Isla San Francisco

Interabang had not seen a marina in more than two months and everything on the boat was crusty with salt. The yellow jerry cans on deck were all empty. Their fuel poured into the main tank after the crossing from Mazatlan. Our last provisioning was a week ago and Trisha had to get a little more creative with each meal. The beer supply was nearly depleted. But none of this seemed to matter very much. We were focused on how to celebrate Trisha’s birthday.

The city of San Francisco had been the location of her previous two birthday celebrations, so it seemed fitting that Isla San Francisco be the choice for this year’s fun. Yesterday’s trip to the west side of Isla Partida had been a chore, but we were now just twenty miles from our party destination. We got an early start, beating into a light breeze, and soon found ourselves anchored off the crescent shaped beach on Isla San Francisco.

What a way to spend my birthday!

The anchorage was spectacular. We could see why its picture was used for the cover of our cruising guide. We took the dinghy ashore and found the beach to be thick with pieces of shell and coral.

After a hike across a large salt flat, we came to the beach on the windward side of the island. As promised, we were able to find a few agates among the pebbles on the beach. Walking farther along the beach we could hear a faint squawking sound. We noticed a huge nest on an outcropping in the cliffs about twenty feet up. The source of the noise was a little fuzzy head peeking out of the nest. Several big birds were circling above, obviously unhappy with our intrusion. Michael on Pura Vida later identified them as Osprey.

Hiking across the salt flat

Baby Osprey in his nest

It was getting late in the afternoon so we made our way back to the boat to play a little scrabble in the cockpit. Trisha opened her special bottle of champagne. It was a gift from Sally and David when they visited us in Monterey. David is quite the wine aficionado and Trisha raved about the champagne. The special bottle was for Trisha. I had tequila.