Tuesday 03-18-08 Back Down to Man-O-War Cove

Up, net, coffee (such creatures of habit).

The guys tried to scout out the channel in the dinghy, but again, TOO MUCH WIND!
So, do we sit here for two more days or head back down the channel?
Voted, head down the channel.

So we pulled anchor and just as we were getting to the main channel, here comes "Oscar I" up the channel - it is our chance to follow them up!
But what if we can't find a good place to anchor up by Puerto Lopez Mateos and the wind continues??
Forget it - let's go find some warmth!
Bye Bye "Oscar I"...

We followed our GPS track back down the channel.Past a whale and the largest stream of migrating birds we had ever seen! There were thousands and thousands of birds flying in a line up the channel. It was amazing!We went to where the dunes between Magdalena Bay and Santa Maria Bay were narrow and anchored outside of the channel. We dinghied in to the beach and hiked across to Santa Maria Bay.
Again, beautiful untouched, windswept dunes!

Lots of sand dollars and cool finds on the beach at Santa Maria Bay! Beautiful groups of waves coming in and beautiful huge sand dollars everywhere!Spent some time looking for clams, exploring the beach and playing with the stuff on the beach.

Then back across the dunes, where Jim found a cool old beer bottle! He did an internet search, and found information on this bottle. It was manufactured between 1881 and 1905!

We also found scallops, clams and pin-shells. We tried a raw one of each.
Sandy and salty...
Would be better if they were cleaned properly!

Back to "Meerkat" for tri tip tostadas.
The wind had really picked up, so we headed further down the channel and back to Man-O-War Cove. We had the "National Geographic Sea Lion" behind us, so we had our first conversation on vhf with them, "warning" them Maggie Pedersen and Bob would soon be aboard!

Time for some Austrailan red wine, courtesy of Kim - Thanks Kim!
Cajun chicken and red beans & rice for dinner, then bed around 9 pm (a late one!).