Santiago
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3500
Registered: 8-27-2003
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Time and tide...
August 23 ? August 29
Sunday Day 1: New twist, took the 805 south and will use that every time I need to stop at Emigration as it puts you in the far right lanes.
Crossed border about 1:00pm, very easy and quick, made lunch at Papas y Tacos, across the street from the Paraiso las Palmas Hotel. A huge fire at
the pallet storage facility on the west side of the road in San Vicente (I think - the one with the stop light) had traffic diverted to the east side.
They had the local fire truck backed up to the gate but I would guess at leas 50% of the pallets were lost and I don?t see how they were going to
save the others as there was a strong west wind. In fact, burning embers were flying across the road near the houses/buildings on the east side of
Hiway 1. Anyone hear of any other damage? Made Cielito Lindo about 6:00pm and was given the key to room #2 ? the same one I had at BBBB#1 w/ my 2
boys. I regaled Andy with the goings on at the time ? describing in great detail, of course, the now infamous photo my paparazzi-in-training kid took
of you-know-who-doing-you-know-what-to-you-know-who. The bar was full, someone put C&W on the CD player and things went down-hill PDQ after that. 2
Cielito Lindo sleeping pills later (margies) and we were out. Woke every hour or so to the faint sounds of whooping and hollering. Used to be you
wouldn?t have been able to keep us out of there and now you couldn?t drag us in??..
Day 2: made Mama Espinoza?s by 7:30 for our standing order of Huevos Mexicana ? for us that?s the first sign we?re getting close. Per Neil?s advice,
did not ask a soul if they had any eggs ? we?re feeling wizened travelers by now. However, I did notice that the dishwasher barely hid a sneer when I
poked my head around the corner for more coffee. Made Gecko by noon ? surprising Doc as he didn?t expect us ?til late. Set up in #1, 2 down from
Beach Bob. By 2:00 pm Andy looks at me and says, ?We can sit here and sweat or sit in the boat and sweat?. We hit the local islands to get the
barracuda-triggerfish-bass thing out of the way so we could concentrate on yellowtail/dorado tomorrow. Seemed like a good idea at the time. We were
on the back side of Ventana when the skies grew dark and the south wind picked up. Lotta thunderheads (no thunder) over Animas and moving our way.
We picked up and hightailed it to Gecko but got caught in a weird westerly coming off of Punta la Gringa in front of town. No wind as they canceled
out but the swells tuned the surface into a mishmash of heavy junk ? very much like the potato patch that forms outside of the Golden Gate for those
of you familiar with it. Lashed everything down and hung on (15? Gregor) until we made the first red hill south of town where we encountered the
overlaying southerly and made Gecko. On the way down we had decided to deny Beach Bob his twice-daily comic relief of our launching and retrieving
each day by mooring in the small cove to the north of Doc?s ramp. Doc pointed out 2 moorings that we could use but as that would entail swimming out
each morning we ignored his advice and set an anchor in 5? of water with a land line off the stern. No need to use those moorings way out there, we
reasoned; after all, just how far can the tide go out on the waxing side of a quarter moon? We reasoned. Cooked up chicken legs that serve as our
boat lunches for the week and slept on cots in the open ? too hot inside. Cloud cover all night with the occasional rain drops.
Day 3: Coffee by 5:30, walked camp to check out the various construction projects on the leased sections but saw little change since May. Satisfied
myself that MH was not joking about his flying Johnson (boat motor, you guys). Told Andy the story and he had to go down to look for himself as he
couldn?t believe one could loose a motor. However, I caught him checking the bolts on my boat that morning. Pretty damn sobering thought when you?re
in the middle of the channel and the swell picks up a bit. At 6:60am (low tide) we grab our ice chest and head for the boat, floating in about 12? of
water. Pound the Horsehead/el Piojo reef for a good 2 hours, alone, before we give up. As the Dorado are still at the south side of Angel de la
Guarda (Punta Colorada) we see the fleet head there and resolve to make that run ourselves tomorrow with additional fuel (35 miles). We fish the usual
spots around Smith for one very small baby yellowtail and a mess of the usual suspects (all fish released). The prime anchorage at the midsection of
the west side of Smith hold about a dozen sailboats. We pull into one of the coves and snorkel for an hour, but get no invites for a lavish lunch.
