The forested island is covered in a short tree that I don't know the name of, but the sun was shining against the trunks in a way that looked nice.
Frigate Birds nest in these trees, and were up early, soaring in the breeze...
When ashore, the frigates are looking to impress each other, and the males sometimes inflate their balloon to show off.
The female and immature frigates will have some white on them. This is a juvenile, since it has a white head.
There wasn't much south swell, but a nice breaking wave forms in the south cove of the island and it can make for some lively chop there.
The morning lizards were out, trying to get warm. This one has a nice grin
And this one was trying to climb around in the grass.
Up on top of the hill the Blue-footed Boobies were dancing and getting ready to nest. The females have the eyeballs that are crazy looking...
The males are more respectable looking in their pupils. Also I have noticed a difference in the color around the head. The females seem to have more brownish yellow.
When they dance they lift their feet up to show them off, then do a fancy upside-down wing thing
Which looks like this as viewed from the ladies' perspective. The females will also dance, but not as often.
Of course there is also a lot of calling. The males will whistle, and the females will quack. Then they get into bill touching and sometimes what looks like fighting.
Here is the fighting.
They often pick up bits of grass to give as nesting presents.
But they are really cute.
To the north is a nice little cinder cone crater, a half moon left from when it collapsed.
From Isla Isabel, it was a bit of a slog across. The wind had come up and Aquila was sailing well, but also there was a bit of chop and so it was kind of rough. As the wind came up above 25 kts, I put in two reefs in the mainsail and used the staysail (a smaller jib). Everything was great until the top of the staysail parted and I had to fetch the sail out of the ocean and then go up the mast to get the halyard again. This is the second time its happened, last time was also in the middle of a crossing a year ago, and i am disappointed in the way it chafes.
I think it is something to do with being downwind of the large mountains around Cabo San Lucas, and that makes for great clouds. Also a change in the weather patterns from windy to calm.
Aquila was enjoying the sunset light too
The colors just kept on changing
There was a funny smooth spot on the underside of the clouds, as if it had been sanded off.
This photo reminds me of a song that I heard as a child. "where the ocean meets the sky I'll be sailing"
I can't recall exactly when I heard it, but I might have been 5 or 6 or so. Ok, I just looked it up. I was 10.
It is possible that at age 10, hearing Rod Stewart singing about the ocean meeting the sky, was the genesis of my love of the sea. Previous to this time, I had been into Dinosaurs, Birds, Airplanes, rockets and the stars. I still love the stars, of course, but its possible that I was convinced at this time that I could have a pathway to the stars through the ocean.
Since I wanted to be an astronaut I was always looking for a way to the stars.... Sailing is my way, it seems.
One last look at the water.
So after arriving in the middle of the night, I was ready to go ashore and walk around in the area.
How about a hike up to the top of the hill?
It was quite windy on the hill, and Aquila was hiding from the seas in Bahia Frailes
To the north is Cabo Pulmo, and a friend from Uncruise lives there and showed me around the area, which was nice.
Aquila was sitting pretty, but the wind from the north was unrelenting. Hopefully by tomorrow it will calm down a bit.
In the meantime the molula rays are swimming around with their tips showing.
No comments:
Post a Comment