Kodiak and another year

 I'm a year older now, and today was a great day to do it.  We were in Afognak island, which is a part of the archipelago of Kodiak.  It was really windy and rainy and I did a recon in the morning to scout out some places to explore, and then a nice skiff tour after that.  There was a fox hunting around in the intertidal area, and My hikers got to see it nice and close. 

It was quite windy, though, and the rain flowing off the boat was being pushed uphill.

Tomorrow we go to Katmai, to look for bears.

 

Heading to Puerto Penasco

I've been working my way north to a new spot to put my boat away for the summer.  I decided that it was too expensive at La Cruz, and I've wanted to haul the boat out as well.  So off I went.  Puerto Penasco is almost at the very north end of the Sea of Cortez, and I'll find out more about that place when I get there.  I'm not there yet.  I started out with a long day from La Cruz to Isla Maria Cleofa, where there is a great wave to surf.  I had the place to myself, since it was easter week, and I figured the Navy was going to be away.  The surf was great, and a bit scary, but great for me to practice on, and then I cleaned the bottom of the boat as well, before heading on the next morning.  I had two nights and three days of motoring and some sailing, and I got close to Isla Cerralvo, but as I got within range for the starlink to work (it will work at sea, but I have to pay extra.  My plan works about 5 miles from land) and I saw the wind was fairly favorable, so I skipped stopping and kept on going through the night and the next day, arriving in Bahia Agua Verde the next evening.  

I got a nice night of rest before leaving the next day, and getting north of Loreto.  On that day I saw a dead dolphin, and took a picture.  It may look like another dead thing, but if you zoom in on the stick coming out of the side of the dolphins head, you will see teeth.  I think it is the jaw of a Needlefish, and it was spooked and then sped off and ended up getting stuck in a dolphin head.  Possibly this is the cause of death for the dolphin.  

I've seen them eat smaller needlefish (or another similar species, called Halfbeaks) in Hawaii, but I don't know if this is the case here. 

 I took another day to get to Santa Rosalia.  

I wanted to meet up with the Safari Voyager at Santa Rosalia, in order to visit with friends and try to take some of the crew out sailing.  We ended up going and it was nice, but the port captain saw my dinghy anchored out and took it, so when I got back my anchor and dinghy were gone, so it was a pain in the butt.  

The next day I got up super early and caught a westerly wind and made great speed along, until the afternoon when the wind calmed down near Isla San Pedro Martyr.  At which point, the Navy showed up!

They pooped out a small boat, which intercepted me, and then they "docked" alongside, which made me very nervous as the boats were bouncing a lot and there was some chop.  Eventually I convinced them to let go and circle me.  

The Marines who came aboard were all very nice, but professional.  The two officers checked my papers and did a small look around inside, while the two grunts (younger men) held nice looking guns and tried not to point them at me.  They pointed them down, mostly, which is at Aquila, so I wasn't too excited about that either.  After a bit, the officers were satisfied and off they went.  I continued on to Isla San Esteban, and anchored on the east side, where I spent the next day resting, and did a skiff tour as well.  

There's a bunch of sea lions everywhere there, and the island has a lot of beautiful rocks, Volcanic, I believe.  I think this could be a "lava dome" where the lava comes up and doesn't quite come out, and then cools, forming those columnar basalts.

More sea lions on the beach

And a closer view

Its time for the gulls to nest.

The next day (today) I got up and motored north to Isla Angel de la Guardia, or the guardian angel island, and found a spot to anchor near the south east side.  I went for a walk, and found lots of nesting Yellow Footed Gulls.

Here's the eggs.  Very similar to Glaucus winged gulls.

A closer view

There was also a shrike watching me.

I went up a hill to look around

And found this lagoon on the other side.  I guess the beach builds up in a storm and traps the water inside, like a barrier island.  

The inside beach is very pretty

a closer view

Aquila at anchor

The island across the way

A bird roosting rock

And a raven.  This guy has an egg in his (or her) beak.  Stolen from the shrike?

I also found some Oystercatchers, and they shrieked at me, so I thought, wait, maybe they are nesting too!  In glacier bay they don't nest for another month or so, but here...  So I went to the spot just above the high tide and found it!

Three nice cute eggs

A closer look

There are gull eggs on this beach too...

The sand is very pretty, I love the little waves

And here's a cardon bloom

More sand waves

So I went around a bit further and found an osprey nest down low, and went for a closer look.  The osprey was not happy about that.

A closer look...

And I also found a dead booby skull.  Probably looked at the osprey too close.

Here's a ruffled Yellow Footed Gull watching me depart.

 

Back in Punta Mita

I made it back to Punta Mita, after an exciting time over in the Gulf of California.  My friend Teague flew in to La Paz and we left on a strong north wind to head down towards an offshore island before going back to Punta Mita.  

I had got a new spinnaker (an A2, which is the running sail, not a reaching sail) and it was super useful on this trip.  

Here's Teague on the bow with a lot of common dolphins around.

On the way in to Cabo Frailes the dolphins were all over the place.  When we got in to anchor there were a ton of Humpback whales too, and they sang all night long very loud.  We could hear them through the boat.

We did a little skiff tour around and saw some sea lions hauled out. 

And a goat up on the hill.  I can't tell if this is a male goat (and those are the testicles) or something else going on.  If it is a male, then that's gotta hurt walking around on the rocks.  

From Frailes, we left out into the open ocean.  With the spinnaker up we were able to get on plane, and the look off the back is like this:

After a day and a night and a day we got to Isla San Benedicto.  There is a surf wave there and I had to try it out, so here I am surfing a slabby wave in sharky waters.

The island was really cool, with loads of sharks and rays in the water and super clear visibility.  But the wind was blowing volcanic dust all over the boat and so I am still trying to get the dust to come off.

There were nesting Masked Boobies there

And the unexploded bomb was still around.

The nesting Albatrosses were there too, and this is a Laysan Albatross parent caring for a baby.

The bill on theses birds is so interesting.

The babies are also very stunning in how they stand out, but also blend in to the background.

A young Greater Frigatebird in a nest as well.

The wind tears the cinders from the island and sends them everywhere

Another look at the baby albatross

More Masked Boobies

And there was a young Tropicbird that was in the water, unable to fly.  I think it may have fallen (or jumped) from a nest and didn't make the first flight, and was cold.  Hopefully it will make it.

The volcano is an amazing sight with the cinder cone, but it was time to leave.

On the way home we took two days and two nights to get in, and it was a pretty rough crossing, but all the water that washed over the boat cleaned off most of the volcanic dust.  We got to La Cruz and went to a dock for a few hours and washed the boat off, then sailed back up to Punta Mita.  I am done with the Mexico Uncruise stuff, so I have until May 18 before I work next, and that will be in Alaska.

Here's a cute video of a baby albatross learning to walk