Thursday, April 4

North 30° 29.6'
West 114° 38.0'
Distance: 5 miles

We paddled 5.0 miles today. We decided on a short day because this leaves us with an estimated 10 miles to Puertecitos, where we intend to spend the weekend feasting and drinking beer. We started on the tequila Heidi bought us last night. Yum! We also found some wood and had a fire to drink around. Bed around 8:30. We are turning into morning people. We woke at 5:30 but didn't hurry, getting into the water at 8:40 am. Mike immediately caught a small sea bass<. He was trolling a popper - the same one he used the last three days. Today it just worked. I was trolling a strip of 6 flies with a shining weight. When I got over to Mike's boat to help him, I pulled my rig in. I had a tiny sea bass, too. 4 inches. Too small to eat, but I thought it might make good bait. We caught fish for about an hour, then got tired of it. Once I caught 4 baby fish at once. I got tired of letting them go just to get hit again right away. Mike caught fewer, but his were all eatable size. In the end we had 7 bass to eat by the time we pulled our lures in to make a serious effort at getting somewhere. The beach has been pretty rocky the last 8 or 10 miles, so we just pull our boats over the rock to sand higher up. I think the rocks hold the sea bass and that is part of why we got them now and not earlier. We made camp about 11:00 am We have been lightening the boats by removing the heavy stuff, then carrying the boats and stuff up the beach. It is about 30 minutes of hard work every day. After we camped, I cleaned the fish while Mike set up the shelter. The shelter is two ponchos snapped together, held in the middle with poles, and tied on the edges to the boats. We can put ourselves and our stuff in the shade for the hot part of the day. As the sun goes down and the day cools off we take down the shelter so that we can see the moon and stars and so we don't have to do it in the morning. Mike cooked some rice while I finished cleaning the fish. Then we fried the fish in corn oil with Cajun spice powder. Very good! We will eat well out here if we can keep this up. There have been no signs of people on the beach yet. Kinda cool to be alone. We bathed in the ocean after lunch, then finished off with 1 liter of fresh water in the sun shower each. I now feel full and clean and am just about ready to take a nap and then read for a while. This life has been good for me already. I can feel myself getting tougher and stronger. No junk food, no stress. Mike and I are starting to get a little tan, too. When I took my shorts off to bathe, I could really see how white my butt was compared to the rest of my body. So far everything has been fun and easy. I hope that this is how the rest of the trip goes. I plan to try cooking beans tonight. I soaked them yesterday for about 20 hours and will start cooking them in a couple hours so that they will be ready by dark. I hope we get good at cooking soon. Tomorrow, Puertecitos and a bit of luxury.