Wednesday, June 5

North 25° 37.390’
West 111° 11.718’
Distance: 15.1 miles

We paddled 15.1 miles today. This has been an almost perfect day – perhaps my best yet in Baja. We woke in our palapa and had shade as soon as the sun started to get hot. The weather was perfect – dry and cool. Chris came to visit us and to tell us about snakes and lizards. He claims to have caught hundreds of rattlesnakes with his hands. Perhaps he has. Anyway, he is an interesting guy. We stayed and talked to him and his wife till noon, then departed. It was a little windier than I would have liked, but that kept us cool. We saw two turtles today. One was the best I have seen. I saw him before he saw me, so I stopped paddling and drifted toward him. He hung out with me for maybe 45 seconds or a minute till Mike caught up. The second was a little closer, but very brief. The fish are changing, too. All pretty tropical fish and millions of them. Every hour or so we jumped into the water to cool off. The water temperature is ideal now – not cold but still refreshing. We stopped after three hours to rest in the shade and to have a snack of pop-tarts and hard boiled eggs. Then about 4:30 we started out again. Mike left his snorkel and mask on the beach and had to go back after about 20 minutes. After that we busted it for a while and pulled in about 7:25. A nice beach with trees and walls. We have a nice place to sleep protected by a wall from the morning sun. Mike threatened the trees with gasoline if they cause too much wind tonight. So far there is just a nice cooling breeze. We have been looking at the map and are thinking of hurrying a bit and trying to re-do some of the parts Mike missed. Or at least as much as we can before time runs out. That way we can finish up with four weeks of hard work to end up as fit as possible. Otherwise we will end with weeks of easy paddling. There is certainly a lot more traffic in this part of the sea of Cortez! We saw several boats today at a distance close enough to wave or shout. It is nice after being alone so long, but I think I will miss the solitude, too.