December 12th – Matanchen Bay – Jim’s Blog #7

On December 9th we left Mazatlan for an overnight sail to Isla Isabela, a National Wildlife Preserve off the coast, that was on our way to Puerto Vallarta. The day before we celebrated Sheilagh’s birthday on the 8th by joining our friends, Ed and Cornelia (of A Cappella) and Steve and Denise Pepper (of Brendan) at a poolside cantina at the El Cid hotel for carne asada tacos and Margaritas – treated by Steve and Denise. We followed that with massages as we had planned, along with our friends, Ed and Cornelia, and finished off the day with a fairly good prime rib dinner – treated by Ed and Cornelia. Beef does not seem to be something that the chefs down here in Mexico practice with much; so the steaks and prime rib can get pretty tough. Thankfully this one was fairly tender. One also has to be careful ordering fish in Mexico, because the first one I ordered (in La Paz) stared back at me with its full head and tail lying on the plate. I sent it back to the kitchen to have the head and tail cut off, but I still had trouble eating it after having seen it eye-to-eye earlier.

As we left the harbor and raised our sails, we noticed the furling lines (which we had just replaced) were tangled in the reefing lines, so we had to point the boat into the wind and carry out a fix on the fly. Just as we finished the repair we noticed a ruffled sea approaching from the north, indicating approaching wind. Then just as we turned back south, a brisk 13 knot breeze hit our sails from the rear allowing us to shut down our engine and sail. That 13 knot wind continued to push us south all day on a fairly flat sea. Both Sheilagh and I felt it was one of the finest days of sailing we had ever had. We put up the Monitor self-steering gear, set the angle of the boat with the wind, and sat back with novels and read and took naps for the rest of the day. The wind finally died during Sheilagh’s 9 PM – 12 Midnight shift, which forced us to take in the sails and start the engine.

We arrived at Isla Isabela a couple of hours before dawn so we heaved to and waited for dawn, along with two other sailboats that did the same thing. This island was filmed by Jacques Cousteau 30+ years ago, and is known for its blue-footed boobies. There is very little anchoring space and what space there is has a bad exposure to the south. We listened to the weather report at 7 AM before entering the anchorage and learned that large swells were expected that would make anchoring there both uncomfortable and dangerous, if our anchor should drag. As a result we took a turn about the island and headed off to Matanchen Bay near San Blas, which was our backup destination. We didn’t see any blue-footed boobies up close, but we did see a thermal generated by a southerly wind coming up against a south-facing cliff that must have contained 500 birds soaring without any need to flap their wings. As a glider pilot I was envious of the birds and the thermal they had all to themselves.

Isla Isabella with hundreds of birds overhead A shrimper with birds waiting in the rigging

After leaving Isla Isabela, we motored for about 6 hours to get to San Blas, surrounded by such flat seas toward the end of the trip that the surface seemed like a vast pool of mercury with no hint of wind ruffling the surface. We encountered numerous shrimpers with large nets hanging on both sides of the boat, maneuvering to scoop the shrimp from the bottom in the thousands. We also saw what appeared to be a breaking wave directly across our bow, and we instantly feared a reef that we hadn’t heard about. We slowed immediately, turned away, and consulted the charts and cruisers’ guides – but found nothing there. As we approached more closely we found that the phenomenon was caused by small fish leaping in the air in groups that had the appearance of fans standing and cheering in sequence to form a “wave” in the stands of a football game. The birds noticed this as well and came diving in like fighters strafing the surface until they dived underneath and emerged with whole fish that they swallowed down as they took off again.

San Blas is a fishing community with one of the prettiest town squares we have seen yet. Fronting on the square is an old dilapidated church beside a newer gaudy one. We wondered why they hadn’t torn the old church down until we learned that it had been immortalized by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in a poem called “the Bells of San Blas.” I guess it pays to keep the old church around, if that helps bring in the crowds. As soon as I can get to a web site, I plan to find out what the poem was written to commemorate. When I find out I will let you know, unless one of you discovers it first and responds to the blog.

The old church and the new one actually <<<>>>

As we toured the town we continually heard large firecrackers being set off in various locations. We asked about them and found out that we were there on the Feast Day of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which is what the firecrackers were celebrating. I’m not sure how the sound of gunfire would be appreciated by Our Lady, but the local dogs seemed to take it in stride along with the local people. So now we have attended celebrations of the Revolution in La Paz, a world class marathon in Mazatlan, and Our Lady of Guadalupe in San Blas. Apparently Mexicans know how to celebrate life a bit more than we ever did.

This morning we took the “jungle cruise” up the local river surrounded by mangrove trees and a variety of other flora and fauna. We had heard there were crocodiles in the river, and were poised to take pictures of them, but we encountered only a small 3’ croc lying on a log, which we would have missed if the guide hadn’t pointed it out. The crocodile was hardly visible, so we got no good pictures of it, but here are a couple of pictures we did get of a bird and an iguana. We saw lots of birds, a couple of iguanas, the baby crocodile and, thankfully, no snakes. Instead of showing our wildlife pictures, which don't begin to compare to what you see on TV every day, I will show some tame-life pictures of me and our friends, Denise and Steve Pepper (of the sailing vessel, Brendan).

Back in the boat this afternoon I pulled out our hookah – no, not the opium pipe – this is an air compressor assembly with air hoses that allows Sheilagh and me to dive down to a depth of 20’ as we breathe through regulators attached to the air hoses strapped to our backs. We bought it specifically to allow us to clean the bottom of our boat periodically, so we don’t develop a floating garden on the hull. We also intend to use it to do some snorkeling in areas where additional depth is called for. Sheilagh begged off on the hull cleaning, mentioning that she would be continuing to cook on this trip, so I can see that we probably didn’t need to buy two hoses for this function. As it was, the hull was covered with a thin film of green, which came off easily on a Teflon pad. The biggest problem I had was an improperly sized weight belt that kept sliding off my hips and down to my ankles, reminding me of my earlier days as a toddler, when I couldn’t keep my pants up.

Here is the Hookah setup, driven by a small 12 volt battery behind the air compressor box. The floating bladder continues to supply air if the battery runs out or the battery cables come unplugged.

Tomorrow we head to Chapala, another small bay on the way to Puerto Vallarta. More later . . .