At Least Call so We Know You’re OK

When we were at Bahia San Nicolas Tim and Steve (Lady Carolina) took all four boys out spearfishing a little ways away around the point.  They left about 10am, and the boys had had breakfast earlier, but they didn’t take lunch or anything, so I inferred they’d be back in a couple hours.  Apparently, so did Carolina, because around 3pm I got a radio call from her sharing her concern.  We both tried hailing them on VHF, but 1) there was a big landmass in between us, and 2) there’s no guarantee they even had the radio on.  I wasn’t too concerned, but in the back of my mind, I just wished they would call.  I thought about trying to hike to the top of the ridge with the VHF, but I didn’t really know how long that would take and I didn’t know if even then I would have a line of sight to where I thought they were.  I also thought that from where they were they probably had a line of sight to La Ramada, and I knew from the morning net that sailing vessel Interabang was at La Ramada, so in the remote chance they were calling for help I thought maybe Interabang would hear them.  Carolina and I talked again at 4pm and decided that if they weren’t back by 5:00 that I would raise anchor and go look for them.  It was pretty calm conditions, and I was confident I could manage (as long as the wind didn’t pick up to 20 kts, that is).  We decided it would be better if Carolina and Joel did not come with me because 1) The boys had taken the Exodus dinghy, and Carolina and Joel don’t know how to drive their dinghy, and 2) When you aren’t 100% confident, sometimes it’s easier to just do something yourself rather than try to explain how to do it to someone else.  Luckily, it didn’t come to that.  They pulled in around 4:45, and they had lobsters, so all was forgiven (not immediately, but eventually, when the lobsters were cooked and the drawn butter prepared.)

Note: Catching lobsters is illegal for tourists in Mexico.  So, the official story is they ran into a panga and the guy sold them the lobsters.  It’s good they remembered to take pesos with them when they were going spearfishing.  Right.