The Taco Traveler

We're at anchor on the SE part of Isla Isabela, behind a couple of huge rock spires called Las Monas (The Mannequins). The island is very cool, remote, natural. On shore there are lots of everything: hermit crabs, dead things (a porpoise carcass, 2 dead sea turtles), and of course plenty of birds. Birds everywhere. The boobies nest on the ground underneath the 10' trees where the frigates nest. The whole island is covered and encircled all day and night by frigates. I haven't seen a whole lot of boobies flying, I don't think. In any case, they don't just soar and ride the currents like the frigates do.

Last night Denali prepared some tuna from the second one we caught. This one's meat was much redder (bloodier) and more flavorful than the yellowtail in a turkey dark meat to white meat sort of way. At first we thought it was another yellowtail (I assumed since it was about the same size and looked the same, generally), but there were indications that it wasn't a yellowtail (harder skull, much darker flesh, smellier, when I killed it I couldn't find the spinal column for the Tanaguchi Method, etc...). Anyway, his preparation of it was good. Broiled with lots of spices.

Yesterday after we got here we dropped the anchor but I wasn't quite comfortable with it, so we tried again on a bigger patch of sand. The anchorage is pretty tricky, with sand interspersed with rock and coral. You have to hit the sand to have really good holding. So we went forward towards Las Monas a bit more, dropped it and bit just a little, then I dove down to check on the placement of it before we really backed down on it to dig it in. As I was out there in the water two boats came into the anchorage, the first one ripping past Chemistry and dropping the hook in a certain spot near Las Monas in a manner that indicated that they'd done it numerous times before in that spot. The second boat had a little more trouble finding the right spot, but he eventually got settled. On our way to the beach to explore, we rowed over and invited them to cocktail hour.

< After the exploration ashore, I put on my scuba gear and went down to replace my zincs. After that chore was done, I dove around near the boat to check my anchor and Al's anchor. I saw a puffer fish which made me laugh because since I'm such a horrible fish filleter I couldn't imagine how quickly death would ensue if I tried to fillet some fugu. I also saw a big leopard sorta flatfish (like a ray, but also like a halibut - I'm not sure, I didn't mess with it). And there were several other types of fish down there, but mostly small reef fish - nothing worth spearing.

As for our neighbors, Al and Yvette are on Sailfisher, which is a Cal 46 sloop that was once a ketch, and Lou and Lydia are on Shiloh, a Cabo Rico 38. Very nice people, and we had a good time chatting in Chemistry's cockpit for a couple hours before everyone got hungry and went back to their own boats for dinner. They convinced me to stop by San Blas on our way to Chacala and Puerto Vallarta. Apparently because it's harder to get to (up a river estuary a mile or so), it's not as well-traveled by tourists, so it's a much more traditional Mexican coastal town. I need to be in Puerto Vallarta by the 14th, however, to make sure I can get the boat (and Denali and Malavika) settled before I fly out to visit the boys in Florida.

On today's agenda is more work. Mainly, I need to remove the bow pulpit and re-run the bow light wire through it. The bow light has been non-functional since before Cabo, with corroded wires. You'd think I could pull that wire through with the pulpit in place, but there's a tight squeeze somewhere. Yesterday I took the autopilot apart and am now prepared to get it rebuilt in PV. There's a part that's *really* worn down which was the source of all the racket. Meanwhile, the backup autopilot is doing fine.
TT

5:35am, Friday Feb 8, 2008, since this post is so important it needs to be explicitly noted when it was started and completed. I just had some coffee and my second fried egg sandwich of the night. We're currently about 4 miles NW of Isla Isabela, and I've slowed down because we're going to get there before the sunrise. You'd think I would have checked that before now, wouldn't you? I mean... yeah, let's arrive after sunrise and go in and anchor, but let's motor-sail all night with very light wind and get there around 6am, but not bother to check what time the sun rises. It rises at 7:35. Ugh.

It is 5:37am, 69 degrees, water temp 77.5 degrees, and only enough clouds in the sky to present an amazing sunrise (in 57 minutes).

5:38am. I'm looking forward to a day or two at anchor to: work on work, work on the boat (autopilot, mailsail furling system (see below), dinghy motor), dive into the water to check on the anchor, snorkel / scuba dive to look at the beautiful stuff and maybe to look for prey. Though the freezer is full enough of tuna at the moment (we caught our second just outside of Cabo), I'd love to get some flaky whitefish.

5:41am. I never really read the garbage placard that's required posting on US-flagged boats. Did you know it's okay to throw garbage overboard? Outside of 3nm from land, you can rip paper into 1" pieces and just toss it overboard. Outside of 12nm you don't have to "grind" it at all. It'll dissolve to fibers again before it ever reaches anything. And bottles and cans make much more sense on the bottom of the ocean than they do in a landfill. Just fill 'em with a bit of water to ensure they sink, and -plonk-.

5:49am. No wind. Just tried to take the mainsail down. Gonna have to wait till daylight. Yeah, that's safe. LeisureFurl, you have no idea how much I hate you. I mean, you'd think I could go pull a rope or ease a rope and the mainsail would go up or come down. But no, there's always a batten that's pushing against the track, or some other friction-inducing issue, or the winch isn't getting enough juice, or the un-roller-stopper-thing isn't releasing, or ...? Alas, I'm too broke to replace this super-expensive but super-bullshitty mainsail system with something that makes sense, like Harken Battcars with a Dutchman flaking system.

5:55am. Now only 2.49 miles N or Isla Isabela and waiting for more light. Sure hope there's an anchorage available - there are only a couple spots on this island, and only room for a couple boats per spot.

5:58am. The sky is starting to lighten, though we're still at least 30 minutes from decent light. Time to get this bright computer out of my face and get my eyes used to the semi-dark.

TT