Gresham Family Exodus

August 19 – October 1, 2013

After a couple days of provisioning in BLA village, we headed to the far northern end of BLA to La Gringa for the August Cruisers’ Full Moon Party.  We arrived a day early with Lady Carolina in order to scout the estuary and figure out the tides.  La Gringa is formed by a point of land that is a hook reaching out and down to the southeast.  There is a lagoon with a fairly narrow opening such that at extreme tide changes the water rushes in and out at a pretty good clip.  The full moon party was a lot of fun but one of the highlights of La Gringa had to be the whale sharks.  They are huge efficient eating machines and they are absolutely ambivalent about any human activity going on around them as they swim around sucking in all the tiny plankton, krill, and microalgae they can eat.  Tim and Brenden (and many others in the anchorage) got in and swam around with them.  They move pretty fast sometimes and it’s hard to keep up.

The day after the party everyone dispersed, and we stuck around one more day with Lady Carolina, and then we headed to Las Rocas, which is an anchorage on the west side of Isla Coronado (Isla Smith).  Isla Coronado (Isla Smith) is a small island northeast of BLA, and I have no idea why it has two names.  There is a dramatic symmetric cone-shaped dormant volcano on the island, which had a hiking trail to the top, but we never made it there since it was too bloody hot.  Las Rocas had nice nooks and crannies to paddleboard around in as well as several nice places to snorkel.  It was a beautiful anchorage, but there were no-see-ums there to deal with.  This time Lady Carolina was anchored closest to land so they seemed to get the brunt of the visits from the tiny bugs.  While we were at Las Rocas was when tropical storm Ivo was traveling up the Pacific side of the Baja Peninsula, and we actually got a fair amount of cloud cover and rain for a few days.  We had to run the engines to charge the battery bank for the first time (since we primarily rely on solar).

We left Las Rocas on Monday, Aug 26, and since there was fair weather in the forecast we headed back down south to Ensenada el Pescador, which was the anchorage that Carolina and I had walked to when we were anchored at El Quemado.  El Pescador has a fabulous beach, and our first afternoon there the boys all played football, frisbee, and bocce ball.  The next morning I enjoyed a fabulous run as well.  Our fair weather didn’t last long, and we ended up getting blasted out of there with 20 kt winds from the East (straight into the anchorage) and rain.  However, the wind died as we turned back into BLA and we ended up motor-sailing first to BLA village for a quick groceries run and then down to La Mona, which is at the very southern end of BLA.  La Mona is dotted with houses along the shoreline, which are apparently mostly inhabited with “gringos” who leave for the summer to escape the heat.  There were several other boats in the anchorage, and we ended up having a nice beach potluck with True Blue V, Sea Note, Drifter, Entres Nous, and Lady Carolina.

After we spent another couple of days at BLA village, we decided to venture out on our own for the first time in months.  What would we do without Lady Carolina at our side?  We didn’t go far, just to a small island about 5nmi to the northwest of the village, called La Ventana.  It was a very nice, small anchorage, but our time there was tainted a bit because Alex had an ear infection that really flared up, and we had to head back to the village to take him to the medical clinic.  Also, while at La Ventana we had our only almost real Chubasco of the season.  Jake’s nightly radio Chubasco report put us all at high alert, and sure enough, in the late evening we had lightning all around us.  The winds picked up around 11:30, and wouldn’t you know it, at La Ventana we only experienced winds in the high teens to mid-20s with gusts in the 27-30 kt range, while back at the village they saw sustained winds up in the high 30s.  There was a lot of VHF radio chatter about how much anchor chain everyone had out and what winds they were seeing.  Luckily, no one dragged, and everyone came through totally unscathed.

