Day 24 – Took a Shortcut, Wrong!

I slept late this morning at my campsite on Punta El Almirante, waking at almost 6 AM.  I launched and after putting in a couple of hours of paddling in Sea of Cortez, I found that the water was much clearer compared to the last few hours yesterday, which I think was due to silt.  One of the beaches I landed on yesterday afternoon was very fine silt, almost clay and, although there was no wave action, I think that area must be turbid from the silt.  In the clear water this morning I saw lots of large jellyfish.  Many of them were in the normal horizontal swimming position with tentacles 4-5 feet long.  I love to see the large medusa; they are so majestic but in such large numbers they are a sign of a degraded ecosystem.  The coast became more interesting south of my last campsite.  There were 20 to 30-foot cliffs with layers of lava, and with lots of rocky ledges going out to sea.

The spot where I landed for brunch has millions of small fish about 1/4 inch long all along the shore.  This must be a nursery area for these fish, probably anchovies.  There were small sculpins, about 3/4 inch long on the rocks below the smaller fish, feeding on them when they get too close.  There was a rather stiff wind from the south that I had to paddle against for the last half-hour.  The sun was intense and once I got to shore, I had to hide in the shade of a rock for brunch.  

The second half of this day was nothing like the first.  After brunch, I went south along the coast until I came to Bahia San Carlos, a very wide bay with Punta Trinidad at the far end.  Punta Trinidad is a small rocky mountain surrounded by a low alluvial fan. By cutting across the bay, straight toward Punta Trinidad, I could probably shorten my trip by a couple of miles.  The direct route to Punta Trinidad looked inviting and there was only a moderate breeze from the west crossing my bow from the right, so I decided to go for it.  I got out about a mile from the shore and then the breeze turned to a strong wind. It soon became way too strong, blowing in gusts that were maybe 35 or 40 miles an hour.  I didn’t want to get blown out to sea, so I altered my direction between continuing across the bay and instead I headed directly into the wind toward shore. During the strongest gusts I barely maintained my position and it took all my strength to keep from being blown out to sea. 

After an of hour of very hard paddling I was finally able to get to the shore. I was exhausted. I was really upset with myself that I had violated my prime safety rule of not being caught offshore in a windy situation. 

I was a couple of miles short of Punta Trinidad and the small point that I landed on had several palm trees.  I had read that palm trees indicated freshwater was present, so, even though I was exhausted, I explored the area.  Sure enough, there were some 1-2 ft. deep holes dug by cattle near the palm trees.  Each of these holes had a little muddy water at the bottom.  I didn’t taste it because of all the cattle droppings, but there were sparrows and other birds drinking the water.  There was not much else in the backcountry around the clump of palm trees except for cattle trails leading to the watering holes.

After resting and having a Baby Ruth, the first of six that I had bought in Bahia de Los Angeles, I continued down the coast, but now hugging the coast with the strong gusty wind at my back, still heading for Punta Trinidad.  I went about 2 miles or so before it became evident that I was not going to get around Punta Trinidad in this wind.  There were big breakers off the point and if I tried to go around the point, the wind would be taking me directly out to sea.  I pulled off on to a sandy beach where the wind was blasting the sand down the length of the beach.  I got my ground cloth and wrapped myself in it and stood there for ten minutes or so.  The wind continued to blow very strong, so I laid down beside the kayak and wrapped myself in the ground cloth.  The kayak was rocking back and forth from the heavy wind, and I thought various pieces of my stuff might be blowing away.  I dozed off in that position for about 20 minutes or so until my arms and legs were going to sleep, and I had to get up.  I was covered with a layer of fine sand and the lee side of the kayak was building up a big sand dune.  I left the protection of the kayak and walked up to the sand dunes that lined the shore and laid down behind one of the larger dunes.  I laid down there for an hour or so, looking out from under my wrappings every once in a while, to see if there was any improvement.  No, the wind only got stronger.

At about 3:30 PM I decided that with the fierce winds there was no hope of going further today.  I pulled the kayak up the beach and into the sand dunes and struggled to pitch the tent, using the kayak as an anchor to tie one side of the tent.  I crawled into the tent and for the next couple of hours I used my weight and water bottles from the kayak to hold the tent from being blowing away.  There was a steady rain of fine sand coming through the vent at the top of the tent, otherwise the tent was sand proof.  At about 6 PM. I went out into the blowing sand and pulled some essentials out of the kayak and brought them into the tent, hoping to cook a meal later in the evening.  The wind seemed to be getting even stronger after dark.  The tent was shaking so much that I was never able to cook or eat a meal that night at Punta Trinidad.

Next: Day 25 – Hungry in Punta Trinidad

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