Anyway, last night as I was doing my final 'walk about' before bed… that's when I walk ALL the way around our little ship and use my eyes to try and find things that will disturb our sleep and our safety overnight… Last night as I was beginning this daily ritual… I was startled.. maybe even a little frightened… by the sound of a mass of 'life' (n/k what kind) that sounded like it was not only 'huge' but bearing down on us at an alarming speed… Whales I thought… but no, the sound was far too wide and deep (like half the anchorage wide)…. a submarine I thought… but no, very unlikely.. there's nothing much too valuable in this little anchorage.. save the absolute beauty of the place… Having failed to determine what was about to assail us I did the only other thing I could…. I yelled for Kathy to come up and save us… and she did…. "Flying fish" she said, quite calmly, as if I should have known. "Oh yeah" was my learned response… and we spent the next half hour playing spot-light tag with huge schools of 'large' (1/2 to1 pounders) flying fish… all throughout the anchorage. When we hit them with the spot light, hundreds would take to the air…. it was like ballet.. only louder, wetter, and well… awesome. OK Dad, I think it's safe to say… we have seen flying fish… big ones, lots of 'em…
On another note, but still talking about fish, we learned something from one of those 'happy wanderer types' we meet from time to time. There are lots of types of boats 'n sailors that we've been meeting on our travels… and there's something to learn and /or share with each of them. Yesterday a small (25') Cal sailed into the bay (we're still at Isla San Francisco)…. dropped his hook nice and close to the rock wall (we're too new to do this.. we're still out in the middle of the bay…. maybe next year :-). Anyway, then he jumped in to his rather older inflatable dinghy and started motoring at speed (3-4 knots) back and forth along the shore and not too far out either. It was on his third pass I noticed the shimmer of nylon line and realized he was trolling something from his dinghy. Having never seen this kind of thing before we stopped by his boat on our way back from the beach and asked what he'd been doing. He told us he'd had lots of luck, trolling back and forth that way.. he'd caught yellow-tail.. even a dorado in this very bay… that way. So, add that to our list of 'ways to catch fish' in the Sea of Cortez… who knew??
This place we're anchored in is fantastic. It's… well, it's an example of why we left home in the first place. The water isn't tropical temperatures by any means… but everything else is here. White sand beach, azure water, bits of coral and exotic-looking seashells, beautiful red and green rock walls, mountains, formations, etc…. Several hikes up into the surrounding 'mountains' to places with fantastic views (we did that this morning), fish very near (about to go jigging off the point)… and some real nice folks that are anchored here with us and/or that drop by for a day or two and then carry on. We're all going somewhere (north or south) but while the weather holds, this is THE place to hang.
Pot luck on the beach at 1600 hrs. with a bunch of strangers who will be friends within moments. Sophie's doing well as are we. Hope all is good with you folks.. ttfn.. CJ
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