Bahia Los Frailes: Went on a death march through the desert today. We were looking for a snorkeling spot in a marine preserve that’s purportedly “just over the hill” from where we’re anchored. It’s supposed to be about 2 miles, but that’s as the buzzard flies. In our case, this was too close to the truth. More of that later, in the mean time an update on our time here. Last night the most beautiful full moon rose out of the Sea of Cortez outside the anchorage and shone over our boat. One of the Canadian boats in the anchorage has a piper, so we were treated to a sundown bagpipe serenade including “Day is Done” , “Amazing Grace” and several other haunting tunes (everything on a bagpipe is haunting). Other highlights: We were being able to just jump into the warm water after we anchored. It was windy and rough, so we put out a safety line to hang onto, but so nice to enjoy that warm, clear water. I used the occasion to swim over our anchor and see that it was firmly dug into the sand. The chain just disappears into the sand. No sign of the anchor at all. A nice sunshower on the foredeck For Ann and I completed the day. So, back to the Death March to Pulmo Beach. We couldn’t find the road right away, so we all (three couples from three boats) decided it would be cool to climb the mountain right off the beach and work our way toward the purported dive spot. Not smart. Numerous scratches to legs and arms and lots of swearing later, we climbed a rock to look down in the valley and find the road. The good news is we found it. The bad news, it took us an hour of cactus whacking (the Mexican version of bushwacking) to get there. After at least an hour of hiking in the heat and cactus, one of our group discovered a dead and decomposed buzzard. Her comment: “Oh! A dead buzzard. This can’t be good!” But, ultimately we found the road and completed our hike over to the Marine Reserve at Cabo Pulmo/Pulmo Reef. Went snorkeling. Beautiful! It was Ann’s second time ever and she did great. We saw a ton of fish and had a great day. The hike back was much shorter now that we found the road. Only about two miles or so through the desert.

But, that wasn’t the end of the adventure. By the time we got back to the boat, there was a 20 knot wind and two foot waves pounding the beach. We hadn’t put the engine on the dinghy when we left, so we had to row the 200 yards straight into the waves and wind (in an inflatable), not to mention the harrowing launch through the surf to get back to the boat (which at this point was almost taking blue water over the bow as the waves were rolling down the anchorage). A challenge indeed, but with Ann directing our course we made it out to Charisma and the very much needed cold beer! It was truly like rowing on Berkeley Circle in the afternoon. The only tragedy was that Ann lost her lip balm which we saw floating away after some tricky maneuvering to get back on board Charisma with the large waves.

Later on the radio net we heard folks talking about the Epic Dive Adventure and asking; “Who were those crazy people launching the dinghies through the surf. There were also comments from one of our party regaling the anchorage about the wild bulls we saw along the way. Someone said; “weren’t you afraid the bulls would chase you?” I couldn’t help but jumping on the radio and noting that you just have to put your running shoes on. The guy on the radio said; “You CAN’T outrun a bull!” I came back; “You don’t need to outrun the bull, you just need to outrun your partner!” That’s when Ann slapped me.

Everyone can hear what you say on the radio.