Alex’s 12th Birthday

We celebrated Alex’s 12th birthday when we were briefly anchored at Isla Salsipuedes.  In the morning, he got to go on a special father/son spearfishing excursion and Tim taught him to use the speargun for the first time (the boys typically use spear poles when they spearfish).  Brenden stayed behind with me to prepare for the celebration.  We planned on a lunchtime party because we were pretty sure we would need to leave the anchorage and move on later in the afternoon.  We made hot dogs, homemade chili, and homemade oreo cookies.  We even made Alex his very own giant oreo.  The Lady Carolina crew brought over balloons and we used them to decorate the cockpit along with a happy birthday sign Brenden made.  Tim and I had already given the boys their birthday presents when we got back from San Diego (surfboards and long wetsuits), but Alex had a few presents to open including a chess game Brenden had picked out in Santa Rosalia, and some bubbles and a shiny new shackle from Lady Carolina.  The chessboard made our next passage a peaceful one since the boys played it almost the whole time, and at this point I’m really not sure what Alex has chosen to use his shackle for.