Up until now, I have managed to post a blog on each place we have visited. For the past two weeks we have covered too many places to separate, so this post is a compilation of a few of our favorites so far. For thoses of you who have never been to the Sea of Cortez, it is filled with islands that we have circumnavigated, sometimes stoping in spots for just a few hours. There is so much to see here, and we want to sample as much of it as we can. Each anchorage is an hour or two apart usually. Our longest passage has been 10 hours, but this is the exception. The entire Sea of Cortez is a vast land that is completely untouched by man. We have been greeted by 100s of manta rays jumping out of the water, thousands of dolphins, we harvested sea salt that is as pure as it gets, snorkeled with thousands of fish we have never seen before, hiked until our feet were throbbing and begging to stop while our eyes kept us going, just to see what was around that next bend, and shelled empty beautiful beaches filling our back packs full of treasures. Patrick and Jack have enjoyed many dives, and Jack always comes back from down under completely excited, sharing lots of details about what he saw. This kid is so brave. He even took a big jelly fish to the face. He came up crying for a few moments, then headed back down for more fun. His poor cute little precious face was red and swollen on the right side for two whole days. The fishing, as promised, has been incredible. Fresh sea scallops rank as our number one favorite in this moment, second is yellow tail, which we eat sushi style. Jack loves to gather clams that are in about 10 feet of water, he says it's like looking for buried treasure. There is real satisfaction that comes from being able to sustain our selfs out here at sea. We make fresh water from the sea water with our water maker, the sun provides us with energy ( solor power ) we treat drinking water and electricity like it is gold, because out here it is! Basically we conserve everything. It has been 11 days since I have washed my hair in fresh water. This is actually the longest I have gone. We take showers off the swim step, then do a quick fresh water rinse, so really it is no big deal. My hair and skin actually love the sea water. I would float all day long in it if could. As for laundry, we are now living in swim suits, so it has stopped piling up. We hand wash what we can, otherwise we stock pile the rest for our next port.
I am happy to also report....the home schooling is actually going well these days. By well, I mean that we are progressing at a very good steady pace. While there are still the complaints being thrown about from the reluctant student, we are managing to complete two lessons a day, and should be done with the school year by the end of May. I don't know who is more excited about this between Jack and I. I think it would have to be me! Although we plan to keep up with the blog, journal writting, math, and reading all summer long just to keep our prisoner in check.
A few highlights have been harvesting fresh chunks of sea salt, collecting tons of apache tears on a hike one day, painting a few shells for our wind chime offering that we left at a cruisers shrine, seeing friends offerings that have been left at this shine years ago, diving for Jack ranks up there as his number one favorite thing to do along with gathering clams and scallops and eating them of course, and just the over all sense of excitement that comes from seeing and exploring each new place for the first time. Patrick is also enjoying diving and fishing, and the money we are saving by catching our own food! We are also really enjoying seeing Jack thrive in his ocean play ground. He is only 10 and has dove to 78 feet, he gathers clams by the buckets which has him free diving in 10 feet of water, and just seeing him so excited about each creature he comes in contact with is such a joy. We are all loving the Sea of Cortez and continue to feel so blessed and inspired by this amazing experience, and the unbelievable beauty that surrounds us. The weather has been so perfect, the only down side has been the lack of cell phone or Internet connection there is. It is hard for me to be unable to contact my boys at home, Alex and Blake, who I talk to at least twice a week. We now seem to have a good solid connection again, and I just spoke with both of them.....so I will sleep well tonight! There is another Northerly blow expected to be headed this way this weekend, so we are heading to Santa Rosalia. They have a sweet small marina, and a town that we hear is like a museum...built in the 1880's. While we all love being native, it is nice to pull into a marina from time to time to take a loooong hot shower!
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