Thoughts from Mexico

We found this sign on a dusty back road in the hills above San Blas. Why it was there, who knows, but it is a quote worth translating.

"When all the trees have died, the wildlife and fish destroyed, and we can not drink the water, maybe then, we will understand that we can not eat money."

Victualling

“The Victualling Board was responsible for the purchase, preservation and distribution to ships of all naval victuals………This wide responsibility opened the way, …….to wide spread peculation and dishonesty,……..Complaints from the captains of ships to the victualling commissioners were frequent and virulent, but rarely produced any improvement. ‘In the case of pork,’ ran a typical complaint, ‘the cheeks, ears feet and other offal of the hog were thrown in as part of the men’s allowance….’”(exert from Oxford Companion to Ships and The Sea).

With improved food preservation today, it is easy to victual for several months. But why that long? Well, we are not sure of price and availability in the Galapagos and French Polynesia is expensive. Add to our time in remote islands a couple of months at sea and it becomes apparent why we just lost another inch of our waterline. We decided to purchase our non perishable stores in La Cruz (Banderas Bay nr Puerto Vallarta) after hearing the dinghy dock in Manzanillo might like to charge us $10/day. So we spent the money on a couple of nights at the Marina in La Cruz to load up. A nice change to what has been a rolly anchorage. Have also loaded on fuel as hearsay says the fuel dock in Barra de Navidad was ripped off (rumour control is that a larger vessel forgot to untie) and that the diesel in Manzanillo is bad. Finally we took advantage of being alongside and had the lady from the local tienda bring down 8 garafones of potable water (19L each) that we poured into the tanks. So with all our jerry cans full we have 300L aboard along with the 100plus cans, 20kg flour, 10kg oats etc…. she feels a little heavy. It took us the better part of a day to fill every little corner of the boat and we have yet to start on fresh stores! If the full list fascinates you we’d be happy to send it.

Preparations

When you think you are almost there, something always pops up.  Like all of us who are ageing, we need a little more TLC as time goes by.  Narama soon to hit the big 40 years is no exception.  In fact it was during that TLC we were giving her that I found the hairline crack in the baby stay fitting.  Until the stainless steel was nicely polished the crack was invisible. In the photo I have widened it with a little leverage, not something I should have been able to do by hand.  So what would have happened had I not seen it and it broke at sea?  Well at best we would see it go and re-secure it in some fashion after reducing sail quickly.  At worst I guess we could lose the mast if we were really pounding or sailing hard.  Moral of the story is there is more to brasso than vanity! Any way, I am off to the welders.

South to Banderas Bay

Pantropical Spotted Dolphin bow riding Narama

We have entered the “Horse Latitudes” (the belt between the northwesterlies of higher latitudes and the NE trade winds).  It means very light diurnal land and sea breezes, but usually not enough to sail.  All this motoring in the last few days means that our fridge has never been so cold, or our batteries so strong.  One benefit of this becalmed period is that it’s easier to spot wildlife.  We’ve seen many humpbacks as we’ve come down the coast, some large groups of adults and a few mother/calf pairs.  Some calves are so young that they are still floppy and helpless.  We have also seen our first Spotted Dolphins – now it really feels like we’re in the tropics!

Yesterday we persevered and had the blooper up; it still took most of the day to sail 9 miles into La Cruz.

Thanks 'Sweet Destiny' for the photo!

International Migratory Bird Festival (San Blas)

Juvenile Wood Stork

After nearly two weeks in San Blas it is time to sail onwards and start getting ready for our coming offshore passage. We’ll be sailing south stopping at a few places along the coast of Mexico before we fill Narama up with as much food and stores as we can fit!

San Blas International Migratory Bird Festival Website: http://avessanblas.uan.mx/programa.html

If anyone is planning a holiday in Mexico and is interested in birds we can’t recommend San Blas enough. It’s a groovy little town and during the festival there have been wonderful performances in the ‘zocalo’ or central square every night.

