Saturday, May 11

North 27° 37.756'
West 112° 30.976'
Distance: 19.5 miles

I paddled 19.5 miles today. I am now 57.7 miles form San Francisquito and 281 miles from Pete's Camp. I am now on the other side of the AAA map. I started at 7:30 this morning and paddled till almost 11:00 am. Within a mile an a half the wind died down and has been calm since. That might have been a local wind. I should have pushed on last night instead of going to shore. At about 11:00 am I found a fish camp. I pulled in to see it. There were several structures including one with a small aluminum boat. The boat was registered in California with a 1967 - 1971 sticker. It looked pretty beat up, but was tied like someone was coming back for it. It was nice and cool under the shade of the structures, so I read, ate lunch, and slept for about 3 ½ hours. It was pretty obvious that the woman's touch was missing from this camp. The guys were pigs! Egg shells on the floor inside, fish skins on the floor just outside the door. Trash was everywhere. There was a piece of cardboard with the date February 2002 on it, so someone has been here pretty recently. There was also the carcass of a filleted trigger fish in the water. I would guess only a few days old. I packed up around 2:30 and was back in the water by 3:00 pm. Shortly after I left I rounded the next point and saw a pretty tattered looking and probably abandoned house and five palm trees. It's getting pretty lush out here - three palm trees yesterday and five today. That's 8 palm trees in just under 30 miles. I paddled past Punta Santa Ana and a couple more points, then found the typical rock beach with a canyon behind it. It is a pretty steep beach and in my tired state it took me a while to pull the boat up the rocks. There is a little firewood here but I am too tired to bother with a fire tonight. I think I will go to sleep in a few more minutes. After setting up a simple camp I took a bath. It feels great to be even a little clean. All day today I paddled through patches of seaweed. More that I have seen down here before. The water is very clear and I can often see the fish below while I paddle. I could have caught some today but with the seaweed it is a lot of work to fish. Every few hundred yards I have to pull in the jig and clean the grass off of it. I had no intention of cooking fish tonight, so it would have been just for fun. The sunset now is wonderful. I just took a picture of it, but I doubt it will turn out to be even close to what I see. All blue and orange with the mountains and sea hazy in the background and the foreground a silver red color blending into blue. Birds flying silhouetted against it. It is a pretty nice way to end a long, exhausting day. I think that after four days straight of paddling I am just tired and need a break. If I find a great spot tomorrow, maybe I will make it a short day. Otherwise, two more and I will be in Santa Rosalia.