SVSoulsticeAdventures: Continued COVID Cruising

A blur of days since my last blog entry. In the last blog entry, we were in Puerto Escondido in a slip. We left out of PE on May 9th, the day after Stephen’s mother’s birthday. Yeah for Amazon as we were able to amazon some nice Bday gifts and actually call his mother, Renee, to wish her a Happy Birthday but also to capitalize on an opportunity for a Mother’s Day message as well. I too also was able to contact my mother and send her some lovely gifts via Amazon.

Since then we headed north to Bahia San Juanico, off the peninsula of Baja and the farthest north we achieved in our 2018 Mexico cruising. We had a few more days with SV Milou as they were planning to continue to Puerto Penasco afterward, which is the farthest northern marina in the Sea of Cortez on the east side for an eventual haul out at the end of the month. They were hopeful as some boats were getting hauled out despite the COVID 19 restrictions. We spent 4 days in San Juanico and enjoyed a peak hike we did last year and additionally some spearfishing. The visibility was not so great but Stephen and I both scored a total of 4 triggerfish. There really was not much else on the menu. When you spearfish you get to see the possible menu and it was quite limited there.

We had invited Milou for a dinner of fish cakes for Mother’s Day. We figured we could get Larry out of making dinner for Nicole and we needed a fair bit of fish because Ellie is only 10 years in age and a gorgeous mermaid but eats like a 16 old year boy. The next night we enjoyed a stern tie to SV Milou on our paddleboards and also chatted with SV Tara on their dinghy. SV Tara is a lovely couple from Holland, who are retired and made there way from Holland across the Atlantic, through the Caribbean, AROUND CAPE HORN, through Central America and now are enjoying Mexico. We actually don’t know their age and don’t care but would guess late 60’s/early 70’s and as vivacious as in their early 30’s. They are enamored with nature and traveling and it was evident in their conversation and their travel experiences. The funniest thing was Jacqueline was upset because on the SSB she was concerned people thought her boat name was “terror” and not “ Tara”! Her husband’s name was Role, pronounced “rool” and all the gringos on SSB just couldn’t get it right. We do enjoy meeting folks in Mexico who have traveled extensively and not just on the US/Mexico route.

Speaking of…. our friends from SV Spruce who did venture to the Gambier Islands prior to the official border closures of French Polynesia are doing well. French Polynesia has finally opened up it’s borders and inter-island travel is allowed. We still feel good about our decision not to go but happy for these guys as they had to quarantine but can continue with their sailing plans. We wish them well and hope things continue on a positive track.

After San Juanico, we headed back south for some warmer water and better clarity. We made our way to Bahia Cobre, on the northeast corner of Isla Carmen. We had a fantastic time here with some great hikes along the rim, sightings of big-horned sheep, and some great spearfishing. We stayed here for several days and then another friend boat, SV Blue Wind, joined us. Due to some NW winds coming we moved to Bahia Perico, which is an anchorage just around the corner to the south. We did a hike one day with Chris from SV Blue Wind that turned into a 4-hour hike with an originally intended 2-hour hike. There was bushwhacking that occurred. When I say this, in a desert environment with cactus and multiple bushes with long, pointy spikes, it has a whole new meaning. Chris was a trooper but if we said, “oh this is good, we just need to get to the ‘next ridge’ over” Chris would say, “ if you say next ridge one more time, you will get a (hiking) pole in the butt!” AAAHHHH!!! We did eventually make it back to our boats and found a fairly painless clearing in the brush and were joyful to return to our respective boats.

We had SV Blue Wind over for dinner, making a salad and some grilled fish that we had speared. We were hoping Chris could forgive us for the long trek in the desert. We also played “What do you Meme?” which a fun card game for adults.

After this, we then continued even farther south to an anchorage just adjacent to Agua Verde. We already had spent time here a few weeks ago with SV Milou. We thoroughly enjoyed returning as the spearfishing is great, snorkeling is great, great paddle-boarding to several adjacent bays and we had some great swims in the anchorage. I really enjoy using Stephen’s Euro 110 Riffe speargun. The accuracy is fantastic and I was able to land a large barred Pargo and a spotted rose snapper at some distance. Chris lent me her speargun and it was good to try another. The accuracy is definitely not the same. It also required that I be just as close as my pulse spear which I am more comfortable with and does not require “re-loading”. I definitely have decided I will get the same speargun as Stephen but with 3 bands so I can load it independently. He has 2 bands and it is with great effort to get the bands loaded. Chris’s gun had 2 bands and I could load them but it was also with some great effort as well. It is fantastic to be able to feed ourselves and other buddy boats with our spearfishing efforts.

