When we left La Paz (finally) on New Year's Day, we thought we would do a 2-3 day crossing directly to Isla Isabella and then on to San Blas. Well the best laid plans don't usually work on the water, and the on the morning we leave, our favorite weather guru, Don Anderson, (the only weather information we are getting) is talking about strange conditions and east winds 25 to 35. This means we will be sailing close (heading into) these winds which is not a fun place to be. After it taking almost all day to beat through the Bahia de La Paz before we finally start south, we decide we will go to the anchorage at Ensenada de Muertos (cove of the dead) and listen to the morning forecast. We get in about 9pm and sleep and on the 7:15 forecast, our buddy Don is still predicting 35 knot easterlies for the crossing. So we decide work our way south first to the Los Frailes anchorage and cross from there the next day since the winds are supposed to turn back to north which is the normal winter conditions. We start out the next morning from Los Frailes in perfect conditions, broad reaching in 15 to 25 knots, and making such good time we realize we can do this with only one night out. Of course, the wind dies a couple of hours after sunset, and we land up motoring the rest of the way through the night taking turns on watch. We arrive about 3pm the next day at Isla Isabella.
We had received an e-mail from our friends Steve and Pam on Full Quiver right before leaving La Paz about their trip to Isla Isabella. As they had, we received our whale escort to the island having a mother and baby with us at a distance of 15 meters from about 3 miles out. There are two anchorages at the island. The first one our friends, Steve and Pam, described as the finger. It is on the eastern side of the island and is basically a large rock an outcrop that looks like a finger and the boats anchor behind it. There were already 4 boats behind this little finger and of course now the wind is blowing again from the north and we circled around a few times and did not feel secure. We then motored over to the other anchorage, which is a fairly reasonable sized cove completely protected from any winds except south. The only problem is there are lava tubes, lava rocks and basalt rocks to trap an anchor. Our cruising guide calls this anchorage, the "Anchor Eater". But since we weren't going anywhere else (there was one other boat anchored here), we dropped the hook. Russ set a line (sentry) to help retrieve the anchor by the crown which was a good thing since when the anchor hit he heard a clank and knew it was between some rocks. We were hooked good in 30 feet of water but there was a shoal area about 20 meters from us with breaking seas. We didn't think we could get the anchor out if we wanted to, but the sound of the waves breaking all night was intimidating.
The next morning we inflate the dingy and go to shore. Isla Isabella is a bird sanctuary with thousands of frigate birds, blue footed boobies and various other sea birds. This island has been featured in a National Geographic documentary. The birds are not afraid of man and you can walk right up to their nests and there are thousands of them. Every tree has 5 or 6 frigate birds nesting and as you walk the trails you are right in the middle of them. The male frigate birds have bright red pouches on their necks which they inflate to attract females. We hiked up a fairly steep ridge between the frigate birds nesting in the trees and the boobies nesting on the ground. Some of the boobies had eggs and others were in various stages of molting their soft white down feathers. We walked right over the nests since they were everywhere. We also saw various lizards and iguanas on the trails back to the beach. This island is, as mentioned, a bird sanctuary and also an active fishing village. There were at least a dozen pangas, several huts and on the site of an unfinished hotel several families living. They paid no attention the "yachties" and went about their business. This was one of the most interesting stops so far on our trip.
We decided we would leave the next morning fairly early while there was no wind and Russ would pull up the anchor from the dingy by the sentry as if it was stuck. Debbie would then use the windlass to bring up the chain and we would motor away from the island and bring the dingy on deck. Russ went to start the engine to bring up the batteries to use the windlass but when he turned the key the engine turned briefly and then a hard thump. Russ said "we have a hydrostatic lock". I didn't know what he was talking about but it didn't sound good, since our engine always starts instantly. After what seemed like a very long time in the engine room, Russ came back up and explained that there was salt water in our engine. Then he again disappeared into the engine room for a very long time. I sat in the cockpit trying to stay calm, thinking there will be no way off this island except to sail off, but we still didn't know if the anchor was really stuck, and if we pulled up the anchor when it was calm we couldn't sail and if we waited for the wind to pick up we might be able to weigh anchor or it would come up and I would land up in the breaking seas with Russ not yet on the boat. Where was Vessel Assist when you needed them. After awhile when I really thought about it I realized that these people fishing and living on this island must have a way to the mainland to bring the fish to market and get supplies and gas for the pangas. Then I worried that Russ would have to go to the mainland for parts and I would be stuck on the island for days and the wind would turn south. It seemed like Russ was in the engine room forever.
