Monday, April 8

North 30° 03.03'
West 114° 34.96'
Distance: 7.28 miles

We paddled 7.28 miles today. After looking around last night we realized we were just a couple miles from Nacho's Camp. There is nothing there for us, so we just looked at it from a distance. We found a very old travel trailer with a sort of shed built on to it. It was pretty torn up, but the bed was still made. We found a bottle of Mrs. Dash spice with an expiration date of May 1996, so it looks like it was empty a long time. To the south was a pretty house on the cliff. It obviously has not been used for a long time, and like so many places here it was unfinished. The view and breeze from the front porch were wonderful. The construction was poor, though, and I doubt it would have any value at all. Too bad since it was so pretty and nice. Shortly after we returned to camp, the wind picked up strongly and was steady till 8:00 am. When it died down we decided to take a chance on paddling for a while. Most of the night it was blowing straight out to sea, so we chose to stay near shore. This works out well since we can pick up sea bass on the rocky shore. We caught 5. I caught 4 little ones (plus a throwback sized one) and Mike caught one nice sized one. Then I caught a blue-grey fish with big eyes and a small mouth with teeth. He was tall and flat. I don't know what he was and I don't care right now since they are not as good to eat as the bass. I threw him back, but Mike caught one and wanted to try it. Shortly after that I hooked something which broke off my lure. It was a nice short red and white one which Bass really seemed to like. I am disappointed to lose it. We found a nice but rocky beach just south of Isla Muerte and cooked our fish with rice. After lunch, Mike decided to bathe in the ocean. I am going to heat up the sun shower since we have plenty of water and I have not shaven in at least 4 days. This will probably hurt regardless, but soap and hot fresh water should help. There is little hope that we will reach Bahia San Luis Gonzaga tomorrow, but it should be easy to make it by Wednesday if we make a good distance today. We have, by my estimate, 20 miles left till we get there. We will try to do 14 tomorrow, weather permitting, so that we will have a short day Wednesday. That should allow us to have plenty of time to see what there is before we have to decide on a camp or a hotel room.