Observations--about me and the wildlife

It is amazing how sitting cooped up in a boat for only a short time can make one "half empty".  In saying that Muertos had "nothing much to recommend it", I completely overlooked the evening show on he day we pulled in.  We got to watch a half-dozen small manta rays (maybe 18-24 inches across) cavorting in the cove.  They would repeatedly come well out of the water (maybe 4 feet clear of the surface). While "flying", they continue to flap those great sea wings--though without feathers, they don't do much.  Then they do a colossal belly-flop, and get up speed to go again.  I'd read about this behavior, and seen an individual ray jump once a way off, but never seen a show like this. 

On the subject of wildlife, I'd commented on bird behavior in La Paz (elsewhere in an e-mail):
"Add another previously respectable and admired bird to the list.

Background:  The cormorants here are not shy like at Klamath.  They will give you stink-eye if you walk by within 5 feet or so, but otherwise don't stop fishing on account of humans.  So, I've been able to watch.  Yesterday,  I saw a cormorant come up with a fish of the wide flat variety(likely a Seargent-Major http://www.4loge.net/Phuket%20vacation/Underwater/Seargent%20Major.jpg )--maybe 6" long, but too broad for a cormorant to swallow.  That hooked beak had the fish well secured, but every time the cormorant tried to adjust it to get it "down the hatch", the fish would wiggle away.  Three times the cormorant went under after it, and came up with apparently the same fish.  Eventually it just abandoned the fish, which was injured and picked up by gulls in due course.

Cut to breakfast this morning.  Same story (for all I know, same cormorant-slow learner).  After a couple of unsuccessful tries to swallow its fish, a brown pelican dive-bombed the cormorant!.  Landed right on his back.  The cormorant dove, and after 15 or 20 seconds, came up 75 feet away, with fish.  The pelican came off the water, and with 4 wing-beats, bombed the cormorant again.  This time, although it dove, it must have lost the fish.  The pelican put it's head under, came up and swallowed something wiggly. 

Never mind that the cormorant probably needs to learn what it can swallow.  That was rude--and very (bald) eagle-like.  Brown pelicans are very nearly perfect fishermen, and hardly need to steal. 

I do have to note that my sympathies are a bit subjective and limited.  I've not lost any sleep over how the fish felt about this whole thing." 

 I am now happy to report that it is apparently only the "town birds" that behave this way.  I've observed them hanging out with gulls, even begging for scraps from fishermen with the gulls.  Hanging with a bad crowd.  They probably smoke too much and stay out till the bars close, and lack the energy to fish.  At Balandra, just a few miles out of La Paz, we observed proper pelican behavior, circling along the face of a cliff, then hitting the water like a brick, and coming up with a fish.  I did not see one miss.  All's right with the world.

More than 6 bits, but barely.

Well, I said we'd be in Puerto Vallarta on Saturday or so.  More like leaving then.  We left La Paz Monday, as planned, and all went fine--it is just that at 6 MPH, 400 miles is a long way.  We are sitting in Ensenada de Los Muertos--a tiny cove with nothing much to recommend it other than good anchorage and shelter from the north, 70 miles from La Paz (probably about 30 as the crow flies--but out of the big bay and headed south).  We'd planned to stop here Tuesday evening, and did.  We woke yesterday to wind getting stronger fast.  The winds have been moving between 15 and 25-30 knots--gusts to 35 a few times, and are expected to do so until Saturday AM.  We're in the middle of what they call a "Norther" here.  Their winter storms here are winter storms that got out of the US by accident, and so always come from that direction. 

 

We can sail in that kind of weather--we did a time or two on the way down the Oregon and CA coast, but it is bumpy and no fun.  On top of that, Anne found a virus to bring with us from La Paz--just a minor flu bug, but who wants to sit up all night in a bumpy sea with anything that resembles the flu?   Oh, yes--the Sea of Cortez is noted for "square waves", meaning very short period waves that seems to be as far apart as they are tall. I think they over-play them some, but it is a real phenomenon, common to Southeast Alaska, as well as to shallow water everywhere.  Wind opposing current in shallow water does make different waves, and 25 knots of wind can make for some very uncomfortable conditions.  Thankfully, we'll be going downwind when we go!

 

The engine is working fine.  No shakes or shudders--which is new to us, and makes hot water in the water heater without overheating--something we have been without for a while.   After our sea trials, I wondered why the math was not working.  Knowing how fast the old engine was spinning the prop, and spinning the same prop a the same speed ought to make the boat go the same speed.  So, why were we coming up a half-knot short?  We could run the engine up to get the same speed, but it was working harder.  Oh, yes--we have been sitting for 2 1/2 months in a tropical sea--boat not moving, and aggressive marine crud attaching.  I hired a local diver for a "shave and haircut" consisting of a scrape with a very dull trowel (dull is good, as it won't skin off the paint) followed by a thorough scrubbing with a green pad, and replacing the prop zinc, which was going away very fast.  1.5 hours work underwater--$30.  I could not resist the urge to tip a bit. 

 

So we sit in jeans and sweaters, wishing we hadn't put so many warm clothes in storage.  It may be in the mid-60s, and mid-50's at night, but that much wind makes it seem distinctly un-tropical.   Our major source of entertainment has been a Mexican Shrimper that pulled in here late Tuesday night--and dragged anchor away by morning--to steam back up the bay and anchor--three more times today.  They have a huge and ancient looking "classic" anchor--the kind that they always use in cartoons--with two big hooks, and a stock on the other end to make it lie flat.  Probably enough anchor for that boat, but they have no chain, and seem to put out about 50 feet or so of rope in 25 feet of water.  I don't think they anchor a lot, but they are learning.  The last time, they dropped that big hook about 100 feet behind us, and let out anchor rope until they stopped about 1/4 mile away.  They seemed to stick this time!