We couldn’t stay away from Lady Carolina for long, and after La Ventana we hooked up with them on the 35 nmi sail up to the northern end of Isla Angel de la Guarda to an area called Puerto Refugio.  We were a four-boat caravan including Dazzler and Chara as well.  It was a wonderful full day sail, and we all had our spinnaker chutes flying.  Bob on Chara even popped two chutes (since Chara is a Ketch).  Puerto Refugio is far enough north that it lays a little further off the beaten path.  Not even all the boats that stay in the BLA for the summer make it up that far.  It’s a beautiful area, rugged and secluded.  We would have absolutely loved this place except for the daily thunder and lightning and, of course, the no-see-ums.  We anchored in the middle bight of the east bay, and as soon as we dropped and I was sitting on one of the swim steps the no-see-ums started nibbling, so both we and Lady Carolina hauled anchor and moved out further away from land in almost 50 ft of water.  That really didn’t stop them.  Actual quotes from our logbook include, “No-see-ums are the devil,” and, “I am an anti-itch gel junkie.”  The latter quote was actually the only thing written in the log one day.  Finally, after 5 days we could stand it no longer, and we bailed back down south.  We had a slow sail with little wind, so we stopped at a lesser-known anchorage (since it’s not in the most popular guide book) called Alcatraz.  It is a north-facing anchorage, so we knew we could only stay for one night because the north winds were supposed to blow again.  We hung out on Exodus with Lady Carolina, and Craig and Leanne from True Blue V.  We learned that True Blue V had left San Diego heading south on the exact same day we did.  It took us getting all the way up to the northern Sea of Cortez to run into each other.

We sailed from Alcatraz to La Gringa for some protection from the strong northern wind, and before we knew it it was time to head back to BLA village for the annual BLA “Regatta” and then down to La Mona for the September Cruisers’ Full Moon Party.  It was Sept 19th and we were starting to get a much-needed reprieve from the sweltering hot weather.  I celebrated one morning when the thermometer read 75 deg when I got up.  While at La Mona, we realized Brenden’s birthday was going to come before we needed to go the BLA to reprovision, and Alex hadn’t picked out a gift for him yet.  So, we took Exodus for a day trip from La Mona to BLA village so that Alex could get Brenden a present.  We also hit a tienda or two, and I almost cried when I saw red, yellow, and yes, actually orange bell peppers.  We stayed at La Mona a few more days, including a “progressive” party turned regular old boat party on Mai Tai Roa, and a celebration for Carolina’s birthday (she’s in her late 30’s like we are.)

Brenden really had his heart set on spending his birthday back at La Gringa in order to play in the lagoon rapids, but strong SW winds were expected, so we headed instead to Isla Mitlan.  Isla Mitlan is a very small piece of land detached from Isla Coronado (Isla Smith) just north of the Las Rocas Anchorage.  The angle of Isla Milan seemed like it would provide decent protection from SW wind and swell.  We had a great day for Brenden’s birthday, but the next couple days the forecasted SW winds came more from the west and then the northwest, and it was uncomfortable bordering on unsafe, so we went back to La Gringa after all.  The weather continued cooling off and at Isla Mitlan we needed sweatshirts for the first time in I don’t know how long, and at La Gringa the logbook reads “68 deg when I got up this morning!”  The wind blew like crazy while we were at La Gringa, so we played a lot of cards.  We taught the boys Hearts, and the first time we played Brenden inadvertently shot the moon for a come from behind win.

We made one final stop at BLA village for provisions, fuel, groceries, and internet.  We were now on a schedule, because my sister Danna’s wedding was on Oct 20, and we were going to sail all the way up to San Felipe so I could take a bus across the border.  I started tracking for a good weather window to head north, and we pulled out of BLA for the last time on Tuesday Oct. 1.

Well, we have made it to our summertime destination: BLA.  Most cruisers who stay in the sea for the summer spend August and September up here because it’s far enough north that the chance of a tropical storm is pretty slim (although not impossible, we watch it closely) and there is a natural hurricane hole in the vicinity.  This summer the number of boats was in the low 20s, and here’s a listing of those I recall: Exodus, Lady Carolina, True Blue V, Sea Note, Interabang, Karma Seas, Odyssey, Entre Nous, Drifter, True Companion, Mai Tai Roa, Sara M, Lungta, Slipper, Take Five, Let it Go, Charra, Dazzler, Deja La, No Mas, Code Blue, Iver.  The next essay will shed a little light on the summertime adventures of this crowd.  There was also a small crowd who spent the summer down near Puerto Escondido.  It’s further south, but Puerto Escondido is about as good a hurricane harbor as it gets.  Through the radio nets we kept in contact with at least 3: Jake, Harmony (of Anacortes), and Apolima.  There were probably more since not everyone has an SSB radio and not everyone that does checks into the nets.  There are beautiful anchorages in the BLA area, and back in the spring someone made the comment that there’s really nothing further north in the sea past San Juanico worth seeing.  I’m thinking this was spoken by someone that was going home for the summer and had never ventured up to the rugged, less traveled, and beautiful area.

