It's hard to even imagine a place like this exists, but I have no choice to believe my eyes! Our original plan had us heading back to San Blas in the wee hours of the 29th, which would not have left us enough time to explore this Island, both on land and sea, so we are still here. I woke up early before sunrise and hiked up the ridge overlooking the anchorage with my video camera to film the sunrise and that sight alone was worth the extra stay; however, there has been even more. Yesterday afternoon I took Jason on his first SCUBA dive after many dives in our pool back in Bakersfield and a few days of going over the safety aspects of an ocean dive. He did great and was controlling his bouncy like a pro while having a fabulous time. He wrote the dive up in his dive log, and I will get that posted later this evening. Amy gave it a try but had some difficulty in clearing her ears, so snorkeled above us as we dove for about 20 minutes in 20 feet of crystal clear water. The kids are swimming now as I write this post at 1013hrs and swinging off the boat halyards enjoying having the whole anchorage to ourselves.

This morning the three other boats in the anchorage pulled anchor and headed for San Blas and we will meet them there tomorrow, but for now, we will enjoy having the bay to ourselves. Jason and I have another dive planned for an area reported to have some underwater arches just a few hundred yards off the stern of THIRD DAY. The bottom here is a mess of rocks and one of the boats pulling anchor this morning had their anchor get stuck requiring them to make a dive to free it. Since we will be pulling our anchor at 0200hrs tomorrow morning, we sure hope the same fate isn't awaiting us or we will most likely just stay another day and deal with the anchor in daylight. I will dive the anchor today to try and prevent any pending problem, but you never know what will happen at night when your boat and anchor chain spins around the boulders littering the sea floor!

Last night we had dinner aboard S/V Reverence, a 58ft Tayana, without a doubt the nicest boat we have seen cruising Mexico so far. Jason and Colleen were great people and hosted an anchorage party aboard their boat. The night before the anchorage was hosted aboard S/V Lacy Lexi, a Hudson Force 50, which with her 22ft beam, had more room than you could even imagine! This morning when S/V Reverence was getting ready to leave, their engine would not start, so I was called over to take a look. Ya, I know, you are thinking, "what good would Rich be in looking at a diesel engine"? But I've learned quite a bit in the three years of owning THIRD DAY and I've had to deal with quite a few mechanical issues, including a few things that can stop a diesel engine from starting. So over I went, and when I opened the fabulously detailed teak door I found every boat owners paradise. The room was outfitted with diamond plate floor, a stainless steel work bench, a Washer/Dryer combo unit, Generator, Watermaker, on and on the shiny goodies were neatly tucked into a space the size of my main salon! I asked a few questions about what was (or wasn't) going on with the engine and then asked for a voltmeter, but before I had a chance to verify voltage was getting to the starting solenoid, I noticed a wiring harness bundle that appeared to be loose. I squeezed it together and asked Jason to try and start the engine which instantly sprang to life. Now folks, THIRD DAY has a 1978 Westerbeke (made by Perkins) 40 Horse Power engine and when she is running there isn't anyone on the boat that has any doubt, but there I was, leaning over a Turbo Volvo Diesel of some unknown gigantic horsepower still with my hearing intact, still able to hear myself think, and not feeling the rhythmic vibrations pulse through my body when at such a close range. It just purred like a kitten, it was love at first listen, but I didn't have time to wallow in the quiet clean fantasy room for long because they were ready to pull anchor and head for San Blas. But I did bring a bag of white diamonds back to THIRD DAY as my reward for saving the day. Typically I would turn down such a payment because helping fellow cruisers is what cruising is all about, however, these were after all ICE CUBES cranked out by their icemaker and I figured it would be rude to decline their offer!

So here we are for another day at anchor in paradise at Isla Isabela: swimming, snorkeling, and diving in crystal clear blue warm water on December 30th with a 5lb bag of ice cubes resting safe and sound in our small freezer box as a testimony to my diesel engine prowess. God might as well call me home now, because I've now been to the proverbial "Top of the Mountain" and life just has to be all down hill for here!#