Memorial Day was near. The Baja season was drawing to a close. The cold winter and spring we experienced here in San Diego made the prospect of going to Baja for a nice warm weekend seem all the better. Our only hope was that warm did not mean 95° nights like last year. Kerry and Geoff came down and made their first appearance in years. They would be driving my trusty old 1989 Toyota truck with 221,000 miles on it. A veteran of more than 30 Baja trips, the old truck came through once again. The Boys, Eddie and Donna left early Thursday morning. Cathy and I followed after work. We zipped through Calexico and Mexicali, arriving in San Felipe in around 4 hours. The icegasfoodtequilabeer drill followed. We were heading south again after only about 35 minutes.
The road between SF and Puertecitos had grown more potholes since we last traversed it in April. No signs of repair were evident. It should be a regular mess again after this summer's Chabusco season. We passed through Puertecitos, set the odometer and headed up the hill on the Gonzaga road. The Gonzaga road is still in pretty good shape. It was beginning to washboard-out a bit after its February 2001 grading, but we managed to average over 30 mph, hitting 40 in some straightaways down on the Huerfanito Flats. As we descended past the old Yorgo cutoff, piles of fill dirt appeared on the right side of the road. Apparently, the road crew was still doing some grading. The stretch between Yorgo and camp was the worst part of the road during the past several trips. We pulled into camp in a near record time of just short of 7 hours. No complaints here. A boring trip is a good trip. The Boys and Eddie had managed to get 2 of the boats over in front of Roger's on that night's high tide.
Friday morning we arose around 7:00 AM. The tide was already well on its way out and was dropping fast, and I do mean fast. I announced that we'd better be a-launching now, or there'd be no launching until about 2:00 PM. We tried to get ready, but now was now and 20 minutes later when we were almost ready to launch, the tide had dropped to where the rocks of Roger's Bay were exposed. Oh well, we made some coffee and had breakfast.
During mid-morning, we broke out the dive gear and snorkeled offshore until the cold got to us. The water wasn't bad, around 75° or so, I reckon. I scarfed a couple huge rock scallops and stuck them in my pocket. They became sashimi when sliced thinly and immersed in soy and wasabi. Around lunchtime, we were ready to head out. The noon feeding frenzy never was much of an attraction, so we waited it out a little longer under the shade of the veranda. I don't know how we ever survived without it.
We fished off camp for awhile, and waited for the afternoon wind chop to subside. When it did, we motored down south and fished Pompano Cove and points south for a bit. It didn't take long to figure out that the fish were not very frisky down there, so we went back to camp and harassed the bass and triggers some more. We actually caught several nice bass and bagged them. Fish tacos, here we come.
We landed in the early evening and prepared to have some steaks that night. Ed looked ready.
So did Donna and Geoff.
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