Also on board was our friend, Carrie Kinnison, who would be traveling with us as far as Cabo San Lucas. We spent the first two and a half days motorsailing down the coast in moderate seas and light air, finally getting some good winds as we rounded Cedros Island on our way into Turtle Bay. We spent 2 days in Turtle Bay refueling and waiting for a low pressure system to pass before continuing on to Bahia Santa Maria on the outside of Magdelena Bay, where we met our freinds Dennis and Lou on board Milagro. After a days rest and a short tour up the estuary we headed out again for our next stop, Cabo San Lucas, where we would drop off Carrie, reprovision, and take a short rest before continuing south to mainland Mexico. In all, it took us ten days to make the trip from Ensenada to Cabo.
After a few days in Cabo, cleaning up the boat and ourselves, we bid farewll and headed out for the mainland. First stop enroute would be Isla Isabella. All we knew of it was from a short snippet in one of our guide books and remarks from cruisers on the SSB radio. It sounded like it would be worth a stop.
The plan was to arrive at dawn and leave the next day. So much for plans. We absolutely fell in love with the place and spent five days wandering the island, taking pictures of birds, diving, kayaking, and watching whales each evening from the cockpit of the boat. Isla Isabella is a Mexican National Park and protected bird sanctuary. It is home to nesting colonies of Blue-Footed and Brown Boobies, Frigate Birds, Pelicans, Heermans Gulls and Red Tailed Tropic Birds to name just a few. It is a truly amazing place and we hope it will remain that way.
From Isla Isabella we continued southeast to San Blas on the mainland where we hooked up with more friends we had met along the way. We spent a couple of days visiting the town and surrounding area and had a lovely Christams Eve dinner with our new friends.
Christmas day found us motorsailing south to Chacala, a small resort village that caters mostly to Mexicans. After a "rolly" night on the hook, it was off again to Punta de Mita at the entrance to Banderas Bay. We finished the day with a great sail in the bay, dropped the hook a few hundred yards off the beach and then made a fantasic dinner aboard, celebrating Christmas a day late.
The next day's plan was to sail to the Tres Mariettas Islands for some reportedly great snorkeling. The condtions that day were poor for diving and anchoring in tight quarters, so we opted for a circuitous sail around the south end of the bay on the way to our next stop, La Cruz, inside Banderas Bay. Our sail was interupted by a pod of humpback whales that we sailed with for over an hour. We were so close that we could hear and feel their calls rumbling inside the boat. It was a truly amazing day and great conclusion to the first segment of our adventure.