Later on I’ll write a little more about the BLA village, but our first stop there was a quick one because we just wanted to resupply before heading up to La Gringa for the full moon party.  So, I thought this would be a good representative example to share of what it’s like when we reach civilization and try to do a quick turnaround back out to the land of no stores and no internet.-We arrived just before noon, and our first shore excursion was in the afternoon, and it was primarily a scouting and emergency fresh items excursion.  I photocopied the map of the town from the guidebook so I could carry it around, and we (along with Lady Carolina) walked around visiting the various tiendas.  We were looking for things like who had non-refrigerated eggs, who had a good meat counter, who had what in terms of fresh veggies, and when the next shipment was due to arrive.  We also found out where we could have laundry done by asking someone in the Yellow store who took us to Lulu’s house next door.  She agreed to do our laundry and turn it around in a day if we brought it the next morning.  Kyle was with us to help us solidify that transaction in Spanish.  We also found out where we could dump trash, and where there were a couple of internet “cafes.”  The next morning we found out there was a morning VHF cruisers net run by Pit on Karma Seas, and he told us where we could get propane.

Our second shore excursion was for getting as many things done as possible.  We do things in a strategic order considering we have to haul everything around in our camping backpacks.  We dropped off laundry, and we were a little challenged negotiating a price.  Lulu wanted to charge by the item, which if added up would have been outrageously expensive.  So, Steve offered 200 pesos (each), which she accepted, but which I thought was pretty low balled and was surprised she didn’t counter back.  Next we hit the internet “cafe” across from the yellow store.  Cafe is in quotes because it was no cafe at all.  It was actually a toy store with a couple of computers plugged in.  They let us connect our computers directly since they didn’t have wifi.  We quickly took care of banking and any other vital internet business.  Next, we hit the yellow store and did provisioning of nonperishables.  Sufficiently loaded up we headed back to the boat.

The next excursion was that same day, and it was to get propane.  It turns out they only had the capability to gravity feed our tanks or we could purchase a full tank and leave a deposit for the tank, and we opted to do the latter.  It was a larger tank than ours, but luckily it still fit in our compartment, and it ended up lasting us the entire rest of the summer.  And Andres at the propane place was kind enough to give us a ride back to the beach.  Yet another shore trip that afternoon was simply to pick up laundry.

Our final trip was the next day to provision for perishables, since a fresh shipment had arrived.  And since each store had a slightly different variety, we had to hit multiple stores to round out our purchases.  We were very happy to find the nice meat counter at Mochtazuma, the grapes at Isla, and the nice large garlic at Gueillermo’s.  We never did find unrefrigerated eggs.  I guess they are catering more to the gringos here than expected.

No matter how hard I try, school still just seems like this extra chore that we have to do before we can have fun.  It’s almost like it’s ingrained in all of us that school = boring.  I wonder if I could shift our attitudes if I just started calling it something else.  In any case we have at least made a few changes that make our school day more efficient, and we all like that.   The first thing I did is totally scale back Alex’s History and Geography curriculum and I eliminated Art History.  I swear if we did all the work his lesson manuals call for we’d be doing school 8 hours a day.  So, I’ve made some priority calls.  I decided that a large part of what he was getting out of these subjects in addition to the specific information (which I think is far less important anyway) was reading comprehension and critical thinking and inferring.  That is, reading a topic and then answering questions about it that aren’t directly given in the text.  I decided that between the other two subjects of Reading and Science he was getting enough of that skill development.  So, now for History and Geography all we do is read the text so he’s somewhat familiar with topics, but we don’t do all the extra work or tests associated with it.

Another change I made is with the structure of our school day.  We are now doing independent work in the morning and then lessons after that.  This way, the boys are never having to wait for me to start their school day.  They get up, have breakfast, and start their independent work.  It’s making the school days end earlier in the afternoon.

I really enjoy doing school with the boys, but I have to say they aren’t that crazy about it.  We’ll keep working on it as it’s all a learning process.

We have continued our sightings and encounters with various sea creatures.  An exciting one was when we spotted a hammerhead shark while on passage from San Francisquito to Salsipuedes.  This one has to be a rarity: We found a pearl in one of our clam shells when preparing dinner at El Quemado.  It’s a good size pearl, but being from a clam rather than an oyster it lacks the opalescence of the pearls we are used to from jewelry, and instead it simply looks like a plastic marble.

