Friday, June 7

North 25° 23.206’
West 110° 59.937’
Distance: 11.5 miles

We paddled only 11.5 miles today. This is getting to be a bad habit! We are now on the east side of the 111° west line of latitude, but just by a few feet. We are 48.8 miles from Loreto, 462 miles from Pete’s Camp, and 632 miles from home. We woke up this morning tired from going to bed at 1:00am and had coffee with our people from last night. They fed us more, entertained us more, gave us food and water for our trip, and were just generally great to us. I helped Mike diagnose a problem with his van. He had a broken part on one of his break calipers. We made the problem less irritating and then bolted it back together. We finally departed at 12:30 and had perfect weather for paddling. The day was warm but not hot, the water was great for swimming, and the wind was light. We had fun catching a couple junk fish. We took an hour break in the shade, and then continued paddling. There was a lot of bait boiling around us for over an hour. I saw a Dorado showing his colors at close range chasing a school of bait. I passed my squid jig within 10 feet of him, but he wanted nothing to do with it. Mike saw something hit my jig, but it didn’t stick. Mike got a few nibbles, too, but nothing was caught. After 6:00pm we saw a nice beach and took it. We used the GPS to find the exact 111° line and marked it. Then we wrote this:

Damn! It feels good to be on the 111°
At least within 14 feet.
Kayaking down the Sea of Cortez
Thinking about what we are going to eat.

Pretty bad, but we have been out here a long time. The country here is as pretty as I have seen and I feel like I am into the core of the trip now. This is my life now and I don’t really think about home. I am pretty fit and have adapted to the life. The beach feels like home. We are going with a light meal tonight since we have been pigging out so much the past days.