We moved yesterday to Bahia Salinas on the east/north side of Isla Carmen. (25.59N and 111.06W) This is a wide open bay offering protection from the north winds -- that are to blow mildly for the next couple of days. We waited for the wind to come up before leaving Candeleros -- but nothing; at least till we were ready to anchor! It could have been a spinnaker run... Alan also caught a hefty size fish, a black skipjack, that is reputed to be about the worst tasting fish that swims. Back he went in the dink!
Salinas is the site of an abandoned salt mining operation -- a real ghost town with just one resident caretaker. We set off early to hike back through the ponds and to the hills on the west side but turns out access is limited to protect the big horned sheep. Well, that is exactly what we wanted to see -- so no joy. We could hike on the eastern hills and so we did. Out past the abandoned garbage pit. But as we walked along I spotted a real treasure: a worked arrowhead -- about 39 cm by 20 cm. It was white and looks like white quartz. We have had several conversations imaging the early man who worked the tip and hunted in this area. We kept hiking but it became a steep scramble amidst slippery rock and eventually had to turn back. Oh yeah, and that's when we stumbled on to the (recently) dead big horn sheep. Not exactly what we had in mind! Down, down, down we came. Then I spotted a sparkling rock that is a piece of geode. WOW. It was all very exciting.
We made it back to the dinghy and back to Magic. We will walk the beach later this evening when it cools (94 in the cabin at 3pm). We expect to be here a couple more days: Alan is going to troll for fish and we both want to snorkel a wreck (120 foot tuna boat that is awash) here in the bay. Then we will continue around the island counterclockwise picking anchorages based on forecast wind direction.
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