At about 4pm, we decided that it was time to depart Los Muertos.  The winds had settled down to the mid-teens and though we knew the sea state was going to be rough, we also knew this was our window.    We got everything tucked away and went to fire up the engine – nothing!     Tried again – nothing.   Ummmm…. Owen had a think for a moment and then went back to check the glow plug resister – and found it pretty much melted!!!   Apparently, at some point, we had over glow-plugged!!!     He was able to quickly by-pass the resister and we were underway.     Just another job to add to the list!!!  Things were very, very rolly as we got underway!!!   The waves were hitting the boat from every direction and, at one point, I took a series of waves right in the face!!!!   Thankfully, though it was still windy, the wind was pretty warm – it would have been a pretty miserable wet night otherwise!!!!

Owen was just getting settled in for his off-watch while I was tucked in in the cockpit with blankies and my podcasts – I felt around on the bench beside me to find my phone, to confirm that our heading was good – I grabbed what I thought was the end of the traveler line – it was pretty wet and soggy and I kind of rolled it through my fingers thinking “wow – did we ever get doused earlier!” – suddenly, it occurred to me that what was in my hand did not feel like rope – in fact it felt pretty slimy – ummmm – I put my hand up into the light of the chart plotter and realized I had some sort of sea creature in my hand!    Screaming ensued – I rushed down the ladder and into the head, yelling “flying fish on my hand, flying fish on my hand!!”    Owen, who was just trying to get himself wedged onto the settee grabbed a flashlight and shone it up in the cockpit – of course laughing at me while I scrubbed the skin off my hands – there was actually a squid still sitting where I had dropped it beside my seat, and another on the floor.    He dispatched those two into the sea – the next morning we found another one on the deck and the day after that found one we had missed – it had been a bit wedged under the pole – it did not smell good when Owen scraped it off the deck!!!   I can’t help but shudder to think that I could very well have taken one of those in the face during that big wave!!!   Ewwwww

The rest of the night went along with much less drama – by my second off watch, the sea state had leveled out so much that I went to sleep in the bed (quite uncomfortable in any kind of spicy conditions) and had a great sleep!!!    The winds were pretty light all through the next day though we did manage to keep moving at around 3 knots.    By the time we were heading into the night, the winds were very light and the seas nearly flat – we both slept all shifts in bed that night.    Unfortunately, we were going very slow – Owen had a 3 miles in 3 hours shift!!    I have to admit that I am becoming concerned about crossing the Ocean when it seems to take us five days just to cross the Sea of Cortez every time!!!  

We sailed along with the wind picking up every afternoon and dying again in the early morning.  We were finally in the final approach to Isla Isabella – conditions had been quite crazy the night before with big waves hitting us broadside – I actually slept in the cockpit at one point – just couldn’t bring myself to go below and get tossed out of the settee!!!     Sure enough, just as the sun was starting to set on our 4^th night at sea, the wind and waves started to build.   By 11pm we were flying along with no main up and just a sliver of headsail, and making over six knots.   At this rate we were going to miss Isla Isabella entirely – we anticipated flying right by it at 2am!!!!    As it was the wind did slowly start to die – at first it looked like we might make it to Isabella just around sunrise and then, as the wind started to die even further, we were realizing we might not make until mid-day!!!   What a difference a few knots makes!!!    We finally fired up the engine when we were about 8 miles from Isabella and landed in the anchorage about 10am.   We had had friends tell us they had to sail on by because the anchorage was full so we were so happy to see only one other boat in the anchorage.   We edged our way into the anchorage, avoiding the waves crashing onto rock formations on the one side, and the reef and rocks on the other – it sure didn’t feel like a safe place to be!!!    We attached a trip line and float to our anchor as we had heard that the bottom was quite rocky and we didn’t want to lose our anchor!!!   Once we were fully set we took an hour or so to get ourselves recovered and to be sure we were not going to go anywhere and then we got the dinghy in the water and went ashore.   We were a little uneasy about this as well – there had been reports from people that had arrived by dinghy only to be told they were only permitted to explore the Island with a guide.   When we approached the shore there were a few people unloading pangas that had just arrived with tour groups – we asked them if it was okay to walk around and they assured us it was, warmly welcoming us.   What a relief!   With that sorted, we headed out in search of the holy grail of birds – the blue footed boobies!!!!       We have been trying to catch a glimpse of these guys our entire time in Mexico.    We have heard of sightings of them in places we have been but had not yet caught a glimpse of them – we knew that our chances here were almost guaranteed and we were not disappointed!!

Once we managed to find our way over to the East Beach we discovered the little characters.   They appear to nest on the ground – we had to walk around one mamma who fluffed herself out and gave us a bit of a talking to.   We found little groups of them just wandering around with their gorgeous blue feet – there is something so cute and communal about them.   I joked that the group of four of them that were tucked in under a tree were probably the dads, taking a break from getting squawked at by the mammas – they literally looked like a group of guys at the pub!!!    We just crouched down and watched them for a half hour or so and then decided we had interrupted their day enough.    After some celebratory high fives and a happy dance by me, we made our way back to the south end, and our awaiting dinghy.     We headed back out to the boat, got the dinghy up and were back underway by early evening.

It was another lumpy night – I slept one of my off-watch shifts on deck as it is just too uncomfortable to be below.  We finally began our approach into Bay of Banderas just as the sun was coming up – we had a beautiful sail in, finally firing up the motor when we were about 2 miles out of the anchorage.    We were welcomed to the bay by dolphins and whales and beautiful warm sunshine!!!   We got the anchor down amongst 40 or 50 other boats and breathed a sigh of relief.   After 4 days and 22 hours but we were back on the mainland.   

After a bit of a clean up and a rest, we took ourselves into town and enjoyed dinner out. Our initial plan was to do a quick turn and burn here and to get down to Barra but it is looking like we might be here a couple of weeks before the weather lets us get away – we have a lot to do in any case!!!