This story contributed by "BajaMur" Murray Carver This story is a continuation of Exploring the Bottom of Gonzaga Bay in a Sailboat Visit Mur's Home Page for some great pictures!
After waking up from our football induced slumber, we hustled to the back bay to launch the boat. This time the launching went very smoothly, and we soon cruised out of the back bay and cut across that sand spit to the bay right in front of the house. The 100 hp outboard seemed to put out a total of about 25 hp, but that good enough for us. We tried a couple lures by that first point with no success (we had seen some fish jumping along the beach and near that point earlier), and then decided to go to most distant point of the island near the lighthouse where my fishing map showed some good fishing. And it didn't lie; our first drift produced a couple spotted sand bass, and on the second drift I hooked what felt like a halibut, but it came off right away. Nuts. We then went around the corner of the point to "work" the area and made some more drifts. The further we went, the calmer the water got because of the protection of the island from the wind. We just stayed in that area the whole afternoon and ended up catching a dozen nice Triggerfish (hard fighting, good eating), three nice sculpin (poisonous fins, delicious white meat), two small groupers, one nice 5lb. barred pargo ( a member of the snapper family) and I had two other bigger fish which got off or broke the line. One in particular really chapped my hide since it felt like a good 15-20 pounds and was running away toward shallow water so fast that I told Tom to start the boat and chase it. I had been running the boat the whole time up until then (should have given him all the pointers AHEAD of time-- like the tricks of starting it and how to oversteer it in those high winds, etc.) so, by the time he got the hang of it my line snapped as the fish cut me off on some rocks. Double nuts! Lol Still, we had a nice afternoon (and it would have been much nicer without that near constant ^%*&% wind, and I just waited for the sun to go down and winds to die down some for our cruise in.... didn't happen. Triple nuts!! I knew we were going to get wet cruising into the wind and waves, especially since the boat doesn't have a windshield! That was okay though, and I just let Tom put on my rain gear so at least one of us could stay dry. Unfortunately, I didn't let him finish putting it on before rounding the point and starting to pound into the waves. He just needed to tie the string on his hood, but holding on, getting pounded, and getting high-pressure-hose-like blasts of salt water in the face were not conducive to that. So, I had no choice but to stop briefly for him to tie it.. no problem right? Wrong. The engine died, and wouldn't restart!!! It must have gotten wet from the bouncing and water spray, and even spraying the starting fluid into the carbs wouldn't start it... uh oh... quadruple nuts again???? At least we had a kicker motor, which I immediately started and that kept our bow pointed into the wind which was good news. It was also good news that we were inside the point again and the worst scenario would be drifting into the rocky shore and wrecking the boat, but at least being on the island and able to walk back to Doug's house (quite a hike from there over those pointy little peaks though!) Bad news was that the kicker motor was so small and barely had us moving forward at all against the wind and waves. It looked like a LONG ride back and yes, you guessed it, it was getting dark too! We got out the cb radio to call Doug to tell him we'd be late and be ready to send help if necessary, but we got no answer on the radio. Tom tried a bunch of channels with no success, so we seemed to be on our own. Three shipwrecks in ONE DAY????? Then you'll never guess what happened.. or maybe you will. The little motor ran out of gas! No problem, we had plenty of gas onboard, but getting it from those heavy 6 gallon cans to that little outboard was not easy--esp. since we didn't have a funnel. I didn't like it, but I had no choice but to open the lid and start pouring and hope I got more in the motor than in the sea! I don't think I did, but I at least got that 1/2 gallon tank filled before the six gallons ran out!! (Apologies to you tree-hugging naturalists out there who will now call Greenpeace and Oil Spills International to report me!!) I got the kicker motor started again, and headed us closer to shore for hopefully a TINY bit of protection from the wind and the nearness to the island only made it easier to gauge the painfully slow crawl of forward progress we were attaining. But, beggars can't be choosers huh? Hey, anyone want to go fishing with me... AFTER a little sailing??? LOL After another 15 minutes or so, Tom suggested we try the big motor again to which I heartily agreed and lo and behold it came to life! I shut down the kicker, raised it up, and gave it full throttle in the direction of the BARN! I told Tom to sit down and hold tight because I