We head in, assuring each other that surely if we ever get a 50? sail boat we?ll invite all tin-boaters over for c-cktails??. The last sail boat
hails us as we go by ? pulling up this unbelievable goddess in a very small swimming suit leans way, way over the rail, on tippy-toe I?m sure, and
asks that as we are going ashore, could we take a 30-gallon bag of rotting garbage with us? We fight each other to be the one to take the bag. The
15 minute ride to Gecko is quiet as we contemplate what blithering idiots men in general are. After dinner we drop in on Beach Bob, pay him back for
all the Pacificos we drank there with a 12 pack from the States, and I discover that Beach Bob is a fair-weather Lakers fan. After getting pounded by
him in April about how his Lakers will kill my Kings, I get only one sentence from him regarding the Lakers dismal performance in the Finals and
afterward. ?Things are pretty screwed up right now?. No kidding. Andy and Bob reacquaint each other to the fact that they grew up in the same
general neighborhood of Cleveland. We toddle off to bed about 10:00pm ? way passed our bed time.
Day 4: Up at 5:30 only to discover on rounding the beach crest that the stern of my boat was sitting on rocks. Good grief. We gingerly pick it up
and scoot the boat a foot to float it, making a mental (oxymarooon, I know) note of the anchor location and resolve to set it a bit further when we
come in. We decide to fish the reefs/points all the way to Animas and figure it out from there. First stop at Punta Don Juan we pick up at 12 pound
yellowtail ? should be a good day. Nada there on out. A few bass, but much smaller that in April. I suspect the gill netters have pounded it into
submission. We decide to check out the beach camp area at Animas, where we had such a grand adventure in the Spring. Running in we pass more gill
nets. We launch and low and behold, Carlos walks out of the beach brush. I yell out ?Hola Carlos? and he is taken aback ? looks and says ?How you
know my name?? As I near he recognizes us and breaks into a big grin. He runs down to the beach and gets his couch, drags it into camp and we have a
grand hour going over what has happened over the last months we have been away. The fish truck from Ensenada was not coming back for 2 months, so he
was just going to live there and wait until it started coming back. We took our leave after noticing my boat slowly floating away, crazy tides these
parts; giving him our chicken lunch, 2 apples, and our last cigar. On our last point of the day we get 2 new species: a California Half-Beak and a
very beautiful Spinster Wrasse (all fish released). On the way in we follow the largest pod of dolphin we have ever seen ? easily a half-mile long by
300 yards wide. We throttle down and get in the middle and ride with them for 20-30 minutes, finally turning the engine off and sitting in silence as
they sped by, the air full of faint squeaks. Another ride home in silence. On reaching Gecko we anchor and the appropriate location and head into
town for lunch and ice. On returning in the late afternoon we find the boat on dry land ? sumbich ? missed that one. We calculate high tide to be
midnight and assume the boat will be floating about 10pm. We?ll move it out then. I wake at 10, with Andy snoring, grab my flashlight and go check
the boat. The fore 2/3s is in the water with the stern on sand. I spend the next 10 minutes sitting on my duff, pushing the boat with my feet until
I finally float it, pull anchor and walk out until I?m up to my neck, throw the anchor as far as I can and set the land line. I dry off and fall
asleep, assured that my efforts will be successful.
Day 5: I?m up at 4:00am and run over the beach crest to find my boat, sitting on rocks, easily a dozen feet from water. The moorings that Doc had
suggested a few day prior are only 10 feet from waters edge in 3 feet of water. Andy stumbles over the hill rubbing the sleep from his eyes and stops
short ? dumbstruck. In the course of 6 hours the tide had come up to the top of the beach slope and dropped back down ? a total of maybe 12 feet in
change and a 100? of distance. We make coffee and a full breakfast of eggs, sausage, potatoes, toast, fruit ? we have lots of time. Of all days, 2
pangas come scooting along the shore and beach in front of our boat to pick up a dozen fellow Geckoites for a day of fun on the water. You know,
guys, wives, kids, snorkels, those floaty things, umbrellas, everything and everybody. They all have to walk around my boat to get to the pangas.
Lots of finger pointing and gesturing in our direction. One of the pangeros walks up to the boat, follows the anchor chain to the anchor that is on
dry land, looks over to the moorings, shakes his head and off they roar to Ventana. As we pretty much have the camp to ourselves, we sulk around to
about 9:00am, finally float the boat and hit the closer yellowtail holes, all to no avail. That afternoon we break camp and head to Gonzaga Bay as
Andy has never been. We stop at Coco?s and get a great story of his early youth when the West coat of Baja was on blackout to protect against
Japanese submarine attack and how it was growing up in Ensenada during WWII. We spend the night at Rancho Grande, only one other camper and no one
came to collect any fee. Had dinner at Alphonzinas.
