Isla Isabela, Mexico

Posted 15 December 2010

We were suppose to leave Mazatlan on Saturday afternoon, but after filling the diesel tanks in El Cid marina we decided to spend the night in front of Isla Pajaros. While we were anchoring we heard our friends Ian and Ellen from Kasasa on route to Mazatlan. We contacted them via VHF and they drop their anchor close by just before sunset. We spend the evening catching up on news from home since we have not seen each other since San Diego.

We left Mazatlan around 4 pm on Sunday afternoon 12 December. We had a good sail with full main and genoa in rather light winds (7 to 10 knots) until midnight when the wind dropped below 5 knots. We motored the rest of the way. It was a very clear evening with lots of stars.

On Monday morning around 7 Dinis caught his first fish !! It was a Dorado and we estimate it's weight at about 10 lbs. We were both very excited. Dinis fillet the fish and we put it in the fridge for supper. By this time we were very close to Isabela island. We drop anchor at around 9 am on the east side of the island. There were 8 sailboats anchored at the time.  Isla Isabela is a bird sanctuary with a small fishing village on the south side of the island. There are lots of birds and fish and we also saw whales. It is such a peaceful and beautiful place that we decided to stay longer.

On Tuesday we did lots of snorkelling and we also did some diving using the hooka system. Lots and lots of fish, some of them is so colourful, looks like tropical fish. While we were snorkelling we saw that the bottom of the boat needs a bit of a scrub.

On Wednesday afternoon Dinis got energetic and he dived to clean the starboard side of the hull. There was quite a bit of growth on the hull. Hopefully he will keep the energy level going for the port side. The zinc is still looking OK.

On Friday, our friends Jake and Vicky from S/V Maloose and Dinis and myself went for a dinghy ride around the island. We stopped at the fishing village so that we can take pictures of the birds and to explore. What a fantastic day we had, I took many pictures of the booby and frigate birds. I also took 2 videos of the frigate birds. There are also lots of iguanas.