Asuncion to Bahia Magdalena

Bahia Asuncion

As we made it to shore in the dinghy, we noticed a fishing boat with several fisherman unloading fish from their boat and shoveling them into several huge containers that were in the bed of a truck.  They looked to be sardines. Tons of them!

It was quite a production because there were seagulls and pelicans swarming all around the boat and even sitting on the boat. They were trying to gulp down as many fish as they could before the fisherman could shoo them away.  

Waiting to swoop in on the catch of the day

We stood and watched for a while then continued on our way into town. We were in search of an Internet Café so Jeff could use the Internet and me as well.  Came to find out the Internet service was so slow we would have been there for hours so we decided we could wait for a few days until we got to a bigger town.  So we walked further to the Pemex to find out about getting fuel for the boat, but we did not have any jerry cans and they didn’t provide any either. So…no luck there.  Maybe we would have our luck at finding a market for groceries while here. But there was nothing really too appealing in the stores. All of the food packaging looked old and dusty; like it had been on the shelves for years.   

Streets of Asuncion

Tired of walking in the heat and wandering aimlessly around town, we headed back to the dinghy.  Konrad and Kim decided to swim back to the boat. Kim wasn’t too thrilled because she had just read on a sign in town that sharks are everywhere in Baja.

Abandoned Boots

Around 4pm we barbequed the Skip Jack fish that Konrad caught the day before, which was really delicious. We soon pulled up the anchor and headed south towards our next destination. As we were pulling out, we noticed that Adesso (the boat belonging to our friends from Canada) was coming in the bay to anchor. We made contact with them by radio. It was nice to see them and hear their voices.

As we were sailing along, Jeff gave Kim a little sailing tutorial and showed her how to work the Chart plotter and then put her in charge of sailing for a while. He even decided that she and Konrad were ready to do the night watches alone. So that evening, Konrad and Kim did the 6-10p.m. shift, Rick and I did the 10-2a.m shift and Jeff and Peggy did the last shift from 2-6 a.m. It worked out pretty well. Four hours on is much better than the three hours on because no two people have to do a double shift this way. That’s what we had been doing all the way down. The couple that had to do the double had it the worst.  Basically no good sleep whatsoever.

Last night during our night watch, I finally saw the luminescence in the water that I’ve heard so much about from other sailors or have read in sailing books. It was pretty amazing!  The white bubbly waves, coming off of the boat, as we were moving through the water, were filled with hundreds of these bright little fluorescent lights. It looked as if we were sailing on a path of diamonds that were guiding us on our way.  There we were alone in the dark, no sight of land and only stars in the sky and the luminescence in the water. It was definitely a magical moment.  Another item to check off of my bucket list.

Today, November 20^th, early in the morning, just as Jeff and Peggy were finishing up their shift, there was some sort of problem in the engine compartment. It seems the oil cap had come off of the motor blew oil  all over the engine and galley floor. So they were busy cleaning that up and adding more oil to the motor. Glad that did not happen on our shift!

Later this morning, Jeff caught a fish…a Dorado! This is the fish that he mentioned a little earlier that he’d like to catch. He didn’t really care to catch any other fish. He just wanted to catch a Dorado! Unfortunately just as Jeff was pulling the fish up to the boat, it violently shook its head and the hook came out of it’s mouth. So, there it went swimming away.  Bummer! But in the afternoon, Jeff’s rod was buzzing again and he had another fish on…another Dorado! This time he successfully brought it onto the boat and now we are all set for dinner tonight!

Jeff and his Dorado

A few hours later while I was typing on the computer down below, I heard everyone from the cockpit yell my name!! “Maryalice!!!!!” They told me there was a fish on the line (it was my turn to reel in a fish). Oh Boy! I threw the computer to the side of me and jumped up and ran out to the cockpit, and over to the stern where Kim was untying the pole for me (the pole was bungeed to the stanchion). Well, I carefully grabbed the pole and started to pull it up and reel it as I slowly lowered it down. It felt like I had caught a whale. It was so incredibly heavy!! I tried and tried to pull and reel but I wasn’t making much headway. I had to ask for help. Rick came to my rescue and grabbed the rod from me and he too could hardly pull it himself. We all thought I’d snagged something really big. Konrad said I caught a shark! Someone else said I had several fish on the line. Peggy said she thought she saw a Marlin. Each story grew bigger and bigger and my excitement was hard to contain.  Finally Rick got the fish to the side of the boat with Jeff’s help. It was a pretty big fish! We are not sure what kind it was but we let it go since we had just caught a fish earlier.  It looked like a combination of the last four fish we have caught since we left Ensenada. 

I am back typing on the computer now in the little bunk in our cabin and Rick is taking a little rest next to me. We have to rest up for tonight’s night watch. 

We are headed to Bahia Magdalena and should be there by early morning tomorrow, the 21^st. We plan to stay one full day and night there and depart on the 22^nd.