San Blas Bird Species List
Blue-footed Booby
Brown Booby
Brown Pelican
Neotropic Cormorant
Anhinga
Magnificent Frigatebird
Bare-throated Tiger-Heron
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Snowy Egret
Little Blue Heron
Tricolored Heron
Reddish Egret
Cattle Egret
Green Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron
Boat-billed Heron
Limpkin
White Ibis
White-faced Ibis
Roseate Spoonbill
Wood Stork
Fulvous Whistling Duck
Black-bellied Whistling Duck
Muscovy Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Northern Shoveller
Black Vulture
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Snail Kite
Crane Hawk
Common Black Hawk
Great Black Hawk
Grey Hawk
Short-tailed Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Laughing Falcon
American Kestrel
Rufous-bellied Chachalaca
Sora
Common Moorhen
American Coot
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
American Oystercatcher
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Northern Jacana
Greater Yellowlegs
Lesser Yellowlegs
Willet
Spotted Sandpiper
Whimbrel
Long-billed Curlew
Western Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
Short-billed Dowicher
Laughing Gull
Heerman's Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Gull-billed Tern
Caspian Tern
Royal Tern
Elegant Tern
Black Skimmer
White-winged Dove
Common Ground-Dove
Ruddy Ground Dove
Mexican Parrotlet
Squirrel Cuckoo
Groove-billed Ani
Black Swift
Cinnamon Hummingbird
Violet-crowned Hummingbird
White-eared Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Green Kingfisher
Golden-cheeked Woodpecker
Pale-billed Woodpecker
Greenish Elaenia
White-throated Flycatcher
Vermillion Flycatcher
Ash-throated Flycatcher
Brown-crested Flycatcher
Great Kiskadee
Tropical Kingbird
Thick-billed Kingbird
Western Kingbird
Rose-throated Becard
Mangrove Swallow
N. Rough-winged Swallow
Barn Swallow
Sinaloa Crow
Blue-grey Gnatcatcher
Northern Mockingbird
Mangrove Vireo
Bell's Vireo
Orange-crowned Warbler
Tropical Parula
Mangrove Warbler
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-and-White Warbler
American Redstart
Northern Waterthrush
MacGillivray's Warbler
Common Yellowthroat
Grey-crowned Yellowthroat
Wilson's Warbler
Yellow-breasted Chat
Greyish Saltator
Cinnamon-rumped Seedeater
Savannah Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
Great-tailed Grackle
Orchard Oriole
Streak-backed Oriole
Yellow-winged Cacique
House Sparrow

San Blas, Nayarit

San Blas Estuary Anchorage

Arriving across the shallow bar with a moderate swell, our entrance was only made dramatic when our final approach coincided with a dozen bottlenose dolphins and a panga full of tourists, both circling us. What a vast difference from the desert of Baja; now we felt the heat and humidity and had a shoreline completely lined in palms. We anchored in the mangrove fringed estuary on the side of town and felt right at home once our anchor hit the muddy bottom. We had heard from several sources that this was a “birdy place” and were not disappointed. After a week of wandering various trails and side roads visiting disused shrimp ponds, the lighthouse, an old fort on the hill and a village surrounded by mango plantations, we saw lots of new and interesting species.

American Crocodile

We celebrated our 9th Wedding Anniversary by splurging on a panga ride for two. Instead of taking the usual trip to a natural spring and popular swimming hole, we had Chencho, our knowledgeable guide and driver take us up stream to an open wetland and bird sanctuary. Whistling ducks in the thousands and Wood Storks on the nest with their awkward-looking chicks were among the highlights, along with fat American Crocodiles sunning themselves on the bank.

Black-bellied Whistling Ducks

Some lovely friends, Rafael and his mother Josefina, had us over for lunch of exquisite smoked Corvina and a Yellowtail stew. Just when we thought it was nearly time to leave San Blas with its bustling central square, Josefina told us we had to stay for the “International Migratory Bird Festival” here in town. So last night we took in the opening ceremonies (lots of speeches) which finished with a colourful folkdance performance.

Isla Isabel – A seabird watcher’s paradise!

Male Magnificent Frigatebird

It took us three days to sail from Caleta Lobos (near La Paz) to the anchorage at Isla Isabel. In the end we decided to heave-to for five hours so we would approach this poorly charted, rock strewn island in daylight (the chart marks the island nearly two miles away from its actual position). We had a boisterous sail in anything from 15 to 25 knots of breeze, but it was a broad reach the whole way, so we were comfortable and merrily ticking away the miles as we left the Baja behind us. That strong northerly breeze also meant that we didn’t have any southerly swell at the island.
For two days we wandered the trails among several thousand nesting Magnificent Frigatebirds. We listened to the sounds of their bills clapping around us constantly as the adults greeted and courted over nests with tiny chicks, a very pleasant chorus. There were plenty of lewd male throat sacks inflated and scarlet red, tiny new chicks being guarded as well as large nearly fledged juveniles still begging for food. The sounds, sights and smells were nearly overwhelming. There were also plenty of Blue-footed and Brown Booby’s on the grassy banks on every shore, with fluffy, bright white chicks being fed on the nest. We spoke to a grad student from the University of Mexico City who was studying the Blue-footed Booby’s and she kindly answered our plethora of questions. With her field assistants and the pangeros at the fishing camp, humans were definitely out-numbered by birds!

Juvenile Magnificent Frigatebirds

We easily could have stayed longer as it was such a treat to be able to observe their behavior. The frigatebirds would gather grass for nesting material from the few open areas and this they would take on the wing, swooping down and snatching a few blades in their long bills. It seems that this grass was in high demand as it was mowed down in the few areas that we saw. At one of our all-time favourite picnic lunch spots we were sitting on slopping grass with boobies nesting a little way away on either side, the slope reaching down to a volcanic rocky shoreline. We laid down and watched frigatebirds and boobies glide over us only meters away from our heads. Every bird turned its head to examine who these intruders were lying on their island. When we looked out to sea we also saw humpbacks, both adults and calves breaching. It doesn’t get much better than this!

Brown Booby with its chick

We are now en route to San Blas while I write, motoring on smooth windless seas.

Who are you on MY island?