The Baja Paddle

Monday, October 11, 2010

It took me a few hours to get everything done. Getting the permits for the islands was a breeze. Then I needed to buy some last minute stuff; I had developed a craving for cereal and I needed to get tortillas and jam.

Back at the Campo I was ready to go by midday. I went to park my car at Antonio’s and gave him the keys and a deposit and said that I would be back on Thursday and then decide on the next part of the paddle.

Antonio made me promise to have a glass of wine with him on Thursday evening and sent me on my way with a glass of ice water.

There was only a slight breeze when I left and it stayed like that for most of the 4.5 mile crossing. The water in the middle of the bay was somewhat agitated but I have found out that this always is the case, even if there is no wind. This seems to be caused by the tides and currents.

I was not expecting to see whale sharks on my way to the inlet. I had understood that I needed to search for them further south than where I was paddling right then and, anyway, the water was quite choppy so it was not very likely that I would be able to spot a small dorsal fin above the water in these conditions.

Not far ahead I noticed a flat rock just below the surface. This surprised me and it surprised me even more when I saw it coming towards me. Then I saw the little dorsal fin. I was on a collision course with a whale shark and had no time to change direction. It was swimming with its back at the level of the surface and it just looked like a big moving rock, until it came close by. We met with less than three feet between us. It was not swimming very fast but we were going in opposite directions. I could see its whole body very clearly. It must have been between 20/25ft, so not one of the really big ones (they can grow to 60ft) but big enough to be impressive.

Needless to say, I did not have my camera ready but I still wanted to see it for longer than the roughly 10 seconds I had. I back paddled at full speed and got at a level with its tail when suddenly it turned 90 degrees and dove below my kayak and out of sight. I probably disturbed it too much with my frantic paddling.

Anyway, I was on a high. I was more than a mile from the nearest shore in quite choppy waters with no hope of spotting anything under these conditions and out of nowhere appears this whale shark on a virtual collision course with me. Absolutely unbelievable.

I heard the knock at the same time that I saw it. After my first encounter I continued on my way to the inlet still in awe of what I had just seen and not looking for anything else when suddenly a whale shark’s tail hit the side of my kayak, right in the middle of the cockpit. It twisted sideways and disappeared underneath only to surface again about 30 feet to the side. Another whale shark, this one had come from a roughly 90 degree angle. I had not seen anything until the split second that I saw it out of the corner of my eye when I dipped my paddle in to the water. This one must have seen me and dived to get underneath the kayak but probably misjudged the distance a little which made it knock the side of the kayak with its tail fin. It briefly reappeared at the surface with its tail fin and dorsal fin out of the water before it dove out of sight.

I was now fully alert and looking everywhere to see if I could spot any more whale sharks but that did not happen.

I found a perfect little camping spot in the inlet. It was barely big enough to hold my tent. I camped between rocks and elephant trees, just above the high tide line and had to walk a number of times to get all my gear since there was no chance of getting Samoset close to where the tent was.

I took a swim and went snorkeling when I had the camp set up and then made a lentil soup dinner just before the sun set.

After dinner I laid down on my sleeping pad and watched the stars starting to populate the sky. It was beautiful to watch ever more stars become visible as it got darker. I must have dozed off because I woke up later by which time it was already pitch dark. My whole body hurt; it did not matter how I laid I could not relax. I tried some stretching exercises but did not have the energy to do very much. I finally fell asleep again only to wake up with a splitting headache. The medicine was in the boat and I did not want to get up and decided to suffer instead. I woke up in the morning, still very stiff but without a headache and very, very hungry.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

The early part of the paddle this morning was very easy. The sun was not yet over the horizon and I was already well on my way to where the whale sharks were supposed to hang out.

I had left the Campo before 6.30 am and paddled with the starting ebb tide. Because the winds were again expected to pick up at around 11.00am, I wanted to get there early and leave again early to avoid the kind of strenuous paddle that I had had last Friday.

By 8.00am I was in position and started cruising around the sail boats and the buoys in the cove. The water was very calm, there was virtually no wind so the conditions were perfect with the exception of the low angle of the sun; paddling east I looked straight into the sun and was completely blinded and paddling west the low angle of the sun made that not much light was penetrating deep into the water.

The sail boaters did not show themselves on their decks, yet, so I had the cove to myself. When I did not paddle I sat still in the kayak scanning the water for the movement of a fin above the surface. Whale sharks are known to swim very close to the surface but their dorsal fins do not stick more than a few inches above the water and being slow swimmers there is no wake to speak of which might help locate one.

An hour or so passed and nothing had happened. Because of the low vantage point in a kayak I would have to see a fin, or one would have to swim close by the kayak for me to be able to spot it.

