Islas Revilla Gigedo, San Blas & Isla Isabella

February & March 2000

We finally got underway yesterday at 6:30AM exiting Manzanillo Harbor and heading west. Yesterday and today were mostly motor-boat rides in fairly calm seas. Several large ships entering and leaving Manzanillo passed us by on Saturday. The wake of one that was not too far off contained many cavorting dolphins. By today we are picking up little ship traffic. We did get a nice afternoon and evening sail in our first day out but by midnight it was all calm and the engine was restarted.

We had a great sail all night long. Yesterday about 5:00PM we shut the engine down to check the oil and realized that there was wind in the main (we almost always travel with the main up). We pulled up the jib and mizzen and were off. A nice peaceful dinner was enjoyed at the table down below and soon thereafter the wind started to build. We had good wind all night and into the early morning hours but after the sun was up it started to die and by 10:00AM it was time to drop sail and start the iron jenny. The deep cobalt blue of the offshore water beckoned first so after dropping sail we both took a quick swim before firing up the beastie and resetting the main.

Last evening we had a booby bird that decided to spend the night at the top of the mizzen. He stayed until sometime in the middle of the night when, after getting shaken off by the bouncy boat several times, he decided to give up and look for a roost elsewhere.

We only needed to motor until about 2:00PM when the wind picked up again and we enjoyed a great sail in fairly heavy wind all afternoon. The wind finally cut back after sunset for a few hours. By 9:30PM Monday night the wind was picking up again with a vengeance.

The anchor is down in the south anchorage at Isla San Benedicto after a four day trip from the mainland. We have a great cinder cone protecting us from the strong northerlies that are still blowing. The wind continued to build through the night on Monday and by morning we were sailing at 6.5 to 7 knots with just a small jib and the mizzen. Since it had been too rough to sleep during the night we gave up and hove-to for the last three hours of the night to sleep. With the good winds and the fast times we still made it to the anchorage before the sun had set and anchored east of Grace. Grace had left 1 ½ days ahead of us and were already anchored in the small bay.

The last two days have been windy and rolly here in the anchorage, so we took advantage of the weather by resting and repairing. Yesterday we spent much of the day on Grace. Bill helped Major patch his dinghy and repair his outboard that had gone underwater when the dinghy tied next to Grace had flipped. I went swimming with Rachael in the clear blue water that we have here. After a late lunch of yummy fresh fried fish tacos we returned to Lanikai. Since the rolly waves were somewhat diminished I climbed the mast and with Bill’s help got my HF ham radio antenna back up; it had been knocked down on the way out here.

Today was cloudy and although the wind was lighter than the last few days it felt cool. We did go exploring to the east side of the island in the dinghy but only made it to the corner before we were getting too wet and cold to go further. The rest of the day was spent reading and staying out of the wind as much as possible.

Yesterday the water flattened out enough for us to snorkel on the nearby reefs. It was all quite deep and there was not much to see. Since the sun was out and the waves down, we explored all the way to the east anchorage where we encountered a large manta ray hiding just below the surface. He was magnificent and as he drifted deeper he formed a beautiful turquoise blue shadow in the water. We also dinghied to the west side of the island but did not go far as the cliffs along this side had huge breaking waves on them from the large Pacific swell.

Today Grace took us all over to the pinnacle on the west side of the island where the underwater life was reported to be great. After some effort we got Grace anchored in 135+ feet of water. Then we all took turns swimming over the coral-covered pinnacle (only 5 feet below the surface) enjoying the many fish that congregated there. There were several magnificent manta rays that we swam above as they lazily drifted below us. After much effort we got Grace’s anchor unstuck from the rocky bottom, up and stowed. We returned to our anchorage in the south nook.

There were also many whale sightings today both from Grace on the west side of the island and from Lanikai in the anchorage. The whales performed many tail flips, lazy surfacings and a few jumps, some within a few hundred yards of us.

Rachael and I took off dinghying to the east side of the island to do some snorkeling and on the way we got a magnificent close-up view of a whale that was lazily porpoising on the surface. We watched it for a time and then it dove out of sight. We continued on to the east anchorage and saw a few large mantas. We entered the water to swim with the mantas but were soon scared off by a small tiger shark that insisted on following us. The best snorkeling of the day was back in the south anchorage along the rocky beach on the NE corner, but by then we were too tired to do much exploring. We returned to the boats with the intention of exploring this area in the morning.

