03/25/15
I am sitting in the cockpit in the dark sipping coffee, waiting for the sun and the others to wake up. The anchorage was pretty rolly last night, but I slept well. I guess I should have asked what time sunrise was, because it is still black out at 5:54 am, LOL.

We were all up and underway by 6:40 am, motoring under partly cloudy skies, and over a sea made of glass. The clouds burned off quickly, leaving a beautiful clear day. Within an hour we passed a large turtle sunning itself on the surface with a gull on its back! Although I had never seen this before, by day's end we had seen over one hundred turtle/bird combos. Around mid-morning we altered course to intersect with a large pod of Spinner dolphins that were feeding on the surface. As Scout entered the huge group, which numbered in the hundreds, we were treated to our own group of bow riders. Liz and I stood in the bow looking down upon our new friends, who busily swerved from side to side, riding the pressure wave on our bow. Maybe because Spinners are smaller, averaging about 4-6' in this group, we had 20-30 plying the waves on our bow. The water was so clear that the dolphins appeared to be suspended in air. Liz and I cheered them on while snapping pictures and filming video for nearly 20 minutes. They slowly peeled off one or two at a time to rejoin their large group, now several miles behind us. What a thrill! This was my most amazing dolphin encounter ever (so far). The day continued to be calm and glassy as we drew closer to our destination, Isla Isabel, which is roughly half way to Mazatlan from our starting point of Punta Mita, and about 20 miles off the coast of the mainland. A soft breeze sprang up, so we put up the mainsail to reduce rolling while motoring. Although we kept our eyes peeled for whales, we didn't see any until we were dropping anchor at the island around 6:30 pm. As Liz and I set the anchor, a couple of whales breeched just a mile or less from us. After a quick dip, we enjoyed cocktails in the cockpit, while dinner cooked on the BBQ. With a very early departure planned, we went to bed about 9:30 under a star-filled night sky.