There were signs of life on one of the sail boats so I paddled over and hailed them with a loud “Good morning”. The woman had obviously seen me already because she answered with her back to me, continuing to sort out the jumble of ropes at her feet, without any sign of surprise.

She explained that I should cruise between the outer buoys since there was a steep wall at that point and that water laden with nutrients percolated up to the surface. She explained that this was a favorite feeding spot for the whale sharks. She also pointed out a spot further south in the bay.

The next 90 minutes did not bring any whale sharks in sight. It was getting late; I had originally decided to paddle back at 10.00am and it was getting close to 10.30am and the first gusts of wind started to come from the north. I needed to head back.

The wind did not increase in strength so I paddled in rather calm seas back to the Campo where I arrived before mid day. The wind did pick up shortly after I had arrived back, but it stayed rather mild all day long.

Early afternoon brought another visit from Antonio. He asked me if I had information about the winds in the next few days. When I told him that I had not been able to find any on the regular web sites that I check he gave me the internet address of a site where he said I should be able to get some current and forecast data.

After a hamburger at “Larry and Rachel’s” I checked the site and indeed there was a forecast for Bahia de los Angeles. It forecast that the winds would be rather mild in the next 7 days, between 3 and 8 miles from various directions.

With this in mind, including the fact that I am not yet done looking for whale sharks I decided to get a permit the following day for Isla Ventana and Isla Coronado for Wednesday and Thursday nights.

I will paddle to the whale shark inlet again tomorrow afternoon and camp there. This means that I can look for whale sharks later tomorrow afternoon and on Tuesday morning. Tuesday afternoon I will paddle to PuentoDon Juan, which is a protected cove further east and camp there Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning I will paddle to Ventana for one night, then on to Isla Coronado for one night before returning to Campo Archelon on Thursday afternoon. On Friday I will return to Isla Coronado with all my gear and equipment for another night and then cross over to Isla Angel de la Guarda on Saturday morning when the winds are forecast to be blowing at only 2mph. I will be able to do another check on the forecast on Thursday afternoon to see if anything has changed in the forecast.

Saturday, October 9, 2010

I woke up with the sun in my face. The night had been pretty good; I slept much better than the first night, probably because I was so tired from the paddle the day before.

I had decided not to paddle today but to review my plans and generally get better organized.

It was again very hot and I was thankful for the palapa and the shade that it offered.

I had discussed my plan to paddle to Isla Angel de la Guarda with Antonio and he gave me a whole lot of advise, mostly to do with the winds, currents and rattle snakes, in other words, about everything that was important. He remembered that we had returned to the Campo after two days in March when we decided that the conditions were too rough and he mentioned that that had made him realize that we were not foolhardy and were willing to change plans if necessary. I could see that he was still somewhat uneasy and I told him that before going I would come to talk with him and that if he considered it too risky that I would not go. This put a big smile on his face.

I spent the day finding out where the office is from which I needed to get permits to camp on the islands and also found the local museum which I’ll visit some time in the future. Then I drove north on the tar road as far as it went towards La Gringa and decided that there was nothing of interest in that area, with the exception of the sign post with directions to about 20 destinations, from the North pole to the South pole, and just about every place in between. An interesting little point to notice was that the sign was posted close to the end of the tar road to La Gringa, which is quite far out of town, well off the beaten track.

The afternoon was spent sorting out my angling gear. I had bought all sorts of stuff with which I am going to catch a lot of fish, at least that is what I hope. I tied some leaders and put some lures and weights on the line and now I only need to find a place to start catching fish.

Towards evening I sorted the gear that I wanted to have with me for my next effort at finding whale sharks. Since I now knew that the hatches were still not waterproof I made sure to take only the minimum and put all that in water tight bags.

Antonio had been kind enough to bring me a cot on which to sleep and used the occasion to subject me to a third degree interrogation:

Antonio: How old are you? Answer: 63. Herman: How old are you? Answer: 56.

Antonio: Do you still want to paddle to Isla Angel de la Guarda? Answer: Yes. Antonio: Do you know what you are doing? Answer: Yes. Antonio: Are you a good paddler? Answer: Yes. Antonio: Do you have a good kayak? Answer: Yes. Antonio: Do you have enough water? Answer: Yes. Antonio: Do you have a radio? Answer: Yes.

He still looked doubtful and started talking out loud, more to himself than to me: “I can alert the local fishermen that you are on the island and they can keep an eye out for you. I can arrange for them to bring you water if you run out. The best is if you stay on the west side of the island because you will be more protected from the north-easterly winds, but there are no good camping sites on that side so you have to go east anyway. There should be sailing boats on that side of the island so that if you have a problem you can radio them because I cannot receive a signal from the other side of the mountain”. Antonio was obviously still very concerned.

After I assured him again that I was not going to do anything reckless or stupid and would talk to him before finally deciding, he went off again but still did not seem to be very happy.