The last two days have been cloudy and windy so our activities were limited to what we could do on Lanikai. Wednesday afternoon, yesterday, Rachael and Major came over. We played pigs and other dice games for several hours while we devoured a large bowl of popcorn and drank hot chocolate. It was decided to move on to Isla Socorro in the morning.

The wind continued to blow all night last night. This morning we pulled the anchor and had a wonderful 7 hour sail south to Isla Socorro where we anchored behind a point on the west side of the island. This island is much larger than Isla San Benedicto and has lots of scrubby vegetation.

The anchorage here is quite rolly and the reflected waves off the shore get the water real churned up. We took out a stern anchor yesterday morning to keep us from swinging into the cliff on one side of us and the reef on the other, but that kept us stern to the incoming swells which was ok until the wind shifted to the NW. Then we were stern to the wind as well and spent last night with waves slopping up under the stern; it was very a very unpleasant night. This morning we turned the boat around and the main anchor now is tied off of the stern and the stern anchor is tied off the bow. This makes the ride much more comfortable.

This anchorage is very interesting. We have had humpback whales right near the boat and often times they are leaping just outside the small bay much to our delight. The bay is mostly surrounded by cliffs and the waves slap upon them with a mighty splash. There is a blow hole in the bay here, but a much more spectacular one is just across a sand spit to the north and it throws water high into the sky. So far we have done no exploring as it has been too cloudy to snorkel and too rough to check things out in the dinghy.

After another night of rock-and-roll we pulled the anchors and headed south; leaving Grace alone in the bay. We are now anchored in a bay at the south end of Isla Socorro where it is calm and the seas are flat. Whales greeted us as we entered the bay and we passed close by a mom and her calf that were lazily swimming on the surface. A contingent from the Mexican Navy base came to visit us and check out our paperwork. It was actually quite fun and informative visiting with the men. They have 2-month tours out here from Manzanillo and since there are no women on the base I expect that they are glad to get back to civilization at the end of their duty tour.

Today was our first really sunny day since arriving at this island group and we took advantage of it. We went out exploring in the dinghy and ended up snorkeling on the east side of the bay. The water was clear enough that we could find our anchor 45 feet down by just dropping a few feet below the surface.

The Humpback whales were very active today. We had a pair swim very close to Lanikai in the morning. While we were out in the dinghy a mother and calf pair swam lazily by, not 50 feet away, with the young one jumping out of the water and the larger one lifting her extremely large flippers to the air. We watched them as they approached us and kept the dinghy motor moving slowly in hopes that they would know that we were there. Even the infant was much larger than us in the dinghy. Then come evening, we ate dinner entertained by at least three whales that were performing tail flaps, jumps and lots of flipper waving. Humpbacks have very large flippers so when they stick them up in the air it makes a big show.

Tuesday was a cloudy day with just enough wind to make it feel cold. We spent the day with various "indoor" projects. Bill is working on his Windows version of the nautical almanac and after spending sometime cleaning up I spent much of the day buried in a good book. Late in the afternoon Grace showed up and anchored nearby.

Wednesday dawned sunny although it was quite windy much of the day. We visited with Major and Rachael on Grace for several hours in the morning. They had enjoyed the Cabo Henslow shore area although the anchorage was always dancing, sometimes rowdier than others! After lunch Bill and I beat into the wind and waves in the dinghy to snorkel on the calm side of the bay. The underwater view was great over there. The volcanic flows had left interesting formations under the water and there were many new fish for us to see.

Grace upped anchor last evening and headed back toward the mainland. We plan on sticking around another week or so to enjoy the area and maybe find a weather window to return to the anchorage at Cabo Henslow.

This morning at first light we had a whale circle us three times less than 20 feet off. Our first notice of him was when he made a large splash as he jumped clear out of the water just off our starboard side. He proceeded to make three more jumps as he rounded us. Then he continued swimming two more times around the Lanikai before heading back out of the bay. It was very spectacular especially since he was almost as large as Lanikai! In the evening we had a few more whales enter the bay, an adult and young one. The young one performed a few jumps for us and they spent close to 30 minutes lazily feeding in the bay.

The last two days have been bright and sunny but the north wind has continued to blow. Bill and I have managed some great snorkeling over the lava flows on the east side of the bay. The rock formations as well as the sea life are spectacular. The trigger fish here are the orange tailed variety and very pretty and they follow us around just like the plainer blue variety that we have encountered up in the Sea of Cortez.

We have continued to see whales many times every day but have had no more spectacular visits like Thursday morning. They jump, do tail flaps and flipper lifts just outside of the bay and in the evening we usually have an adult and juvenile pair that comes into the bay feeding.

