May 20, 2020
Predictably, a couple days here in Muertos have turned into four. Every day just consistently got better and better. Quite a few boats came and went, but there hasn’t been another boat joining us since the last one left yesterday morning. That’s a new experience for us! There are quite a few pangas buzzing around, fishing off of the point, and a small group of day campers, a couple of people strolling the beach…but that’s about it.
We have been particularly impressed with the wildlife here this visit. Twice, at sunset, a large pod of dolphins cruised right by the boat, so close that we could see their friendly little faces as they zoomed by underwater. Quite amazing have been the huge groups of hundreds of Mobula rays, leaping almost ten feet into the air, wiggling their flippers, with some doing somersaults and splashing down. Those belly flops create a lot of noise! The first group woke me up from a sound sleep at 4am! Though I couldn’t see them, they had surrounded the boat, and it was pretty magical to witness, under a vast sky full of stars! Yesterday, there were several groups all around the bay. I decided to visit them on the paddle board, and take a few pictures and video without my phone or me becoming a statistic of “those people” that create a disaster by trying to get a selfie. It was a close call with one particularly acrobatic ray, but what an experience. How ironic that I spend so much effort trying to get into the group to take a video, and a couple hours later, I am on the foredeck, playing the ukulele. An incredible group of them rushes the boat, ten of them in the air at once…would have made an insane video…if my phone wasn’t down below on the charger! Such is life!
Today, we awoke to crystal blue water, where we could actually see the 25 or so feet to the bottom. The green was gone. The water temp. got up to 77/78. Very exciting. What a difference on my morning swim! Rolf was actually inspired to snorkel with me. We located a great group of coral reefs fairly close to the boat but farther from shore. There we got up close and personal with a wide variety of fish, including the proliferation of those fun, royal blue puffers, with the white polka dots and larger bright yellow fish whose skin closely resembles the color and texture of a papaya! Rolf really enjoyed the soft coral purple fans. I was keeping a wary eye out for man o’ war jellyfish though, as we had both spotted one the past couple of days in this area. Who needs that kind of a nasty sting?
When we returned to the boat, we scrubbed some of the bottom and sides, noting with satisfaction that there was a lot less growth and none of the little round barnacles we had struggled with further up in the Sea. Just another reason this is once more, one of our favorite coves, in reviewing our journey. Very few bugs at all, clear, warm water, lots of space, the perfect temperatures and breeze, no crazy winds coming up at night…hard to leave. But it’s time for us to make our way further south toward San Jose del Cabo. There’s no good weather window in sight yet for the bash, but we could use a dose of internet to research some things after five days without it here! Besides, it’s starting to feel pretty lonely being the only boat in the bay!