashes were rocking my small boat and his breath-he would breath each time he leaped- was, well…bad! OK, that was close enough, I was worried maybe he didn’t see my insignificant little craft. I leapt to the starter and pulled the cord-engine started and I moved “casually” out the way as my friend Mr. Whale jumped several more times, then did about half a dozen “barrel rolls” and slapped his flukes as if he was laughing with joy. Ha, ha, very funny. Ann was back on Charisma watching this whole event as she heard the BOOM every time the whale leapt out of the water and smashed back to the sea. Amazing. I am still somewhat speechless given how out of nowhere the fairly calm ocean was turned into frothing white water and I was able to have a close up view of this unbelievable spectacle. The other amazing thing; as this was unfolding, all I could think of was; “he’s looking right at me”. Every leap, the whale twisted in mid-air so his eye was right on me as he seemed to fly though the air before splashing back down into the blue Pacific Ocean. I think he was playing whale peek-a-boo. Just wow! The adventure just continues.

This about the fifth breach after I moved away. If you click on the photo you can still see me in the dinghy moving away.

This is about the fifth or sixth breach after I moved away

A pretty significant craft next to a breaching humpback whale. Wish I had brought a camera with me though.

P.S. Missy: So, we cooked the last of the fish last night using the book you gave us. Fantastic! Nice job. Kelly: I finished the book you got me on Steve Jobs. Loved it! Wonderful book. Ann’s going to read it next.

This one is from Ann —

Did I tell you how much I love our kayaks? Today we launched them again and paddled over to one of the sea caves that I had been admiring. The one under the Booby Perch rock. And the kayak fit through perfectly! Very cool.

Into the sea cave...

...and out the other side. Later in the day, we snorkled through. It was a little scary at first since it was dark, but once we got used to the darkness, it was very cool.

The water here is pretty clear (We are still at Isla Isabela) so as we paddled around we were able to see fish swimming below us. And coming out of the sea cave we could look up at the boobies perched at the edge of the cliff. I think they liked us better from this angle.

After a glorious kayak around we came back to Charisma. Bob had gotten aboard when I noticed an unusual pattern in the water nearby. Bob grabbed the binoculars and identified a school of fish feeding. So I paddled over and investigated! The water was bubbling with activity. I took the waterproof camera, stuck my hand in the water, hit the shutter and got pictures of a school of 15-18″ Crevalle Jack (like a small yellow fin tuna) which we will post later. I was able to follow them around a little longer and be part of the fun.

Ann got this by just sticking her hand in the water with the waterproof camera from her kayak

We got our snorkel gear and headed back out in the dinghy. We used a small anchor Bob brought for the dinghy and Jacque Cousteau-like we flipped backwards out of the dinghy and into the water. Okay, truth be told, Bob did, I just slipped over the edge of the dinghy and into the water.

It was beautiful snorkeling! Most impressive was the school of about 400 Pacific Lookdown fish. At first Bob points to them, like, “Look at that school of fish!”. And they just kept coming! Like I said, probably 400 of these 6-8″ thin silver fish schooling along right next to us. Amazing! Of course there were many other beautiful fish to see among these rocky shores. But then I looked up and we were back near the sea cave! “Swim through it!” I tell Bob. So he does. I followed him thinking, this is scary! It was very deep and pretty dark but beautiful. Blue phosphorescent fish were swimming below us, and there was, of course, a light at the end of the tunnel. So fun!

Back on Charisma a little later, we were treated to a whale show about 60 yards off of our stern. Do things like this really happen? Crazy. Two whales were diving and showing their flukes for 20 minutes while we’re anchored a mere 60 yards away!

We finished our day with “hammock time” while we enjoyed the songs of the hundreds of birds circling over our heads -including the rare Red-billed Tropicbird that will not let me photograph it!

P.S. To Missy: Tonight we’re cooking the last of the fish we caught yesterday and using the cookbook you got us for Christmas. Since the fish is close to snapper, we’re using the recipe for snapper on a bed of sliced potatoes, green beans, julienned carrots and tomatoes with olive oil, and a dash of balsamic vinegar all wrapped in foil and baked. It’s in the oven right now and the aroma is heavenly!

We arrived at 0730. Coming in we could tell this place was going to be “wild”. Thousands of seabirds were soaring the winds above the island and in the last 5 miles coming in at around sunrise, we must have seen half a dozen whales breaching and otherwise jumping around. Ann swore she saw one do a back flip. I told her she was nuts until I saw the same thing later in the day from our anchorage.

As we approached the island, I woke up in the middle of the night and heard Ann talking up on deck. At first, in my sleepy haze and not knowing exactly where I was, I just assumed she was on the phone. Then with full consciousness coming on I remembered we were about 50 miles off the coast of Mexico and thought; “Has all this sailing sent her over the edge?” Climbing out of the bunk at around 0230, I slipped out of the quarterberth and up the companion way ladder, hearing a lilting voice; “Where are you? Come on out. Come back and play some more”. What the heck? The answer become clear in a couple seconds when I heard a splash and ‘whoof’. Dolphins playing by the stern. The dolphin whisperer was back.

