The last
two weeks have been a lovely -and mostly unsuccessful - fish hunt. If somehow I had forgotten, I was reminded that
I am married to a man who would rather fish than do almost anything else. So early the 22nd of February, we
left Puerto Escondido to head way off shore to the east of Isla Catalina where
the fish were rumored to hang out.
It was
a spectacular day. The sea was glassy as
a pond and the sky clear. One could see
any surface activity from miles away.
And we did see a lot. We passed
several groups of our sun bathing seals and, every five minutes or so, a large
turtle would float by. The turtles were
normally dozing, but would occasionally wake with a start as they felt the boat
and quickly submerge. The water
temperature was up to 75 degrees – a good sign for fish. It was a lovely day to read and knit – but
the fishing was nonexistent.
Earl
was disgusted. We had everything except
the one thing he really wanted and he had held such high hopes for this
particular fishing hole. The only fish
we saw was a large bunch of bonitos – which was of zero interest to us. So, his patience exhausted, the skipper
headed south to the north end of Isla San Jose.
The
next day we cruised the San Jose Canal, normally great fishing. Again, we had another lovely day and saw
whales and dolphins, but no fish. We
continued south for the next couple of days.
The weather was as good as we have ever had and the fishing the worst.
We went
to the marina for a couple of days to get some fresh food and enjoy some of our
neighbors. Emiliano – our electrical
wizard had done some work on the cell phone booster that we had installed 7
years ago. It was actually the second
one, but neither had had ever worked and I had forgotten about it. We ran over to Bonanza for the night to test
it and to my amazement it actually made a significant difference. We had also planned to work on adjusting the
big lights Earl has installed that night, but instead we were on our way back
to the marina after a quick swim. Our
fresh water pump had gone out. When Earl
took a look, he found the pump housing had cracked and we had a shower in the
lazarette. Without fresh water on our
boat, our heads don’t work – not good!
The
next day our wonderful Fito – who has a slender, flexible, young body replaced
the pump with our back up pump, one Earl had rebuilt.
Our
neighbors Sharon and John on Warren Peace had arranged for a birthday
celebration for John from the sailboat Swagman.
It was a lovely evening potluck and Peter, our other neighbor on
sailboat Formula Won, played his guitar and sang accompanied by a Mexican
friend who played harmonicas. It was
great fun.
The
next day we decided to go visit La Ventana by road. It is a community south of
La Paz on Canal Cerralvo. It is a windy
spot and famous for its kite surfing.
Friends had recommended the trip and told us it was only 30
minutes. We took the wrong road, so it
took us significantly longer, but even coming home it was an hour not 30
minutes. Whatever. It was a lovely day, a charming drive and a
good meal at the restaurant Las Palmas overlooking the beach. We sat on a covered veranda on the second
floor and overlooked the kite surfing, while the wind blew away our chips and
empty beer cans.
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| Kite surfer - Ventana |
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| Looking north from Las Palmas |
We had
planned on leaving early on Monday morning to cruise south, hunting fish. It did not happen. The pump Earl had installed proved to be not
much good. It overheated. After a trip to Lopez Marine Store, Earl was
back with a new pump and shortly after we were off.
A short
cruise to Bonanza, which was ours for the night. We will be bringing the Serenity back to the
Northwest this Spring and I will really miss being able to shed my clothes and
jump into beautiful clear water.
Earl
just knew he would catch fish the next day on the way to Muertos and in that
area. Years ago he and his
brother-in-law had gone fishing in a panga out of Muertos and had fished till
they were exhausted a few hours later.
We had
not been to Muertos in a couple of years.
It is a good north wind anchorage, and with the beautiful resort Los
Suenos on the southern side and a delightful restaurant on the north it can be
a pleasant place to spend a few days –which is what I thought we were going to
do. How foolish of me! 7 am Earl told me we were heading back north
since there were no fish here.
So back
we went – blessed with lovely weather.
Just so that we were not skunked, we caught (and released) a small
dorado, and, just as we headed toward San Gabriel to anchor for the night, the
Sea of Cortez gave us a gift.
There
were two humpback whales cavorting in front of us. They were finning and jumping and put on a
show for at least half an hour. It was
incredible – this has certainly been our year for whales. I got good photos (using an iphone if you can
believe it) and Earl shot some video clips.
It was the high point of this cruise.
I just
read this to Earl and he corrected me.
He said the high point of this cruise has been the beautiful evenings on
the boat deck with me and Daisy. He has a point.
