We pulled into this bay near Puerto Escondido for refuge from a southerly, and just happened to catch a radio transmission that tonight was the full lunar eclipse. We watched it happen in perfectly clear skies with no lights around. The moon was right above our boat when it happened, and we lay on our backs in the cockpit and passed the binoculars back and forth.

Next morning I was looking up at the Sierra Giganticas thinking about giant rock walls and 400 years between eclipses - a place to feel that humans are ridiculously small and short-lived. Then I looked up on the beach and saw this group of young locals trying to catch rides on a skimboard behind a 4-wheeler driving down the beach.

There was a lot of laughing from the buddies as one guy after the other had these spectacular wipeouts. I realized that this is one of the incredible things about the human species - as small and weak as we are in the midst of all this, we keep trying new stuff. Here were these guys trying to take on the age-old laws of physics and natural order, in a way that would not make sense to most sensible birds and fish of that anchorage.

But look at what we can do! Right about then, one of the guys caught it just right and rode the length of the beach - his buddies' laughter turning into a mighty cheer.

And no, I did not paddle over to give it a go. I did, however, use my creative human brain to use the binoculars as a telephoto lens for my little camera to bring you this moment from the Sea of Cortez.