Hello Everyone,
We’re back in BLA after experiencing both heaven and hell at Isla Angel de La Guarda. I can describe the heavenly part in great detail since I kept track of what happened on September 11, 2007. Mom has always wondered what a typical day aboard Balena is like, so here goes:
Pretty Bird and I awake at 6:30 to a beautiful sunrise. We’re anchored in a remote bay at the northernmost tip of Isla Angel de La Guarda. I listen to a morning symphony courtesy of the seals and sea gulls as I sip warm water and lime juice in the cockpit. I can see our anchor buried in the sand twenty feet below us in the crystal clear water. Two seals swim up to our kayak and glide beneath it upside down, fascinated by the strange yellow creature. At 7:00 I turn on the single sideband radio and switch to the amigo net channel to hear the weather report. Randy wakes up and comments that this is the land the wind forgot. It’s already hot. I make us a breakfast of rice and eggs and eat it sitting in the kayak with my feet dangling in the water. Randy calls me over to look at a mockingbird sized bird peering in the hatch. We watch him for half an hour as he hops all over the boat. Pretty Bird is conspicuously quiet, hiding on his corner shelf. I wash dishes, spread a silver tarp over the cabin to keep the sun off and put netting over the hatches to keep our curious visitor from flying in. Randy goes back to sleep, tuckered out from our 40 mile journey up the coast yesterday. (It took us 10 hours because the tidal currents were so strong in the channel between the island and the Baja peninsula that our speed went down to 2 knots during ebb tide!)
At 9:30 I pull on leotards (to keep from getting stung), mask and fins and slip into the water. Ah, I love to swim in the warm water! It’s like being in a giant aquarium, eye to eye with the fish. Bright little neon blue fish dart here and there. I can see stingrays hiding on the sandy bottom too. Hmmm, some are pretty big. I decide to head for a bouldered section of shoreline. The rays prefer the sandy places. As I explore the tide pools, I startle several bright orange crabs. There are pelican bones and shells scattered on the cobble beach. As usual, I hunt for something I can use as a mortar and pestle to grind up vitamin and mineral tablets. I’ve experimented with different kinds of volcanic rocks without success. I see a thick white shell with an oblong rock nestled in its bowl. Perfect! I thank Mother Nature for such a pretty gift (it grinds up the tablets just right too.) I tuck the shell and rock into my sleeve and gather three pieces of trash (the only trash on the beach) to bring back to the boat. I find a cavern scooped out of the cliff backing the beach and sit down to sing and tone. The sounds that come out of me are surprising. Almost American Indian-like with a whistling sound that feels as though it’s echoing through time. I have fun when I’m by myself!
I get back to the boat two hours later to find the refrigerator in the middle of the floor and Randy stuffed into the 3×2x2 foot space where it used to be. He’s figuring out how to install two computer fans behind the refrigerator to blow away hot exhaust air. It’s been running almost constantly lately and the solar panels can’t keep up with the drain on the house batteries. I watch as he wires the little fans to the refrigerator. He also beefs up the refrigerator mounts by sawing new supports from scrape wood. As we take a break to eat lunch (chicken sandwiches and a green olive/cabbage salad), a tiny yellow-green bird flies through the hatch and takes a nap on the navigation table! When he flies away, we continue working in our usual way: Randy providing the brains and brawn and I assisting as gofer and clean up crew. We quit at 4:30 to go snorkeling, job half done. We’ll finish manana!
It feels heavenly to float so effortlessly in the water after the strain of working in such tight quarters. The tidal range here is 15 feet, which has all kinds of strange effects. At one point we swoop over an underwater ledge with the outgoing tide. It’s like riding an underwater waterfall. Two curious angelfish follow us for a long time. After two hours, we get hungry and head back to the boat.
We rinse off the salt water with our nifty bug sprayer. It gives us a great shower while using less than two quarts of water apiece. Randy sets to work chopping granny smith apples, onions, tomatoes, tomatillos and cilantro for his delicious salsa salad. I gather together some dirty clothes, a big bowl and laundry detergent and head for the dinghy. After scrubbing the clothes in the bowl, I lean over the side of the dinghy to rinse them in the ocean. An open air laundromat with a stunning view of the sunset. Only problem is that I use too much laundry detergent and need to rinse and wring over and over again. By the time I get to the final fresh water rinse and clothespin the laundry to the lifelines, my hands are tired! We eat a dinner of tortillas, beans and salsa salad in the cockpit, then lay down to watch the stars come out. I fall asleep, but Pretty Bird wakes me up at 8:30. He likes to have his head scratched and doesn’t want me to forget his ¨snuggle time.¨ I do one last sudoku puzzle while Pretty Bird nibbles on my pencil. Randy turns on Coast to Coast radio and we listen until we fall asleep. So ends another day in paradise.
With love
Gina
p.s. The next day we woke up with 100s of bug bites – Randy.