February 8, 2015 - Isla Colorado

After a very calm night at anchor in Chamela, and all 4 of us sleeping in a little, we were ready for a new day.  The kids worked on home school in the morning.  We observed quite a few boats head south toward Isla Colorado, which is a nature preserve and only has room for a few boats.  We figured it was full since several boats had headed that way.  Late in the morning Amy from Flying Squirrel called us on the radio to say they were going over there to anchor.  We asked if they could tell us how crowded it was when they arrived.  They called and said there was only one other boat there.  Sweet!  We pulled the anchor and we anchored at Isla Colorado within an hour.  After lunch we went ashore to snorkel.  The water is very clear here and the snorkeling was fun.  We spent all afternoon on the beautiful small beach with the crew of Flying Squirrel.  The 4 kids built a hermit crab house, which was unique.  There were a lot of small hermit crabs on the beach and the kids made a nice little corral so they could observe these strange creature for a while.

The anchorage was pretty wavy and once back on the boat we debated going back to the other anchorage.  Flying Squirrel did go back after dark saying they have had enough rocking and rolling and wanted a calm evening.  We decided to tough it out.  Dave called us later on the VHF to review all of the weather info I had been studying for the past hour.  He reported that the locals had many beach fires and the smoke was overwhelming on their boat and had to close their windows and hatches and were now uncomfortably warm in the boat.  So, neither anchorage seemed to have an advantage.

Cindy snorkeling

We see a lot of puffer fish now

The captains:  Steve and Dave

The cactus here were beautiful!

playing on the beach

The hermit crab condominium.......

The wind changed direction overnight which turned the boat broadside to the waves resulting in a very uncomfortable situation.  After several sleepless hours Kathy and I turned to each other wondering if we should just get up and leave this place.  We both said YES.  By 4:15AM we were underway, headed for a new destination, illuminated by a nearly full moon. 

The more time we spend transiting at night, the more comfortable we are with it, and the more we both appreciate it.  It is quiet, peaceful, usually calmer (winds), and very special.  We almost never travel at night back home probably because there was so much debris in our home waters that it seemed too hazardous.  Down here we never see any debris in the water.  Even though we are out on the open ocean, sometimes 30 or more miles from land, it feels much safer at night than I think it ever would at home.  Back in Puget Sound logs the size of telephone poles, root balls as big as cars, and crab-pot floats are everywhere.  All waiting for the errant boater to run over them.  Sometimes they are hard to see in the daytime, but at night they are truly invisible.  Those hazards have not been present here in Mexico, and as a result, nighttime motoring is becoming a true joy.

The temperatures have been in the 80's during the day now, upper 60's at night and the water 78 degrees.  Very pleasant swimming, ok for sleeping with a fan on, but a bit humid during the day.  All in all, we are glad we came down here for the winter.