Today we travelled from Bahia Willard to
Puerto Refugio on the northern tip of Isla Angel de la Guarda (roughly
"Port Refuge" on "Guardian Angel Island")
We hooked several Sierra while leaving
Bahia Willard but only managed to land the one on the meat hook. The meat hook is simply some paracord tied to
a cedar plug dragging behind the boat.
The fish are hungry enough to strike the plug and then we just pull them
in. It is very passive fishing, but the
fish don't get away. Patrick has
nicknamed the plug "Old Faithful."
Here is old faithful:
Unfortunately we had to motor the whole
way, even with a 6am departure. We had
50nm to cover and the wind kicked up a chop from dead ahead. If we wanted to make it before dark, we had
to punch it at the whopping (near) top speed of 6knots (7mph).
It proved to be important to get there
with plenty of time to spare as our charts claimed our final anchorage was in
the middle of the island!
Isla Angel de la Guarda is pretty impressive,
over 40 miles long and up to 10 miles wide without a single freshwater
source. The only visible inhabitants are
nesting pelicans and they are allegedly joined by many rattlesnakes.
Here is an image of the barren island
behind the boat:
The water is clear, there are sea caves
on the island and we will enjoy lounging about tomorrow. On top of that, we are now in Steinbeck and Ed Rickett's
footsteps! Puerto Refugio is as far north
as they got aboard the Western Flyer in the Log from the Sea of Cortez. It is great fun to read of their experience
here and imagine them walking the beach collecting specimens.
Well, time to have some dinner: Chorizo
and Quinoa, our first non-fish dinner of the trip.
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