< Back to Overview << Prev | Next >>

1/3/2006 9:00:00 AM
Isla Isabella
300 miles south of La Paz

La Paz - Isla Isabella

Well we celebrated the last day of the year with a somewhat repaired engine ready to for our 2 day crossing the Sea of Cortez.

For those who don't make it all the way down the report, the pictures of the last legs are on the webpage...

We had sent you the last report within the last few hours of the old year... So I guess I can still wish you a wonderful, healthy and happy 2006 and hope you had a wonderful start into it!

We had a nice and relaxed New Years Eve with the Martins, the boys let go of a few poppers up on deck, played with their light sticks and after a nice dinner we toasted to the New Year already at 8pm, we figured it be midnight somewhere in the world... We all were pretty tired and wanted to get enough rest before the 48 hour crossing over the Sea of Cortez the next day.

It was our first trip by ourselves for more than 24 hours and it was made really easy by having no wind at all, which we were not used from coming up North the Sea of Cortez. The motor therefore had to be on the whole time, but it kept up nicely and at some point we got used to shouting... As you know we have the reverse problem now with it (it is funny that first it would die by itself and now we actually have to kill it... But at least that is the lesser of the two problems) but Robert already found a good way to stop it, by putting a rubber coaster over the air filter - voila! For some part of the trip we had totally smooth seas, the temperatures went up drastically and we finally crossed the zone to sail/motor in t-shirts and shorts (or nothing at all..)!

We traveled the whole way together with the Martin's, about 1-2 miles apart (so we could always see each other) and during the nightshifts we checked in with each other every 2 hours (Robert and I take turns every 3 hours with him starting at 5pm). It was nice to know another boat close by and to chat about what's going on. The moon was almost not present both nights which made for an incredible starry sky. I don't think I had ever seen that many stars, with absolutely no land light and moon it was just amazing! Sometimes they would be so close to the horizon that we thought they were boats by mistake (I wondored why I could not see this vessel on the radar?)

On January 2nd, so Sebastian's birthday, we met up at lunch time and tied the Martin's boat "Ohana Kai" and "Lawur" together and went for a 30 min. swim. It was a funny feeling to go swimming in the middle of nowhere although one always stayed on the boat. All four boys had great fun, even Sebastian after we convinced him that not many kids have a chance to go swimming in the middle of the ocean on their 9th birthday!

Our first destination was Isla Isabella - a bird island with a small fishing village. Thousand of frigate birds and boobies nest there and it is just amazing how many birds fly around - I felt like in Hitchcock's movie... We did have a nice walk around the island getting some close up views of some of the birds and even iguanas. We managed to leave without ever been pooped on people or boats, pretty impressive! The smell around the island was not so pleasant but it was definitely worth a nights stay. Robert and Bruce also went for a short snorkel and got to be close up, only a hand away, to a huge school of hundreds of tuna fish, it apparently was an amazing experience - unfortunately the fishing rods were back at the boat, would have been a nice dinner!    In the meanwhile I baked Sebastian his Sachercake and in the evening we celebrated his birthday officially with the Martins, he was very happy. It is unbelievable for us that he is already 9 years old. On the 2nd in the morning he had to find his presents with clues again, and I am almost out of hiding spots on the boat, so I told him he has to stop getting older - it is going way too fast anyways!

I will end this report here and continue the next leg with a new one so that you can follow us also via the coordinates on the map. So just stand by,

Big hugs from the 4 Schmids Niki, Robert, Sebastian und Benjamin

< Back to Overview << Prev | Next >>