We
never made it to Portobello for dinner – the water was too choppy and I don’t
like dinner in wet clothes. Next time,
hopefully. I love Pedro’s mojitos. He said he learned to make them in Cuba.
Thursday
the 7th, we left early, around 7am, in the eternal hunt for
fish. Earl was heading south, but I
suggested since the water was pretty flat that we head north around the outside
of Isla Carmen and then come down the inside to anchor for the night. In retrospect, I should have kept my mouth
shut. Earl caught lots of bonito – not
what he was looking for.
By the
time we neared the northern end of the island, the wind had picked up and there
were good size white caps ahead. We
anchored just north of Salinas for lunch and waited for the tide to change,
which was supposed to make the seas go down.
I don’t know if the seas went down:
I do know it was not a pleasant trip.
I really don’t like it when things are flying around the cabin and my
insides feel queasy.
When we
finally anchored in Ballandra on the west side of the island, we felt we had
earned a drink. While we had not
succeeded in catching a marlin – the purpose of the trip- we had lost a big
one. It was 10 feet long. It was also plastic and red and unfortunately
a kayak. The Britta water pitcher had
turned over and drained over the stove.
I have never heard the burners gurgle before, which they did till Earl
took them apart and dried them. We also
had enough salt to go start a commercial operation.
The
next day the weather was much better. We
had a lovely day, first retracing our steps around the north end of Carmen looking
for a red kayak and then headed toward Isla Catalina. Wonderful dorado fishing. Earl caught five and they were among the most
acrobatic ever. I failed to get a photo,
a real pity. Finally, he announced that
he was tired and we headed into Agua Verde for the night.
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| Roca Solitaria welcomes us back to Agua Verde |
We decided
to spend the day here. I washed the
clothes and the windows and vacuumed.
Things looked pretty good and Earl invited 8 people over for drinks.
We were
visited by the usual pangero selling necklaces, this time accompanied by his
wife and two boys. I bought a delightful
trio of pelicans made with shells.
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| Larry, Moe and Curley |
Later
that day, I went ‘shopping’ in Agua Verde.
I was able by going to both little tiendas to buy tomatoes, onions and
cilantro to make seviche as well as a piece of locally made goat cheese. Finally I took a swim and managed to tempt
Earl to join me. He was convinced that
78 degrees would be too cold and was surprised to find it very pleasant indeed.
The
evening was great fun and our guests a varied bunch who packed the boat deck. Alice and Jack on the Puffin have a home in
Shelter Bay and 5 years ago had a Krogen named Serenity on the same dock as
ours. We had never spent any time with
them before. Their very good friends
from Alameda, Marylyn and Rich on Tortuga, came with them. The other two couples came from further
away. Estelle and Jan Louis are French,
in Jan Louis case via Canada. They
purchased their boat, the Sun Bear, last year in San Carlos. It had been stored for 5 years and needed a
great deal of work. Estelle told me there
were 14 holes in the boat among the other things that had to be fixed. Their tiller broke down as they were coming
into Agua Verde and apparently there is still a good deal of work to be done. The
last couple, Delphine and Robert off the Wakkuna, were a wonderful mix. He is from Belfast and she is from New Caledonia. Her parents had immigrated there from France
when they were in their 30s. It was a
very jolly group and lots of margaritas were consumed. Earl’s boat deck pavilion proved itself again
to be a great location for a social gathering.
 |
| Party: Jack, Rick, Marilyn, Delphine, Alice, Jan Louis, Me, Estelle and Robert |
Shortly
before 7am the next day, Earl pulled anchor and we headed off after fish. The day before from our anchorage in Agua
Verde, Earl had seen a marlin jumping near shore, so we thought we would try fishing
close in. Just off Agua Verde by the San
Marcial Reef there was a huge bunch of porpoises. A few hours later, Earl spotted some
whales. We got as close as we could, and
it was a thrill to see them, but as usual we are not really able to identify
the species. They were not large
(probably under 30 feet), with square shaped heads, dorsal fin set well back
and somewhat wrinkled skin. They look
like the pictures of sperm whales but those are apparently usually in deeper
water and larger.
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| Two whales |
 |
| Two whales, one sounding |
 |
| Whale tail |
We
can’t get over the change in the landscape.
Two years of rain have changed the brown to green. Baja no longer looks like a desert to us.
 |
| Green |
 |
| More green |
 |
| Green rock, always beautiful |
Earl
caught bonito and dorado. We finally
kept a couple of the dorado. We tried
pouring tequila in the first one’s mouth to see if it kept it quiet. I think it worked – Earl says it is pretty
difficult to get the tequila where it needs to go and he may think it takes too
much. We radioed a boat running south near
us –Seychelles – to see if they wanted to come for dinner for fresh fish. They accepted. Apparently earlier they had watched a marlin
following us for a period of time chasing our lure. Sadly, it never got hooked.
We
anchored on the west side of Isla San Jose at Mangle Solo. It is a nice sheltered spot and normally we
have it pretty much to ourselves. That
night, it was just our two boats and some pangeros on the beach in a fish
camp. The pangeros came by and we gave
them 100 gallons of water. They had been
drinking and it was a very merry water transfer.
Our
dinner guests, Nicky and John, arrived in a two man inflatable kayak. I am intrigued about replacing our red kayak
with one of these. Though technically it
is a sit in not sit on kayak, it looks very easy to get in and out of and
having one kayak that can take two people might be a handy thing. It is made by a company called Sea Eagle and
I am going to look into it.
Nicky
and John turned out to be from Juneau and Alaska being as small as it is, we
found that we knew a number of the same people.
It was a very pleasant evening.
We ate one dorado and sent them home with the other.
The
next day, Monday, was my birthday. We
headed down to San Gabriel so as to get internet and phone connection. It was beautiful with the water as clear as
we’ve seen it. I was in almost as soon
as the anchor. We celebrated with a
special dinner of grilled rack of lamb that I had bought at Pedro’s market in
Puerto Escondido. It was from New
Zealand, via Costco, and wonderful!
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| Looking through 16 feet of water |
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| San Gabriel from the boat deck |
Tuesday
and we are headed back into Costa Baja.
We will get a screen door installed in the salon on Thursday and I can
hardly wait. We have had many flies this
year and I am tired of them! We are
currently being accompanied by a large group of porpoise, to Daisy’s utter
delight!
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| Escort home |
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