El Cid Redux
27 January 2012 | El Cid Mazatlan
Jay/ Warm
Blue footed Boobies on Isla Isabella
1/22
Consistent with my last blog posting, the gal in the office made an error in calculating the nights we had paid for in Marina La Cruz. Consequently, when we went in to the office yesterday to settle up the smelly stuff hit the fan. Anita was indignant. This doesn’t play with them. They will just shrug their shoulders and say that is the way it is.
So, after millseconds of consideration, we elected to leave for Punta De Mita in the mid afternoon yesterday. We were ready to go for the most part. We would have liked to spent more time saying goodbye to the locals. There was a little bit of wind in our faces as we motored out to PM. We got there about an hour before sundown. We had a nice supper of scallops and salad and then we watched a movie and then hit the sack at 2000 as we needed to be up at 0530 to get going.
Today we had the anchor up and were moving at 0550, We experienced very light winds on the nose of < 6 knots. It is 1342 local and I am using the last couple of hours of alternating current to catch up on the blog.
This morning we did see a lot of whales. All of them grays. I took some video of some immature ones broaching. At one point they came out of the water. What a sight! Anita had a nap this morning. I took one in the afternoon.
We are making for Metanchen Bay where we can spend the night comfortably. Tomorrow we will head for Isla Isabella. We have heard the boobie chicks are hatching and they are a sight to see.
1/24
We had a very quiet night in Metanchen Bay. The next morning, we were up and going at 0550. We made it to Isla Isabella by 1330 and we soon had the hook into the sand of the NE anchorage. We put the dinghy down and went over to the nearby beach. It had coral all around it and was a bother to get over and onto the beach. I should have taken eartlier advice to put the outboard on and head down to the S anchorage beach. The S anchorage was very close and looked to be rocky. The best option is to anchor in the NE and dinghy to the S.
We saw plenty of blue footed boobies and lots of frigate birds. The boobies were nesting and so didn’t like disturbances. The males would whistle at us and the females would “kind of” quack at us.
The next morning there was a BCA invasion of the island Night Sky, Dolphin Tales, and Tarry a Bit joined us for the morning. We took the dinghy and paddled around the 2 guano covered rocks. We didn’t take pictures, but we saw the most colourful crabs ever. \they had red, blue, yellow, and green on them. They would climb up vertical rocks with their legs grabbing into the little cracks in the rock.
The water looked inviting, but Anita was not going to give her hair a salt water rinse as it mats up so much. I laid in bed and read while she dozed for the rest of the morning. In the afternoon, we had a “lupper” of spaghetti and then we slowly got ready to leave.
We upped anchor at 1430 and sailed until just before dark. The wind left us just before sundown and we motored all night in reasonable NW conditions to Mazatlan. Anita got shorted on her sleep as she had to get up 1 hour into her sleep interval to get the docklines ready. We tied up to the fuel dock at 0700 and had breakfast and listened to the morning net.
1/27
We have been at El Cid for a few days now. We had a nap after we got all squared away on dock B. There isn’t much surge here on dock B so Karina is at peace with the dock. Bob from Total Yacht Works came by and said Bartholomew (our engine) has to come out for a visit to his shop. We have been leaking oil for a while and the problem has been escalating. The rear seal needs to be replaced. Bartholomew will also get a coat of paint. I am considering what colour it should be. I am open to suggestions?
We taped up the sunstrip on the genny today. We are hoping it will make it to San Carlos and then we will haul it back to Canada and have a good job done on it.
We went over to Comex today to try to buy some paint for the motor compartment. After a little jigging around, the shop clerk came out with $120 worth of paint. I didn’t want gold! I will have to meet with Bob (of Total Yachts) and find out what we can do for a little less than that. We are just painting 4 ft. of angle iron.