https://vimeo.com/397313926
We got up at 6:30, and got ready to go, had breakfast, did our devotions, and called Capella III about my jacket that we left on their boat last night. We arranged to pick it up on our way out to run the water maker. So, at about 8:00 we picked up the jacket and then headed out. Once we were out far enough I started the generator and the water maker at 8:40. Then we put the sails out and did a very leisurely sail out for about 15 miles or so, which took several hours. At some point during the day, our boat speed was down to about 0.5 knots, but we were not going anywhere.
While we were out Renee’ put her line in the water, using a cedar plug and a weight (the plug is designed to float, and the weight keeps it below the surface. After a couple of hours of this, I looked back and asked Renee’ if she had something on her line, so, she went and checked and started bringing it in. No real fight, but it was pretty big. When she had it alongside the boat we got pictures and video of her first shark! She was pretty sure she could not pull it onto the boat with the line she had and it was too big for the net, so, I got the gaff and when she got it close I gaffed it through the mouth and up through the top of its head.
“Sharks don’t poop” that is a quote from one of the fish books, so you have to ”catch, kill, and gut” quickly. So, we brought the shark on board, ran the fillet knife through the brains, and then tried to cut off it’s head. The knife was not doing it, so I went and got the hand saw that we bought at Lowes It is a folding saw with interchangeable blades that are about 10” long. This worked well in removing the head, and the tail then I gutted it with the fillet knife and turned the mess over to Renee’ to remove the skin and cut into stakes. We measured the shark at about 36”. We think it is a black tip, but it might be a bull shark, not really sure.
After a while, we decided to turn around and head back in finally dropped the anchor at Mulegé at about 4:30 or so. In about 15 feet of water. The first time we dropped anchor, it drug as we tried to set it, so we pulled it up to try again, and figured out what the problem was, we had filled the anchor with seaweed. This is not a great anchorage, as it is not protected, is somewhat shallow and has seaweed. We checked the weather and it is supposed to be very calm tomorrow. Our plan is to go into town (about 3 miles up the river, that is too shallow for the boat) in the morning then come back to the boat and move to a more protected anchorage in Bahia Concepcion in the afternoon.
Oh and it is raining now. We have not had much rain since we left San Diego, but perhaps there will be enough to rinse all the salt and dirt off the outside of the boat. It really needs a bath.
Details: we ran the water maker from 8:40 am until 3:40 pm, 7 hours at 20 gallons per hour. We put 140 gallons in the tank, the “Acu-guess” (the brand is Acu-gage) instrument started at 10% the tank is 260 gallos, so we should have about 166 gallons (less the 6 gallons or so used to flush the water maker) 160/260= 61.5%. Sure there is a bit of a fudge factor here so it could be a bit more or less, but the instrument now says that we have 90%.
We are thinking about what to do next. We have been in communication with Jeff and Angie on Lost Pearl (who are with Josh and Cozette on Merry Lee). (Our boat kids). Jeff said that it would be 3 to 5 days until they get as far north as Santispac, where we were planning on meeting them. Saturday or Monday of next week, then we would head back to Punta Chivato and spend the night and get an early start the next day to cross to San Carlos. Do we stick around here for another week before crossing, or do we say sorry can’t do that and cross.
Dinner tonight will be leftovers, all the shark went into the freezer. We have lots of variety for leftovers: Spaghetti, Chinese, Enchiladas, Tuna, and Pizza. We have to eat some of these or toss them as they will get too old.
We do have room for guests, if anyone is interested in visiting and spending a week or so with us, drop us a line and we will coordinate. What you have to do/have is you need a passport and will need to be able to get to where we are when you are going to be down. When we know what time frame you are thinking about we can let you know where we expect to be so that you can make your travel arrangements.
If you want to know where we are, click this link:
https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again
