Isla Clarion 31 Marzo 2010 17.6475N 115.6916W
Land-ho! We approached a beautiful island today – Isla Clarion. But the clarion call on the radio was “marcharce” or “hacer carce?” I think that means get the blankety-blank out of here. Since there is no wind, we arrived slowly and are leaving slowly – too slowly for their comfort, they’ve called 3 times since they sighted us from land, to make sure we are leaving. I know it may look like we’re standing still, but we’re going a whole 3 knots, with the little wind we have, I’m impressed – apparently the military men at the base here are not. No navy ships chasing us down yet though. We were not planning on stopping, just coming in for a closer look. The cliffs here are beautiful, a ribbon of red rock cuts through the yellow cliffs dramatically. Large tuna jumping off the point, two turtles getting friendly, whales surfacing for big gulps of air, and that blue I’d described seems bluer. I don’t know if all the color is really that bright, or if it’s just the contrast after 3 days of blue. The island is now slipping slowly astern, the colors fading as the atmosphere between us and land increases.
A little later: Well, the navy ship did chase us down. I’m exaggerating, but a ragtag crew* of 8 of the 13 guys on the island, packed in a 20’ Panga to come see who we were, and to do a quick “embarcacion” report. Maybe “marcharce” doesn’t mean what I thought it meant? Maybe they were saying “embarcarce”?? My Spanish still needs a whole lot of work. Rosetta stone does not cover any of terms one might need passing boats or entering ports. I could have asked and answered useful questions like “Su casa es roja?” Or “Quando escribe ustedes?” I did manage to let them know that, “Isla Clarion es muy bonita.” They must not get a lot of boats here. They were nice enough, I think the commandant was expecting a plea from us for a visit, Marc had sent us a quick google report on Isla Clarion** this morning with quotes from sailing bloggers who had visited in the past few years. So we knew the military manned a weather station, and with the approval of the local commondant, visits are possible. But we were on a mission, not wanting to break the stride and all that. Truly a beautiful place though. And they got to admire our handsome Zarpe and do some paperwork, which seemed to make them happy; there must not be a lot of opportunity for that in such a remote spot – one thing I’ve learned is the Mexicans love their paperwork, copies in triplicate with official stamps are de rigueur. They were disappointed that I did not have a copy of the Zarpe and our coast guard document on hand to give them. Not being a formal collector of official paperwork, it’s a little difficult for me to relate to, but I’m sure they would find it strange that I collect pictures of oddball rocks and shells and dirt and junk (and would collect the real thing if Frank would let me bring it on board). So we’re probably even on the global oddity scale. It will be a major culture shock when the paperless office arrives here though – as big of a shock as it’s been for me to realize that the digital image is all I can take away. As a kid one of my favorite things was to collect rocks and shells. I used to sneak them into the bottom side pocket of my dad’s Kelty backpack (opposite the pocket with the lemon drops) when we’d go hiking in the Sierras. He owes me in part for his current fitness, I’m sure that years of added weight helped build some lifelong stamina. Frank’s on to me though, and Silver Lining, while built for a heavy load, would sink if my collector’s instinct were set free of it’s digital bonds. When the same digital bonds arrive here, there may be another revolucion!
We had a little wind around the island, even flew the spinnaker after our visit. But back to motoring now. It’s 3 a.m. another hour of watch for me, before I hand it over to the captain.
xoxomo
*Kennan wondered at the military budget here. “They must not have a big military budget, did you notice they were sharing a uniform – one guy had the camouflage hat, one the camouflage pants, another the jacket…” Other than one fully uniformed officer and the smattering of camouflage, they were all wearing standard fishing attire – barefoot, shorts, brightly colored t-shirts.
**We did get it before we arrived thanks for the fast response on that one Marc!