Isla Isabella was complete magic. I mentioned in my previous blog entry that my mantra here became: “Christmas came early!” I could not believe what I was seeing! And, after talking with others, I've learned there's even more! More More More!

Birds, birds, birds. The island is a sanctuary, and while I've visited many wild places and sanctuaries, I don't think I've ever seen such a density of nesting birds. Birds with little fear of humans – birds who just look at you as you pass. We even had blue footed boobies who seemed to “show off” their eggs! It was very strange – time to study up on animal behavior – why would a bird actually move away from their egg so that you could see it?

The other amazing part about this experience was that I was actually observing Blue Footed Boobies! Holy Smokes! I still can't belive that these birds are here!! The frigates were amazing, the green footed boobies amazing, and then … humpback whales off in the distance, flopping around waving their pectoral fins and breeching and just lolly-gaggin'. We did a bit of snorkeling, lots of pretty fish here too, but I later learned that the clarity and volume of fish was even more amazing in a different area. (OK, I'll add that to the list for next time!) We captured some views of lizards too, although they seemed to be more intent on hiding than the birds were. Overall, there was just something very special about this little island.

Boat wise, we had our first experience setting a 'trip line' for the anchor, as guidebooks warned about the rocks swallowing anchors here. Our anchorage seemed pretty close to a reef and rocks where big waves pounded and made bufadoras... We were fine....but you know how your eyes can play tricks with distances on the water. I slept easier by requesting that we set up the anchor alarm system. Kind of annoying and soothing all at the same time.

As with many anchorages, we met a lot of nice people who were heading off in our general direction and we had fun getting to know a little bit about the folks and their boats. Via radio, we learned of one boat nearing the island who had lost their engine. The drama unfolded as they kept in radio contact with their buddy boats already at the island. The engine-less boat decided against stopping at Isabella, and then the wind died for about 24 hours. We could see the little boat meandering past us for a long, long time. When it rains it pours...next something happened to contaminate their water tank and a boat from the anchorage motored out fresh supplies. A day or so later on the radio we heard of their safe arrival in a marina. The couple on the boat declared “it takes a village” and were sharing their thanks to a myriad of folks who had helped them along the way.

We listened to the weather and decided to take off so that we could get another full good sail in. It was really hard to leave...but vamanos...off we went, and had a fantastic FANTASTIC sail, gennaker the whole way, to the Bay called Matanchen. Throughout that journey, lots of dolphins and whales, once again.....
Adios for now, still catching up on blog and photo updates, more soon...