Tuesday, June 4

North 25° 48.892’
West 111° 18.801’
Distance: 14.4 miles

We paddled 14.4 miles today. This is the first time in weeks I have been able to start this sentence out with the word “We” instead of the word “I.” It feels great to have Mike paddling with me again. It started out very foggy. By the time we paid our bill, said goodbye, and ate the treat the hotel people made us it was 10:30 in the morning. We left in a fog so thick we had to use the compass to navigate. This is rare! I drug a line in the hope of catching a Dorado. No luck. Maybe it was because of the fog, but the water was very smooth – almost glassy. We made good progress for two hours stopping to swim every once in a while. Mike’s shoulder was good and he had no problems with his back. His hands were hurting, but he has gloves to put on for that. After about 1:00pm the wind came up pretty strong and in our faces, so we turned toward land. There was an island we had mistaken for a point. We went between the island and the mainland looking for a place to rest and wait out the wind. Since the beach we were headed toward was on the island, we kept going looking for another beach. We have had bad experience with island beaches and this one was covered with pelicans and pelican guano. As we approached the next beach on the mainland I saw masts on the other side of the rocks. We had lucked onto a window for Puerto Escondido. When we landed I pulled in my line and found I had a little cabrilla hooked. Mike cleaned it and we made ceviche. We wanted to catch another so Mike went back out and paddled up and down the beach for a while. He got a couple hits but nothing stuck. When we pulled the lure in we saw why – the hook had fallen off when the crimp slipped. Mike decided to try with the spear. I fixed the hook and gave it a try from the kayak. Neither of us caught anything else. Mike had a great time trying, though. Finally we pulled our boats over the rocks to the bay side and paddled on. We couldn’t find anyone on any of the boats so we stopped at a palapa by a half finished hotel. We met a guy who gave us a ride to the little store. His name is Chris and his wife is Pam. They live in a trailer in a palapa a little distance from the bay. We bought Ice Cream and beer and a few more tomatoes. We returned to the palapa and had a small feast. The little bay is pretty with about 100 boats at anchor. In the morning we are pulling for Agua Verde which is about 27 miles to the southeast. We will probably need two days to get there. I would like to do 20 miles tomorrow and then have an easy cruise in the next day so we can spend some time there. I have heard the snorkeling there is fantastic. I can really see now how much I have learned in the past six weeks. I have 2/3 or less of the gear Mike has. He hasn’t yet had time to learn what he really wants and what he doesn’t want. I threw away more gear in Loreto and am very light now.