Soggy Ducks 2010 – North American Coverage Complete

As many of you know, each year, me and three buddies from business school go on a three – four day camping trip.  This was our 21st trip!  Its either back packing or some form of paddling and we have had the opportunity to travel all over the US and as well into Canada.  This year we added Mexico.  And this year one brought his wife along, one left his wife at home and the other brought his wife AND kids along.  Fortunately all wives and kids stayed on the boat while the guys went sea kayaking in the Sea of Cortez.  









As you can see, we were pretty busy on the dock getting all our gear organized and managing the comments and “input” from wives and kids! 

And, with 11 people on board Wednesday and Saturday night, we had people sleeping in beds, on the trampoline, in the salon and in the cockpit.  It was a full, fun house!


Thursday morning, we took a panga (small fishing boat) out to Espritu Santo and Partida Island to camp for a few nights.  The conditions and coast line were great although the first day was so hot we had to hike up to a cave in the hills to get out of the sun! (View from cave at left.) 
We also managed some good down time as well in the shade, away from the sun.  

One night, there was so much wind, (we estimated it at north of 40 knots) that one of my tent poles bent and it was so strong that the wind was blowing me over inside my tent.  It caused such a sand storm that it felt as if we were in a winter hail storm – the only difference being that it was warm outside.   We returned to the boat Saturday night and Sunday morning, the New York contingent took a taxi (see separate blog for that experience) back to Cabo San Lucas airport and flew back to New York.  The California contingent (Duck, wife and kids) stay four more days and we sailed back out to the islands for more fun boating.
Michael (in La Paz)