Splash back...

Thankfully we splashed back on Monday lunch time and are now at the Marina Coral 2 NM North of the main harbour, our holding tank is much relieved!! We are staying here for 2 weeks prior to setting off for the Marquises.

We plan to go back to the USA this weekend for some items for the boat we thought we could get here in Mexico but can’t, and also visit 'Trader Joe's' for the last time :-(

So stay tuned for the off......

Mexican Jumping Beans

I knew no-one would believe me, so I made a video of them in action
https://picasaweb.google.com/mdandjadrury/Beanz#5574506056236062482
be patient it takes a while to load.
Aren't they cute? Nearest thing to a pet on this boat!
When you're bored with that, click on the link to the right to see the Mexican photos so far

Another update...

Our prop speed is done, new bow thruster props fitted and tank full of fuel. But the Tammi lift is out of action for 48 Hours for maintenance! Added to all this is a big weather storm brewing, so we have decided not to splash back until Monday 21^st. The slips here are not the strongest and we feel the hard stand behind a brick wall is the place to be.

With this extra delay, we have taken the decision to depart for the Marqueses from Ensenada rather than flog 865 NM down the Baja California to Puerto Vallarta, a journey that is essentially in a SE direction and thus away from Australia. Looking at the charts the distance is almost identical. PV to Marqueses or Ensenada to Marqueses, there is little in it, so this, we decided, is our jumping off point in early March. Meanwhile we have added some links to some people who have been especially kind and friendly to us during our stay here. Please visit their businesses by using our links here on the right.

Update...

All Mexican formalities have been completed and Fully Involved now has a temporary import permit for 10 years, we can stay in Mexico for 6 Months.

We are forced to stay in Ensenada longer than expected as one of the bow thrusters blades was found to be cracked requiring replacement before splashing back on the 16th, so we are waiting on the hard stand  until it arrives from the USA.

Character building stuff is sailing...

We set out Tuesday 1^st Feb (Ground Hog Day!) for the islands of Coronado Del Sur 17 Nm South with the intention of anchoring for the night and carrying on in the morning to Ensenada Mexico to be lifted out for anti fouling and prop speed. We found the anchorage OK and dropped the pick in 25’ of water about 13.30 and had lunch. Round about 17.00 the Santa Ana Wind (Google it) started to have an unexpected effect this far South and blew at a constant 9 Kts. By 20.00 it had picked up to 15-18 Kts and the sea started to chop. By 22.30 it was blowing 25-32 Kts and really choppy seas with white caps all round. We were stuck for the night as we knew there were fish farm nets nearby, still there were 300 yards to the shore and another yacht was between us and it. We let out more chain to help the anchor and re-set the snubber rope. BTW we have 2 x 65 Lb anchors on the bow sprit and one 20 Lb on the stern. Throughout the night we were pounded and got little if any sleep, but the good thing was we were holding fast on the 1 anchor & 200 foot of 3/8 chain. At first light and with the forecast saying no sign of the winds dropping for 24-36 Hrs, yours truly made the decision to “run” for San Diego harbour. Our trusty iron sail powered us forward as Jan pulled up the anchor, once clear it was clear of the surface 2,800 RPM gave us a 6.7 SOG towards San Diego. Only on 3 occasions did I have to head her into the waves and that slowed her to 2.3 SOG so you can see how rough it was.  To add to an already exciting trip the USS Ronald Reagan, the biggest aircraft carrier in the World was just about to exit the shipping channel as we approached it and 900 Mtrs and showing on our AIS/Radar was a Nuclear Submarine! To say there were a few helicopters overhead making sure no one got too close is an understatement! Up the long shipping channel we went with our tame Sub keeping 900 Mtrs distance behind us at 6.5 Kts, after 2 miles we needed to head off to Port to the yacht clubs but as we approached our turning point another USS warship was coming down and prevented our turn so we had to slow, thankfully the Sub did the same and we slipped behind the ship into the yacht area. 

Safely back in the Silver Gate Yacht club we found that not only had somehow the dingy cover got torn, but we had lost 2 blades from the wind turbine!! So what had we learnt from that? The anchor sure holds a 17 Ton yacht well and Island Packets are very stable boats in a choppy sea.

So once again on Friday 4^th (remember Ground Hog day?) we set out directly for Ensenada Mexico without the overnight at the islands. The trip down the channel also involved contact with a Sub, but thankfully this time he was coming in just as we exited the channel.

The run down the coast was uneventful and we made the approach into Ensenada just as the sun was setting. We tied up at the jetty and had a beer. Saturday morning we walked to the Marina offices and introduced ourselves, thankfully they were expecting us and said we will be lifted at 11.00 that day. What about formalities we asked? Nowhere is open till Tuesday, its Independence Day long weekend, so it will all be done then, just carry your papers and passports you will be fine!! We were instructed to put her bow first into the lift, just come on over. When came along side at the lift they then decided they wanted us in stern first! All I can say is swinging a 50 Foot overall yacht thru 180 Degrees in a 60 foot space was interesting, thank goodness for a bow thruster! To make it even more interesting just as we swung thru 90 degrees a power boat decided to push between our bow and the far jetty, we then learnt some Mexican swear words from the crew on shore helping us!!



