Divebombing Pelicans

2-9-13 – La Cruz, Nayarit, Mexico

First of all; yes we are still in La Cruz at the anchorage.  You say it will never happen to you, but somehow it has happened to us.  We somehow find ourselves perpetually stuck in this place.  The anchor rode is about to deteriorate and break at any moment, the rudder is overgrown with new life forms and the diesel hasn’t been started in forever.  We have been anchored in the same place for almost 2 weeks now, I’m not really sure what we have been doing; but at the same time we have not mentally prepared ourselves for the trip north to the Sea of Cortez.  Everyone says it’s still cold and early for the season up there in the North, so what’s the rush we say (as everyone back in the states laughs at the idea of cold and Mexico in the same sentence)?  Eventually our minds will click into passage mode again and we will be off.  So we are here, doing our best to have fun and try new things, without falling into “retirement living” where by people seem content to do the same thing every day, every month and sometimes every year. 

The adventures of living on a boat:  The other day I almost lost the dinghy.  Each night we hoist the dinghy up out of the water so it doesn’t “disappear” overnight.  Each morning we drop it in the water and walk it around back, drop the little outboard onto it and then are ready for a trip to shore.  This morning we were heading in early to meet some friends, had showered the night before; that’s a big thing for us remember; and were dressed for a day of shopping in town.  I casually brought the dinghy - PK - around the back trying to weave the painter around the grill, radar tower and flag when oops; it slipped out of my hand.  PK just floated there, looking at me like a forlorn puppy, asking why I let him go, why don’t you pull  me in?  I tried to gather the painter with my foot stretched out as far as I could, then yelled for a boat hook, but it was too late.  It’s amazing how far away ten feet is when there’s water between you and the other thing.  Not wanting it to drift too far I quickly made the decision to go in after it, but I wasn’t about to get my clean clothes wet with salt water.  No time to change, they all came off and in I went to save our forlorn dinghy.  So much for showering the night before to get the salt off.  I took a quick rinse in the cockpit shower and off we went.  It wakes you up pretty quick!  Oh, the life on a boat.

Look honey, I saved our dinghy!

 It may be a sign from God thru his friends the pelicans that the bottom of our boat needs cleaned.  You would be amazed how fast stuff grows on the bottom of your boat in this warm, sort of clear water.  I haven’t decided if it’s the salad on our bottom for the fish to feast on, or the shade from the boat that they think protects them, but huge numbers of little, 6” or so long, fish congregate under the boat at all times the sun is up.  Cleaning the bottom the other day I was worried I would be engulfed by the hundreds of these things.  They hide right next to the boat in the shade and squirm around to always follow the shade, making little bubbling noises the whole time; like a pot of boiling fish.  The real fun comes when a friendly pelican flies overhead and spots these hundreds of little fish, tightly packed in a group right next to the boat and thinks he’s hungry.  Next thing you know there’s a 20 pound bird dive bombing your boat.  I do mean your boat, because most times they hit the boat at the same time as the water.  Down below the first time this happens you think someone has hit you with their dinghy, or a small depth charge has gone off, as the whole boat shudders for a second.  Sort of scary when everything you own is floating inside this little fiberglass hull.  After the second and third and now hundredth time you get used to it and just hope they don’t splash water thru your windows upon impact.  Yes they hit that hard and that close!  After they hurtle themselves as fast as they can into your boat; the pelicans just float there, shaking their head a little dazed, maybe two feet from you and then fly off to try again.  They seem sort of unhappy our boat got in the way of dinner.  In order to show this unhappiness they land on our dinghy, the bow, the spreaders or the radar and poop on the boat.  Pelicans eat whole fish and what they can’t digest let’s just say it ends up on our boat in a liquid form, not pretty.  Ah the life on a boat.

Dazed pelican after a dive bombing / boat collision

 Nothing earth shattering to report today, feel free to leave comments so I know someone is reading this stuff, and check the SPOT links for our current position.