Bill and I have decided to head back toward the mainland in the morning. Our plan is to head toward the San Blas area with hopes of spending a few calm weather days at Isla Isabella on our way back to Mazatlán.

We left Isla Socorro early on Sunday morning and although we had some rather exciting wind as soon as we left the wind shadow of the island, the wind died after giving us only 2 hours of sailing. It did not fill in again until the middle of the night, but then gave us a nice sail until morning although the wind was of the "prevailing noserly" variety. On Monday we had to motor all day although the wind did seem to fill in a few times but lasted just long enough for us to get the sails all up before dying again. Even though we had to motor much of the time that meant also that the seas were calm and almost flat. We took advantage of the calm Monday to stop in the afternoon for a mid-ocean swim in the deep blue water. It felt great! About dinner time on Monday the expected north west wind finally appeared to fill in. The light wind pulled us along until early this morning when at 01:30AM we gave up and started up the engine again.

Today we had no wind all day. About 8:00AM it looked like the wind was beginning to fill in so we pulled up the sails but within half an hour it was quite calm. We ghosted along for another hour before finally giving up and starting the engine.

We got the anchor down in Matanchén Bay near San Blas about 5:30PM this evening. We had no wind at all for the last two days. The last two hours before arriving at Matanchén Bay we finally got some light westerly winds.. The seas have been some of the flattest that we have ever seen and much of the time had a mirror surface. As we paralleled the shore from Punta de Mita, for about two hours, we passed through a minefield of sea turtles. They were just floating on the surface enjoying the sun and calm seas. The few that our course took us near either dove or swam off as we approached. There must have been thousands of them.

We have been anchored in the bay now for three days and have not yet traveled in to San Blas. We have enjoyed several early afternoon dinners at Ishmael’s palapa on the beach and the rest of the time we have been resting up from the long motor boat ride. Those two days of motoring left us much more tired than the two days of windy sailing we experienced on the way out to the islands. 

We have met several newly arrived cruisers. We have had some join us to visit while we sat at the beach palapa. Surprisingly there are still boats arriving from the states heading south for the early spring season. Some plan to head out the South Pacific this year but others plan to be up in the Sea of Cortez for the summer.

The first day of spring!! We finally went into San Blas and along with doing our official duties for the Capitan del Puerto we picked up two backpacks of fresh veggies. We also enjoyed a nice lunch followed by a trip to the ice-cream store for dessert.

Saturday afternoon Ambrose on Monakewago arrived in the anchorage and on Sunday afternoon Shazam arrived with Russell, Jeanette and Amy. The whole group of us went into the city today and after we returned to Matanchén Bay we all enjoyed food on the beach before the bitie-bugs (los jejenes) chased us out to our boats for the evening.

Tuesday was a cloudy day which we spent just relaxing and reading on Lanikai. Bill spent the day working on his Perpetual Nautical Almanac program. He seems to be making progress and it is going to be complete with all the working Windows whistles and bells.

Wednesday, yesterday, dawned sunny and nice. We dinghied over to Shazam so that Bill could help them with a computer problem. We ended up spending much of the morning and into the afternoon on Shazam. They had an over-abundance of ripe avocados so guacamole was made and we all pigged out on guacamole, refried beans and Tostitos. By mid-afternoon we finally made it to shore. Jeanette, Amy and I took a long walk down the beach. There were not as many sea shells here as there were last December but we had a great walk anyhow. Ishmael greeted us as we passed the shrimp larvae lab and we followed him for a tour of the facilities. The facility is in the construction stage now. There are many large tanks being built to raise shrimp larvae to a large enough stage to be sold to the many shrimp farms that line the estuaries between here and Mazatlán. They hope to have the facility fully functional in about 6 weeks. Ishmael is hoping that it’s completion holds off until after the Semana Santa (Easter) holidays, as his beach palapa will be hopping with tourists and he will be needed there.

Today was another great sunny day and we spent much of it relaxing at Ishmael’s palapa, visiting with other cruisers.