Spearfishing to me is snorkeling but also on the hunt. You really do take an appreciated view of the underwater environment. What fish are around, thriving, and their behaviors… We do see eels at times and very large ones, like 8 feet long and ribbon-like swimming along. The green moray eels. I did have a small eel track me one day and I think it because in that anchorage at night there are multiple local Mexican divers on the hooka and just fishing. They assimilate that knowledge and find the diver to be a food source. I had to point my spear at this little guy and make a move on him and then he took off. It is always a good reminder to be thoughtful about who is around when you are on the hunt and I always am.

Now I will include an excerpt from Stephen’s journal to complete this blog entry….

5/25/2020

A beautiful Baja morning! Jen and I awoke and made coffee and chatted on the Amigo Net. I was feeling great from my swim the day before and we were still finishing the Pargo, so no spearfishing yet. The water in the anchorage was mirror pond and visibility pretty good. We donned our swimming gear again and swam wall to wall several times for an hour swim. We made some bread to rise for baking tomorrow morning, I rinsed some clothes and did a small batch of laundry. Jen chatted via Satellite with her mother for about 20 minutes. We began on a new book together “ Maiden Voyage” after the swim. I did grill up the rest of the pargo that I had for some breakfast and some I made a great pargo fish salad not unlike tuna fish salad but way way better with flaky white meat, onions, mayo, dijon, capers, and garlic. I sent “Pops” a nice email. I also took my Serrano chiles that I sun-dried to a nice, dry cherry red and made three bottles of hot sauce that I placed in two 355ml bottles and one smaller bottle that I made for Blue Wind. I put white vinegar in a pot and boiled it with all the peppers (deseeded), shaved carrots x1, 1 clove of garlic crushed, and Himalayan salt. After boiling I let it cool for 1/2 hour. I then used our handheld smoothy mixer and pureed it. I used some (ALOT) on my open-faced pargo sandwich that was on our homemade bread. Yummy! I’m thinking the next time I do this hot sauce I will add some dehydrated mangoes and this will be more like a sweet Caribbean hot sauce. Later in the afternoon, Jen and I went for a SUP around the East point. I took the pole spear since we saw a school of either yellowtail or yellow jack. On the way back to Soulstice we were on the outside of the point when suddenly there was a big flap/slap that came from behind and nearly pushed me off my SUP. I naturally about crapped myself and for an instant in my mind’s eye was thinking… “ shark!”, but in all actuality, it was a medium-sized ray as I saw him take off. The water was calm and there was a lot of life out. At the start of the paddle, Jen saw an enormous Manta Ray that glided under her board. She dropped to her knees knowing that if this guy flapped she was surely going in the drink. What a show!?! Once he came out from under her board, he showed his large wings off by raising them out of the water and slapping the surface with a powerful and thunderous smack. We had captain’s hours on Blue Wind with a few margarita’s and rum, lime, and brown sugar cocktails. We returned to Soulstice shortly after sunset and made Pargo fish tacos.

Near sunset, we went to shore with Alex and Chris and made a nice campfire. It was a lovely mellow evening under the stars and a great session of speaking the philosophies of life under the raw beauty of nature. We had another no moon paddle in the phosphorescence. The sliver of a waxing crescent moon descended over the horizon fast on the heels of the Sun before we set out to paddle back. It was like paddling glitter each time our paddle pushed through the water to advance us forward.

While deep in our sleep that night, Jen and I both heard the sound of running water. We hopped out of bed and followed the sound to the cockpit. There was a phosphorescent glow in the water about 30 feet across and it was moving counter-clockwise and looked like a cyclone. The fish were swimming so fast in such a large school at the surface, it sounded like a rushing creek. Periodically, we heard some really large splashes near the boat and the sound would stop for 30 seconds to a minute, we thought it was either large fish or a shark or a dolphin. I never heard the breathing of a dolphin so I am skeptical that that's what it was. What I can say is there is no better sleeping than being surrounded spherically 360 degrees by nature, two-fluid mediums teaming with life. The sea takes on a completely different personality at night. Hearing schools of vibrant life dashing back and forth under the hull of the boat and splashes right next to our heads at the waterline of the boat is amazing. I have an intoxicating love affair with nature!