Northward to Lalo Cove

On October 25th, 2024 we pulled up anchor and motored our way a bit further north up the coast to an anchorage called Lalo Cove.  We were kept very busy on our journey there, between a bit of sailing, a lot of fishing activity, and watching a constant wildlife show. 

We caught our first fish only a few minutes after putting our lines out after leaving the anchorage; it was a small Pacific Sierra, our first one of that type of fish. 

The rest of the fish that we got to the boat were Pacific Bonito.  We kept two for sushi, and then proceeded to release four more. 

We also got two other bites that got away that were clearly quite a bit bigger.  One of them took the hook right off of our lure, and lucky for us we got to keep the lure.   

We put out our sails a couple of times to shake out the cobwebs and catch a little localised wind, but for the most part we motored through what felt like an aquarium.  Fish of varying sizes seemed to be jumping everywhere we looked.  We came upon a large sea lion that swam slowly to our port side and looked at us as we went by before it dove under.  We saw whales in the distance, many types of sea birds flying and feeding, and as we got a little further along our route we came into an area of jumping rays.  We have very fond memories of seeing them last year, and they sure did not disappoint.  It seemed that everywhere we looked there was a ray leaping out of the water, sometimes quite high, and then flapping its wings as though trying to fly, and flopping clumsily back into the water.  It was a very funny sight.  We were also seeing the rays in the water close to the boat.  We could spot them by their two wing tips poking out of the water, and if we were close enough, we could see them as we cruised on by.  It was very cool!

Bonito is a delicious fresh sashimi fish and we all enjoyed it with rice, nori, and soya sauce. 

It was cool to see Falcon loving it as much as we were.  He was so excited when we caught the fish, and equally happy to eat it. 

That afternoon, while anchored in Lalo Cove, we inflated our kayaks and Falcon got to go kayaking for the first time. 

He happily put on his lifejacket and sat in front of me in my kayak.  He loved watching the birds, especially the pelicans, and seemed to enjoy the kayak.  In addition, he must have found it quite relaxing, because although he has mostly stopped napping, he fell asleep easily leaning up against my legs.  We pulled into a beach with some swell and got to do our first swell landing with Falcon in the kayak.  It went very smoothly and although I thought that he would wake up, he remained sleeping through the whole process. 

Jason and I laid him down in his lifejacket in the shade and enjoyed the beach before heading back to the boat. 

Falcon once again, surprisingly, remained asleep through the whole departure process and did not wake up until we were getting back onto the boat. 

That night some locals came down to party on the beach, and although their fun did not disturb us, the evidence remained in the morning.  A truck had seemingly gotten stuck in the sand and the tide had come in. 

A tow truck had arrived and they were attempting to pull the half-submersed truck up onto dry land, but they were making very little progress when we pulled up anchor and left.  Five days later, when we sailed back past Lalo Cove, the truck was gone.