Coming in the pass separating Isla Mejia from Isla Angel de la Guarda we kept our distances from the rocks guarding the entrance. One in particular juts out straight out of the deep waters, a huge white column towering in height. Both Di and I wondered what unseen other underwater giants might also be around? We stayed well clear of this and other rocks.
This volcanic region isn't well charted and even using 3 different chart sources there remains more uncertainty than I'd like. Whole areas of the charts just say "numerous rocks" and lack accuracy.
Luckily other cruisers have made it here before us, and the social features of the chart show where some of them have anchored. A good start to carefully find our own spot.
After spending a night in the middle of the passage, exposed to tidal currents and old swell, our preferred spot became available when the catamaran anchored there left early morning.
I pushed Enfin in as far as I dared, about 200 feet away from rocks all around us, in only 15 feet water depth at low tide. Anticipating some wind, I laid out 75 feet of chain, meaning our turning circle would take us within a hundred feet of shore.
This proved to work very well, and soon Enfin was cocooned in a shallow bay, surrounded by islands and in magnificent transparent waters.
We had a choice of landing spots for the kayak, from a pebble beach to our East, to a number of sandy beaches on the West side.
We decided to explore them all. First the pebble beach: It turned out to be a nesting place for a number of birds. Luckily the nests were empty and not currently in use, but we decided we'd leave them alone and would seek other places for the twice a day walks. We'd hate for our presence to disturb future nesting.
The West side landing spots were much better and soon we found large flat and unobstructed areas where Princess could run almost freely at the end of her long rope.
It'd been a while we hadn't used that rope and it was so nice to see Princess enjoy her semi-freedom with abandon in this coyote-free area.
We followed a number of dried out river beds, and a small trail up the hill to a shrine erected by local fishermen where the view on the straight and the mountains was spectacular.
Many times we just sat down, on the beach or on board to observe nature all around us. The incredible blue sky, the transparent waters reflecting the tall ochre and red mountains. Life was all around us.
On calm days we could hear the ruckus of a nearby seal and sea lion colony on Isla Granito. Often a few seals and sea lions would hunt in the pass near us. A curious seal came up to inspect the boat and take a good look at these weird animals on board, to Princess' excited husky "woowoos".
We enjoyed watching tiny diving ducks chase and catch tiny fishes, plucking them from their tight ball-like schools. As a duck surfaced through the bait ball, the fish would scatter and regroup as fast as they could. They'd lost one of their own, now duck food, but continued to seek the protection of the large ball.
At night, we could hear the seals breaching the surface to take a breath, and we even managed to follow one as it was chasing a fish at full speed under our spotlight. They are so agile and full of grace under water, twirling, zooming and jumping like ballerinas.
We enjoyed the seals and sea lions so much that we decided to swing by their colony. Both defensive and curious a large number of them came up to us, swimming around and under Enfin. What a spectacle!
A very short visit so as to not disturb them unduly and we were back to Isla Mejia, to savior a few more days of this incredible place that feels so far away from everything. It is about 40 miles away from the nearest village, road or significant human presence, so is hard to access for most, and in some ways reminded us of those magnificent anchorages in Alaska surrounded by nature.
A different nature for sure, built by volcanoes, the desert, the rich waters and the incessant sunshine, but one we were glad to be able to experience for a too short stay.
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