Sunday, May 12

North 27° 25.416'
West 112° 18.863'
Distance: 18.8 miles

I paddled 18.8 miles today. I am now 75.6 miles form San Francisquito, 299 miles from Pete's Camp, and 470 miles from home. Yet another interesting day on the Sea of Cortez! I woke up my usual lethargic self, had a little breakfast and found some shade to read and think in. It is certainly true that shade here is the difference between super comfort and miserable heat. About 9:30 I started packing up and by 10:15 I hit the water. I had some difficulty getting in the water because the waves were larger than usual and were breaking on large rocks. The good news is that my kayak is now much lighter! I have consumed 14 of my 20 liters of water and much of my food. Once I got going I made fair progress until about noon. The waves were big for no reason I could understand. I saw what looked like a house with a jeep next to it and decided to go investigate. As I got closer I realized it was just another abandoned fish camp. The power of wishful thinking! I stopped for an hour to rest, stretch my legs, and look around. It looks like it has been empty for a long time. To the Northwest there were several stone walls. They were each open on one side. If the open side were away from the water I would think they were foundations for wood structures that no longer exist. I can't imagine what they were. To the Southeast there was another hut with four tin walls. Just trash inside. When I got back in the water the waves beat me pretty hard. I lost the small deck bottle - 24 oz. - and had to jump out and find it in the surf. After another couple miles the wind picked up out of the North Northwest. Perfect for pushing me. I made good speed till just after 4:00 pm. Just sitting in the kayak I sometimes went at a slow walking speed and with modest effort I made a medium jogging speed. The waves got bigger and started swamping me from time to time. The scuppers were kept busy today. I made the mistake of passing too close to a sheer cliff wall which reflected the waves back and made some quite rough and confused water for a while. All the time I was passing lots of pelicans. They really stink! Finally I made a corner and saw a quarry in the next bay. I kayaked passed some nice beaches to get there, then to the other side. I wanted to take as much advantage as possible of the North wind, so I skipped some nice places to camp. This was a mistake. Just passed the quarry the land juts East for the next punta. I took the last beach before I would have had to go against the current, the waves, and the wind. This beach is a row of huts which I guess the quarry workers use. Those at the end were empty, obviously for a while. I pulled up, emptied a lot of water out of my boat, and made camp. This was just like a typical fish camp with fish bodies and trash strewn everywhere. I need to learn to stay away from these places because they are depressing. I made dinner and went to sleep as soon as possible. I found a place behind one of the huts which wasn't too dirty and was protected from the wind.