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Mission to Mars
Every time that I stood on the balcony of the Mirador del Rio I was fascinated by this island in the distance. It is a somehow rudimentary island, nothing but barren rock and sand, coloured yellow, ochre, red and black, shining bright against the blue sea with the right lighting, fading into a dusty mix of grey and yellow on overcast days.
There was not a single tree to be spotted from up here and only one small settlement. Nothing too exciting would there not be the exposure of the island to the open sea and rumours about waves that break there in solitude.
The forecast for the day was impressive, something about 7ft @ 15 seconds. The usual spots on the west coast of the main island would be either closing out or too big for an average Joe surfer like me (check this to get an idea of this swell).
So I decided to take the ferry. Leaving the small port I got a first impression of the power of the swell. As the ship couldn´t duck dive the waves at the harbour entrance we started the crossing with some solid hammering against the ship´s hull. Out in the sea between Mars and the main island – a fairly narrow and therefor protected body of water – the ship did some wild dancing. The northwest swell got bend by the island and now came from the northeast, meeting our course from the side, which led to some solid rocking of the boat.
We passed the lighthouse with very little distance – a break of the engine would have resulted in a hard grounding on the reef – and made a 90 degree turn.
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