Putting the boat away

I'm back in the USA!  I made it north to the place to put my boat away and she is now sitting in a hole waiting for me to return.  

Here's a phone camera shot of a remote volcanic island on the way up...

And a bit higher...

It was a bit of a complicated story, getting to my boat hole...  I was in a bit of a hurry, or rather, I had an assertive pace going along, but then I unburdened myself of the spare time jingling around in my pocket at Puerto Refugio, in order to square the clock precisely upon arrival in Penasco.  My goal was to haul out at the tide's summit, and to stay away from the harbor until that fated hour.  

So I left Refugio at about noon, with the goal of averaging four knots, and upon setting the mainsail and spinnaker I found six!  But nary a few minutes at six passed before the deceitful wand of the speedometer strained further to the right and advanced to seven!  And then upon the eight it rested, not a few minutes more.  

At this moment the delightful dance was interrupted with a sighting of a blue whale nearby.  It is very unusual (I think) to find blue whales in the northern sea of cortez after about mid-march.  My understanding is that they migrate into the sea around the middle of January, and then leave in March to go to Costa Rica area (well, offshore of there), then in June to near Los Angeles, and then in October to Alaska, before doing the circle again.  But there it was.  

Anyways, then wind carried me along my way presently towards the evening, and a fleet of shrimp trawlers, which I dodged in the growing darkness, and on to a record of 10 knots, before ebbing with the tide in the dark hours of the night.

I tried to rest a bit while sloshing around, but eventually the sun roused me about and as the waters rose with the gravity of the day, I transited the shallow entrance to the harbor and to a shallow water dock (that is too shallow for me at low water) to wait the final minutes until my alliance with the travel-lift.

Here are some photos of the lift

And then they drove me out along the street to another lot where it is dirt.

Then the dug a hole ...

And finished it by hand

And brought the hull to the hole to settle.

Once lowered, the stands are much shorter.

So now the boat is all covered up with shades and will soon be covered in dust as well, and she will wait patiently for me to return in the fall.
 

Adventures of late, and Isla Tortuga

After working for two whole weeks, I got lazy.  I took some photos, but I didn't feel like writing anything, I guess.  Also, I headed over to Puerto Vallarta, and something about going surfing makes me not want to put my salty wet hands on my camera and take the card out to sort through pictures.

So here we are.  In La Paz, shortly after working, I picked up my friend Jonny and his girlfriend, Dani, and we set off on an adventure up into the sea.  We found a few Pygmy Sperm Whales, which look like bottlenose dolphin, but act very different.

Here's a picture of one breathing, and you can see the face is very flat in front.  They are cool animals, but really hard to get close to.  This was perfect conditions and we had lots of time and this is the best I got.

Another photo

We also saw a few sharks.  This one is swimming along, and you can see the dorsal and tail

I managed to get closer but then it spooked.

And we found some Blue Whales!

Here's a nice look at the blowhole

And the smooth skin and dorsal fin

This one had a baby

We stopped at isla Santa Catalina, and found a Shrike!

And a Hawk

And some flowering Cardon Cactus

And more Blue Whales

I like how the water fades off this one.

Sometimes they fluke up, and sometimes they don't.  This one did

The tail is a bit truncated, maybe by orca teeth?

We then set off to the other side and stopped at Isla Isabel, to look at birds

These ones were mating

And then I surfed for a few weeks before starting back over to the north.  This time I had my friend Teague along.  We also stopped at isla Isabel and there was a wave working, so I surfed it.

Its a tricky slab of a wave, when its small it doesn't really work, then a slightly bigger wave makes it throw a nice wall.  I like this one where I'm in a bit of a hole

There's some power to the wave, but it was a short run.

The next day the tide was different and I was able to catch a different section

But you have to beat a spot with a rock, and its hard.

More birdwatching, of course.

Teague and I stopped at Agua Verde and walked around, and found a jackrabbit

And a Wilson's Plover

And a Cardinal

And an Oriole

And a bunch of California Quail

And the lovely Gila Woodpecker

I dropped Teague off at Loreto, and now I'm continuing along alone.  I stopped at this island called Isla Tortuga, which is near Santa Rosalia.  Its a volcano, and I'd seen it many times but never been ashore.  Last fall I almost went, but heard that there might be lots of rattlesnakes on the island, and the timing was tight, so I skipped it.  

So I made a little map of where I went, and I landed on these rocks that stick out to the south.  There was a little south swell, and no beaches, just big watermelon sized rocks, so I didn't want to beach the dinghy.  Instead, I anchored near the rocks and then set up a close-line system to ferry the dinghy back and forth from the rocks, and then got close and stepped off onto the rock, then pulled the dinghy into deep water and safety with the circular line.  

There's a way up the about 15 ft tall vertical wall of broken rocks near this rock, so that's why I chose here to get out.  Most of the places are not accessible.  

Looking around, its pretty barren, just short grasses and lots of broken glassy lava rock.

Another view of Aquila before I leave her...

Its not too tall, maybe 1000 ft, and I did a bit of backtracking when I got to a ridge and found it didn't connect.  There's a big crater on the top, and then a large area that probably cracked open during an eruption, and partly collapsed.  I went up into that and then had to go around.  Its the light tan area as seen from above.

There are tons of cool rocks, this one is an air pocket, almost like a geode.

Here we can see the tan area that is ash, where the flank opened up a bit.

Another view of that.

There were lots of very black rocks that looked like charcoal, but I think were probably a high iron content rock.  Fe2O3 (rust) plus FeO (blue iron oxide you find on hot metal) mixed together make magnetite, and that is black.  

At the highest point there was this cactus, looking proud.

And the Crater was cool.   It seemed to be from a collapse, but then a small dome was in the center.

And that dome was maybe a spatter cone, but it was surrounded by a lake that had solidified.  When the lava cools, it leaves holes behind sometimes.

Here you can see the shoreline of the lava lake.  Imagine it being hot and liquid!

I guess you can go to hawaii and not imagine.  There were some ravens watching over me

And a Black Throated Sparrow too

A view from above.

And a weird cactus that has been chewed on from above.