Today we went inland on what Norm calls "the coffee plantation" tour. Antonio, our taxi driver who was also our guide, picked us (Bill, me and Amy and Jeanette from Shazam) up at 9:00AM on the beach. We followed the road toward Puerto Vallarta and along the way Antonio described the various orchards we passed. We stopped to see jackfruit growing on the tree and then visited the nearby town for a taste of the fruit. It was quite good, flowery and sweet in flavor. We continued on into the hills and stopped a few more times to see various banana trees, mangos and papayas as well as some coffee shrubs. The coffee had been harvested in February so the shrubs were stripped and just starting new growth. The banana trees are interesting: after harvest the trees are cut off at the ground so that new sprouts will grow a whole new tree that will produce the next year’s crop. The papaya grows fruit all year long but needs to have a non-producing male plant nearby. After visiting the farms we entered a cute town of Jalcocotan where we first stopped at a coffee store. At the store they roast fresh coffee beans and sell them either whole or ground. They also had an electric coffee pot with the finished product. We all purchased some whole beans and enjoyed the coffee with some dunking cookies that were also for sale. The lady of the house was full of information so we spent quite a while visiting with her.

Our second stop in the town was at the coffee factory where the freshly picked beans are brought from the field. Since it was off season and they were just finishing up the sorting and bagging of the last of this year’s beans, the foreman was free to give us a grand tour of the facilities. The beans are first divided into "sinkers" and "floaters". The gringos like the sinkers best. Those beans are then passed through a husker that removes the skin from the coffee cherry. The larger sinkers pass into a water bath where they sit a short while then pass into a dryer before being sorted by size. The floaters are sun dried, along with the smaller of the sinkers. All the beans are then sorted into three size groups. The largest are the "primeros" and they have the best flavor as it takes them longer to roast. The smaller, which roast more rapidly, are more liked by the locals. That is good since all the primeros are all shipped to the USA.

After our tour there we headed back down to the beach and made one last stop, at a beach palapa restaurant for lunch. Upon returning to Ishmael’s and "our" beach we enjoyed a few cervezas before the jejenes (the no-see-ums) drove us off the beach and back to Lanikai.

The folks from Shazam came over about dark to grind their coffee beans and we enjoyed a nice last visit with them. Tomorrow we plan to head out north to Isla Isabella and our friends are headed south.

Yesterday we left Matanchén Bay and motored in flat seas for most of the way to Isla Isabella. Early afternoon the "prevailing noserly" picked up and with main up, we had to make several tacks to reach the island. Ambrose, already anchored on Monakewago, noticed us motoring into the anchorage and called us on the radio to help us find a spot in the seemingly full anchorage. Six sailboats already were anchored and the Mexican pangeros were actively fishing around the island and had placed nets all through the anchorage. This morning we discovered that we had anchored, or swung, over one of the nets so we raised the anchor and moved to another spot so the fisherman could retrieve the net. Several boats had left early in the morning leaving a nice hole near to the big rock. We are still anchored on the rock shelf but in a slightly more protected area. We spent the day watching the many birds that filled the skies, mostly frigates, boobies and pelicans.

Tuesday, yesterday, we left Isla Isabella shortly after 1:00PM with nice westerly winds. We had a wonderful 3-hour sail before the wind completely died. It was all motoring the rest of the way to Mazatlán. We arrived about 8:00AM this morning.

Before leaving the island, yesterday, we took the dinghy around to the south anchorage and beached it ashore at the large fishing camp among the many pangas. Over 50 pangas were tied up at the beach and a row of temporary huts lined the shore. Nets were being mended and pangas pulled up to unload then clean their catch of fish. We left the fish camp area and climbed through the bird colony to the light on the top of a hill. The view across the island was spectacular from the high point. The bird life was also most interesting. The lower slope of the hill was covered with frigate birds that had built nests in the flimsy stubby trees that cover this part of the island. Each nest had a rather large nestling sitting in it. The baby birds still did not have their flight feathers but were covered with a fluffy down. On some of the young, the white down was just beginning to give way to the darker adult feathers so they would soon be off flying. On top of the hill, near the light structure, were hundreds of booby birds and their fuzzy chicks. Their nests were just a slight hollow on the ground. Some of the chicks were as large as the adult protecting them and some were still quite small, but they were all covered in a white down with only a few dark feathers beginning to grow on the wings of even the largest of the young ones. The boobies were interesting in that their feet were bright green, bright blue or yellow, colors not normally seen in wildlife.

After exploring all the views from the top we climbed back down and walked over a flat volcanic flow that was about 5 feet above and along the water’s edge. There we found a few pairs of nesting gulls. They tried to scare us off but when we walked too close to one nest they just left the two little chicks cowering by a rock. I got a great photo of the pair before we moved on.

We are now back in Mazatlán with a list of repairs to make and a trip north to take before we head up into the Sea of Cortez for the summer, sometime around the first of June.

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