Eventually Jon managed to book a different boat which was less expensive, but not equipped with water, food and drinks. But the charter operator ran us in his van to the nearby Oxxo convenience store to buy ourselves some food and drinks.
The ship was a 40' sport fisher with a steering station above the saloon, but no "Tuna Tower" at the very top. It had a large, comfortable cabin, but pretty small cockpit in the back. When Ben and Mark toured the boat, they noticed they each had more electronics in their pockets than the ship, which only had a pocket Garmin GPS, and VHS radio. We were a bit concerned there was no fish finder or radar, but it is what it is.
Heading out into the Sea of Cortez was pretty rough, driving into the swells at 14kmph. We got about 12 miles off shore where the deck hand baited and set 5 lines- 2 on outriggers, 2 on the outsides of the transom, and one in the centerline. Ben found it odd that they towed the lures inside the boat's wake, rather than behind or deep to it. However, Mark said in his experience with fishing out of Baja, this is a common technique. They trolled this way at around 6kmph.
We eventually crossed into much deeper water (>1600.) at about 25 miles off shore. There we had a takedown of one of the outriggers. The captain set the hook and then passed the rod to Jon who played the fish in. It was a very substantial 86" long Marlin.
About an hour later, a second smaller fish struck the lures but threw the hook after leaping up into the air twice. Mark and Ben didn't get a chance to reel in any fish, but Ben enjoyed seeing how it was done. We had just tagged along on Jon's charter at a huge discount for us.
After returning to the hotel, we changed into beach and pool gear, and Ben tried his hand at surf fishing and body surfing again, but to no avail this time of day. But it was as good an excuse as any for getting in the surf.
In the evening, we walked down to Pancho's Restaurant, which is half the distance to the Maleon. We had scoped it out yesterday. It was very busy, but we only had to wait for a couple of minutes before we could be seated inside. The food is similar to American Mexican restaurants, with huge servings. Janet ordered the bacon wrapped shrimp- a bit more heavily charred on one side but till very tasty.
Ben ordered a Mexican Plate, which has carne asada, deep fried cheese stuffed pepper, a hard shell taco, two taquitos, and two quesadillas along with rice and beans. Both were huge portions so we kind of waddled back to our hotel during the sunset. Tomorrow we embark on an inland cultural tour.