So now we are here in Mexico sitting on the hard stand overlooking the water and enjoying the sights colours and sounds that can only be Mexican !!!



OLA

Ola from sunny Ensenada!
Just to say we arrived safely. I have already bought a colourful Mexican blanket and had some tacos! Jan.

Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

It's impossible to sum up Southern California in just a few paragraphs.  To begin with, I've only seen a little of it.
Here are some of my personal thoughts and observations on what I have seen and experienced.
Without people, a place is just a place and I have to say that we have met some of the kindest, friendliest and hospitable people in SoCal: everywhere we've been we've been made to feel so welcome and been offered assistance at every turn. Even the local looneys seem harmless and provide a comical diversion, for example the lady waiting for a train in Long Beach, having a blazing row with her self at the top of her voice, took the time to stop mid rant and say good morning as we walked shyly past. But, it is the everyday people we came across who have left the biggest impression. We have been invited to peoples homes, been given the use of their cars, taken sight seeing, the list just goes on.  Nothing is too much trouble, it seems. I would like to think that if the situation were reversed, they would find us Aussies just as friendly.  Even in shops, the ubiquitous "have a great day" is said to you, not at you as it is in Australia.  I think it greatly affects customer service when you find out they call their shop assistants "sales associates", every single time we were greeted at the entry no matter how small the shop, and asked if we had found everything we were looking for at checkout.  Beats the heck out of your average sullen pimpled youth at SupaValu, throwing your change at you and slurring through chewing gum "enjoy the rest of your day" without once making eye contact.
My ideas of what Long Beach would be like were so wrong.  I expected industrial dockland, nothing much to do or see.  Instead we found a thriving arts district, museums and galleries and attractions like Hollywood all within an easy bus or train ride.
The one downside for us was the absolutely putrid water at the marina we stayed in.  I kid you not, it was the filthiest water I have ever seen, full of rubbish, dead cats and condoms.  There's the irony, you see. SoCal is supposedly one of the greenest places in the Northern Hemisphere and pride themselves on their recycling and lack of emmisions (I truly believe 75% of all Prius' manufactured end up in SoCal - every other car you see is one) but they are quite happy to pollute the oceans around them.  There is no water saving in practice that we saw either - one flush of a loo to wash away one little pee takes three and a half gallons of water!!
Although we spent Christmas in Canada, the weeks leading up to the Holidays were great - Americans do Christmas so well, and for the first time in years we felt really Christmassy.
Our trip to San Francisco was amazing. Stopped off at Big Sur, simply because years ago in another life I had read a book called "A Confederate General from Big Sur" by Richard Brautigan, it had a really profound effect on me at the time and I'd always wanted to go there.  I wasn't disappointed, it was so beautiful and I could have stayed there for a long, long time. Then onto the city, with all the famous places like Fishermans Wharf, Lombard Street, etc: highlights for me were Haight Ashbury where I felt just like a stoned teenager again (mainly due to the wafting smell of pot, which is legal for "medicinal" reasons (check out the free magazines for clinic ads: they can get you legal for $65)) and the Golden Gate Bridge which is so stunningly gorgeous I cried as we drove across it.  To top it all off, just off Highway i101 is Buelton, which advertises itself on billboards 10 feet high as the "Home of Split Pea Soup". I love America.
San Diego is a very, very pretty place.  Bang in the middle of the city is Balboa Park, for the exposision of 1915, a series of buildings were erected and they now house museums and galleries. It's a fabulous day out, and a place San Diegans are rightly proud of. Another [place that we enjoyed very much was Coronado, which has the most amazing hotel I have ever seen, I could have stayed there a while too. It seems, on the face of it to be a very prosperous city, with a very large military presence, however, look a little closer and you will see signs of decay and cracks on the walls of that prosperity, along with cavernous holes in the roads. And that's not metaphorically speaking either - the place is littered with potholes which the city can't afford to repair. The glory days of the Americas Cup are sadly over, speaking of which, we happened to see Dennis Connor himself a few times, he has opened a museum just near where we were slipped.  Not one local we spoke to had one kind word to say about him.  Guess Australians are not the only ones to cut down their tall poppies.
San Diego is a noisy place: day and night, there are things in the sky, be they planes, helicopters or war planes, and the main channel almost always has a warship or a submarine in it keeping you on your toes. It was also the only place we visited where away from the marina district, there were beggars at each corner on the intersections.
So to sum up, there is much to love and much to detest in this part of USA, what makes one forgive the shortcomings are the wonderful people. Am I sad to leave? No, not really. I miss the sun, and I had forgotten how cold a northern hemisphere winter is. Would I come back? Hell yeah!