Little blue flakes fluttered all over the water like confetti. But try and touch one and they quickly sped away. We had chores to finish but I found myself up on the bow seat lazily watching fish. I can clearly see a pebble 20 feet below. The anchor chain combed streaks in the sand as the boat swung. Two large puffer fish followed the chains movement eating little bits stirred up. A ray flew close aboard the two puffers. A swordfish danced across the waves. Something was chasing it.
Liana was on deck fixing hatch covers to reduce the heat and intensity of the hot sun on the inside of the cabin. This was her morning project. So she came to look over the railing to see what I was intently staring at. When she looked over at a yellow fin tuna, sunglasses slipped off her hat. We watched them slowly spin all the way to the bottom. The puffers swam over and took a nibble. We’ve been asked why we keep so many sunglasses on board – so now you know.
Two small swordfish were swimming next to each other under the bow. I realized the tail of one was gone and it was swimming by swishing its back dorsal fin while the other one nudged it along. The two stuck together for quite some time. Then a whale spouted just outside Isla San Francisco Bay and then another. No wonder this island is part of the national park and marine sanctuary. It is teaming with marine wildlife.
I did some stainless polishing but it was hot so we decided to go snorkeling. The air was still and 94º. We loaded up the dinghy and headed for the rocky point on the southside of the island. On the chart this is the snorkeling spot but we were bashed between rocks and heavy surf so we moved to a calmer location closer to Silhouette. This was an underwater wonderland.
We went our own directions, floating and following different schools of colorful reef fish. Hundreds of sargent majors swirled around me. Dark, dark blue fish with white poca-dots similar to box fish with big, round, black eyes. It looked like a lady fish in a Sunday dress. Her eyes were so pretty she even looked like she had eye lashes. The glistening black fish had a very distinctive bright orange stripe. Liana called me over to see some little red spiny-backed fish that look like the red fish in the Dr Sues books. These fish walked on their fins like feet all over the corral heads. A few long silver fish sped past. They had the most amazing ice blue stripes, almost purple.
Liana was getting cold. I was needing to get out too. My bald head was getting sun burnt. I normally wear a diving cap to keep the sun off but today I forgot. And the boat next door had stopped by to invite us to games after our sunset hike up the ridge so we still had a full day ahead.
We put on pants and long sleeve shirts because we didn’t want to be consumed by the bugs along the way. The little black flies are the most annoying. After dressing for safari and packing cameras, water and headlamps we headed for the beach. We found a hard shell covered area good to drag the dinghy up. Off we went after burying the anchor high in a sand dune. We were pleasantly surprised the ridge-line trail was easy to climb and the vicious plants only removed parts of our ankles.
No railings, rocks tumbling off both sides of the cliff, a path strewn with crushed rock just waiting to be part of the beach hundreds of feet below. Liana was in the lead and we got to a point just below the very tip top and she sat down and said, “We’re here.” I am like, “No the trail continues.” She looked at me with those, I am not going one more inch, lovely eyes. OK then, it was about twenty minutes before sunset.
What a spectacular view on both sides of the island! The sunset was amazing even though we had no clouds. As soon as the sun dipped behind the mountains we dawned headlamps and started slowly down the trail. It was just getting dark when we reached the dinghy.
Back at the boat we had a quick dinner of pb&j sandwiches while Liana made a snack tray of salami, smoked gouda, carrots, celery and cinnamon apples. We loaded the dink and motored over to Taste and Sea for game night. We enjoyed the meat and cheese and they enjoyed the veggies because they are vegetarians. Twice now we have gotten caught salami-handed visiting vegetarians! We need to start asking.
The next morning, our plan was to sail to Isla San Jose, one island north. The island has a mangrove river and salt marsh that was planned to be a most excellent dinghy mission up the salt river and into a secluded land locked mangrove bay. For the next hour fog stayed with us as we bashed into a crossing swell. We decided to keep on going past the mangrove river. In this weather it was an untenable anchorage. We continued north to one of our favorite places about six hours away. The seas settled a bit and I even had time to do more polishing on the stainless railing while Liana drove for an hour. She polished the winches in the cockpit.
We pulled in to Agua Verde rocking and rolling. With every roll the door latches clunked, along with cups and plates in the cabinets. Side to side we swung and back again. I lifted the floorboard and took out our flopper stoppers. They saved the day! It took some time to rig the spinnaker pole and drop the cones on a weighted line but the incessant rolling was slowed to a gentle rocking. The flopper stoppers are several large cones spaced evenly and attached on a line. The cones point up and are pulled down by dive weights. As the boat rolls to one side the cones lifting through the water pull against the roll. The line goes taunt and the roll is slowed. We hadn’t used these since we were anchored off Qaebrada Sal in Panama where they were filming survivor and asked us to go anchor someplace out of their shot.
Before sunrise Liana had our whole day planned. She was going to do laundry, go kayaking and at noon we were going snorkeling. I need a cup of coffee just to open my other eye. She is such a morning person and that’s why so many play-by-play sunrises, because she is working on stuff and I don’t actually have any plans for the day until after coffee.
Our aft cabin toilet developed a small leak from the pump shaft. When water is in the bowl it drips a bit of water. Until I fixed it. When I pulled off the motor I found the problem. The stainless shaft had what looked like a thumbnail-size crack in it. I used an emery cloth to clean it up where it rubs against the seal, thinking the rough surface was causing the leak. Now it spews water and drains the bowl all over the deck. Great. Good thing we have just a small leak in the forward head. I am not allowed to fix that one until our repair parts arrive.