Ann is the only person I have ever seen who can in fact, talk to the dolphins. During the day, when she laughs with joy at them, they jump out of the water in response. Now at night her lilting voice got them to spin around Charisma and talk back. They were chattering at her. Her voice must have a frequency that they like.

(From Ann) Actually they frightened me at first. I am on early morning watch and keep hearing puffs and smelling fish. I look around and because the moon as set already I see nothing. I even stand up on the deck and look, sure that something is about to get me – like a pod of killer whales! Then I realize that we are just off of the penal colony island where I read about an escape just as we got to La Paz. Now I’m really concerned. I think to myself, if it were dolphins I would see their phosphorescent trail in the water, right? And suddenly there it was! There were lots of trails as the dolphins played around the stern! My friends were back. (I tried to keep it quiet but found that both keeping my voice down and keeping on course became a problem. Oops!) BACK TO BOB…

This leg was about 90 miles and turned out to take us 21 hours. Of that time, we motored one and a half hours out of Mazatlan and ran under very shortened sail coming into Isabel, slowing from 6 knots to 3 knots for about 4 hours, in order to delay our arrival until after sunrise. All in all, this was a nice passage with fairly light winds most of the way. For the most part we were seeing 8 knot winds, but they went from 17 gusting to 25 for a couple hours just after sunset, to about 2 knots for a couple of hours on Ann’s watch around 0100. We didn’t see any other boats closer than 7 miles and those were probably fishing boats nearer the coast than we were. Overall a nice sail.

Blue footed, yellow footed and brown footed (they are fairly rare we’re told) Boobies nest on this island along with frigates. The other animal inhabitants are iguanas. There are so many you have to watch where you step or you might step on one.

...watch where you step....

Ann and friend

Since the island is protected (it was given the status of Parque Nacional and World Heritage Site in 2003) the animals here flourish without fear. It’s been named the Galapagos of Mexico. You can walk right up to a nesting bird or sunning iguana and they just look at you; “eh, another tourist”. Even at that there are very few tourists as the island lies more than 15 miles off of a coast without a large city to “breed” tourists. So mostly just “yatistas” visit and occasionally a more organized nature trip.

After arriving here early in the morning, we were anxious to get ashore and had the dinghy pumped up and in the water by 0900. We motored to the only beach area in the only protected (from wind and wave) cove on the island to go ashore. There is a small fishing camp here where a few Mexican fishermen make their living fishing the water around the island. There were very friendly as we landed between their pangas, but none spoke enough English, so we moved past the beach up onto the island proper to see the birds.

The only inhabitants of the island live in this fish camp

“See” them doesn’t really do this experience justice. You are more “one” with them. The Frigates, which are huge-six foot wingspans-nest just barely above your head in the small wind swept trees. As we walked among them, you could reach out and touch their nests (we didn’t of course). Numerous nests had young fuzzy baby Frigates not yet old enough to fly. Some of the birds were also nesting on the ground, so between the Frigates and the iguanas, we chose our path very carefully. We’re talking hundreds of Frigates all around you in areas the size of a small house. There were literally dozens in every tree, many with babies. And the noise! Almost deafening. Sqawking and clacking their bills, this is where the word; “cacophony” must have come from. And we won’t even attempt to describe the smell. Along every few trees one of the males would display his colors whereby he would “blow up” his throat, ballooning to a brilliant red against the mostly black body. When we had a moment to look down, we would see several iguanas every couple yards ranging from little lizard size up to two feet long. Attired in flip flops, I took early inventory and carefully counted my toes before we moved on.

Frigate madness

Frigate hatchling

Male Frigate

So, Frigates live mostly in trees. OK, then where were the Boobies? The answer turns out to be symbiotic in that they live on the rocks. So, carefully tracing our steps back to the beach so we wouldn’t disturb or step on all the wildlife, we headed to the other end of the beach where hundreds of Boobies were nesting on the rocks overlooking our cove (multiply these quantities of many hundreds, maybe thousands per acre by the volume of an island a mile wide and several miles long, which is the length of the island, and you get a feel for how many birds nest here).

Ann of the boobies...

Boobies we came to see and Boobies we got. They are even more unafraid than the Frigates. You can walk right up to a nesting Booby and they will just sit there. Many were sitting on eggs and were keeping their hatchlings warm. Unconcerned and showing no fear, they would stand up and show us either eggs or a small fuzzy hatchling, still just with little stumps where they would eventually grow wings, then sit back down.

Boobie hatchling

Yes, my feet are blue...

