Isla San Francisco

Malo was partially prepped the night before.  We got up before dawn, finished preparing her for sailing and then hove our anchor at 7:30.  We were headed to a small island northeast of us with a large, beautiful, crescent shape bay, the island; Isla San Francisco.  As I hauled up the anchor Bev drove the boat.  Once the anchor was up Bev guided Malo out of the cove and into the Sea were we were met with 18-26 kt winds out of the north pushing 4’ to 6’ short period seas into our bow.  Senior El Norte had arrived and we were ready.  We had set the mainsail with one reef and later added a second and also rolled up a bit of the jib too as the winds increased throughout the day.  At one point Bev spotted a manta ray just off Malo’s beam headed straight for us, moving fast.  Luckily at the last minute it must have spotted Malo because it dove just 30’ aways from us and went right under the keel.  It was a magnificent creature, thrilling to behold but given the choice, it’s one thrill I’d rather not have.  But we lived!

Bev has been tackling increasing difficult sailing tasks.  She’s learned to tack and gybe the boat by herself so far and she’s also working on solo reefing.  This day gave her the opportunity to practice these skills in stronger wind conditions.  She’s a excellent crew and now she working her way to the next level, on to developing captain level skills.    



After a boisterous 6 hours (36 nm) of sailing we were delighted to enter the safe harbor.   We set our anchor in 23’ of water into a sandy bottom in a beautiful, large crescent shaped bay.  As is our custom we covered the sails and coiled the lines right away.  It had been a pretty rough sail that didn’t accord us a chance to have lunch, so we had a late one and then we both took a nap. 

Luckily we awoke in time to see the combination sunset and moonrise.  A peaceful ending to an exciting day.  The next morning we awoke rested and ready to explore this new island that we find ourselves at.  The Norte was still blowing so it was a bit of a challenge just getting ashore on the SUP boards but we made it and were greatly rewarded for our efforts.



Once ashore we walked up the beach, headed to the hill out on the southeastern arm of the harbor.  The simple, raw beauty of this pace continues to astound me.

Bev observed that it would be hard to take a bad photo here so off course I had to try but you know, she was right again.  I tried pointing the camera in every direction but couldn’t manage to get a bad one.  Weird.   



As we got higher up we got a good view of the Sea and harbor. 



We hiked back down and then around the salt flat between the hills.  

Plant life in the desert islands is often sparse, sharp and tenacious.



And in some places it can be surprisingly lush and vibrant. 

This land seems both ancient and new at the same time.  My first impression was that it’s was old, prehistory old, geologically old but now, after spending a few weeks wandering around this place, it’s paradoxically staring to feel new.  Like life is just getting started here.