Friday, February 04, 2005

The good, the bad, and the weather

Kellie's Comments-- This morning we left the very remote village at Ipala. Soon after our arrival there we were visited by locals asking for candy and school supplies. We're happy to give paper and pencils to children. Later some small boys paddled out on boogie boards and asked all the boats for more supplies. They ended up with several gallon sized ziplocs full of glue, pencils, crayons and paper. This was a new experience for us, up until now all the locals have been wanting to sell us fish or handmade goods, but never have we been asked for a handout. Today had it's definite ups and downs and a bit of boredom. Our day started out by the discovery that Carter's boogie board was missing from the boat. We had used them yesterday at the beach and left it outside. We have never had any inkling before that the boat was not totally secure. We're a bit upset to think it may have been stolen. There is a slight possibility that it went over board, but we don't know how it could have. Pete and Carter went into the village and asked around and showed a picture. All the kids remembered seeing us with it yesterday but no one confessed. We hope that it shows up and have asked that it be sent with any other vessels going south. We set sail about 9:30 this morning after the foray into the village. The trip to Chamela is around 50 miles so we had hoped to leave by 8. Coming into anchorages in the dark is not something we do if we can help it. There was not enough wind to sail, so we debated about turning around or motoring faster than our usual 4.5 knots. We decided to motor and the day turned out to be amazing for wildlife sightings. I decided to make a wildlife spotting journal. The kids and I had fun with sea life stamps. Just outside of the bay I caught sight of whales spouting in the distance. Soon they came quite close and we had a nice look at their dorsal fins and long black backs. We think they were humpbacks which migrate along this coast in the winter. A while later, I saw something quite large jump out of the water ahead of us. I assumed it was a whale or dolphin, but as we approached, the kids and I saw 2 triangular fins breaking the surface about 8 feet apart. My first gut reaction was shark, but upon closer look, we recognized a manta ray showing us his wing tips. I called to Pete to get off the radio and come see. Surrounding the boat and coming quite close, a whole school of rays delighted us. Pete wanted to jump in with them, but the shark image kept coming to mind and I didn't condone the plan. We stayed amungst them for about an hour. At one point in the ray watching I'm pretty sure I saw a turtle but our engine scared him and it was too fast to be sure. Later we had a pod of spotted dolphins come to visit. All in all we had a calm smooth trip. It's overcast still and we had some sprinkles. The humidity is high, so we are quite hot anyways. We motored at 5.5 knots all the way until the last hour or so, then the wind picked up and we sailed the anchor in. It got dark minutes after we arrived. We're enjoying some homemade pizza for dinner and everyone will probably hit the hay early. Tomorrow we will explore the bay of Chamela and plan to stay here for about a week.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home