Wednesday, June 26

North 24° 03.666’
West 109° 49.887’
Distance: 6.88 miles

We paddled 6.88 miles today. We woke up on Cerralvo this morning and it was such a nice place that we put up our sun shade and made ourselves comfortable. We made breakfast and read for a while. I went for a walk to see if I could find any sign of sailboats around the point of the lighthouse. None. I found a sign saying that it is illegal to be on the island without permission of two Mexican officials. This seems to be widely ignored and I suspect it is just there to impress American conservationist extremists with how sensitive the Mexican Government is toward their sensitive ecological areas. I am guessing that the 20 fishermen who live here are no more sensitive to their environmental impact than any of the other Mexican fishermen I have seen. About the time we decided to go, the wind came up strongly. We waited till about 4:00pm, then gave up and went to look for goats. I had seen the skin and heads of three of them which had been left on the beach by the fishermen, but I saw no live ones. I did hear some while paddling last night. We also tested the flair gun which Johnny gave us in La Paz. It is fun, but it doesn’t go very far or very straight. We also saw a pelican with his left wing missing. This is the second one I have seen like this in the past week and I wonder how that happens. Maybe they get bitten off? Both were taken at the joint and were pretty clean. Maybe they get caught in fish nets and the fishermen cut them off, but I would think they would kill them at the same time. Perhaps they are torn off – maybe by the birds themselves when they are trapped. However it happens, it is sad to see. I would have killed it if I had the means. This way it will die slowly of starvation. About 6:30 the wind died down some and we crossed back to the mainland. The wind and current were against us so we went pretty slowly. It was about 9:00pm when we landed at the lighthouse. From where we are we can se three lighthouses – each with a different light blink pattern. We climbed the one by our last camp today for a view from the top. There is an old lighthouse right next to the current one. It is badly rusted and has a bird nest at the top. After we landed we made pasta for dinner. Once again the whole thing was gone in minutes. We are now about 24 miles from Nolan’s place in Los Barriles. It has been fun to go a bit slower and see things these past few days, but I think I am now in the mood for a good distance day tomorrow.