This is the time of year when everyone living in the northern temperate climate dreams of spring, the returning warmth of the sun and longer daylight hours. It is not surprising that we recently had some friends willing to travel great distances to visit us in the Sea of Cortez. The furthest was Barbara, coming from Scotland where the winter is particularly grim this year. Space on Narama is small and there aren’t many luxuries. Our shower, for example, is a bag of water heated by the sun, hung from the boom over the cockpit. It’s not very private and the water is only hot if you shower between noon and about 4 pm, outside these times it is fairly chilly, made worse if there’s any breeze blowing in the anchorage. But these are relatively minor sacrifices. Besides, we have been lucky with our wildlife sightings, exploring gorgeous desert islands, paddling meandering mangrove lagoons and snorkeling in crystal blue water full of fish, which all make us feel incredibly fortunate.
When Jared and Christie joined us after Christmas we had four experienced marine mammal observers onboard. The pressure was on! We saw a large pod of Short-finned Pilot Whales, followed by Killer Whales, which we thought were harassing a Bryde’s Whale. Cameras were poised to catch a major feeding event, but nothing dramatic transpired. It has been a lovely few weeks of enjoying this place that Jaques Cousteau described as “the world’s aquarium.” We are slowly learning to recognize most of the common fish species after snorkeling nearly everyday.
Bryde's Whales: Photo Jared Towers.We are about to settle in an anchorage not far from La Paz and get back to work. Unfortunately it’s not gainful employment, but work on Narama. We can’t pass up all this fine weather without taking the opportunity to varnish, polish, reseal the toe-rail, fix the starter on the engine… and so the list goes on.
