Thursday, May 23

North 26° 53.238'
West 111° 49.849'
Distance: 8.9 miles

I paddled 8.91 miles today. I am now 122 miles from Punta San Francisquito where I began on my own. I now have much more confidence in being alone in Baja California. I meet people everywhere I go. Most of them are Americans or at least speak English, but a few are Spanish speaking Mexicans. The language and cultural barriers make speaking with Mexicans much harder, but there are a lot of good, helpful, and forgiving Mexicans who I am meeting on the trip. A few of them are at the same time scoundrels, so that makes things a little more interesting. One guy, Humberto from Punta Chivato lived in the US for many years but is now unable to return for unspecified reasons. I got out of Mulegé today at about 10:00 am, and got to the mouth of the Mulegé River at about 10:25. The wind was in my face, but I crossed directly toward Punta Concepción. About 2/3 of the way there the wind increased and the waves, too, so as soon as I made land I pulled in to wait it out. I fixed lunch and put up the shade when I got to land at about 12:30 pm. By 5:00 pm the wind was still high and out of the southeast, so I called it a day. Not great progress, but I got quite a workout beating the wind and waves. I expect better weather tomorrow, but I want to start very early if it is calm so I can still make good progress if the wind comes up in the afternoon or late morning again.