Since they were nested so densely and in order not to unduly alarm any of them, I stayed at the base of the rocky point so Ann could explore to the top. We saw blue feet, yellow feet and red feet of the three types of Boobies.

...More blue feet...

No, not some kind of Mexican jail (as we are still within sight of the penal colony’s lights at night), but the fish I caught for dinner. Actually two dinners, at least.

He measured 23 inches and made dinner for two nights. Delicious!

I tried fishing from Charisma and was hoping to catch some more of those bass we caught back near La Paz, but no action. So I decided it was well past time on this voyage where I tried some trolling from the dinghy.

Looks a little silly, but resulted in dinner...

I took a few passes through the cove and one out around the corner trying a couple different lures. No joy. On the end of the last pass, with my last lure (an old beat up Rappella with tooth marks from a barracuda I caught in the Caribbean), the pole bent double and the line started running off the reel. I immediately stopped the dinghy and tightened the drag. Solid pull, couldn’t budge whatever it was. I thought I was hooked on a rock and was thinking about how to fix that when this “thing” started pulling the dinghy through the water toward the rocks. Uh, oh. (Should I add at this point, that there was a panga with some of the fishermen aboard anchored about 30 yards away and relaxing with a smoke before going back to their shacks. They were duly entertained by the silly gringo yatista being towed around the cove by a giant fish).

So…I have some kind of monster from the deep towing me to sure oblivion on the rocks. What to do? Fortunately the engine was still on, so I gingerly put it in reverse (I’m holding the pole with my left hand and both legs and working the engine with my right hand). Some movement. More reverse. Even more movement. I couldn’t reel him in, but I could tow him! So, rocks averted, I started to tow Moby Fish out to deeper water. Backwards. The Mexican fishermen were thrilled with the afternoon entertainment. Once out in the deeper part of the cove, my Barred Pargo was tired and submitted. I didn’t know what I had until he came out of the depths. Once to the surface, I saw what a beautiful fish I had caught and knew it was some kind of rockfish (which are good eating-the whole purpose of this exercise). So, I bonked him with my trusty fish bonker and pulled him on board to the sound of gentle, polite clapping and smiles from my amigos in the panga. The gringo uses some silly techniques, but he gets his dinner.

So, back to Charisma to proudly show off tonight’s dinner and time to make some fillets. They looked just like snapper, except lighter in color and cooked white. Delicious. We have enough for two or three nights. Thank you Mr. Barred Pargo. Pictures to come.

The fish book describes him thusly; “To 2 ½ feel and 30 pounds. A deep-bodied snapper found skulking in caves and around rocks. Edibility: Excellent.” We measured the one I caught. It was 23 inches.

We departed the Marina at slack water this morning around 0930. Fortunately, though a tight fit, it was uneventful.

During the morning radio net, we heard of a boat that is about 50 miles North who has tangled in a fishing net that they cannot cut away. They can’t use their engine and folks in Mazatlan were getting ready to go out and help them get in. It was a good reminder to stay well away from all the fishing boats in these waters who put out large nets and long lines, often without much in the way of markers. In fact, we passed a dozen of these large trawlers in the first five miles beyond the breakwater and are very glad to be away from them. We were also pleased to have passed at least a half dozen whales in the first ten miles of our journey further South. All seemed to be feeding as they would take a breath or two, then show their flukes for a deep dive and often we would not see that particular whale again. Other wildlife counts include; 5 Manta Rays jumping and the biggest sea turtle we’ve seen so far with a shell that looked to be three feet long.

I can’t describe how peaceful and relaxing it is to be back out here on the blue water heading South. We have 1-2 foot seas and a 12 knot warm breeze off the stern quarter, resulting in around 5.5-6 knots boat speed with just the big jib up. We could use the main and go faster, but this leg is 90 miles and we’d get there before sunup, so this speed is just fine. And did I say; “warm breeze”? Yup, we’re finally in the “Mexican Riviera” meaning it’s not winter anymore here. It’s about mid to upper 70’s right now, 15 miles off the coast. So nice.

Our destination is Isla Isabella, a small island off the coast that is a breeding ground for blue-footed boobies. You can go ashore if the weather cooperates and see their nesting grounds. There are iguanas there too (we saw one yesterday just outside the marina gate on the hotel lawn).

Mr Iguana was sunning himself right outside the Marina gate.

Last night I made tonight’s dinner in the pressure cooker. Split bean and ham soup. You cook it and leave the cooker closed and just leave it. No need for refrigeration. Just reheat. Great for the first night out to not have to cook. ***After dinner now and settling down to our watches for the night. We stay up until 2000, then I’ll take the first watch until 2300. Charisma’s mast is reaching straight up into the sky for a half moon that’s lighting up the sea around us. It’s still warm and we have about 8-10 knots of wind, so for now, things are good.

Sunset out of Mazatlan