Day 6: Fish the lower Enchanted Islands/reefs and I set a new personal best with a 24 inch Sierra. Wonderful fight on a 20 pound rig. At noon, a
large southerly swell with wind started building and we beat it uphill all the way back ? brutal. In fact, I entirely missed the opening to Willard
Bay as the tide is way up and I didn?t recognize it until we passed the ship wreck at the north point of Gonzaga Bay. We had to turn in 3? chop and
make Willard in a following sea. Five minutes of white knuckle. In retrospect, I should have just beached it and waited it out. Five hours later we
slept on some beach just south of San Felipe.
Day 7: Early breakfast in San Felipe and crossed at Mexicali, about a 30 minute wait.
Good trip. Learned a few things about time and tide.
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64532
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Thank you Santiago!!! 
Great report on a Gecko and Gonzaga fishing holiday!
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Mike Humfreville
Super Nomad
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Santiago...
Great report. Since we haven't been this summer (first time ever) your words took me home. We'll be down the last week of September and the first
week of October. Reminds me I'd better ask Mary Ann to e-mail Doc.
You're doing fine work with your anchorage. I usually practice with mine when the tide is moving in rather than out. 4-baja has bailed out my
swamped barge on several occasions at Gecko while I was in town having lunch. Once it floated away and it took the fishermen three days to find it,
bobbing on the south point about to head further south.
My pals did repoace my 25 house 4-cycle with a motor of my choosing, a 20 horse 4-cycle. They can borrow my boat anytime!
Glad to hear you guys had a fun time. Come back when we're down if you can.
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psmithsr
Newbie
Posts: 11
Registered: 8-30-2004
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Camp Gecko
Email Doc. Right. I emailed him to reserve Oct, Nov, Dec, and I was reluctant to use PayPal for deposit, offered to wire transfer, etc. He said I
could send a check, which surprised me (I was wondering if a check would really get there on time). I then emailed I'd be willing to do PayPal but
have not heard back. Did I offend him? Can I just show up in Oct? Should I send a check?
best, paul
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tunaeater
Senior Nomad
Posts: 615
Registered: 9-3-2003
Location: Chula Vista, CA
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Thanks for sharing your report I enjoyed it a lot. Sounds like you guys had a good time. I love fishing that area. I hope to bring my boat down
sometime. I usually just fish on the pangas..Thanks again Paul
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elgatoloco
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4324
Registered: 11-19-2002
Location: Yes
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Great read! Mucho fun!
As I recall, the Lakers were still on TV LONG after C Web and the Bibster were lounging at the beach?
GO DODGERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
MAGA
Making Attorneys Get Attorneys
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JZ
Elite Nomad
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Registered: 10-3-2003
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Great report
The details make it seem like we are there with you!
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Debra
Super Nomad
Posts: 2101
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Location: Port Orchard Wa./Bahia de Los Angeles BC
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Jim! (Santiago) TOO FUNNY! WHEN Oh, When will you guys learn to listen to Doc. when he gives you advice on where to moor your boats!? (Guess that
would be NOW?, LOL!) Thanks for the trip report, enjoyed it!
Psmithse: One thing you can count on, if Doc. tells you "Pay Pal", pay pal....if Doc. tells you "a check is fine", a check is fine, "Did I offend
him", I doubt it, he's not easily offended, It's all okay....Relax, and (Just stay out of my cabin! :biggrin
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Santiago
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3500
Registered: 8-27-2003
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Here is (I hope) a photo of the pallet fire. Also, The Pemex at Alphonzinas was open. Her son was pumping and said they open whenever they can get
gas. He also confirmed that they had spent $500,000 on the station. While both Andy and I have a lot of experience in housing and none in commercial
- we just didn't see that kind of money there. Can someone explaing the economics of building a Pemex to us? Are there a lot of fees?
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64532
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
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Mood: Have Baja Fever
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Thanks for the photo Santiago, and the word on ALFONSINA'S Pemex being open. (Baja Spell Checker says 'Hi')
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4baja
Super Nomad
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Location: morro bay ca
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great report, we use a kayak now to get out to our boats instead of swimming. psmither just send a check to his bank in san diego and he will e-mail
you that he got it.
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psmithsr
Newbie
Posts: 11
Registered: 8-30-2004
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Camp Gecko
Send a check to Doc's bank? I can't find a terrestrial address on his website to send to him or his bank.
Tried PayPal and it doesn't like my CC street address. I've complained to PayPal. Perhaps they'll get their **** together.
We're goin' anyway late this month. Don't know if Doc will be all booked up when we get there.
best, paul
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David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64532
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Location: San Diego County
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Paul, unless it is a holiday you will probably have your pick of Doc's cabins or palapas... Even on Spring Break or New Years when he's traditionally
booked, a cancellation or no show will happen. There are other options such as Daggett's or La Ventana or... well there's lots of places.
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