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!

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.

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...

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.

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

Pedro saved us.  The clear plastic on our dodger finally broke.  It got so brittle that every time we bumped it, it cracked.  We had been “fixing” it with clear mylar tape, but here in Mazatlan, we finally bumped it that one last time that made it useless.  We could no longer see through it.  Enter Pedro and his fabric repair skill.  He offered that he could repair it in just a day or two.  I was doubtful, but we had no other choice.  The dodger is essential to comfort as it keeps wave spray off the crew and provides shelter from sun and wind.  So…he took it.  Next day at 4PM, he was back with the repair.  It just took him a couple minutes and it was on.  The result:  Fantastico!  It looks better than new!  He even added a new leather chafe strip on the area we are always using for a hand-hold.

So, Pedro:  Awesome work!  To everyone else who reads this; I highly recommend Pedro for any of your fabric and canvas work.  (I’ve also heard from several other cruisers that Pedro does great work).  In Mazatlan, call; 982-27-60 or cell phone; 044-669-993-5976 or email; figueroa72@prodigy.net.mx

Old dodger, looking like new. We can now see through it again.

We got here yesterday (1/25/12) around 1230.  Turned out to have been a nice night of sailing in about 10-15 knots of wind.  The seas calmed down to a steady three feet from NW and we made good progress.  Ann has also gained an understanding of the Monitor Wind Vane (“Wilson”) and has been “tweaking” it as the wind changes, so I have fewer unscheduled sleep interruptions.  She also now furls and unfurls the jib based on wind strength.  Nice!

We decided that checking into a Marina for a few days would make it much easier to explore the city, so we checked into El Cid Marina which is North of the main town.  It was recommended over the marinas in Mazatlan proper since that is more of a commerial port than a picturesque spot like La Paz is.  El Cid is part of a developed marina group called Mazatlan Marinas.  This area is not a natural marina, more of a former river that they dredged extensively and widened to turn into a marina.  As such, there is an enormous tide in here that the guidebooks warned us about when coming in.  Well, they weren’t kidding.  Those of you who sail will know what I’m talking about when I say that coming in here is a combination of coming into Santa Cruz harbor in the winter (waves breaking at the breakwater) and then docking at Angel Island at max flood (crazy sideways 3 knot currents).  Even the locals crash around a bit when they are docking their boats.  Anyway, back to the story: after coming into the breakwater dodging potentially breaking waves (we missed that fun), we ran full on into a three knot current that threatened to drive Charisma into los rocas ( the rocks).  I throttled up to max rpm and avoided that opportunity, but was now well aware of the current and white-knuckled anticipating docking in an unknown marina with this kind of tidal action.  If I had known how tight the Marina actually is, I would have been far more than white-knuckled.  I think terrified would be accurate since Charisma- a full keeled boat- is renowned for relative lack of maneuverability in confined spaces.

So, we turned the corner, saw the Marina (very small) started to look for our slip and I almost fainted.  Down an extremely narrow channel with no view of where our slip was, we turned.  This was going to either work or not.  If our slip was not open, this was going to be very ugly as we were being pushed all directions by current and the channel was/is about 45 feet wide (Charisma is 41 feet long, so do the math about turning around.  It can be done in slack water/light wind, but…).  Luckily our slip was a starboard side-tie.  So, I had room to make a 45 degree right turn before crashing into the dock and other boats, then slam into reverse and use “prop walk” to kick the stern to the left, then forward throttle/right rudder to rotate the bow and more reverse to complete the turn.  Sort of a “pivot” more than a turn.  Then forward again and compensating for the sideways current the whole time to put us into a berth that leaves three feet between us and the boat next door.  We made it without hitting anything just as I almost passed out from holding my breath (OK, a little exaggeration on that last one).

Now those of you who sail out of OCSC will say; “aw we do that every day”.  I’ll agree, but in fin keel boats at slack water.  This was a full keel boat in the equivalent of the day after we had the tsunami from Japan.  Several marina staff were present with one posted on the boat next to us.  With knowledge of the marina/currents, they were fully expecting a full-on crash and I’m happy to say that on this day, they didn’t need to touch us and we were complemented for the maneuver.  I didn’t tell them that it was at least half luck and hope I don’t have to ever dock here again. And, when we leave, it’s going to be at slack water!  While we were tying Charisma to the dock, right behind us a local sport fishing boat with twin engines (lots of maneuverability with local helm aboard, crashed into the boat next to them while doing the same maneuver.  I felt for him as I watched a perfect pivot and then the current pulled him sideways into a position from which it was impossible to recover.  Lots of lines thrown and fending off saved it from getting even worse.

