Feb 14-19: First,
let me start off by saying that my mom and her friend, Jan, were the perfect
good luck charm we needed to find some wind and amazing wildlife. We left the
dock early on Saturday morning to head north and found a perfect breeze and
sailed ALL THE WAY (yes, sailed) to Isla San Francisco (about 44 nautical
miles)!! We anchored up right before sunset and we went to the beach for a
quick walk on the beach to watch the sunset (a very good one too!). The next
morning we did the spectacular ridge walk before headed a little further north
to San Evaristo. Jan had a blast giving herself a little salt/mud scrub from
the salt flats and both her and my mom took part in their first dip in the Sea
of Cortez, a very monumental moment.
Today, something incredibly special
happened and I will say now that I will never do the moment justice with words
or photos, but I will do my best. We were motoring up to San Evaristo after our
hike and Mary and I were making a peanut butter cookie bar down below when we
heard a chorus of “Oh my god” and “holy sh**”. Of course we ran up on deck to
see what happened, and within minutes a humpback whale breached fully out of
the water 50 yards off Martha’s bow. We were stunned, absolutely stunned
speechless. For the next half hour we watched this humpback (we named it Bella)
breach 3 or 4 times, then dive to breach again a few minutes later. It was a
stunning display of grace and beauty out of animal that we would not ordinarily
think to be graceful. Bella gave us a spectacle of a lifetime (whether he/she
knew it or not), the powerful agility combined with the grace that they are
capable of is not something that you can capture with photos of words, but I
hope that I have made an image in your minds that might come close.
After that excitement, we continued
on our way to San Envaristo and were welcomed with a strong down pour of rain
(the kind to soak you in minutes). Mary and I had a blast sliding down the deck
and splashing in the puddles that accumulated. It was a quiet afternoon reading
and drinking hot cocoa. The next day we went for a walk over to the pebble
beach and just spent a couple quiet moments to revel in the beauty of the
water. We sailed (all the way again!) to Bahia Grande on Isla Partida and anchored
up in the middle lobe mid-afternoon. We did a little boat work but mostly had a
quiet evening. The next morning we headed up to Los Isolotes to swim with the
sea lions one last time! They were playful again today and the pups played
around with us for quite some time. I got a pretty bad jellyfish sting and
decided to cut it short, but my mom and Jan stayed in for a while more,
watching them play with this one pup who was leaping in and out of the water
like a dolphin. I have never seen such big smiles on those two. After the fun
there, we headed down (sailed again!) to El Candalero for some more snorkeling
and boat work. I have never seen two people snorkel more than my mom and Jan
did. It was amazing. I went for a quick dip but then had to attend to some boat
work. The next morning we headed to shore to do the awesome little hike up the
arroyo and while we didn’t find any more frogs, we did find SNAKES. Not one,
but two. It was strange because I noticed one and couldn’t figure out which end
was its tail and which was its head. It looked like he was shedding his skin
but upon closer inspection, I saw this his head was in another snakes mouth…
They were both the same species of snake so we couldn’t decided if it was a
territorial thing or a really funny mating ritual. I will let you as the reader
decide which you prefer. We took our time coming down and instead of the trail
followed the riverbed and found a perfect perching rock to watch the water.
Later on, we sailed down to San Grabriel and mom and I took a kayak to go watch
the frigate birds (the rookery is there). They smell almost as bad as the sea
lions, nothing like an accumulation of poop! It seems that mating season was
pretty over, the males were not displaying their red throats like before but we
did catch a couple of them. We hauled the kayaks up on the beach and took a
little walk before headed back to the boat for dinner.
In celebration of the last day, we
did more snorkeling! We moved over to the anchorage by the point and got suited
up to go explore. We saw a HUGE variety of fish and sea stars. Some very large
Crown of Thorn’s sea stars (imagine a dinner plate for a giant) and lots and
lots of very colorful fish. Pictures will never do it justice. Unfortunately,
we had to get moving at some point for La Paz but had a wonderful sail in. We
got to the right as the sun was going down and took a shower before heading out
to dinner at Super Burro! It was actually quite yummy considering the name.
Some of you already know, but due to
some unforeseen circumstances, I have had to leave the boat to head back home.
I want you all to know that this was an incredibly hard decision for me to
make, but in the end it was the right thing. I will be forever thankful to the
schooner Martha crew, both on the boat and off, for giving me one of the most
important opportunities in my life. I have learned much about myself and what I
want to do with my life and how sailing is going to be a part of that. Though
no one knows for sure what is going to happen, I know that sailing will always
hold a special place in my heart and I can’t wait to share that with other
people. For now, I am headed home to work at Killdeer Farm and start classes
this summer at Sterling College. I will continue to do my blog about my latest
adventures. If you wish to stop receiving emails when I have posted, please
email me and let me know, but I would love to keep in touch with each and every
one of you that I have met along the way. You each taught me something that I
will treasure. Keep in touch, Meryl
This is the snake and if you look closely in the top right corner you can vaguely make out the other snake biting this guy.