Jellyfish.  My, have we seen a lot of jellyfish.  In fact, way back in La Paz, someone advised us that we would see a lot and that we should get full-body “jelly suits” to protect us from stings.  They are basically lycra suits that would be more comfortable to wear than our full wet suits when the water warmed up.  We ended up not getting them, but I don’t think it would have mattered.  Most common stings were on faces and hands, which would stick out of the lycra suit just as they stick out of our wetsuits.  And the water never got so warm that wearing the wetsuit wasn’t an option (except for Concepcion Bay, of course).  The absolute worst encounter, or most amazing depending on your perspective, was our last morning at Isla Partida.  We all went out for a dual family snorkel.  I had seen jellies in the water when I was paddle boarding, but nothing that seemed too crazy.  I was first in the water and swam away from the dinghy a little bit, looked around for a while, then realized I was completely immersed in a jellyfish forest.  It was like they all converged on us after we got there.  I couldn’t get back to the dinghy fast enough.  I kept waiting for the stings to come on my face and neck, but I only felt a couple dull ones.  However, it was extremely disconcerting being surrounded like that even without significant stinging.  I kept imagining them all over my hair!  I got out of the dinghy and was soon joined by Carolina and Joel as well.  Tim said that if you dive down deeper there aren’t as many, but I just couldn’t do it.

While at Animas Slot the boys found a surprise when they were supposed to be rinsing dishes on the back swim step.  Brine shrimp by the millions.  It was so gross, but that didn’t stop the boys from scooping them up and inspecting them.  Anything to put off rinsing dishes, I guess.-We’ve had turtles in many of the anchorages we’ve been in, and one of the things we’ve noticed is how loud they are when they come up to take a breath.  They are about as loud as a sea lion, but they don’t release their breath with as much force.  It is actually quite uncanny how they sound just like people.  Air breathers, we both are.

And speaking of sea creatures, now may be a good time to muse a bit on how much the movie Finding Nemo has shaped our anthropomorphic views of them.  After coming back from spearfishing, Alex asked Brenden if he had seen a turtle, and when Brenden said yes, Alex said, “thought so.”  Alex was in the dinghy and he heard Brenden saying “uuuude” while his snorkel moved up and down.  (uuuuude = Duuuuude)

It doesn’t matter how hard we try to think otherwise, but jellyfish are always “my little squishy” and crabs are always combative and say, “Hey, hey!”  Seagulls are always dull-witted scavengers who say, “Mine, mine!”  Sea Turtles are always laid back surfer dudes and pufferfish always, “… need a little help here!” and say, “shark bait ooh ha ha!”  Rays are always annoying and sing crazy rhyming educational songs, and we all wish that we could speak whale.  Love. That. Movie.

The lobsters were plentiful at San Francisquito, and we had two lobster fests on Exodus.  The first was with Lady Carolina, Charra, and Dazzler, and we had a great evening with great food and plentiful drinks.  The second was with Lady Carolina and Interabang, and it was another great evening.  One humorous aspect, though, is that Derek and Trisha didn’t know they were being invited for dinner.  I guess that’s what happens when you send the men over to do the inviting.  Apparently, Tim and Steve told them “party on Exodus” so they came with their beverages and full bellies.  We tried our best to push some lobster off on them as well.

At Isla Partida the guys caught yellowtail, so we had our first sashimi fest on Lady Carolina.  Steve prepared a plate of sashimi and was down below and asked Brenden if he would like to try some.  I wasn’t a witness to this spectacle, but apparently Brenden demonstrated his skill at shoveling in sashimi at a pretty good clip.  And Steve didn’t stop him because he was so tickled at how much this 10-year-old apparently loved himself some sashimi.  Afterward, the rest of us were sure wishing he had stopped him, since it was a tasty treat and there was so much less of it.  At later sashimi fests, we typically let everyone get a fair share before we turn Brenden loose on it.

Also at Isla Partida, Tim and Steve landed a HUGE dorado while dinghy fishing.  Something like 5 ft long and over 30 pounds.  Needless to say it wasn’t easy to land that in the dinghy and the reel malfunction and circling hammerhead shark didn’t make it any easier.  Both families enjoyed dorado for many meals from that catch.

Our fun with bugs and other winged creatures had been going on pretty much since La Paz, so now seems like as good a time as any to give a bit of a summary of all of these critters.  The first bugs we encountered were the bobos, and the first time they invaded was on Isla Espiritu Santo, I think, and they invaded us en masse.  Bobos are basically small flies, and the upside is they don’t bite or sting, but the downside is that they are as annoying as all hell.  They especially like to land on your face, and they have this uncanny ability to detect when you are busy using both hands so that neither is available for swatting.  Unlike typical houseflies, who you can get to fly away by simply moving, these bobos seem to stay stuck until you actually swat at them.  We find ourselves making some pretty crazy facial expressions trying to get a bobo to get lost, and it is simply infuriating.  They are slower than houseflies, so very easy to kill, and I tended to find bobo graveyards all around the boat.  I guarantee, with bobos around you WILL at some time or another find yourself smacking yourself on your forehead, and feeling satisfied with the kill.

