Oooh Boy, what a day for sea life. It is almost too much for one day and it's already a blur. I think that it is cold and snowing in Seattle right now so anyone in Seattle that might be inclined to put little pins into voodoo dolls should probably just skip this blog entry.

Mazatlan was wonderful, but it is great to get out of the city again. We had a wonderful overnight passage from Mazatlan to Isla Isabella with gentle winds, flat seas, warm air all night long, full moon and more stars than ever. Isla Isabella, an island bird sanctuary that has been featured on National Geographic and Jacques Cousteau specials, is an island ecosystem comparable to the Galapagos. As we approached the island we could see the flocks of Frigates circling over the island and a curious Booby crashed into our backstay and landed clumsily next to me in the cockpit. It was a toss up who was more surprised, and this very handsome, though somewhat dopey looking bird sat next to me on the seat for 10 minutes until he clumsily climbed over the edge and flew off. We were then greeted by humpbacks doing incredible gymnastics right outside the anchorage. Distracted by the show and needing to get into the anchorage, we slowed down to let the whales go by and just let the boat drift until 4 of the whales were way too close to for comfort with pairs of them launching their entire bodies out of the water within 100 feet of the boat. Each whale was at least twice the size of the boat and two at time was getting a bit scary, so we motored the other way at full speed. Within minutes, we were the only boat anchored in a stunningly beautiful anchorage in 25 feet of crystal clear water behind a rocky tower about the size of a mid sized building carved into crazy shapes by the wind and waves.

After tidying up the boat, I needed relief from the 80 plus heat and hit the 80 degree water and swam around the boat with Finn until the stinging jelly fish showed up again and cut it short. Once out of the water and dabbing on vinegar we watched a beautiful Man O' War jelly fish (Timothy says its actually a hydroid) drift by the boat trailing vivid blue tentacles. Our most dangerous marine animals book says that the stings only cause paralysis and breathing failure, but drowning gets most victims. This guy was little and we have taken some really cool pictures of them, but not something I want to run into in the water.

Everyone loaded into the dingy and we rowed ashore and it was like stepping into something from another planet. Isla Isabella is a small island with sand and coral beaches with a twist. There is no sign of civilization on our side of the island and it is covered with 4 foot tall trees of some sort, and the craziest collection of birds. There really are blue footed Boobies and their webbed feet are a ridiculous Easter egg blue color. It was like one of the kid's a nature videos with 1000's of birds circling overhead, 100's of Frigates nesting in the trees at about waist height and countless Boobies wandering around and nesting on the ground. We are not here in hatching season, but the one Booby chick we saw looked just like a stuffed animal, all white fluff and oversized web feet. While the Boobies are very sweet and a little dopey on land, the Frigates are huge with long hooked beaks and powerful wings. The Frigates can fish but prefer to snatch food from the other birds and we watched their cruel but hilarious technique of waiting until a Booby would catch a fish and then chase after it as it took off from the water. If the Booby got into the air, the Frigate would grab the Booby by the tail and lift causing the Booby to crash face first into the water. After a couple of times they either got away or gave up and the enormous Frigates would squabble like pigeons over the fish, with the fish getting dropped back into the water more times than not.

We spent the rest of the afternoon napping on the boat and this evening watched the rays launching themselves out of the water like some sort of spring loaded kids game. Mary even called this paradise, but that is probably because we skipped school today.

Hope all is well. We would love to hear if there was much snow, if anyone will still speak to us.