Friday, May 10

North 27° 49.864'
West 112° 44.414'
Distance: 10.7 miles

I paddled 10.7 miles today. Between the late tide and just plain laziness, I didn't launch till almost noon. While I was sitting watching the ocean this morning I watched a pod of dolphins go by. Since I wasn't in the water with them they played for some time. Then a coyote decided I was in his space and barked at me for a half hour. Then I saw a solitary dolphin go by in the opposite direction of the earlier pod. I think he forgot his keys or something and decided to go back for them. The morning was cool and nice with a slight cloud cover and was perfect for just sitting and watching the world. Almost immediately after I took off I caught a sand bass. It wasn't nearly as large as the one I caught yesterday, so I tried to catch a second. The bottom kept hooking my jig and the seaweed continually snared it, so I made slow progress for an hour. Finally I decided to land and clean it. When I pulled to shore the sun was just at it's peak and was hot. When I finished I started trolling again and after a while I caught a cabrilla. I started for a sandy shore and on the way I hooked another bass. This one was bigger than either of the others and was quite a fighter. Just as I got him up to the boat he shook his jig and got away. That is OK since I turned out to have all I needed. Then I got a bite which shook off. I decided to reel it in and put it away. When I got it to the boat I saw that a large trigger was following it. I had no use for the trigger, so I pulled it out of the water so he couldn't get to it. The I cleaned my second fish and made ceviche out of my last tomato and the rest of my limes. I noticed today that I was talking to the coyote, talking to my jig, talking to the fish while there were on the stringer and while I filleted them, I was talking to the pelicans and to the seagulls. But, and I think this is important, at no time was I talking to myself. That means to me that my sanity is intact. After I made my ceviche I got back into the boat for one more paddle. About half way across Bahia San Carlos the wind suddenly came up strongly. I was less than a mile off shore, but the wind was from land. I decided to beat it for land. The wind got worse and a little chop came up. I was worried about the ceviche on deck, but it saw fine for the ride. I beat into the wind for about 20 minutes then since I was within the arms of a little sub-bay I turned left and took the wind from starboard for a while. I was then able to turn to where the wind was quartered from behind and as the land turned to the east I was eventually about to, with the wind at my back, make about 1.5 miles per hour without paddling. I needed it since I had worked so hard the previous hour. About a mile from the point I saw a nice sandy spot and landed. The water at this point comes up a long way and since the tides are pretty large right now I pulled the boat about 75 feet inland. This is pretty hard to do. I get about 2 feet per pull, and can do about 7 to 10 pulls before I need a rest. This is a much easier thing to do with two people! I set up a little shelter with two ponchos. One end I tied under the boat and the other went to poles and then to sticks buried in the sand. I then ate my ceviche without the beans because there was plenty to fill me up and because I didn't want to cook with all the blowing sand. I secured all my gear and crawled into my shelter. Today I learned a few things: First, stick close to shore unless there is a really good reason not to. If cutting a bay saves miles of paddling, maybe, but for a shallow bay it isn't worth it. If the wind is blowing, keep paddling till I find a gravel beach. A blow isn't as bad if the sand isn't in my face. In fact it can be nice. A shelter doesn't prevent sand from blowing in my face. It makes it worse because it causes vortices. Cover up and take it as it comes. Finally, if I am near shore, I can still make progress in wind unless it is right in my face and even then I can often make some progress. Being close to shore makes it easy to tell if I am making progress or not. The wind is settling down a bit and there is some hope of a good night. The country here has been a wonder all day. I saw rocky outcroppings in the water, red and green cliffs, rocks completely white with pelican droppings, flood plains, sand dunes, hills, mountains, a couple small islands, and rocks and fish through the clear water. The beauty is wonderful. Just before I stopped today I saw a bunch of palm trees. Jay had told me that I would see some and that they led to a ranch in case I needed water. He said it is quite a walk up to the ranch house. Shortly after I thought I saw a bunch of cattle. I hope they leave me alone out here. Mexican cattle are tougher and meaner than those in the US and they have real horns. I have certainly slept outside with them before but only in California or Texas. I expect them to keep to themselves, but I may sleep a little lightly tonight. I expect to get up and out early tomorrow and see if I can outrun this wind. I hope it keeps out of the West or maybe Northwest. With today's progress I am now about half way to Santa Rosalia from San Francisquito. The hardest part of my solo trip is now about half done. This area doesn't seem as empty as some earlier parts. I haven't seen any people since the first day, but I have seen signs of life like signboards and a cove with a whale bone marking it which held a deserted fish camp.