Tuesday morning we got a leisurely start out. Our farthest possible target was about 24 hours away – if we kept good speed we would come in early in the dark, and if we were slow we would still get in during the day. We got another treat of dolphins tagging along with us – this time carrying a couple passengers - I think they are called remora fish:
We made pretty good time, mixed motoring and sailing – and came into Caleta de Campos at 8am. We anchored right around a breakwater in fairly shallow water (15' at low tide). There was a lot of activity in the water. Early in the morning pangas of fishermen went out, and older kids were fishing from the breakwater. There were families and kids on the beach. When some of the fishermen got back, there were about a dozen kids that took one of the pangas out into the cove, and were buzzing around pulling one kid on a wakeboard and another on a single ski. If someone fell, they would swim to shore – and other kids would swim out again to join the boat. They came close to us and yelled Chocolada? At first we waved them off and said no – but we did have some chocolate bars still in the freezer – so we pulled out 4 and called them over. As the panga approached, 4 or 5 of the kids dove into the water and swam towards the boat. We said – “solo cuatro” and indicated they needed to share. We signaled for the oldest kid who was driving the boat to come closer, and we gave them all to him to dole out.
Feeling rested from a morning nap, we decided to go to the beach to one of the restaurants – thinking if we stayed two nights, the next day we would walk on up into the town to go exploring. We rowed our dinghy to the corner farthest inside the breakwater to avoid any surf in our landing. The restaurants had large, fairly deserted covered areas overlooking the beach. We picked one, got our beers, and sat waiting for our food. As we looked out over our boat (picture to right), we could see how much the swell picked it up as it came to shore and broke as ca. 3 foot waves. We started feeling our boat was perhaps too close to shore. Then we saw 2 kids swim out towards our boat. They started playing with the float ball that we had attached to our anchor to indicate its location. We thought; "Please don’t fool around with that and trip the anchor.." . Then they swam over to the bow of the boat and started climbing on the chain – standing up where our snubber was attached to the anchor chain and diving off. Did we turn the breaker off for the windlass? If they climb up on the foredeck and accidentally step on those foot switches, they could screw up our anchor – what if the boat broke loose? Cathy went to the edge of the water and yelled, waving her arms. They eventually saw her, gave a friendly wave of their arms and swam away from the boat. Still sitting waiting for our food… and another couple kids swim out to the boat. They go to the stern, and start playing with our “tarzan” line that we have hanging from the arch to help us climb out of the dingy and onto the boat. Then one of them starting climbing into the cockpit. We both went to the edge of the water, yelling and waving. The people on the beach just looked at us blankly. The kids eventually started swimming away as well. We went to the kitchen and asked for our food to go!In Cathy's broken Spanish she said " Cena? No a qui....los ninos....(dinner? not here... the boys)" and then indicated with her fingers climbing. The owner and her maother had a heated discussion about los ninos, and the beautiful platters of lobster/shrimp/and fish we hjad ordered were quickly moved to styrofoam containers. It was ashame because they had taken so much time arranging the platters so creatively. After we got back to the boat, a teenage couple swam out. We invited them into the cockpit. They were just looking for a place to rest before swimming back. Curiosity?Anyway, we decided we would not be leaving the boat there the next day to go more into town, so we may as well enjoy our dinner in the cockpit and plan to head on out in the morning.
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