Having made two trips to Cabo San Lucas this was a trip to Mag Bay, refuel in San Carlos, and return. Geoff Halpern, Harry Okuda and Kenneth made the trip with me. As you may know the boat carries only 300 gallons of fuel and in order to make it to Mag Bay and return we usually carry 4 - 55 gallon barrels of fuel in the cock-pit and, at times, a 100 gallon bladder on the fore-deck (cradled in the upright inflatable). Along with an outboard and its fuel tank there isn't a lot of room for fishing. We try to transfer fuel from the barrels as necessary and then place them up on the fore-deck attached to the railing. One refuels at Turtle Bay, try to get in as much fishing as possible, staying at Santa Maria or Belcher's landing in Mag Bay, and then refueling in San Carlos before going back up the line.

        The barrel obstacle was all too obvious the first evening that we approached Santa Maria. We hooked a large tuna on 20 pound line and Kenneth fought the thing for over an hour. He had it to the boat a couple of times, literally against the side of the boat. But with the barrels in the way neither Geoff or Harry could get to the side and gaff the fish. We finally lost it.

        When we did go into San Carlos were in and out in less than 2 hours. We were able to call (on VHF radio) a local representative who came down, picked up our passports and paper work, a short time later someone showed up with a fuel hose, and the fellow then returned with our paperwork and the immigration man. The only porblem might have been the tides. We were tied up to the dock at high tide. We didn't realize how extreme the tides are and soon the boat was dropping away from the dock with the lines ready to pull out the cleats. Fortunately, we were able to loosen them in time.

        The fishing on the trip wasn't that great - it wasn't one of those wide open Mag Bay Bites (Thetis Bank, etc). And the trip back up hill was - to be forgotten. Except as a reminder - "Don't do it again!"