06 55.579 S, 08 42.816 W, Islas Lobos de Afuerta
This morning during my 3 am - 6 am watch, the wind continued to back down until our speed over the ground bottomed out at 0.0 knots and stayed there. We were not going anywhere. The wind would pick up a little and the boat would move along a .5 knots, then back to 0.0 knots. Rich and I decided that it was time to turn the engine on. Sixteen nautical miles away was Islas Lobos de Auerta, a nature reserve, which also had a place to anchor, according to the Publication 125, Sailing Directions (Enroute) West Coast of South America, Eighth Edition, 2004. We need to change our engine fuel filter and transfer some fuel from the Jerry cans on deck to the fuel tanks anyway, so why not go there, stop for a bit to do these chores and then continue on.
So we did. The group of small islands that for. Islas Lobos de Afuerta are brown, barren rocks, home to no man but home to whales, sea lions, pelicans, boobies. frigate birds plus many more sea birds that I don't know the names of. There is a cacophony of sounds plus the stench of guano. The sailing directions mention that the island was reported (in 1992) to lie 1.4 miles west of its charted position. It is true, both of our electronic charts, C-Map and Navionics Gold, had us traversing overland to our anchor spot in 24 meters of water. One would have thought that sometime between 1992 and 2013, that this would have been corrected on the electronic charts but sad to say it has not been. The holding was a combination of sand and rock with some sea grass.
As Rich worked on changing the filter, I checked out the local inhabitants and monitored our position. Several large whales came nearby, within two boat lengths, would blow and then dive and come back again. There were at least 5 individuals. A large bull sea lion escorting his harem swam by and barked a few times for good measure. A group of younger sea lions swam by and would pop their heads up to take a look at us. Large flocks of sea birds would fly on masse to their island nesting grounds. An open panga full of fishermen drifted by as they cast their nets. Rich saw them haul in a large fish, beat it with a club and then stow it in the large container they had on board. It looked like there were some trails on the islands as well. I did not see a place to land a dingy from our position at anchor.
We moved about 6 Jerry cans of fuel to the aft tank and then prepared to be on our way, just as a large whale surfaced nearby. Rich slowly motored us back out into open waters as we continued to head for Callao.
There are no cruising guide books for Peru. We got advice not to enter certain ports and to only check in at Callao. We did receive a suggestion to stop at Islas Lobos de Afuerta and it was convenient for us to make our stop there. The smell of guano would discourage me from making this an overnight stop. You may use the GPS position listed above at your own risk.
The sailing directions mention some other islands as well but right now we are looking forward to arriving in Callao.
Sent from SV Windarra iPad
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