Thursday, January 12, 2017

Across the Sea of Cortez, to Bandaras Bay

 I had a little race with the boat pictured above, the mighty Shamaness, starting on New Years Day.  We left La Paz together and raced with the building winds out to sea.  I ended up turning further east as darkness fell, towards Mazatlan, before heading on south, and she plunged boldly into the night bound for Bandaras Bay.  After Mazatlan, I stopped at my favorite island, Isla Isabel.  It was a nice stopover, with a few trips around the island to see the birds, and also I did some freediving with the fishes.  I saw the biggest Grouper I have ever seen, it was much bigger than me, and many other fish that up to now I hadn't seen in large numbers.  There were Milkfish, a large, swallow-tailed fish with a fairly small mouth, to be seen in large schools just out of reach of my speargun.  I also saw a bunch of Rainbow Runners, of which I had only ever seen one before.  Finally, as I was diving around in the deeper parts to the west of the island, there were a lot of very big Rooster Fish coming up to look at me.  They got very close but since they aren't very tasty, I didn't take a shot.  On the evening of one of the days I went up to a Blue-Footed Boobie colony and snapped a few pictures.  Here are two trying to woo each other....
 And here is a picture of one in flight.  Their vision is very forward looking.  They must be super intelligent and good planners.
So now I am in the Puerto Vallarta area and will stay here for the rest of the winter, unless I decide otherwise.  The surf has been small, but I still am getting my hair wet and my nose sunburned searching for it.