After a long, Baja-less summer, the need to go south was strong. We gathered the troops and planned to go down for the second week in October, which this year coincided with the waxing quarter moon. Recent phone company retiree Kerry wanted to go. I'm still on the lam, so scheduling wasn't a problem. Since we had the time, we planned to go for a long week, about 10 days or so. The three of us headed down on Wednesday. Eddie, Donna, Baja Bruce and his new hound, Penny, would be joining us on Saturday.

We ran the standard drill, arriving in San Felipe around 3:00 PM. After gathering supplies, we continued south. The road to Puertecitos is about the same as it's been for quite some time. The road improvements down to the Santa Maria area at about Km 32 make the first part pretty smooth. After that, it's the same ol', same ol', pothole dodging exercise for another 20 miles or so until you reach the last 15 miles before Puertecitos, where the pavement disappears altogether. The road south of Puertecitos continues to degrade with use. The Pacific hurricane season mostly spared us this year. Several minor washouts in the northern part of the Three Sisters crossing were apparent. Slowing down was the only action required. after reaching the flats at Huerfanito, the washboard was pretty gnarly. It rattled the crap out of us, generally. We stopped south of Arroyo Agua Dulce to check our bones and stretch our legs for a bit. I smelled a kerosene like smell. Further investigation revealed a blown rear shock. I slowed it down a bit for the remainder of the trip. After we got there, I looked under the truck again and saw that the other one was blown-out too. I went down to Punta Bufeo and used Tio's satellite phone to call Eddie and put in an order for new shocks.

We rolled into camp around 7:30 or so. I flipped the breakers and powered up the campo. Everything seemed intact, with the operative word being "seemed". We unlocked the three trailers. When I entered the Aljo, I noticed the cushions on the table were ajar. Then I noticed the cabinet above the bed was empty. We had been burglarized again., with the operative word being "again". I went out to the shed and opened the lock. I couldn't get the hasp open, as one of the ladrones had tried to chisel the hasp. They were quite unsuccessful, as I had purchased the best hasp I could buy and its hardened steel was too much for these thief-buffoons. I chucked up an abrasive wheel in the trusty Makita and ground the burr off the hasp. When I tried to open the door, it was blocked by the chairs and stuff inside. I was puzzled. I couldn't figure out how the stuff shifted enough to block the door. Coming back outside, I shined the light at the shed and saw a few loose nails. The pinchie ladrones had pulled the siding off and entered through the shower. As I surveyed the contents of the shed, I couldn't identify anything that was missing. The next day, I figured it out quickly when I went to string my poles up. There were no poles to string up. My old crappy wooden oars were likewise missing, as was my nice blue gaff. That was all I could identify as being missing. Now that's a weird assortment of stuff. Pillows, pots and pans, blankets taken in the summer, crappy oars, a gaff and 4 nice fishing poles. So, if any of you see any wayward Shakespeare Tiger Pole Ugly Sticks, a blue gaff, or wooden oars, one of which has a chunk missing on the business end, let us know who to boil in oil. Cathy and I spent a lot of time using screws to attach the siding, along with some liquid nails. Maybe they'll bring their chainsaw the next time.

With the foregoing unpleasantries behind us, we cooked up some of Cathy's chili, uncorked the Havana Club and commenced relaxin'. The night air was delicious, with the smell of creosote bush and the sound of waves gently lapping at the shore. The temperature was on the cool side that night, in the mid-60s. The next day, we got the boat ready, but couldn't launch until the afternoon, because of the tides. The sea was glass. We did get the snorkels out and went for a swim. The water was 81°, perfect for dunking our bones. The temperature was Baja-pleasant, around 92° with 20% humidity. I entertained myself by installing a new solar electric charge controller, compliments of Baja Bruce.

