From Monterey Bay to Ensenada, Mexico

9/22/08 – Monday
We woke up to clouds and a little fog. We have to leave today. We are running out of days to get to Ensenada for our haul out. The weather is suppose to be small craft warnings, 15-25, but no gusts of 30. If the weather is correct it will only be a rough ride to Pt Sur and then it will calm down a little. The swells were pretty good. We got rolled around a bit which made it a little uncomfortable, but we managed. The seasick patches work well. We ended up cutting them in half because they made us so dry and sleepy. It has been working. At one point Dave wondered if he made the right decision to leave today. Whether it was right or wrong, the decision was made and we are here dealing with it. We passed Pt Sur and the swells and wind diminished, we had blue skies and it seemed things were going well. Then the swells picked up again and tossed us about and the wind was 17 knots behind us. That was causing the swells plus wind waves. It is a nasty combination. We knew at this point it was going to be a long bumpy night ahead. It didn’t disappoint us in the least. The wind played with us. It would calm down and we think things were going to level out and then it would pick up again. Needless to say neither one of us got a lot of sleep. The waves heeled the boat over to the left, then right, straighten out and start all over again. It was a dewy night so everything got damp. It was like it had sprinkled during the night. We let the auto helm work as it handled the waves much better than we could.

9/23/08 – Tuesday
Well we made it through the night without any problems. Hooray!! When the sun came up conditions improved a lot. I do have to say that even though we were being tossed like a salad last night, the sky was full of stars and a crescent moon shown on the water. It was beautiful. When we came to Pt Conception there was no wind and few waves and gentle swells. That is very unusual for here. This doesn’t happen very often. The Lord has been with us all the way. Thank you!!! We made it around Pt Conception about 6:30am. We are motoring to Santa Barbara. That is where we will stop for fuel and see if they have transient moorage for the night. I tell you – I never want to travel down the coast again. It really can be dangerous if you don’t follow the weather reports and if you are in a hurry. I understand from all the people we have talked too that the Pacific Coast is the roughest waters in the world.

It was sunny but as we got closer to Santa Barbara it turned foggy. It’s eerie when you are in fog and only have the radar to guide you. After awhile the sun was out again and it turned into a beautiful warm day. I didn’t waste any time changing into shorts. We arrived at the marina around 3:00pm, fueled up and went over to the main office to check in and get a slip assignment. When Dave returned to the boat a harbor policeman was with him to give us red tablets to put in our holding tanks. That way if we pump over the side they will see it and we will be fined. Luckily we don’t have to worry about that as we have closed the through hauls. They assigned us a slip that was right next to the bathroom with showers. Nice. Free showers too. Well you know you are in Southern California when you see palm trees. Santa Barbara is a pretty place. Since we are secure in our slip we need to figure out what we are doing tomorrow. The water here reminds us of the Puget Sound. Small sloppy waves.

9/24/08 – Wednesday
We decided to stay another night. That way we can get really rested. I think our next stop is Marina Del Ray. Then one more stop before San Diego.

Dave and I walked into town and to Sterns Wharf. There were some shops and restaurants for the tourists. Dave said NOAA use to have a tide gauge at the end of the pier and the pier use to be longer. There was a fire in 1998 that burned most of the pier and they never rebuilt it out that far again. Now that we have had a little exercise there is work to be done. I defrosted the freezer and got things picked up. This marina is huge with all sizes of boats from mega yachts to fishing boats. We did noticed though that the further south we go the less we see of fishing boats and more pleasure crafts. There was a sailboat race just before sunset. It was fun to watch and see all the colorful spinnakers.





























9/25/08 – Thursday
We woke to fog but if you looked up you could see the moon and stars. It was that low fog we call tulle fog that you get in the valley. We have to leave and get to Marina Del Ray. We thought we would just wait for the fog to go away. Wrong!!!! That would have been almost never. It lifted enough to where we could make out the markers in the bay, and you had to see them because there is so much shoal that they have to move those markers almost everyday to dregg the bottom. So you never know what the path in or out of the marina is going to be. We followed a fishing boat out and then he turned right and we went straight and we were on our own. We put auto helm on and sat on the side of the boat trying to see if there was anything in the water that would cause a problem. I didn’t wear a patch this time and I didn’t feel good. We didn’t have any waves or wind to speak of just fog. Don’t know why I didn’t feel good. It lasted until we almost got to the marina. We had to get 2 to 2-1/2 miles off shore to get out of the fog. But then we had wind and waves to contend with. 25 knots of wind behind us that caused big swells and wind waves. We were being agitated again. We had a couple of boats traveling with us and they were reporting only 6 knots of wind and going 9 knots. Hummm!!! We never saw either one of those speeds. It seemed to take us forever to get in. Because of all the rough seas and wind it took us longer so we didn’t get in until dark. Everything I have read is to not enter a port in the dark. We didn’t have a choice. So what we did was I was on the helm and Dave went down to read the coarse to me to follow. That was a little tense, but it worked. Being in fog and waves like that makes one really tired. Once we got settled and checked in, we had something to eat and went to bed.

