Man of War Cove – Bahia Magdalena
Yes I know, my slippery fingers (or brain) typed cretaceous when I meant cetaceous as many of you have so eloquently corrected me. Most eloquently by the ever detailed paleontolgist Karin:
“It was an absolutely Cretaceous day in what was shaping up to be a cliche Mesozoic month. Plesiosaurs were lolling around belly up in a warm lagoon in mid-central Montana like plump fall apples in a shallow tub waiting to be bobbed.
Oh wait, did you mean Cetaceous?
It was an absolutely Cetaceous day in what was shaping up to be a cliche Cenozoic month. Giant blue rorquals lolled back and forth with the tide in a sleepy warm Baja bay like plump kielbasa in a soup of sauerkraut waiting to be forked…”
Correction noted!
We made it to Bahia Santa Maria day before yesterday, got rolled in the breakers attempting entrance to the estuary at the north end of the bay (exact repeat of an incident 13 years ago, when Logan was 1). This lead to the pleasant discovery that the water has actually gotten quite warm compared to SoCal, at least a degree farenheit warmer for every degree we’ve moved south – at this rate by the time we get to the Marqueses, it should be nearing jacuzzi temperature (OK a coldish jacuzzi for those of you detail oriented enough to check your charts, compare to NOAA and do the math).
Day before yesterday we made our way down and around into Mag Bay. After a night at Punta Belcher, we worked our way a little deeper into the Bay for protection (California’s tremendous rains were predicted to start making waves down here). Yesterday before the storm, we kayaked in to an estuary north of the little village at Man-o-War Cove. My goal was to attempt finding the end of the estuary. If you look on the google images you’ll get a good sense of these mangrove swamps. As you snake around each bend in the tidal flow area, a new view appears, and the mangroves slowly close in on you till you just can’t paddle any further. Breaking the kayak paddles down and continuing canoe style, only gets you a couple hundred yards further. We were stopped by a portcullis of mangrove roots – barred from our pursuit of some cormorants who happily escaped into their keep. We were forced to navigate backwards till we could turn around and follow the tide back out. Hidden in the mangrove roots and fishing off the sand banks on either side are an amazing variety of wading birds and shore birds: Herons (Great Blue, Reddish, Yellow-Crowned Night, Black-Crowned Night, Green, Tricolored, AND Little Blue) Egrets, Ibis, Curlews, Plovers, Godwits and Sandpipers galore. If you wanted to check that section of your bird book off in a day this is the place (well you’d still have to find some flamingos, storks and spoonbills).
We also took a hike at the entrance to the estuary, across the dunes to the pacific side, where Kennan would have ended up if he’d taken Frank up on his offer to leave him ashore at the Bahia Santa Maria anchorage, and meet him on the other side. It would have been an 11 mile hike along the longest flattest beach Kennan’s seen yet. I think the kids favorite part of the day was playing hide and seek in the dunes. I prefer playing hide and seek with the green herons. But the dunes have an amazing variety of plants growing, many in flower right now. I expect new blossoms after the rain that is now keeping us cabin bound. Zebulon is working overtime, algebra is over, recess is on, and I am typing this as nerph darts fly past my ears. Frank is fiddling with the water maker priming pumps and cursing like any good mechanic would. Chaos reigns aboard Silver Lining. All is well.
xoxomo
P.S. A curse just turned into a eureka, pressure coming, fresh water may soon be coming directly from the ocean to our tap. P.S.S. Frank just handed me a cup of freshly made water. Technology is amazing. Magellan would have been green with envy.