16 Feb 2010 Puerto Ballena, Isla del Espiritu Santo 24.4731N 110.3799W
Espiritu Santo and La Partida Picassa Pictures
We left La Paz yesterday after a variety of errands, provisioning (really just a fancy name for shopping), and a few evening strolls down the Malecon. They were pretty vibrant strolls, with all the Carnivale parade activity, we were probably the only ones strolling mostly there was dancing in the streets, scary looking rides, rusty roller-coasters, spinning devices, and a huge tower with a pendulum arm that swung in a 100’ arc (straight towards an adjacent 40’ high rock wall) called “Turbo-Force”. We saw workers bolting it together a couple days ago, I did not see any engineers or inspectors on site, but there was a nice plaster Jesus about 1/2 way up the steel pylon, certainly that’s just as good. If we want that kind of excitement we can climb the mast in a wind storm, instead we settled for bumper cars, and mostly just walked around with eyes wide open taking in all the color and with ears partly covered so-as not to take in ALL the noise. Kennan was loving it all, Logan had had enough after about 15 minutes. Later from the boat the deep base of carnivale festivities and later high pitch of sirens from carnivale excess, carried across the water to keep us floating in that odd half-awake, half-asleep state, where the wild things are dreamed.
We broke down and bought a new outboard. After years of sailing with kayaks for annexes, we’d pretty much managed to avoid an outboard on board, gass-tly beasts, they have a tendency to break down when you’re too far out to paddle back, or like Steinbeck’s Hansen Sea Cow, they work “…in a word, on days when it would have been a pleasure to row.” The good news is, Hansen’s motors never learned to reproduce, and so Steinbeck’s fear that they would, “…wait, plan and organize and one night, in a roar of little exhausts, they will wipe us out,” has not yet come to pass. In areas with strong currents, and areas where you have to anchor far out, an outboard is essential. A couple years ago Betty gave us an outboard she’d had in her garage for thirty years or more.. It ran great for us in the San Juan’s for a couple of summers (strong currents there!), and we figured we’d just bring it along and drive it till it died. Well…after quite a bit of use in the silty waters of Mag Bay, the old brittle plastic on the vintage impellers gave up (these are little paddlewheel-like thingies in the engine that push seawater through to keep the engine cool*), and when we asked the local ship chandlery if he knew where we could find replacements, his reply was “un museo.” Outboard museums being a little on the rare side, our decision was made. Even if we’d found the impellers, what would the next vintage part needed be? We are now the proud owners of a new 9 HP Honda. It’s silver gray matching Silver Lining’s hull. I’m hoping the color will keep it camouflaged so it’s not quite so obvious to potential thieves. With the old Mercury theft was not a concern. Frank and the kids are searching for an appropriate name; one that will please her, and not tempt the gods. Frank is suggesting Santa Valentina (the day she joined our family), I’m not sure how Neptune will feel about a Christian deity, but we’ll have to see. In the interest of covering all the bases, we’ll be holding a proper naming ceremony soon. We’ve learned protective mantras Julie sent us. One of our Latin assignments is memorizing the lord’s prayer, that can’t hurt, but Logan’s upset with me that I did not think to bring some incense along. Diane do you think it would help to pin on the little turkish glass eye you gave us? Kay, I might try to paint the black Egyptian Cat somewhere on her, what was the cat’s name? Anyway whatever your own practice is, we’d appreciate you including Santa Valentina in your prayers, she’ll be an important member of our crew from here on out.
The contrast from our town days to here is marked. Espiritu Santo is beautiful. I feel like I’ll soon be running out of adjectives for naming all the beauty we see daily here, so I’ll try to describe what I see; when we get ashore I’ll upload photos so you can see too, but if you ever get a chance to take a Baja vacation, don’t miss it. Not a town trip though, not that I’m one to knock a beach, beer and margarita vacation, but a short distance away from many of the towns are these amazing pristine spots, with only a few visitors and breathtaking landscapes. Right now we’re anchored in the third northern lobe of Puerto Ballena. A dramatic 75 foot red rock cliff north of us is currently providing protection from some northerly winds. The cliff walls appear to have t vertical tapered columns with varying heights and widths lined up one after the other. Some are angular, some cylindrical, and periodically one is marred with a dark cavernous hole, making them look strangely like the chimineas you may have in your backyard. An odd mix of bright green hanging plants grow from the holes or from the column tops, or even from the perfectly flat vertical faces. The overall affect brings to mind the hanging gardens of Babylon. From some column tops grow tall columnar Cardon cactus, as if in extension of the rock pillars (these are the classic cactus in road runner cartoons). Dark rocks along the shore below the cliff draw a nice black line separating the red rock from emerald green waters. We went snorkeling below the cliffs this morning and there are some neat tropical fish (emperors, damsels, needlefish, parrotfish to name just a few). Looking up from snorkeling the Cardon’s are intimidating. Growing on top of solid rock, they don’t look like they could possibly have a solid foundation. Back at the boat now, I’m reading that some are believed to be 200 years old, and weigh 10 tons. Maybe next time we snorkel near one, we’ll bring the hand-bearing compass and try to measure a safe zone for swimming or kayaking around any possible Cardon-collapse zones. I’d like to avoid “squished by cactus” on my epitaph*.
On that note, wishing you all clear skies overhead!
xoxomo
*And if the engine’s not cool the metal of the pistons expands and they can’t move in the block…and the engine putt putt putters out. I don’t know how much the kids are learning, but I’m learning lots.
**Bonus Math Quiz: What’s the reaction force of the 10 ton cactus (10000 kg) when it reaches the bottom of the 75’ cliff (approx. 25 meters)
So after the whale incident, we learned a number of possibly helpful equations: 1. mass x velocity=momentum, 2. mass x acceleration = force (Newtons) 3. change in velocity/time taken = acceleration 4. distance moved/time taken = speed
And from our science book we know that the force of gravity is 9.8 meters per second squared.
I could use some help with this one, talk about rusty, I got stuck on figuring out how many seconds it would take the cactus to reach the bottom. I know it’s some kind of logarithmic equation, but we’re not there yet in Algebra one. Any tutors willing to offer assistance appreciated.