After our 60-hour passage from La Paz, we arrived in Isla Isabella just as the sun was rising. Isla Isabella is a national park and refuge for sea birds. The birds circle the island and give it the strong organic aroma of guano. The landscape is a lush green compared to the desert of Baja and is surrounded by interesting rock formations. We were the third sailboat at the island and were able to locate a patch of sand to anchor. Still tired from the trip across, we all went back to sleep for a few hours after the anchor was set. We woke up to crystal clear waters beneath us. Excited for the exceptional visibility, we threw on wetsuits and took the dinghy to a nearby point for some snorkeling.
Once we got back to the boat and rinsed off our gear, we noticed some humpback whales nearby that were being followed by a whale-watching boat. Eitan and I jumped in the dinghy and took off to get in on the action. Although we weren’t as close as the whale watching boat, we were still uncomfortably close for me. In the back of my mind, I remembered videos of whales practically breaching on top of kayakers as I begged Eitan not to get too close. It was at this moment that I realized I am terrified of whales. Maybe not actually terrified, but in utter awe and respectful of their size compared to our tiny dinghy. Eitan and I agreed to come back the next day before the whale watching boats came out.
Back at the boat, Connor and Abbey were preparing lunch and we headed to shore after eating. We beached the dinghy and were surrounded by seabirds including the famous blue-footed boobies. With no natural predators on the island and in the middle of mating/nesting season, the birds were seemingly unphased by our arrival. We kept a respectable distance as we passed by along the shore and enjoyed the awkward waddle of the boobies, whose feet seemed much too large for their bodies. There were a lot of booby jokes that day as we finished the evening off with sunset beach drinks and watching whales breach and fluke in the distance. We saw one pair of whales come within hundreds of feet of our boat and were bummed to have not been on board at the time. During our stay on Isla Isabella, we saw hundreds of whales pass by.
As planned, the following day we suited up in anticipation of swimming with whales as soon as they were spotted within approachable distance. Unfortunately, the dinghy can’t travel very fast or comfortably with four people so I volunteered to stay behind as a whale spotter and radio the crew if I saw anything. Just as the dinghy was about to leave, we heard someone hailing SV Sierra Wind on the radio and were quite confused since the other boats had left that morning. We soon spotted our buddy boats from Espiritu Santo, SV Solamar and SV Atalaya, pulling into the anchorage and were calling to ask about anchor locations. We put off the whale watching expedition until after they were anchored but were unsuccessful in spotting any that were reachable with the dinghy. Instead, we coordinated with the other boats to head on in to the beach and hike a trail around the island.
To allow the other boats some time to settle in before the hike, we decided to do another round of snorkeling and remove some old fishing nets we spotted the day before that were tangled on the reef. There were three areas tangled with net and ropes that Eitan cut away while I filmed and Abbey and Connor assisted in the dinghy. We managed to remove around a hundred pounds of weighted nets and brought them to shore at the nearby fish camp. Unfortunately, the materials will likely just be used for the same thing but at least they were no longer stuck on the bottom. The hike inland was nice, although a bit smelly, and we were able to get close to many of the sea birds whose nests were right next to the path. We noticed the boobies from the day before seemed to prefer occupying more of the area immediately adjacent to the beach. That evening we called it an early night although the poorly protected anchorage began to get quite rolly and not much sleep was had. The next morning we pulled anchor and headed out on our way to San Blas on the mainland coast.
