Magdalena Bay

Today is Friday the 21^st.  We are 14 miles from Magdalena Bay. It’s been a nice warm sunny morning. Winds are 7 knots. We have been sailing with the Jib and Mainsail.

My Crocodile Dundee enjoying the sunshine

Around 10:00 a.m. just sailing alongside Santa Margarita, Peggy caught a Barracuda! I guess it wasn’t big enough to keep so we had to let it go.  It sure was a pretty looking fish…silver and blue with black stripes.

Here’s where the fun begins! A half an hour later after Peggy caught her fish, I caught a Dorado…a 45” one, weighing about 30 lbs.  I was so excited when they handed me the rod! It was SO hard to pull in and reel! At times I couldn’t. The reel would not budge. Jeff asked me if I needed help and I said yes. So he took over for a while…pulling up on the rod then reeling. He sort of showed me how to do it and then handed it back to me. It was a lot easier after he showed me how to do it. I took my time when the fish would pull and waited before reeling some more.  Being patient seems to be important! My arm was killing me but I kept doing what Jeff had told me. I was making progress. Finally, almost thirty minutes later, we managed to get the fish to the side and lifted the beast on board. He was really putting up a fight on the way up to the boat. I was afraid I was going to lose him. Now, catching a fish on a sailboat and a motorboat are two different feats. On a motorboat, you are usually stopped in the water just bobbing around. It’s just you and the fish. But in a sailboat, you can’t stop the wind so the boat is moving along while you’re trying to pull in a fish. It makes it a bit more of a challenge.  But it is a blast!

You can see the Dorado's color starting to fade near Konrad's foot :(

Me and my fish

Since I caught the fish I was responsible for putting it out of its misery. I was handed a hammer and a rag. I placed the rag over the fish’s face and Konrad showed me where to hit the hammer. I had to close my eyes as I did it. It took several thuds. I did not like this part. After the fish was apparently dead, the color from its beautiful golden yellow skin was fading.  I noticed the same thing happening to Jeff’s fish the day before. It’s kind of sad. It’s as if its spirit left and all we had was the body.  I kept petting him gently on the head apologizing for hurting him.  I said a little prayer for his swift journey to fish heaven.  Sappy, but it’s true.

Rick came to cut the fish open and remove its insides. Then he cut him in half because he was too big to fit in the fridge. So we had two parts of a big fish, bagged in the bottom of our fridge. 

The rest of the day was low key by comparison to catching the Dorado! But it was nice and relaxing, sunny and light winds.

Konrad and Kim

We arrived at Punta Belcher inside of Magdalena Bay where we anchored for the night. It was the most beautiful setting! The color of the water was incredible. You would see patches of dark blue and a lighter blue all around. There was an island in the backdrop and Punta Belcher in front of us. This point had some mountains and scrub brush with a beautiful sandy beach. 

After we anchored, Rick, Jeff and Peggy and I got into the dinghy and zipped to shore. Konrad and Kim stayed behind to relax.

We jumped out of the dinghy and pulled it way up on shore as far as we could drag it. Then we went walking to check things out….do a little exploring. I found a ton of beautiful shells and gathered as many as my hands and pockets could hold. Jeff and Peggy walked over to a fishing Panga that was parked just at the edge of the water and the sand and bought some shrimp from one of the fisherman. 

Rick and Jeff helping the Fisherman get their boat off the sand

As we walked further along, we noticed some little shanty looking structures and small tents tucked up in the scrub brush. They looked really run down and there were no occupants in view. Further ahead we saw some fishing Panga’s parked on the other side of that. So we came up with the conclusion that these little shacks were for the fisherman. They probably stayed there at night during the week or whenever they fished because the island so remote and then had a home somewhere else in a nearby town. Just a guess. 

 

Fisherman's dwelling

We walked back, got in dinghy and headed back to our boat. While zipping along, we noticed a new sailboat coming in to anchor. It was some people we met in Turtle Bay at a little restaurant. Their names were Rich, Katia and Thorston. Yes…THORston. Apparently the boy likes super heroes. Thor is one of them.  Thorston is about 4-5 years old and cute, bright and friendly as can be.  So, we motored over to their boat to say hello and to offer them half of the fish I caught earlier today.  They were delighted and quickly accepted. They came by later in their dinghy to retrieve the fish. We visited for a while and they were telling of us how their journey that day was a challenging one and that the night before, in the middle of the night, they caught someone on their boat trying to steal their outboard motor. They blasted their air horn and flashed a light on the thief, and he ran off.

Katia, Rich & Thorston from Bodega Bay

After they left, we Barbequed the other half of the Dorado.  It was totally delicious! Kim prepared some root vegetables…sweet potatoes, beets and russet potatoes, and I steamed some broccoli. It was another meal fit for a king! Dorado is my new favorite eating fish.  I did have a hard time eating it at times because I would flash on how I had to hit it on the head and saw it being cut open and all the blood that came out of the fish.  Rick said to me earlier while I was petting the fish and apologizing to it that I better not give the fish a name or I’d have a hard time eating it. He was right. I didn’t give it a name, but I bonded with the fish just after I caught it.

That night was an early one. Jeff had a horrible toothache which probably needs a root canal procedure soon, and went to bed early. The rest of us went to bed right after dinner.

During the night the wind howled! It was so windy! The wind speed was 20 knots or more. The boat was rocking all night. But fortunately it was rocking forward and backward instead of side to side. 

Jeff was up early and started the engine before any one was awake. Rick quickly got dressed to help Jeff pull up the anchor and we took off.  It was a little cloudier and cooler than the past few mornings but really beautiful out. The sun was just rising over a nearby island. 

Sailing along with our jib and mainsail with Santa Margarita to our port, a big fishing boat with both nets out came past us. It was a really nice old looking boat….lots of character. Konrad snapped a photo of it and so did I. Later on Konrad got his camera and zoomed in on the picture near the stern of the fishing boat to see what the name was on it. As he zoomed in he noticed that there were two men, sitting on the stern of the boat with their naked bums hanging over the back taking a dump! What?! Yes…taking a dump. We were all in hysterics!! How funny was that. And..disgusting! It was funny to see one guy doing this, let alone two guys doing this at the same time!!

Morning Constitution…a closer look

Around 1:00 p.m. we had a whale sighting! I heard this woosh sound and jumped up wondering what that was. And lo and behold it was a huge whale! It was about 30’ from the stern of our boat. We saw it’s big tale going down into the water, then we saw it come up, breach and go back down twice. And that was it. I was so bummed. I wanted to see more of him and a closer view. I really wanted a picture too. But I was too late!

Tonight is our last night on Amante. We should be in Cabo by 11 a.m. tomorrow morning.  I’m excited to finally get there on one hand but sad to get off of the boat…the ocean and all the fun that we’ve been experiencing.

Me in my favorite spot