My Internet access time is limited, so this posting will not include pictures or much detail. We are currently in San Blas, where there is FREE WIFI in the public square, and Frank and I are picking up a few provisions in preparation for our departure for Puerto Vallarta. A couple of stops are planned enroute, but they will be too remote to have Internet.
It has been an incredible week, one I will remember for a long time, and you will see why when I am able to post photos and more detail in a few days. To recap:
We left La Paz on the 27th and headed for mainland Mexico. It was a brilliant breezy day and we set sail in seas that were still unsettled from the norther that had been blowing for a few days. The troughs were 4-8 feet deep and from different directions, making for very lumpy conditions. I was the only one who wanted lunch a few hours later, and it took another 36 hours for Frank and Mark to regain their appetites. Seasickness is no fun – that was clear to me – and I was grateful to be spared!
We set up watches for nighttime, which was a new experience for me. Sitting in the cockpit, sails drawing the boat at 7 knots, water sluicing through the scuppers, radar glowing under the dodger, I began to appreciate the importance of the stars to the ancient mariners. As the wind slowly backed to the NW and I adjusted our course to keep the sails full, the starts were my only point of reference.
By morning of the third day we were motoring in slight swell and very light airs. We did put up the asymmetrical spinnaker just for fun, but took it down after 45 minutes or so. It was near dusk on Thursday when we sighted land in the form of Isla Isabel, a sickle shaped island that had been a volcanic peak. We anchored off between two other boats and got the dinghy ready for the next day’s adventures.
Isla Isabel is a fishing village and a rookery for blue-footed boobies, brown boobies, brown pelicans and frigate birds. If you were ale to look down on the island, I doubt you would find a square meter that did not contain a bird, although they did seem to keep to their own neighborhoods – the boobies on the grassy ridges of the former crater, the frigate birds in the trees along the shore and the pelicans on the rocky coastal area. A single red-beaked tropicbird was snuggled in a nest at the very peak of the island.
On Friday we dinghied over and climbed the hill to the ridge, cameras whirring. The frigate birds were nested in short trees at eye level, their snow-white chicks standing out against the emerald foliage. The boobies nested on the ground and few of them moved an inch as we picked out way among their nests. They were, however, quite vocal, whistling and cawing to warn us off, but they rarely moved from their nests. In the span of out 2-hour visit, I took 168 pictures – thank God for digital cameras!
After that it was time for a swim and a shower on the swim step, followed by a dinghy ride over to a shrimp trawler to buy some shrimp. The trawler looked like the tender to Waterworld, a guano- streaked metal ship with arms wung out, scores of birds perched in the rigging and shrimp carcasses lodged in the scuppers. The shrimp, however, were sweet and flash frozen, so the processing plant inside the ship (we can only hope) was not represented by the exterior.
On the way back in the dinghy, Mark and I sighed whale blow and went over to investigate – a mother and her two calves were cruising for dinner. My camera got pressed into service again, but the digital camera time lapse meant that I saw the broaching in the viewfinder but captured only the splash of the landing. I have way too many shots of whale splash.
Saturday we headed out for San Blas, motoring in very light airs and a bit of swell. It was shaping up for an uneventful passage when we sighted whale blow and turned off to get a bit closer. There was a yellow flash that seemed odd from afar, and we were horrified to find that it was a jerry can attached to a monofilament drift net that had completely enveloped the mother humpback and her calf. Unable to swim, they were forced to stay on the surface to breath and were going to become exhausted.
I’ll be posting more about this at the next opportunity, but the short story is that we launched the dinghy and Frank and I motored over to the pair. Turning off the outboard, I manned the oars to keep the dinghy pressed up against the part of the whales that was most entangled while Frank sawed away at the net with his knife. At intervals we would back off to allow the whales to sink below the surface and rest a minute and figure out the next place to tackle. A couple of times, the mother tried to sound to shake off the net, but each time she would come back to the surface within a couple of minutes and lie calmly below or alongside her calf. We became convinced that she was orienting herself and the calf to help us, although we could have done without the frequent shrimp-scented showers.
It took about 2 hours, and we were towed a few miles off course, but we finally pulled away having cut away everything we could reach without going into the water and risking getting tangled ourselves. We motored nearby while the whales sank out of sight, and you can imagine out excitement when we sighted them a few minutes later without a shred of net visible anywhere. Mark had managed to capture the expedition in mini movies on his camera, so the next morning we were able to see that it had not been a dream.
I’m now posting from San Blas, a sleepy Mexican town where most of the tourists are Mexicans from the interior coming to the ocean. We were the only gringos on a tour of the Tobara yesterday – a panga ride through a mangrove maze inhabited by crocodiles, egrets, herons, osprey, turtles and even flamingos. It’s the kind of place that Disney World sends their ride designers for inspiration. I had many occasions to practice my Spanish to find internet, talk with our guide and figure out where to pick up the crocodile tour.
Today we leave for Puerto Vallarta with a few stops planned in between. Frank will be leaving the boat to head home and I have not yet decided my next steps – I may find another crew opportunity or may head inland to study Spanish some more.
