Ed & Donna went down south the day after Christmas. Bruce, Cathy, Ramona and I were going to meet them on Saturday. I got sick the day after Christmas. Cathy and Ramona were already somewhat under the weather. Bruce was recovering from getting sprayed in the eye by a skunk that Gabby had unceremoniously caught Christmas Day. Meanwhile, down at the campo, the north wind blew with vengeance. On Sunday, my fever was gone, Cathy and Ramona felt better and Bruce got deskunkified and was off and running. Ed & Donna on the other hand were tired of hunkering down in their camper and headed back north. Ed & Donna met Bruce and dogs south of San Felipe. The wind battered couple decided to return to camp and hope for the best.
Hope springs eternal. By the time they got back to camp, the winds had subsided. We three, in the meantime, continued plodding south at a fairly good clip. The Gonzaga road is about as good as it gets. I haven't seen it this good in at least three years. Getting from Puertecitos to camp took us only an hour and ten to an hour and fifteen minutes. The Puertecitos road, on the other hand is as crappy as it's been for the last number of years. Getting from San Felipe to camp only took about 2.5 hours though, so you can't complain about that.
We pulled into camp at about 4:00 PM, much to everyone's surprise. We had told Bruce we were canceling out because of sickness. I didn't think we'd improve enough to go, but we did. We unloaded and set up the camp while Eddie prepared his famous chicken burritos. We fired up the heaters in the trailers. The cold front that blew through on Christmas day brought high pressure and cold air behind it. The high pressure drove the winds Ed and Donna enjoyed the previous days, and also brought clear air that allowed the land to radiate what little heat it had out into space. Consequently, the night was colder than the north side of a south-facing well digger. Nights are always on the cold side in Baja this time of the year, but this year was exceptionally cold.....10° colder than normal. Bruce recorded 31° near his roof. I recorded 39° outside my trailer window.
The next day, the 29th, was decent: not very windy at all. Residual swells from the big blow persisted and made launching an unpopular option. I did something constructive that day, I put in the new window in the Aljo. Our visitors will now be able to open the end window by the bed and get some air when the hot weather arrives. Kudos to Cathy. My energy level was between a slug and an amoeba, so I called it quits after that. I didn't take any pictures, because that day wasn't particularly interesting. The winds were quiet all day.
On the 30th, we awoke a day late and a dollar short. The sunrise was spectacular and we missed it. Ed made sure to rub it in. Fortunately, he was there to record it for us all. It was a doozie.
I mustered up enough energy to load the boat. Ed and I launched her on calm seas, early Tuesday morning. I could see a line of wind coming from the north, but it didn't look concerning. We decided to motor to our secret halibut hole. Motor we did, at 20 mph and nearly froze to death, even though we were bundled up fairly well. When we got to the spot, about 4 miles offshore, the wind was light, about 3 mph, just enough to prevent us from warming up. The sun was neither bright nor warm, just like us. We fished for a few hours, before surrendering and returning on an equally frigid boat ride home. We found no halibut on the hole, or many other fish either for that matter. I was too cold to take pictures, but we didn't catch anything worth photographing anyhow.
Wednesday was New Year's Eve. We were awakened before dawn by the pitter-patter of raindrops on our trailer roof. We scrambled to stow our exposed stuff, before climbing back into the cozy confines of our bed to warm up. A good number of raindrops fell that morning, enough to wet the ground. Here, Cerro La Alguatosa is obscured by rain clouds.
We did something that day, but not much. Cathy and I went down to wish Tio and Francesca a Feliz Año Nuevo. Miguel was there, but the rest of the Romeros were up in San Felipe. We stopped by to see longtime Baja Home fan Ford Northington, who lives at the east end of the Punta Bufeo runway. He was out fishing, so we put a note on the door. We turned out to have picked the wrong door, but his friend John lived in the house we picked. They came up the next day to say howdy. Meeting our web neighbors is nice. We went up to Las Encantadas next to say howdy to Loncho and Ciana. They invited us over for menudo and machaca de mantaraya burritos that night. We, of course, were honored. After returning to camp, the clouds blew out and the sun lit up Punta Bufeo nicely.
A nice light likewise illuminated Isla San Luis.
At dinner time, we assembled at Ciana's new living quarters. From left clockwise, that's Ramona, Donna, Ed, Loncho, Ciana, Cathy, Priscilla and Mike Eberle (another longtime Baja Home fan from Encantadas).
Here's a nice after dinner picture of Loncho.
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