Dawn Patrol

114

Dave the Love God launches the Zodiac into Batiquitos Lagoon.

This is freaking crazy, he thinks, and he's absolutely right. Heavy surf warnings are out, the Coast Guard has issued a small craft advisory, and if anything qualifies as a small craft, it's a freaking Zodiac.

He steers the Zodiac out of the lagoon toward the open ocean. It's near to being closed out; it's going to be tough busting out through the break. But Red Eddie is right: Dave knows these waters; he knows the breaks, the current, the sweet spots. If he can get out on a board, he can get out in a boat.

He does.

Takes an angle, drives through the shoulder between two breaks, gets outside, and points the Zodiac south. He decides to hug pretty close to the coast until he gets far enough south to turn seaward, toward the coordinates that Eddie had given him to meet the boat that's coming up from Mexico with the cargo.