The next encounter was with bees, also on Isla Espiritu Santo.  Basically, bees visit boats for one reason only, to find freshwater.  They send a few “scouts” and if they report back then they bring all their friends to your boat.  Of course, we’ve heard all about how important bees are to our ecology and our first reaction was absolutely not to harm them, but try to help them.  Tim had the idea of putting a small amount of freshwater outside then they would be attracted to that and leave us alone.  He put a bucket of water on one of the back swim steps, and it resulted in a most amazing bee invasion.  They drank the water pretty quickly and were then swarming around in a frenzy.  So, he put another bucket up on one of the bows hoping to draw them away from our main living area.  Not long after we had an even larger swarm all over the front of the boat.  It was totally out of control.  At sunset all the bees go home, but it turns out that they remember when and where they have found water, and the next morning they brought even more of their friends to visit.  We ended up having to move anchorages to get away from them.  Fast forward a couple months, and I’m sorry, I’m really really sorry, I know bees are important and without them the human race will die out and everything, but we kill bees, we really must kill them.  We have learned that outside whenever we must rinse with fresh water we must post-rinse the swim step with a bit of seawater.  It will attract some bees but they will recognize it as not drinkable and won’t report back and bring all their friends.  Any bee that manages to get inside the salon absolutely must be killed.  At Isla Coronados I left some frozen meat out on the counter to defrost and the condensation attracted hundreds and it was quite a bee blood bath that afternoon.  We try really hard not to let them in the salon at all so the killing can be at a minimum, but seriously, anyone that gets in is at that moment doomed.  One thing totally outside of our control is how much dew is on the deck in the morning, and dew is a huge bee attractor.  One of our worst experiences was at Honeymoon Cove on Isla Danzante when Gary and Marsha were with us.  We had hundreds of bees on the deck lapping up the morning dew.  We left that anchorage in a hurry that morning.  We have all been stung, and we find that the worst stings are on the feet and hands.  I got stung on the finger (early in our journey, when I was actually still trying to help the bees) and I screamed like a baby and writhed in pain for at least 20 min.  Stings on the hands and feet cause a lot of swelling, and we’ve all been subject to “fat hand” or “fat foot” as we affectionately call it.  Once we got into the summer and had a few rainy days, the bees were a lot less prevalent, presumably, then they don’t need us sailboats as their freshwater sources.

Of course we encounter mosquitos every now and then.  They are most common when we are anchored near mangroves or estuaries, and they tend to feast mostly on the boys at dusk and dawn.  Tim and I haven’t really had too many mosquito bites.  We’re just glad that where we are now the mosquitos are just a nuisance, not transmitters of horrible illnesses.

Then comes the mother of all biting insects so far.  They are bugs that absolutely must be the spawn of the devil.  Yes, I’m talking about jejenes.  They are also, not so affectionately, called no-see-ums because they are so small.  You can see them, but just barely.  They pack a huge, burning bite that develops into a small itchy bump, sometimes with a day or more delay, and the bump itches for many days up to a week.  Our first encounter with them was at Isla Salsipuedes.  In the late afternoon after anchoring I paddle boarded over to Lady Carolina, and we were chatting and through the course of the conversation jellyfish came up.  I don’t really remember exactly what we were talking about but I remember both of my calves starting to burn a bit.  I joked that the power of suggestion of jellyfish made me start feeling stings, and I paddled back to Exodus not thinking much more of it.  The next day the bumps started itching, and the rage was on.  Bites just kept showing up, primarily on my legs.  For days bites kept showing up.  We had heard that they crawl, so you can’t protect yourself with clothing or covers, and we also heard that they can infest your boat and you have to wash all your bedding to kill them all or you will just keep getting bit.  At this point we were at Isla Partida, far away from any laundry facility, and I was a crazy woman with fire in my eyes.  I couldn’t take it anymore.  I gathered up all our loose clothes, all of our bedding, all of the boys stuffed animals, and I bagged up every last bit of it.  If I couldn’t wash and drown them, I would suffocate them.  Then I spent all afternoon vacuuming every nook and cranny of Exodus.  It was poor timing because it was the day after the mini-Chubasco, so we had a fair amount of cloud cover, which means not much power generation to run the vacuum, but I didn’t care.  I was on a mission to seek revenge on every little biting creature that was tormenting me.  I should probably mention at this point that I have very poor tolerance for itchy bug bites.  I have a high pain tolerance for many things, I can give birth (3 times) with no anesthesia and I can run a marathon, but I absolutely cannot take the pain of small, red, itchy bug bites.  I scratched my legs until they bled.  Repeatedly.  Well, they eventually subsided, and I have no idea if my bagging and vacuuming really mattered at all or if I was just feeling the delayed effects of bites from Salsipuedes.  But I did know that those bugs needed to be avoided at absolutely all costs.  Of course, we ran into them a couple more times, and my legs now bear permanent scars from my inability to refrain from scratching those nasty little bites.

