Dear Family and Friends,

 

18th March 2015

 

How many times in our lives do we find places that feel set apart from the world, with little sign of another being. As we put down the anchor in the sheltered bay behind the Isla of Canna off the Isla Del Rey’s east coast, it felt strange to be truly on our own for the first time in the whole of our trip. Surrounded by a beautiful coast of sandy beaches, islets and rock ledges with impenetrable tropical jungle reaching to the sands, soft winds blowing and the birds sounding the alarm as birds of prey swooped over head, we were quite overwhelmed by its sense of peace. We went ashore at the nearest beach, a powerful undertow just as we reached the steeply shelving beach made landing and getting away again a wet affair. Having said there were no coconuts palms here, on this beach there were several, washed in by the prevailing swell no doubt, and with no one to lay claim to them, we went scrumping; the thought of picking your own coconuts from a ‘desert’ island made Alan happy! We found 6 or so that seemed fresh and Alan spent the next hour or so sawing his way into a couple as they don’t give up their contents easily. Delicious with a lovely slight sweetness.

 

This area of the Pacific has a big tidal range between the highest of the high tides (springs) and the lowest of the low tides, (neaps) it can be 20-21’ difference, quite a change from the minimal differences in the Caribbean. So it is not surprising that tidal flotsam is carried high up the beach and here at the foot of the woods were hundreds of plastic bottles, all manner of other plastic detritus and a flip flop graveyard, so many on one small beach. Should have kept the lone flip flop Alan had, could probably have found a partner! Seriously though this is awful, how about recycling glass bottles again, with money back on their return, it worked before.

 

But that was not all the beach yielded up, we spotted markings that looked like a wide single tyre track high on the beach, after some thought Alan realised they were turtle tracks from laying eggs on the beach. There were the remains of several avian red crab meals and curious holes in the sand with crazy tracks leading to and fro. I am guessing these too were crabs.

 

With no lights to be seen, and a dark night, the brightest light in the sky being a satellite I think, we settled to a peaceful and comfortable night.

 

And now as night has fallen a day later, we are making good progress on our way to the Galapagos Islands, we made cracking speeds of 8-9 knots earlier but have now reefed down for the evening making a steady 6 knots. Forecasts look good for the most part, making SW and then W above 5 degrees N for as long as we can, after that the winds are very light and we will probably have to motor the last part of the journey. The Humboldt current gives the winds a cooler edge, making life in the cabin more comfortable and as we look over the back of the boat it gives very bright phosphorescence, almost as though the boat is lit from underneath. We may be lucky and see some more wildlife following these currents.

 

All our best for now,

 

Lynne and Alan