Isla Isabela

Well, we didn't hit any sleeping whales, but we did run over a local fishing line. This is a long rope that runs for miles with empty two litter bottles of pepsi, or what ever, attached about every 100 feet. Below each bottle is hook with bait. The local fishermen go out nightly, way off shore, in these little pangas setting these lines up. They are impossible to see at night, and hard to see in the daylight too. Lucky for us, the line caught our dagger board and not our propeller. Once the sun came up, we noticed we were in a mine field of them, and had to change course quickly a few times to avoid running thru them.
Once we got to the island, we anchored in fifteen feet of crystal clear water. We were surrounded by coral and tons of tropical fish right off our swim step. We jumped into the 85 degree water and were greeted by lots of little jelly fish. So we put on our skins ( very tight and extremely unattractive thin full body Lycra suits ) which kept the critters/pests off of us. After our snorkel we went ashore to get a closer look at the Blue Footed Boobie BIrd and it's friend, the Frigate Bird. This island is a nesting ground for these amazing winged things. Being the only boat there, it felt a bit like Gilligans Island. And amazingly enough, with all these birds flying over head, our boat remained poop free. It was paradise. The next day we took a dinghy ride to the small fishing camp on this island. The fishing line we ran over belonged to one of these hard working guys I am sure. I was a bit shocked at the places they live in, and felt bad that we ran over one of their lines. On our way back to the boat we noticed a huge school of yellow fin tuna, so Patrick put out the hand lines, and we hooked a huge Wahoo. It made a very fine dinner that night, and left us with two more meals in the freezer. It was very hard leaving this beautiful place. It was my favorite spot so far, and will be very hard to match. We have crossed back to the main land are are now anchored near San Blas. Tomorrow will be a full day. We need to find a few provisions, and there is another beautiful beach waiting for us across the way.........I can't post any photos on this connection, but check back soon to get a glimpse of Isla Isabla.

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