5 Feb 2010 Man-o-war Cove
Final Mag Bay Picassa Pictures
Since my last post, we had some rainy days, some project days, some town/shopping days, some more explorations and some school catch-up to do (what with all those explorations). My own journal entries were starting to sound repetitive, thus the silence. We’ve not seen many whales since that one day a week or so back, but according to the locals, they’re just arriving now to birth their babies, so we’re early for that action. Apparently last year there were fewer whales than previous years, but still about 150 whales arrived. Everyone seems anxious to see what this year will bring.

The beach here is littered with large Humboldt squid. We first sited two of these giants swimming in the Estero. It was pretty shocking to see a beast that big in the shallows, they are amazing to watch swim. Frank pulled one up onto the beach just as a Canadian marine biologist walked up from another boat (magical place this is!) He said they are extremely voracious and showed us how they have teeth in each tentacle, and he explained the mechanics of their swimming (Frank says like an Italian tank, 1st gear forward, and 5th gear in reverse). Apparently they often beach themselves and die after spawning. He also said that they’ve been swimming into Canadian waters and can annihilate local fisheries. They used to be uncommon that far north. Evidence of a planet changing faster than we realize? Still amazing animals to watch. Their skin just flashes with color (chromophor cells according to the expert). And we’ll see tonight how they taste with butter and garlic (probably like butter and garlic – can’t go too wrong there).

The few rainy days were unexpected. They made sailors in Puerta Vallarta very unhappy – while we were dancing a jig for the water filling our tanks (less to make means less diesel burnt) – they were dragging anchors in 80 knot winds. Not wanting to join the ranks of the unhappy, we decided to hang out here a little longer to be sure the trough between highs did not drop another low bomb on us. The weather is now looking decent to continue our descent down the coast and around the tip of Baja. So at the crack of dawn we’ll navigate the gray whale obstacle course at the Boca, and continue our adventure south.

xoxomo