Liana decided we should sleep in the forward cabin the next few nights. Something about climbing up stairs and down stairs and walking 30 feet in the middle of the night. So we slept in the forward cabin. This is an entirely different experience from sleeping in the aft cabin. A fresh sea breeze funnels in the hatch above the bed. The momentum of the rocking of the boat forces a couple sleeping together to be even closer. It was very cozy going to sleep looking at the moon and the stars.
We met an older woman with blue streaks in her hair. She came here several years ago. She said she had given up her home country to live in Mexico now because she hates violence and only wants to live in peace. This place is affected very little by the outside world and I could see she found what she was looking for. She rented a little cottage on the highest hilltop in the village. But now because of a drought the water doesn’t reach her home so she was moving to a place she also rents in Lareto.
We also met a young man from Ireland who came in on a dirt bike, hot and sweaty from a long ride. He was covered in dust when he removed his helmet. He worked remotely as a programmer for Microsoft. He must stay close to good wifi during the week but on weekends he has been touring the country by motorcycle. He said the road into this place was rocky and sandy and many gates must be opened and closed to find this little beach on the edge of the mountains.
Saturday evening we were at the palapa having cold drinks and using the wifi when a group of four Canadian sailors sat down. These guys smelled clean…they couldn’t be like us! The conversation went on about how to fix stuff. They just bought their SunDeer 56 in San Carlos and were on a shake-down cruise with their two friends (one was a sailor and one was a land lubber… So that’s why their clothes were so neat). Anyway, they had problems like nobody’s business on the crossing and are trying to figure it all out. We invited them to sundowners on our boat the next day.
We cleaned the boat and ourselves before guests arrived. Liana made another snack tray. We had such a wonderful visit on Silhouette. They invited us to dinner on their boat “SnowBird 42 N”. So off we were to see Snowbird. We had a lovely dinner of fresh tuna and green beans. We visited long into the night. We found out Vesna is an accomplished writer. Her books can be found on her website www.notesbeforeyougo.com.
As we drank our morning coffee we discussed our route to the hurricane hole for this area, Puerto Escondido or the hidden port. Then looking to the ocean it looked like a tidal wave coming but we know otherwise. We watched through binoculars. I asked Liana if she wanted to go see in the dinghy. She said no she just got her coffee and they will be gone before we even get there. Two sips of coffee later and we can’t take it anymore. In about two minutes we were in the dinghy headed at high speed to see up close.
The surface was alive with jumping and twisting sleek black dorsal fins and silver bellies. One other dinghy was out there with us. A Mom, dad and little kids, who were the most excited. We could hear the kids laughing and cheering, speaking in Spanish to one another. After the most amazing twenty minutes we headed back to Silhouette and pulled anchor.
Liana was sitting in the bow seat when she sighted that same tidal wave looking line ahead of us. I picked up binoculars to see how far off the dolphins were when I realized what Liana had not yet! That wasn’t dolphins ahead it was a squall. It was a perfect line between a raging wind storm and calm water. The islands north had blocked the wind and just past them were rolling waves with frothing white caps. The events of the morning lead us to believe something we were seeing was something else.
As soon as she climbed back in the cockpit we were in the middle of wind and spray. No rain or even clouds but the waves were being whipped up something fierce. Our knot wind speed meter went 10, 12, 15, 22, 25 just that fast. Silhouette heeled over to starboard and we were cutting swiftly between waves. The first shower came almost immediately when the entire front of the boat was doused with a breaking wave, The windshield deflected most of it. Liana pulled out life jackets and harnesses. We tried to shorten the jib by reefing but with all my might I couldn’t release the furler line. We considered putting it on the winch but we had done this in a storm in the Atlantic once and the friction made a perfect indent in the fiberglass of the cockpit combing. The line doesn’t feed smoothly from the block that feeds the roller furler down deck along the safety rails. The only way to bring in the sail is to turn into the wind and waves. We were ok unless the wind kept building.
One thing we needed to do was tie down the 105 pound anchor. I clipped the safety lanyard onto the harness in my life jacket and went forward to tie it down. Liana took the helm and I clipped into the jack lines. Hand over hand I went towards the bow. I was showered with sea water from a large wave. Dripping wet I looked for the tie down. Liana had it in her hand in the cockpit. I grabbed a different line tied to the safety rail instead. On my way back to the cockpit I decided to put in another reef in the mainsail. I flipped open the lock while holding onto the line and it lifted my feet off the deck. I was secured into the mast pulpits with two safety lines so I wasn’t going far. The main fell quickly to the second reef. I climbed back in to the cockpit. Will this get worse? While we were pondering this question the wind died out completely. Just like that – the wind was gone. The rest of the way to the mooring field in Puerto Escondido was a motor trip in the sun.
Liana did all the grunting, hooking and pulling in the mooring pendant and then feeding our lines through the eye and pulling them back to deck cleats. The wind came up and pulled the hook right out of her hands and we scrambled to get another hook to grab it before it floated away. We successfully captured it and tied off lines just as two guys in white shirts and a nice white panga pulled alongside. They said this one was reserved. All that work for nothing!
We were heading to another one when the radio came alive with a kind stranger who explained what the office hadn’t. Buoys with extra buoys attached to the yellow one were reserved. He said we would have better luck going over by the “windows.” He was right. We grabbed one and this time hooked up pretty smoothly. What a beautiful place this is like a lake surrounded by mountains hundreds of feet high with two gaps called the windows looking out to the open sea.
Hi Steve and Liana – what a wonderful read. george and i think of you both often. be well. cookie