Being the mechanic that he is, Russ was able to take things apart and blow the salt water out of the engine. He discovered that it had gotten in by a vent in the exhaust system and did a temporary fix on some hose so it wouldn't come in again as we made our way to our next stop. With the engine now started, it was now early afternoon when we were finally going leave the island. As planned, Russ got in the dingy and was pulling on the sentry to raise the anchor when a couple(Ed and Fran) came by in a dingy from the other anchorage and offered to help. He got in the dingy with Russ, while she came up beside Zephrya and offered moral support and great stories. With Russ driving the dingy, Ed was able to pull up our anchor and using the windlass I was able to bring the chain onto the boat. With a great sigh of relieve that we did have to cut lose thousands of dollars worth of ground tackle, we were finally underway. We decided instead of heading for San Blas since we didn't know what kind of marine supplies we would find there, we should head for Mazatlan which is a big city. Now we have to travel 90 miles northwest.
Of course, there is no wind. The Pacific looks like the lake on a typical regatta Sunday, smooth and shiny, so we set a course and speed to get us to Mazatlan after daybreak the following day. We know we have a reservation at the marina for February 1st and hope they can take us almost four weeks early.
Right after sunset, Russ goes below to put on some warmer clothes for the night and I look up at our half of a wind indicator (the arrow point disappeared in a blow after being hit by a bird in Puerto Escondido) and see a frigate bird trying to grab it. Now while we were on the island, we watched these magnificent birds pass sticks back and forth between them which they use for building nests. I didn't care if the bird grabbed the broken windex (though I couldn't imagine him getting it off) but I didn't want him to land on our 5 month new anemometer or land in the blades of our windgenerator on the mizzen mast. I started yelling at the bird and shaking the halyard to scare him away. He flew off but came right back as I yelled at him and shook things some more. Russ came up into the cockpit and I told him that this bird was trying to steal our broken arrow. He watched the bird approach one more time and let out a crazy man scream and the bird took off again. We went through several rounds of screams and now it was dark out so Russ grabbed the million candle power spotlight and every time the bird came near he shined it on him and let out another scream. Then he decided to use the airhorn which makes enough noise to wake the dead. So now the bird would approach and he would get flashed and blasted with the airhorn and he would disappear into the darkness. We would forget about him for awhile and then we would feel him looming over us again and we would flash the light and blow the airhorn. Frigate birds cannot land on water so as we are further and further from the island and not near any other land, this bird keeps following us flying all this time. After 9pm, we start night watches so the drill was, look out for lights indicating other vessels, check the gages to make sure the engine is running right and scare away the frigate bird. As it got later and later there were long intervals between the bird events and each of us thought we were done with the "frigging frigate". About the time we thought it was safe, a black shadow would appear above and the game would start again. We had visions of Edgar Allen Poe. The last sighting was about 4am when the fog set in and we are hoping our poor bird did make it to land safely.
We got into Mazatlan the next morning and marina Mazatlan was able to accommodate us. We were real happy to tie to the dock and shower and rest. We found out that 2 boats we know from Richmond, Paxil and Namaste, and several we know from the HaHa and La Paz were at the marina and we enjoyed visiting with some old friends. This is for the Tahoe people, it was about sunset that first night in Mazatlan and who do we meet coming up the dock, Tom and Diane Miller (former Steamer's owner) and they are on their way out to dinner on their last night in Mazatlan. We quickly decide to go with them and go to a restaurant called Fat Fish which specializes in ribs and steak. Tom and Diane say hello to the folks back home in Tahoe.
So now we are in Mazatlan until the end of February. So far it is an interesting city with great bus transportation. We have barely started to explore the city and Carnival starts the first week of February which should be fun.