As far as creepy, crawly bugs go, we’ve only seen the lone earwig or cockroach once or twice.  According to cruising books and blogs, cockroaches are a huge cruiser nightmare.  They hide in all things ashore, especially cardboard, in fact, its often advised to not bring any cardboard from your shopping excursion onto the boat.  We also talked to some folks who saw cockroaches on their dock lines at a marina, so they now spray their dock lines with bug spray.  Cockroaches, unfortunately, do fly, so at some point there’s only so much you can do.  Luckily so far we’ve only had the lone guy to deal with and we’ve expended with him swiftly and haven’t had to deal with any sort of infestation.  Brenden is officially our bug hunter/killer.  He’s swift and efficient, and it’s sort of entertaining to watch.

Buying flour here can be a bit of an adventure as well.  At home I would buy a bag of flour, put it in the cupboard, use it when I needed it, and never, ever, found any creepy crawlies in it.  Here, every bag of flour needs a bit of inspection before it gets to stay on board, and I’ve even taken to opening bags at the store before even buying them.  So far we’ve managed to avoid any sort of dry goods bug infestation, but we use airtight containers and put bay leaves in everything, so hopefully that’s will keep working for us.

There have also been some larger winged creatures who have visited Exodus.  The most entertaining incident (in hindsight, as far as I’m concerned) was the evening at Isla Partida before the mini-chubasco.  I had just finished taking a shower, had dried off a little bit, and was just stepping out of the shower stall when something came flying down from the hatch above and smacked me in the head.  It landed on the floor and quickly regrouped and started flying around in a frenzy.  It didn’t take me long to realize it was a bat!  It was a small one, but I still hightailed it back into the shower stall, slammed the door, and started calling to Tim.  God bless him, he came quickly (because my blood-curdling scream made him think I was in some sort of imminent danger) and he managed to cover the bat with some rags and carry it outside and release it.  Whew, what a relief.  Of course, mom screaming over a small bat has become quite a joke around here, only slightly more entertaining than mom screaming over a bee sting.  Anyway, I dried off, came out of the bathroom and was getting dressed in our cabin, when I swear to god, something came flying into the salon, down into our cabin, missed my head by only fractions of an inch, I’m sure, and settled under the stairs.  Seriously?  Two things flying into (or near) my head in one night?  This time it turned out to be a small black bird that just needed a little sanctuary, and we let him stay on the boat as long as he needed to.

The next morning, after the mini-chubasco, the black bird (or a similar one) was nestled under our cockpit table.  Tim made it comfortable, gave it something to drink, and a little later it was gone.  Or was it?  When Brenden woke up he discovered a bird on his bathroom floor.  He felt so bad because he stepped on it a little before he saw it, and he felt very obligated to take care of it until it was ready to fly away.  After hanging out for a while, it tried to fly away out of Brenden’s hands, and it briefly landed on the deck before falling overboard just off the stern.  Brenden immediately starts figuring out a way to retrieve it when we all spot a seagull make a beeline straight for the little bird. Before any of us really realized what was happening, the seagull snatched the bird up in its beak and flew away.  You could actually hear the little bird let out out a squeak as it was being crushed.  Brenden screamed out in horror and sorrow.  He cried and cried. He said when he first saw the seagull flying over he thought it was coming to take care of the little bird, like a substitute mom.  Then he said it was all his fault that the little bird couldn’t fly because he had stepped on it in his bathroom.  We told him the bird must have been hurt or something to come on to the boat at all in the first place, but it took a while to console him.  It was all very sad, and we all got to see quite close up how harsh nature can be sometimes.