Land Legs

Today Arnold and I went ashore. While we were preparing to leave the boat a man named Barry came by in his dinghy heralding the news that there had been a major earthquake of magnitude 8.8 in central Chile. At that point we were not sure of the impact on us here near the mouth of the Sea of Cortez.

Ashore we met several people and learned that there was no tsunami danger in Mexico or the west coast of North America, although for an arc from New Zealand to Hawaii it was another story. We visited the beach toilet facilities (I've seen worse.) then after learning that there was a garbage disposal facility nearby I did a quick visit to the boat to retrieve our large and very full plastic garbage bag. On the way to the boat I was approached by what I would describe as water rangers and got my first chance to practice my Spanish. I opened with "Buenos Dias" and they reacted with surprise and pleasure. One of them asked me if I was from a "velero" which thanks to my recent boning up on Spanish I knew meant "sailboat". "Si, de velero" I replied, and in a mixture of English and Spanish they told me about the tsunami alert and that the nearby marine reserve was closed. He said that we were OK traveling between the beach and the boat. I gave them my "muchas gracias".

We dumped the garbage, visited the well where the water is OK for washing but not recommended for drinking, then made a 2 or 3 kilometer walk to a quaint little "restaurant". It was a great little place. It was a round building with a concrete floor and wooden pergola-style frame with what looked like a thatched roof. It was very cool, breezy, and comfortable with the sounds of chickens and wild birds nearby. It looked like a family enterprise with mother doing the cooking, father being the front man, and their cute 5 year old girl running around and having a great time. The locals ate and drank here.

The first thing I asked for was "Dos cervezas, muy frio, por favor". He offered us "Pacifico" beer, either large bottles or small. We had not had alcohol for three days and had just walked a hot 3 km so I replied "grande". We were each presented with 940 ml bottles of cold beer. That is almost 3 times the size of a bottle of Heineken and I must say that it was delicious - right up there with Corona or Australian lagers, perfect for hot weather. There was no beef or pork on the menu, just seafood which should not be a surprise. So we had fried scallops and gigantic shrimp with vegetables and guacamole that the man made on the spot for us. Oh, and we each had a second beer ("pequeno por favor) of only 340 ml with our meal. We walked back on that dusty road feeling really good, with two more bottles of the "grande" bottles in my back pack. When I asked for those two bottles I said "No" while making the motion of opening a bottle. "Ah, cerrado" he said. So that was my Spanish word of the day: "cerrado" means closed.

We got back to the beach and I could see that the wind had turned southerly but very light. In fact, this would have been a good day to push up north to the next anchorage because of the rare southerly breeze. However, we were not done with this place and we would take our chances when we were ready to go. Two more boats had joined us in the anchorage. Now there were 5 of us. It looked like three American, on of which was from Alaska, one Canadian (Vancouver), and us the Australian.

Arnold and I had salt water baths off the boat - a real swim for me, a "ladder bath" for Arnold. Then we settled in for a quiet night. In the refrigerator compartment was some fish that I had cooked this morning. Charlie had come on his kayak with his partner "Richelle". "Oh, a nuclear family!" I exclaimed seeing Richelle holding two cute little dogs. Charlie planted a fresh fish on our deck and said that he could use a cup of coffee. They could not come on board because of the dogs, although I said that they were welcome on board. But I obliged with a ceramic cup of fresh brewed coffee that he said tasted great as they set off. (He returned the cup later.)

Arnold and I decided to say at least one more day in which we planned to wash clothes at the well and scale the headland of the bay, which must be several hundreds of feet high. Of course I would return to the restaurant this time armed with my copy of "Spanish for Cruisers" and a healthy appetite.

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