The Taco Traveler

Morning, Sat May 10, 2008

It's a beautiful morning here on the east side of the Baja cape. Still flat-calm conditions as it's been since I left Cabo San Lucas, and the sun rose a little while ago I put the fishing line back out. Nothing yet, but I forgot to mention that when I put it in the water upon leaving CSL, I got a strike in less than 20 seconds. Unfortunately, it was another Jack Crevalle. Ick. So I let it go.

There are currently about 20 sports fishing boats cruising full-speed all around me trying to get out their preferred fishing zone farther offshore. I'm only about 5 miles offshore and approaching Cerralvo Channel, which is produced by the Baja mainland and the west side of Isla Cerralvo. I'll be stopping this afternoon at Bahia Bonanza, on the southeast edge of Isla Espiritu Santo, north of La Paz. At this pace I'll get there about 4pm, which is about 22 hours after I left CSL. I can say with absolute certainty that this was my easiest overnight passage yet. The seas were always flat-calm, and I basically hugged the shoreline about 4 miles out. I got a bit of wind on my beam from the east about 3am so I put up the headsails for an hour or so, but it didn't last. Mostly it's been just the main and it's been mostly just hanging limp as Chemistry and I steam along at 6.2 knots. I had dinner around 9pm, a coffee about 10, a green tea about 2am, and I haven't been uncomfortably tired. About 5am, with no land or traffic on the 8-mile radar as I crossed a bay, I set my iPhone timer for 30 mins and I think I might have slept for the last 20 minutes or so, and I feel refreshed and ready to go till 4pm.

I did have a close call with a shrimper last night. Those guys don't seem to care where they go or who they might run into. I'd have some more choice words for them if the close call hadn't been my fault for trying to avoid the guy in the first place by steering towards land, unable to tell at that early time (5 miles or so) if that's where he was headed also. So we got closer and closer, me contemplating turning more towards land or outward, and finally it became necessary to turn outward as we got within about 100 yards of each other. He just kept movin' along. Doh-de-doh, duuuuuuuh, bringin' home the camarones. If he were fishing I realize he would have had the right-of-way, and any discussion of right-of-way is stupid because nobody wants to get run down no matter who's at fault. Really, I just want to go ahead and claim my right to bitch about shrimpers, and our close encounter is the perfect opportunity. What else do they do? Well, occasionally down here you end up sharing an anchorage with a shrimper or two. And at anchor they'll leave their smelly diesels running all night, and their deck lights (kleig lights) are usually on all night, too. And VHF? They have no respect for the channel 16; they whistle to each other out of boredom, they have long conversations... all night long. It makes it hard to be a good citizen and monitor 16 for vessels in distress or for the Mexican Navy if they decide to board me.

But they do bring home those tasty camarones.

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I firmly believe that everyone has a guilty dancing pleasure. You have to admit this. Mine is Britney Spears' "In the Mix" Remixes. "Toxic (Peter Rauhofer Reconstruction)" is awesome, and my favorite has to be "Me Against the Music (Justice Remix)." If one of those start playing on my iPod here on the boat (or just happens to be selected by me because of a mood-necessity) and at that time you just happened to be on shore with a high-powered telescope handy, you might catch me dancing in the cockpit, planted-foot-gyrating unless I really want to push the whole balance envelope on the pitching boat. If I were caught on video, I'd be the new Numa Numa. Hey, it's an isometric workout.... Sorry. However, to minimize the impact of this embarrassing revelation (maybe?) I have to say I do the same when Daft Punk comes on. Especially "Robot Rock."

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I just caught another Jack, but this time it was a White Skipjack, which is good, as opposed to the Black Skipjacks which have spots and are gross. I know this now because I looked it up on a "Fish ID" web site I downloaded before I got to Mexico, but forgot I had. I saw it again as I was copying my salvaged data from my old hard drive. It wasn't actually Jack Crevalles I've been letting go; they were Black Skipjacks (and only one didn't survive). I'm just hoping I didn't actually throw back any good Jacks before I confirmed this. :-/ Anyway, after a good 10-minute fight, I let this Skipjack go, too. He was too big for me to eat in two days (about 15-20 lbs), and he put up a good fight, so he deserved it. After an earlier Skipjack took a bad hook in the eye, I decided to pinch the barbs on my hooks (on this particular lure). If I can't land a fish with de-barbed hooks, I don't deserve to eat it anyway. And it was nice being able to just give him some slack and let him spit it out once I got him to the boat.

I'm approaching my overnight anchorage - a beautiful spot on the southern tip of Isla Ispiritu Santu called Playa la Bonanza. There are no other boats there. In fact, it kinda seems like the Sea is deserted. I've seen very few boats since leaving Cabo. Looking forward to anchoring and swimming to shore.

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There is actually one other boat here. It's a big motor yacht (big as in 60-feet or so), so I'm not sure how I didn't see it from farther out when I wrote the previous section. But the beach is a mile long, and this island is uninhabited. So the beach and anchorage are pretty cool. I'm anchored very firmly in about 18 feet of water with a slight breeze blowing towards the beach. If it was blowing that way before I probably wouldn't have stopped here (you don't want to drag onto a beach), but it just picked up as I got close. Anyway, after I set the anchor I grabbed my mask, snorkel and fins and jumped in the water. It feels cold at first, but it's like 80 degrees, which isn't bad. It's cold for down here this time of year, so I hear, but it doesn't require a wetsuit for a quick anchor and boat-bottom check. I dove on the anchor and saw that it was perfect, so I'll sleep well. It's almost completely buried and perfectly even (both flukes equally buried). The water is clear and blue, and if Rich and Deb read this they'll be bummed because this is what they wanted and needed for a Mexico sailing trip - we just went to the wrong place (Cabo) at the wrong time (when the Sea of Cortez was angry). But now, up in the islands, it couldn't be more beautiful and perfect. Fish are biting, there's warmth, there's clear blue water, the beaches are white sand.... However, given all that, I need to post this, get some dinner, and get to sleep. I've had about 15 minutes of sleep since 2 nights ago. All told, it was 22 hours to here from Cabo - about 130 nautical miles. 4:45 now, and I'll leave tomorrow morning for a day-sail and stop tomorrow evening somewhere before sunset, then probably just one more overnighter to Guaymas.

TT