Sleeping off all the beer and margaritas from the night before we slowly puttered out of Santispac for Santo Domingo. The winds were light but forecast to increase in the afternoon so motoring it was for a couple hours before dropping the hook. Mike took the single kayak to hike over to the fishing camp while I waited a bit to make sure the boat was safe. An hour later I paddled in to shore for shell hunting. I’ve gotten more discriminate in my collecting so only a couple small shells passed my inspection. After beach time I headed to higher ground up one of the bluffs. Vultures eating one of their own, which led me finding a jackrabbit. He wouldn’t let me get too close but at least I was able to get a few pictures before moving on towards a NOLS sea kayaking group. They arrived just after us and incoming winds were pinning them down for a few days. This was just their second day so a few boats were practicing rescue drills. Mike and I crossed paths and on hike trip to the fishing camp he had collected a large bag of trash. Every little bit helps to reduce the human influence and Mike did his part. We grabbed a few more plastic oil containers, fishing line, and bottle caps before paddling back to Strikhedonia.
As the afternoon wore on so did the wind and the wrap around swell. It wasn’t all that rough but it did rock the boat. We called it an night and by midnight the wind had built to 15 knots from the north, and so did the waves. The motion was enough to wake me a few times but all in all still a solid night’s sleep.
An hour after sunrise we upped anchor and headed around the point. In the beginning the swell was on our port forward quarter. Slowing us down a bit. Once we made the turn more towards the south the seas were following but also building. Now we were seeing 6-7 foot seas with occasionally larger (8-10 feet). The most excitement came when a sneaker wave crashed into the cockpit. At this point Mike suggested closing the saloon doors. The good news was that about thirty minutes later things mellowed out and we were motor sailing along nicely. An added bonus we caught our second Mahi Mahi. Pulling into San Juanico we had sailed about three hours with the engines off and were able to pull into my favorite spot in the anchorage.
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