After drenching ourselves in the sprint through the surf break, Jennifer and I welcomed the warm sun as we paddleboarded back to Brightnest from Isla Isabel. Red-billed Tropicbirds flew overhead, their long
white tails trailing, screeching a chorus while Blue-footed Boobies soared around them. Brown Pelicans dive-bombed into the water, and along the sea's horizon, humpback whales fluked and breached. All of this to the backdrop of Las Monas, two
spectacular rock islets crowned with a halo of circling Magnificent Frigatebirds.
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| Where Dr. Evil lives. |
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| There are more mechanical devices in this shot than you may realize (furling drums, windlass). Also one of my feet is partially metal. |
As I
write this, we’re at anchor off San Blas.
I’m sitting on the bow in a nice breeze.
I always envisioned myself spending a lot of time lounging on deck, but
that hasn’t been the case at all – the sun is usually way too strong to
sit out in it. But today is overcast and
it’s quite comfortable and fun to sit out here in the soft breeze, reading,
sipping a mezcal paloma Jen just made, distant music playing at the palapas on
shore. The Honda generator is running –
today was the first time we’ve used it, ever.
It’s about time, we’ve carried it all the way from Seattle! Hup!
Just topped off the battery bank to full, so I can turn it off.
Ahem, but
back to Isla Isabel. Every place on
earth offers its own unique treasures, but Isla Isabel might be my favorite
place on this journey so far. We
anchored on the East side in the shelter of Las Monas, the spectacular rock
islets mentioned above, circled by soaring Magnificent Frigatebirds,
Blue-footed Boobies and Red-billed Tropicbirds.
We anchored in 20 feet, and I dove on the anchor each day. The anchorage is known to have patchy
holding, a thin layer of sand over rock – rocks that eat anchors for lunch, so
we took precautions and checked every day for peace of mind. Not such a chore when the water is so clear!
After setting
the hook we paddleboarded to shore (we didn’t use the dinghy once at Isla
Isabel), for amazing hikes by nesting Blue-footed Boobies on the beaches, and
then through low tropical scrub forests with Magnificent Frigatebirds nesting
at just above eye-level. We explored the
caldera lake in mid-island, the fishing camp at the south end of the island
(almost more iguanas than people!) and climbed the cerro to view the entire
island – soaring pterodactyl-like frigatebirds in dizzying air displays and
breaching humpback whales in the sea. It
was incredible! We also took one day as
“snorkeling day” and snorkeled completely around the southern Mona.
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| Ahem! I'm feeling a bit choked up! |
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| Lunch time! |
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| His heart swells at the sight of a lovely Frigatebird. |
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| Blue-footed boobies. |
When we
said goodbye and sailed off to the mainland, we felt happy and high from the
intense nature experience that we had practically all to ourselves. I was wide-eyed and bird giddy. I finally decided to dig out the asymmetrical
spinnaker from the v-berth for a first-time trial, and it was gorgeous to see
that kite go up on Brightnest’s bow. I’d
never learned proper how to fly a spinnaker, I had just been researching it on
the internet and Youtube. So things
could have gone south really easily.
After
such resounding success with the spinnaker, I decided to fly the drone while
underway for the first time, which proved utter disaster. Droney was my first casualty at sea, and
hopefully the last. The sense of
responsibility crushes me still. But
with that spinnaker flying, I had to go for it.
Droney’s last images are recorded, and our spinnaker is up.
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| This makes my heart swell like the Magnificent Frigatebird a few pics above. |
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