So…whew, we’re here!  Pretty tired from the two day jaunt across the Sea of Cortez, but not wanting to cook, we decided to go into town which is about 8 miles away.  Cost-effective options are to take the bus or take the bus.  As we were headed to the bus, an ungainly looking vehicle drove up and shouted; “ride to town?”  It was a Pulmonia, which I believe literally translated means; pnuemonia.  It’s a cross between a golf cart for four people and a Volkswagon “Thing”.  Half height doors (feels like no doors), a windshield for the driver and a top, but no windows, you’re definately hanging out in the breeze.  But what a fun way to sightsee.  And it’s a transportation unique to Mazatlan.  So, we took it.  Fun, but due to a complete lack of any safety equipment (seat belts, sides), you cross fingers the whole way.  Fun ride though.

A Pulmonia "full size" replica. The real ones are exactly the same except the color is white. Like they say, there's room for two and a few groceries.

We got dropped off in Old Town central square, where there are a bunch of restaurants.  By chance we selected the one that we later found was called out for some of the best fish in town.  Had a great dinner sitting outside along the square people watching and then had the good fortune to be sitting next to the entertainment-which was a singer with keyboard accompanying her.  She had a beautiful voice, he was really an exceptional keyboard player and we were enraptured (not to mention partly sleep deprived).  We enjoyed the music as much as chatting with them between sets.  She sang in French, Italian and Spanish, so we have no idea what the songs were about, but they were beautiful. What a great first night in Mazatlan.

Fantastic dinner!

So pnemonia’d back to Charisma and woke up at 1100 this morning.  That’s it for now (sorry for the long post).  We’ll be here for five days, then sail down the coast of Mexico stopping here and there.  We’re now thinking that we’ll go from here all the way to Ixtapa, then work our way back, day tripping, to Puerto Vallarta and leave from there for the South Pacific.

At least, that’s today’s plan.

Position: North 23 degrees, 30 Minutes, West 107 Degrees, 55 Minutes
We’re heading due East in about 12 knots of wind doing 5 or so knots boatspeed with a Northwesterly cross swell of 3-4 feet, making it a little rolly-polly, but not uncomfortable. It’s just after dinner right now and we’re settling down to our watches. I’ll take the first one from 2000 to 2300 and Ann will come up for 2300 to 0200 and so on through the night at 3 hour intervals.
Dinner was kind of fun to make as it was so easy, yet delicious. We are testing dried bean mixes for our longer trip. This one was about a cup and a half of mixed dried beans, lentils and split peas. I soaked them a couple hours this afternoon and cut up carrots, celery and onions and sautéed them in olive oil in a pressure cooker, then just left them for later. About 1630 I just threw the beans and some water in the cooker with the vegetables and added some diced cabbage and cooked for 10 minutes under pressure then turned off the heat and left it on the stove. At 1800 when we were ready for dinner so was the soup! Yum. Very hearty and easy. And lots of leftovers for other dishes. Tonight’s sky is similar to last nights in that there’s not a cloud in the sky. 360 degrees of stars right down to the water. Just tremendous. We never tire of just sitting and watching-and seeing the shooting stars as Ann just did. Jupiter is also so bright I can see a bunch of its moons with the binocs, but the boat is rolling so much I can’t quite count. I think it’s a record (for me) of five that I see, but am not quite sure. Fun to try though. Last night the La Paz to Mazatlan Ferry boat was on the same course as we were. We were under sail of course, so had the right of way, but when a boat that big comes by you never know if they see you or not. As I was watching his lights I could see his range lights were consistently showing he would pass slightly to our starboard. “Slightly” in this case is the operative word. There was very little wind at the point we converged so we weren’t very maneuverable. Since his range lights were so consistent I thought for sure he saw us and was avoiding us. However, the closer he got, the closer he got. I tried to call on the radio, but no answer. Finally I hit the strobe light on the masthead. I think that got his attention as he seemed to turn a bit, but he passed less than 100 yards on our port side. So close I could hear someone up on the deck (about 50 feet above us) whistle. I think he whistled to let us know they saw us. Anyway, not fun. We’ll watch for them again tonight and stay much further away! That’s our day. If this wind holds, we should be in Mazatlan mid-day tomorrow. Hasta Manana.