The winds in the lower portion of the Sea of Cortez have finally somewhat abated. Today was a really nice day with the winds out of the north from 5-10 knots. It is a little bit stronger now but probably around 10-12 knots. Earlier this morning my pal Alberto, the Baja Adventures camp dude, left and was traded out with Victor, or as his friends call him...Pelon (melon head). lol After getting a few things done this morning I decided that today's exercise was a paddle around the bay so I started out with going over to the beach and introducing myself to Melon Head. A younger guy, kind of chubby and no hair, but he seems like a nice guy. He said they won't have clients in until Sunday so he is basically just watching over the camp. Tough job. ha. After visiting with Victor I paddled out to the end of the point...into the wind. ugh. It took me about 35 minutes to paddle the 1 mile into the wind and then I turned around and cruised downwind and the same mile took me just over 15 minutes. The paddle was super cool as I was paddling over crystal clear, aqua blue water and was able to see the reef, coral, sand and various fishes as I passed over them. That view beats a gym any day!
After lunch I set about to start replacing some of my running rigging. The running rigging are all of the lines/ropes that control the sails which includes hoisting, trimming or furling. All told it took me about 3 hours to replace the main sheet and the main outhaul lines. I know it doesn't sound like much but the outhaul line passes through the inside of the boom so I had to sew the end of the new line to the end of the old in order to pull it through and be sure that it didn't separate somewhere in the middle of the boom. It is not something you want to take a chance on by just taping them together. The main sheet didn't require me to sew the ends together as it doesn't pass through any unreachable voids like the boom. However, I did have to put an eye splice in the end of it where it attaches to the boom and that is a serious project for a beginner like myself. Eye splicing double braid line is seriously complicated and to do the one splice took me about an hour and 15 minutes. Whoever figures this stuff out for the first time anyway? If you saw what was entailed, you would be impressed.
Now it is about 5pm or so and I'm getting ready to put another meal on the table. I think tonight I will finish off that last lobster from Los Gatos along with some fried spuds and poblano peppers in garlic. Before Alberto left he paddled over in his kayak and was telling me that there are Chocolatas (large brown clams) right under the boat. I didn't get around to it today but I think tomorrow I will take a dive and see if I can grab a few. I have some leftover cheese, potato soup that would greatly be enhanced if I threw in some fresh clams. Sounds good anyway. Will let you know tomorrow about the Chocolata situation.
That's about it for today. I will be grilling that lobster watching the sun go down on another day in the Sea of Cortez. Ciao for now.
Bret
SV Liahona
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