A month or two ago when we were installing the solar panels, I reaggravated my right tennis elbow/tendinitis problem. I’m planning to get another cortisone shot over the Christmas break. On Theresa‘s part, she hauled in one of the skipjacks we caught the other day and pulled a muscle pretty good in her shoulder. Then she got a large sting on her tummy by a jellyfish (through her swimsuit) while we snorkeled a reef in Agua Verde. And some days ago we joined Tango in their centre console dinghy and rode several miles from Isla Danzante to a restaurant on the mainland for breakfast. The front part of a dinghy can bounce pretty hard, especially when you’re going fast through open water. Needless to say, my back did not fare well and I have been having bad back spasms ever since. Back brace and muscle relaxers sure help but leave me very tired.
Even Bella got in on the action a couple days ago when she tried to jump over the companionway door and didn’t realize that the top of the hatch was also closed. Rather dramatic head first crash into the plexiglass above her and then tumbled down the stairs. Pretty sure that was one cat life wasted.
Last night we stopped for the night on the south end of Isla San Jose. There is a large mangrove lagoon to explore and the fascinating tiny island of Isla Coyote. Hooked up with Tango again for cocktails and joined them this morning at high tide to go do the mangroves. Theresa slipped getting into the dinghy from our transom and fell into the water with her phone in her pocket. As she was holding onto the line that lifts our dinghy, her pinky caught in the block (pulley) as she fell. Her phone seems to have survived, but her right pinky is definitely broken! But as there isn’t much to be done for a broken finger, she soldiered on, took a pain pill, and we went off to see the mangroves after she changed clothes. (There isn’t a doctor or clinic anywhere within a two-day sail of us.)
The south entrance was too shallow so we took a long dinghy ride around to the north entrance and managed to get over the shallow sand bar. Tango went back before us, as their dink is heavier, so we explored one of the side channels alone for a bit. Very pretty and calm, saw a turtle but not much else. As we started to head back we ran out of fuel – @#$%ing unbelievable!!! So out came the paddles and we rowed ourselves probably 1000 yards. (Dinks are very difficult to row straight so this was a long affair.) The real issue was my back and her finger. Tess rowed a bit being very careful of her finger. I rowed in my back brace even though the flexing required was terribly painful. We were finally able to raise Tango on our portable VHF, but the tide had gone down so much they couldn’t get back in to help us. So we kept rowing until another dinghy miraculously appeared around the corner, hallelujah! Some folks from a charter boat out of La Paz. They kindly towed us about 2 miles to the south entrance which is close to FKL. I had to get half out of the dinghy and push in order for us to scrape our way across the bar. Fortunately, the tide was flowing rather swiftly in our favour. Tango met us there and towed us back to our boat. I tore up a couple of toes and the dink has a few more scratches but we made it. If not for our good samaritans, it would have probably taken four or five more hours of rowing.
The pictures are of the little village on Isla Coyote. Just a few fishermen stay there now and you can see them cleaning the day’s catch in one picture. We are now safely tucked in next to a big cliff on Isla San Francisco as there is a blow coming through for the next couple of days. We will stay put and try to recuperate a bit.
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet but we have purchased a built-in water maker so we will have that installed in La Paz when we leave here. Hauling out the Rainman is just a bit much and although it makes a lot of water very quickly, we cannot use it when underway which is a real problem as many anchorages are not fit for making water. This should make life a lot easier and we won’t have to worry so much about conservation as we can turn it on any time we want. Should make around 14 gallons an hour and it does not require the inverter to be on.
The water maker install will probably take a couple of days, so we should have a good week or more of not having to do a whole lot physically. Thank God we’ll have some time to recover!
Google Maps shows Isla Coyote as Isla El Pardito.
