After the first 32 klicks down to Campo Santa Maria, we were surprised to see an unusual Baja event: paving machinery and asphalt. The trabajadores sure looked like they were a-fixin' to fix the Puertecitos road. Hey, it's only been 8 years since Nora messed it up bigtime. Little progress had been made, but a little is a little. I'll take what I can get as far as that potholed mess goes.

The Gonzaga road is about the same: pretty good in my estimation. A little damage was wrought by the nasty winter storm season that we had, but nothing to write home and tell mom about. We streaked down there and arrived about 3:30 PM.

This is a pictures of the happy tourists.

The moon was unfavorably waning off of a full moon. If I had my choice on tides, this would be at the dead bottom of the list. I had no choice; however, so we made the best of it and launched the boats that night. With that chore accomplished, we heated up some of my chili verde that I had previously made and froze. It made for a yummy easy dinner.

Ed and Donna were surprised when they arrived. Loncho had already built his veranda! Although it deviated from Ed's conceptual design, it was done and looked pretty good.

Friday morning, we were ready to fish. Unfortunately, the sea wasn't ready to let us fish. Swells were blowing in from somewhere and made launching too perilous for me. We sat it out on shore and enjoyed the scenery.

Saturday was a new day and we were ready to fish again. The sea was a bit lumpy, but not too bad near shore. We picked a good set, fired up the boats, and headed up north. We managed to get numerous nice spotties for fish tacos, but the cabrilla and grouper were evasive. In fact, they were downright absent.

The weather was pretty darned cooperative this whole trip. The days were hot, as usual, but nighttime was deliciously comfortable. The first night, it even got down to 61°. Thereafter, it was in the 70s. Afternoon was Margarita time. New neighbors Ingrid and Scottie were here enoying their new campo. Ingrid helped Cathy with the Margies.

On Saturday, the Tierra del Sol off-road club made their annual foray to Punta Bufeo. Elaine and Calvin Lindsay came over for dinner with daughter Michelle. The next day, Calvin was going out fishing with me.

Sunday morning started out with calm seas, so we headed out toward the islands. I've seen calmer days, but it wasn't bad. Calvin and I were in my boat, while Mike and Jarad manned the Leaking Lena. Ed and Scottie were in Ed's Valco. We hit the rockpile first and I hauled up a big fat Goldspotted Bass. After that, action was not very good. The sea was a bit unsettled and I didn't feel like going to the seamount.

We trolled around awhile, but came up pretty much empty-handed. After trolling for some time, Eddie and Scott were on the horn reporting that they'd hooked up on yellowtail between La Poma Spire and the north end of the Islote La Poma. Before long, we were all on fish. The number of yellows there was pretty impressive. In fact, the action was fast and furious. Jarad showed off his catch.

Calvin contemplated the next one.

We were in fact, hooked up almost continuously for a hour or so. Some of the locals in a panga saw us with constantly bent poles and came over to join in the fun. They weren't using either a fast retrieve or the right lures, so they caught nada.

We headed back around noontime, before the usual Memorial Day afternoon wind chop kicked up. Bruce and Christine got in the water too. The fleet perched on shore.

Web page design and all images contained herein, except where indicated otherwise, are © 2005 Dean R. Charles and are the exclusive property of the author/photographers. Limited license is granted to download these images for personal use, or to use these images on a non-commercial basis. Any other use is prohibited without express written permission of the owner. Violators will be eaten.