Layover Day on Isla Salsipuedes, April 5th 2006.


At 1:00 AM in the morning a strong wind came up from the north. I tried to ignore the noise of my tent flapping and get back to sleep. I tried to stop worrying about paddling in these conditions and get back to sleep. Eventually we got up at 5:00 AM in the morning to talk about it. Everyone seemed willing to start packing in case the wind died down. But they had all only agreed to paddle today to take advantage of the calm weather, which we no longer had. Even if the wind died down in a few hours we would not want to leave late on a day with a long crossing. So I told everyone to go back to their tents and take a day off. I tried to catch a few hours of missing sleep.

I spent the day going on several hikes around the island and taking a bunch of pictures. Late in the day the wind finally died down. The sky, which had been completely socked in by a high overcast, cleared for the first time. I hoped that this change in the sky indicated that the wind had done its work and would not be coming back. We started talking about leaving the next day. (The name of this island means “Leave If You Can” in Spanish).

Also late in the day two people hiked over from the other side of the island! They turned out to be bat researchers from University of Oregon. Dave Harry, who recently moved to Oregon, is also working at UO and they were able to find some common ground in their list of acquaintances! The bat people had time while setting up their camp to show me a “Bat Counter”. This is a small computer in a weather proof ammo can that they can leave on an island and come back for days later to collect the data. I asked them where you get a bat detector; can you get a Purina Bat Detector at the feed store? It turns out the answer is yes, sort of. There is a company in Australia that makes bat deterrent devices. At UO they buy these anti-bat devices and turn them into pro-bat counters. The bat people started setting up nets to catch and tag bats behind our camp. They worked well into the night and we saw their flashlights flailing around in the dark. They had one super-bright spotlight that I saw pick out a pelican flying over the island in the night. But in the morning all the nets had been taken down and put away. Being a bat researcher means working late nights I guess.


All text and images Copyright © 2006 by Mike Higgins / contact