On Friday, seas were reasonably calm. Kerry, Cathy and I went north. We were stopped north of Delfines by swell and chop. We fished Three Humps and caught a few marginal bass. They were marginal enough to keep and filet, contributing to a fish taco meal. After awhile, we headed back to the bass hump off camp and got several more decent bass. We had enough for a fish taco meal and we did them up Friday night. A herd of Sea Lions frolicked near us. They weren't corrupt and left us alone.

The rest of the gang showed up Saturday. Also on Saturday, Kerry and I fished up to the north. Again we were stopped south of Delfines by swells and chop. As we fished off the Humps, I managed to hook a baby Yellowtail...about a one-pounder. It set out flopping wildly and before long the fish hooked the fisherman. It buried one treble hook from my Rebel Fastrak into my thumb, right through the nail. This was not pleasant, to say the least: a flopping fish attached by a hook to a fumbling finger. I grabbed the whole mess and managed to yank the offending hook free without hooking up my other hand. Another good reason for using barbless hooks was very apparent, I'd say. We got back to shore and spent the rest of the day weathering (pun intended) the offshore wind that kept the temperature a nice steady 104° in the shade. I recorded a new record high down there in the sun, a balmy 127.8°. Several Coronas and numerous swims kept us reasonably comfortable. The good news was it cooled down to the low 80s that night as soon as the sun went down and sleeping was no problem.

Sunday was calm and we headed out to the islands. We fished the seamount, mostly to no avail. We made a stop on some bird action on the way out. Donna coaxed a Sierra to bite. We made it into a barbecue dinner a couple days later. This Sierra would prove to be the only decent sized surface feeding fish we caught the whole trip, save for one. Eddie caught a Mexican Needlefish that usually feeds on the surface. This particular one, however, fed on Eddie's arm. He had a double line of small punctures on his arm to prove it. Kerry showed good offshore form. As usual, all the panoramas on the following pages are displayed as 680-pixel-wide images. This is the same width as the other pictures (they're 680 x 510). If you like the image and want to see it full-size, click on the image. JavaScript will open a new resizable window with scroll bars to display the full size (510 pixels high) panorama.

We trolled our butts off out by the islands. We made hundreds of casts. We came up with nada...nothing...zilch, Except for some triggers caught off the bottom. I marked just as much on the sonar screen. We trolled down to north La Poma, past the east side of the spire, to south La Poma, across the reef between the islands, over to Punta Piedra Volcanica, to the west side of San Luis. The action was the same everywhere: non-existent. As we neared the Pinnacles, I could see the reef coming up. I lifted my line as we crossed over. As soon as we got to the south side of the Pinnacle Reef, Kerry was slammed by a big HAWG. Line ripped off his reel like I've never seen. Little time was wasted before this fish added Kerry's lure to his collection on the wall over his fireplace in the rocks below. I figure Kerry had one of the resident big cabrilla or a grouper on. Too bad he didn't haul it in, but it provided a brief bit of entertainment.

We were treated to a special show a little after 7:00 PM Tuesday night. I was sitting in my chair and noticed the sky to the north lit up. Since the sun usually sets in the west, even in Baja, I moved out to where I could see more clearly. I lived south of Cape Canaveral for several years and I immediately recognized it as stratospheric rocket exhaust. We yelled up to Bruce and everyone got to see it. The launch took place at the ideal time, right after sunset. I surmised it was a Minuteman sent downrange to Kwajalein to test a kill vehicle for the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization (BMDO). I learned later that it was indeed a Minuteman II going to that very place, for that very purpose. This photo of the same test taken somewhat further north is pretty much what it looked like. We only got to see the third stage, being as far south as we were, but we had a great view of third stage burnout and target separation. The residue from the solid fuel third stage motor remained lit up in the upper stratosphere for quite some time.

Other nights, we set up the table out in the front yard and had a candlelight dinner.

The calm seas persisted for several days at the beginning of the week.

A series of fronts blew in midweek. The increasing clouds made for pretty Baja sunrises and sunsets. These sunrises (or at least the pictures of them) are compliments of Eddie, who usually makes it up before I do.

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