Marquer and the 'James Bond' Speed Boat

Being old is not dictated by your bedtime.

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Futuristic looking 'tender' of Kogo

Our boat between Kogo (235') and its tender (110')

Marquer is a fine place to linger the couple of calm days forecasted before winds pick up again.

When we arrived here in late afternoon, a very large 235’ boat suddenly appeared from around the corner and anchored just a few minutes before us, followed by a very odd looking ‘tender’ we nicknamed the 'James Bond' boat.  As a tender, it had to be at least 110’ long, with no visible windows, no anchor at the front or back, a super sleek, fast, futuristic, bullet-like boat.  It seemed to hover in place; we never heard or saw them drop an anchor down.  At night, the anchor light popped up from somewhere near the top of the cabin then retreated at daylight. 

This tender would follow the larger vessel that contained many more toys (cars, dinghies, SUPs, punching bag, yoga mats, etc) at a distance of about 0.5 to 1.0 mile, meandering left and right, back and forth.  From its behavior we think it was a ‘bodyguard’ type vessel that could probably do many miles/hour if need be.  What was even more interesting is that the larger vessel’s AIS signal seemed to come from the tender, decoy like.  It was the weirdest, oddest combination we’ve ever seen, making it difficult to understand who is going where when anchoring nearby. 

Not sure who was/were the important visitor(s) aboard that ship.  At one point we thought the ‘bodyguard’ boat would prevent us from anchoring there, they hovered increasingly closer towards us as we got near our anchorage point.  In the end they must have decided we weren’t a threat and ignored us.  They were gone the next day, following a similar pattern with the ‘bodyguard’ boat motoring large S curves behind or beside the larger vessel.  We had hoped to say hello while kayaking that day but they were gone too quickly.  We’ll probably never know more about them (not that they would’ve wanted to talk to us but you don’t know until you try).  PS: It is a Willie and can go 70 miles/hour.

We cleaned the bottom of the boat.  The bottom paint is getting so thin that we have to do it pretty often and it is becoming quite a long chore.  The boat is not due to be out of the water until fall so we need to make it last until then.  It took the two of us one and a half hour each to get her back in shape, quite the exercise but at least it is in warm, still, clear water.

After the noisy, although calm, anchorage at Loreto (we’re just not used to town-type noises), it is quiet here and we can rest better before heading north. 

We watch a couple of frigates hovering over a frantic heron with a fish in its beak.  They, thankfully, do not manage to steal it away, more power to the heron.  Frigates are very persistent, strong, and without shame.  Few birds can face up to them and win. 

Pelicans are flying in line back to their nest for the night.  I had never noticed before that other birds sometimes fly with them, in the same formation, mostly brown boobies.  Each one getting a lift from the bird in front of them, regardless of specie.   

We gaze at dolphins playing, big ones pushing a much smaller one out of the water to let it surf.  Others flipping out of the water completely, reaching probably 10’ up in the air.  We see another pod of dolphins out to eat.  Rays are doing back flips that sound like gun shots.  We hear on the radio net that the humpback whales are back in the area as well as the pilot whales.  We’ll probably see them further north. 

With the James Bond vessel out of here, nature seems to slowly get back to normal…