Yesterday's trip was long by the standards we have been keeping, a whopping fourteen miles. We started out with little wind but it piped up a bit as we made the half way mark and engines were turned off as we unfurled the jib. We had a fairly tricky area to pass through near the end of our trip as we made our way around the point and through several hidden reefs. Top that off with charts that are off by a quarter mile and it can be a bit unnerving when it looks like you are crossing over the islands.
We were able to get the Indy 500 on our Sirius radio, the first race I have listened to in years. There I was, at the helm, switching over from motor to sail, passing through the hidden reefs, and we were down to the last fifteen minutes of the race, one of the most exciting finishes in a long time. With one eye on the water, one eye on the depth gauge, keeping watch on the GPS and listening to the last few minutes of the race I was quite excited. What a fun afternoon.
We made it safely around Punta San Marcial and through the reefs, another three miles, and into the Bahia Agua Verde area. This is a very well protected bay with several smaller bays within the bigger bay. Laying a mile across from northeast to southwest, we headed to the small bay on the southwest. There was one other boat that we joined in there and then we were joined by a couple of more. Plenty of room for us all, it was a great spot.
The water is Bahamas clear and we have a group of fish hanging out under Neos already. The little puffers are about six to eight inches long with great big brown eyes. I started cleaning barnacles and these little barnacle eaters thought the food truck had arrived. They weren't afraid of me one bit as they got right in my face as I scraped away. I was able to get one hull cleaned, no wet suit, but the water would turn from very comfortable to icy chilly.
We watched a movie (of course). Meryl Streep in First Do No Harm. An interesting story, based in reality, about the medical system, making it look bad. The message was about a possible cure for epilepsy. It seems that one in three patients are cured of epilepsy through a strict diet over three years and then they can go back to normal eating. The question would be, why not try it and see if one third of the patients could be helped without harm instead of putting them right into all the terrible side affects of the medication not to mention the removal of the skull and tampering with brain surgery. Don't get me started on short sighted people…….more later..
PS I forgot to mention a strange thing that happened a few days ago. We were having breakfast and as usual the VHF radio was on. It is usually quiet in these areas but this particular morning we picked up a morning Net. We were sitting in Timbabiche, the bay known as Bahia San Carlos. The Net came on good and strong saying they were broadcasting from San Carlos. We looked at each other, the only boat in the bay, and asked where the heck all these people were that were checking in. We got the guide book out to check our location and peeked out the windows to make sure we were all alone. Then we noticed, we were picking up a perfect skip from about two hundred miles away. San Carlos is across the Sea of Cortez, laying at 28 degrees north while we were about 25 north. It sounded like they were right there with us. Being that the usual range for these radios is about five miles we were amazed……
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