Isla Cedros - ROCKIN' OUT!!!!!

Vincent, the amateur geologist!

   Our next jump took us two hundred miles south to the mountainous desert island of Cedros, which is famous for its prodigious lobster fishery. Conditions around the island are known to be fluky and sometimes very windy, and indeed we enjoyed a burst of thermal wind streaming off the island itself as we came under its lee. This strong breeze eventually died down, but a delicious shore breeze filled in as the sun sank behind Cedros' 5,000 ft peaks. Thick clouds, which only minutes before had been held back by the sun, began to pour over the top of the island, and we all sat amazed at the stark beauty of the island as the Libertatia charged along at 6 knots.

   Cedros is home to the fabled Las Palmas anchorage, where two lone palm trees mark the site of a desert spring that comes out of the mountains. Las Palmas is said to have been a popular watering hole for passing Spanish ships during the first European explorations of the Pacific coast. This legendary spot not only afforded us delicious spring water and epic mountain hiking, but gave us our first experience with the often poorly charted areas of  Latin America, which we had been warned of by other cruisers. Even with GPS and good charts, making landfall at night in a new place is a challenging game.

Libertatia- Sailing where no boat has sailed before!!!

   We tacked toward the island and sounded around a spot which showed 10 ft depth on the NOAA chart, but we got nothing on a cast of the lead-line. Finally we made it to what seemed like the anchorage after dark, but we couldn't be sure. The hand-held GPS, Chartplotter and paper charts all showed us to be anchored inside a tiny cove 88 ft from shore, but to the eye it seemed like we were about 500 ft from shore just to the south of the small cove. We knew it would be interesting to see what was really going on in the daylight.
   At sunrise it was apparent that we were in fact about a mile south of Las Palmas, so we raised anchor and ghosted along towards our destination. A check of the GPS, which showed us to be sailing along high and dry on land, really highlighted the inaccuracies that one faces when navigating in foreign lands.
   Finally anchored safely at Las Palmas, the crew went ashore to explore the majestic, desolate island.

Running out of water on the way to the top was worth it!

Check out more photos of Isla Cedros here!