SWAMPED!

Today I got up early and went fishing while Judy was getting her beauty sleep. Unfortunately, I didn’t get any takers, so returned to Wind Raven without any fish. This was the second day I struck out, but at least yesterday I had several fish on, including two Dorado, one of which jumped out of the water and promptly spit my lure back at me. Judy and I goofed around the boat for a while and then decided to go check out the turtle nests and get some photos of them. We boarded the dinghy and headed over to the palapa bar on the beach and noticed Steve and Lu Lu’s dinghy was pulled up on shore. We pulled ours up a little ways away and headed out towards the turtle nests. That’s when we noticed we forgot the camera. Oh well, if we wanted, we could get the photos later. We walked down the beach and viewed the nests that the hotel security people had enclosed in a wire mesh cage to belay predators, both animal and human. Judy had brought along a garbage bag that she was filling with the trash she picked up along the beach on our way. I wasn’t much help as I had not heard her say she intended to collect trash off the beach, or I would have brought along our trash grabbers. I personally don’t do well with bending over that much, with my somewhat precarious spine. As we reached the end of the beach area and headed towards the Tienda I spotted a road runner along the trail. I tried to point it out, but Judy missed it. It was just a short walk to the store where we each got a drink and ice cream. As we approached the beach again I saw two more road runners and this time Judy was able to catch sight of them. When we arrived back at the dinghy we went into the palapa bar to say hi to Steve & Lu Lu. A new employee made some very good cerviche that I was surprised to see Judy try. She had always turned her nose up at the thought of eating raw fish in the past. She agreed it was quite good and certainly ate her share. We were there a couple of hours and when we walked out to the beach the surf was up. Well it was up to a couple of feet anyway. Both of our dinghys had taken water over the stern that had to be emptied out. Steve and Lu Lu were ahead of us getting off the beach, as I had to wait for Judy to get back from the head. I watched as they started out and as Steve jumped in their dinghy it turned and a wave hit them broadside and over they went. Lu Lu had a very shocked expression on her face, and was quite wet actually. Of course so was Steve, who was trying to hold onto the boat and at the same time drag it to shore. I ran over and gave them a hand, helping to drag it to shore. He said he would bail the water that remained out, so we went to our dinghy to make our attempt. As we were heading out, the waves were coming over the bow sloshing water in, but we made it past the breakers. As I looked back to see how they were doing, I was surprised to see their boat was full of water again and they were having a bad time of it. I put the outboard in gear and made a run back to shore. Judy and I jumped out, grabbing the painter and pulled our dinghy high on the shore. (as Jay ran over to Steve and Lulu’s boat, Lulu came over to our boat and helped me pull our boat higher up onto the beach which was very sweet of her! Judy added) We then went over and helped Steve and Lulu turn their boat on its side to vacate the water. The next attempt was successful for all concerned