wasn't stopping for anything but sandy shores! It soon because apparent that the ride was unusually smooth however, and it turned out that the wind had made a complete change of direction and instead of from the west was now solidly from the south--which flattened out the bay in a hurry! MEGA nuts!! If I could have known that, we could have fished longer AND cruised in on calm seas!!! Oh well, couldn't have taken that chance, right? Anyway, happy to be on dry ground again, I dropped Tom off on shore with the fish and I anchored the boat 20 yards off the beach. We then filleted the fish, changed, and went to a deluxe dinner at the restaurant (Alphonsina's) next door. Yummy, fresh fish, shrimp, rice, beans, salad, etc. I certainly needed some nourishment after one of the hardest days of work I'd had in my whole life! It sure was gorgeous out there in the calm, starlit sky when I went to reanchor the boat. And the tide had gone out what seemed like a MILE and I actually wondered if I could just WALK to the boat..lol! It was still floating however, and I pulled in the big anchor, took it to the bow and pulled in the little anchor and tossed out the big one. Doug had a HUGE anchor attached to a LONG, HUGE rope, attached to a beer keg which I was supposed to throw over as a buoy and tie to, but that seemed unnecessary, so I just let out a good amount of rope and tied it off on the bow and even ran it back around the two back cleats. That oughta hold it I thought. Wrong. I woke up about 3am with a nightmarish thought...I had anchored the boat at LOW tide and it was coming up a LONG ways... and the wind had picked up again... would it, could it possibly pull that anchor up and cause that boat to drift toward and possibly INTO the island?? That caused an instant case of indigestion and flashbacks to real life horror stories of my boat swamped at anchor at Lake Powell and in San Quintin!! [now that's a couple of different adventures altogether!] I immediately got up and grabbed the big flashlight to alleviate my fears. But, just the opposite happened! The light seemed to disperse into a blinding fog--spreading out in the morning mist rather than penetrating like I needed it to in order to see the boat. But this WAS a strong flashlight wasn't it? And the boat wasn't THAT far offshore was it? Why couldn't I see it? Where WAS IT?? I started to panic some at this point and rushed back to the house to get a different spotlight. But at the same time, my mind was saying, "There's not much you can do about it now anyway! What's done is done. You're NOT going out there looking for it ARE YOU?????" I found two long flashlights, one of which had a two-foot piece of pvc pipe attached which made it even more of a spotlight--perfect! I walked down to the water's edge and turned them BOTH on. Nothing! No boat. Nada! My heart sank and I immediately started walking toward the island with both lights blazing. How could it be beyond the range of these lights? Where could it have gone? Did these lights not penetrate the darkness as much as I thought? Well, I shone them at the island to answer that last question and unfortunately, I could see the beam hit the rocks just fine! GIGAnuts!! The tide was pretty high and I was soon running out of dry real estate to walk on in my search, and my heart was pounding harder every step I took toward that goll darn shipwreck MAGNET of an island!! I finally reached the last grain of dry sand, and stood there with all the hope and faith I could muster and searched the water for the missing vessel. Suddenly, I saw something. Barely! Was it a mirage? A figment of a salt-drenched imagination??? NO, there it was again! A boat! THE boat! Yippee, hurray, hallelujah, and jump for joy! It was safely(?) anchored about 30 yards from shore and wasn't moving. AND the tide was going out which would anchor it more securely right? Or would that expose the jagged rocks over which it had come to rest?? Nahhhh, I couldn't be THAT unlucky could I?....LOL Yes, I even did once or twice consider the embarrassment of not learning my lesson from Mother Baja and her wicked wind stepchild, and of having Doug remind me of not following his advice AGAIN and I thought..."maybe I could just take out the little rowboat before daylight... pull anchor and bring the boat back and NOONE would ever know!" Luckily, I was more humble than THAT, and just decided to wait til daylight and take my lumps! The thought of the wind blowing me and the little inflatable into the rocks of DEVIL island in the dark really helped with my humility and that decision! Morning came, and Doug wondered why the boat was WAY over there and I had to eat crow for breakfast, but all was well and we got ready fish again one last time before flying home that Sunday afternoon. (It occurs to me now that I rightfully should have spent that Sabbath day on my knees in prayers of thanks, but alas, I went fishing instead... and the fishing was GOOD). http://www.timsbaja.com/fishingsoc.html
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