Happy faces

I can say that everyone had a great time in the bay and these are some of my favorite pictures from our stay there.

Kelly on dolphin watch.                                                            A rare Ryan smile.

Happy dad!!

Time spent in Matanchen Bay

After finally making it from Isla Isabella to Matanchen Bay we decided to stay parked for a few days once we discovered just how awesome it was.  We had the bay basically to ourselves and we got to try out all of our new toys.

We tried out all the "weapons" we brought with us.

We also got to use our new Kayak.

There was nothing like waking up to the sunrise over this beautiful bay to find a pod of about 100 dolphins playing all around our boat.

The sun comes up about 7:00 in this time zone so it is quite easy to take.  This happened to be one of the only overcast days we've had on the trip so far.  It made for a really nice sunrise.  It also made it a lot easier to see all the dolphins. 

What struck me the most was all the noise they make when they are breathing.  You can hear each time one of them exhales and when there is a large pod that makes for a lot of hot air. 

I tried to catch  some on my camera with Kelly's help.

As you can see the only folks in the water that early in the morning in the bay are the panga drivers who are putting out their fishing nets and the dolphins. 

The dolphins hung around for about an hour and put on a great show.  They were not the same size as we usually see on our way to Catalina.  These were smaller and much darker in color. 

We all had a great time watching them play in the surf.

Sunset over Matanchen Bay

This is the view of the bay from the back of our boat on December 13, 2009.  There were four other boats in the bay with us.  We ended up staying on the hook (aka the anchor) three nights here.  The kids loved jumping off the boat and kayaking around the bay.  They also liked the great shirmp empanadas we got on the shore here.   More blogging to catch up tomorrow....

More Hitchhikers

We ended up having more boobies land on the boat.  One got stuck down in the cockpit and Phil actually had to pick it up and throw it over the side.  The next one to land tried to get down one of our hatches while we were sailing.  Ryan was so distraught by all these birds landing on the boat that we had to make him go below for fear that he would fall overboard trying to run away from them when they landed. 

The last one to land on the boat got tangled up on the kids boogie board cords and Phil had to go and help that one get off the boat.  From then on we sat watch and started shouting like crazy people any time another one got close enough to try and land. 

The hitchhiker

On December 13, 2009 we left Isla Isabella behind and set sail at 6:15 a.m for the Mainland.  We originally planned to go to San Blas but as we got closer and thought about having to sail up an estuary late in the day we opted to go around the corner to a great open bay called "Matanchen Bay."  But before I get there let me tell you about our 8 hour trip from Isla Isabella to the mainland. 

I now undertand how pests migrate from one location to another.  I've been doing Ryan's science lessons with him and learning about how animals help disperse the seeds of various plants but now I know how the pests that eat crops migrate from place to place - Hitchhikers.  We had a moth the size of my hand land on one of our stantions on the boat when we left Isla Isabella.  It tucked its very large wings up under itself out of the wind and rode with us all the way to the mainland.  It didn't leave until it got dark and we were less than a mile from land. 

But our most famous hitchhikers were the blue footed boobies.  The dumbest birds I have ever seen.  One bird took up residence on the stern of our boat and rode for quite some time.  The entire time the bird was trying to figure out how it could get some of the lines/strings off our boat.  It seems that these birds love to line their nests with string.  Needless to say there are lots of "strings" on a sail boat.

This is the picture of the first hitchhiker to land.

Isla Isabella

On December 11th we left Mazatlan in the early afternoon and set our compass for Isla Isabella, a marine preserve about 80 miles south of Mazatlan.  It is a small island that is the home to hundreds of blue footed boobies, friget birds and iguanas.  We left in the afternoon so as to arrive early the next morning.  Sailing at night can be a little scary for someone like me it makes arriving a lot easier instead of getting in somewhere after dark. 

This island has some reefs you have to avoid so we opted for the early arrival.  The island is all but deserted but for the pangas and the fisherman that make the beach camps their homes.  Also on the island is a research facility for the marine and aviary inhabitants.  The birds have no predators and so they are not really even afraid of the people.  We spent the night in the bay and after visiting with an eco- diving group that was staying on the island we left the next morning for Matanchen Bay over on the Mainland.

The view as we are leaving Isla Isabella on December 13, 2009.  Notice the two rock formations on the right in this picture.  They are know as the "two mannequins."

The two mannequins as seen from our boat on 12/13/09.

Our Neighbors in Mazatlan

Since the Marina in Mazatlan did not have a pool and the water in the Marina was not really fit for swimming we had to find other things for the kids to do.  So one day we took the cameras and went out to explore our neighborhood.  We decided to capture some of the local denizens of the "hood." 

The first folks that Kelly found were the reptile neighbors.

 We called this guy "piggy nose."

Then we moved on to the one's that live in shells.  Since we are now well versed in the Lucho Libre wrestling that is everywhere down here we decided to find the best samples of Lucho Libre in the animal kingdom. 

Kelly called this one Mexican standoff.

She called this one "In your face crabby patty."

The kids have had a great time looking for and identifying the fish and birds that we see here.