9/26/08 – Friday
Well surprise, surprise, surprise. It’s foggy!!!!! Seems to be what the weather is going to be like until we get further south. Dave talked to a couple of local people and they said that once the sun comes up the fog burns away quickly. They were right. So we untied, got fuel and headed for Dana Pt Marina. It’s only 7 hours so it will be nice to get into the marina during the daylight hours. I feel much better today. I put half a patch on last night. One thing I can say is it has been warm. Even with the fog it’s warm. Nice!! Once we were underway, Dave called Dana Pt to make reservations for the night. Boy!!! Did we get a surprise. They don’t more anything over 40 feet. We were told their anchorage was full too. Well how do you like that!! We had talked to people that were from there and they said there wouldn’t be a problem. Guess again. Well that is a fine how do you do. Now we have to travel 20 more miles to Oceanside and that will put us in there at night. Oh yeah!!!! We got to see some dolphins. They like to play around the boat then they disappear. One thing I never saw before were seals on their backs with fins up floating on the water. That was funny. We are now by Los Angeles and there is a lot of boat traffic. We have to deal with shipping lanes. So we have freighters going and coming, cargo ships, sailboats going to Catalina Island for the weekend, and fishing boats. What a zoo. And all this in fog. It was really neat to see a large clipper ship come out of the fog. It was like a ghost ship.







We also saw an oil rig hazed out by fog.







There are a lot of those down the coast so when you see huge blips on the radar, figure that is what it is. The fog lifted a little and we could see other boats then it would settle down again and you saw nothing. It was a little depressing and it seemed as though we weren’t going anywhere. We were going 8 knots then slowed to 7. By this rate we won’t get to Oceanside until 7-7:30pm. Ouch!!!! Again the procedure was to have me on the helm and Dave giving me the coordinates to steer. He kept telling me to follow the blinking yellow light that looked like it was on shore. I thought I was watching the right one but as it turned out it wasn’t and the one I should have been paying attention too was on a buoy I almost ran over. Well you can’t run over those huge red buoys. I asked Dave if that was the light he was talking about and he said where and I pointed to the one off the starboard side of the bow. I think he almost had a heart attack. I missed it though so all turned out good. The problem with coming in this marina was there were a lot of lights on shore that mixed with the navigation lights and it was really hard to tell what was what. I think this was the most difficult one we have come into yet. When we called to report we were coming in we were told they weren’t sure if they had room for us. Not something we wanted to hear. Where do you go??? No place!! Well while they were trying to figure that out we picked a slip next to one of the boats we had been traveling with and stayed there. Dave went up and took care of all the paperwork and I secured everything on the boat and hooked up to electricity. When Dave got back we went walking to find a restaurant. We met some people that were doing the same thing so we followed them. We are at a fish and chip place. It was good. Then we went back to the boat and chilled then went to bed. This traveling stuff wears you out!!!! Especially when you can’t see the clear entrance to getting in a marina. YIKES!!!! One thing, we don’t have to get up early as San Diego is just 4 hours from here. We will leave around 8:30am, fuel up and head for San Diego. It’s about 60 miles from Oceanside.

9/27/08 - Saturday
WOW!!! Fuel is unbelievable here. $5.60 a gal. Everywhere else was $4. What a rip off. We only took on 20 gals. That will do us just fine. Oh yeah --- we have fog. Here is the view at the fuel dock. My favorite bird.





We should arrive in San Diego around 2:00pm. Haw!!!! That’s what we thought. We had to travel quite a ways off shore to miss the huge kelp beds that resided there. This is Point Loma as you enter San Diego Bay.





Then it was a straight shot into the bay. Well so we thought. There were boats everywhere going every direction. I had a vessel assist behind me towing a boat in, power boats coming across the bow, sailboats tacking back and forth in front of me which we had to slow down and change course because they weren’t changing their course. They need some lessons on courteousness. Maybe I just need to deal with it. Apparently this is the way they work down here. It was a straight shot into the marina, but only if there were no other boats to contend with. It took us twice as long to get in and then when we did get to the police dock there was no one there. The other boat we were traveling with was trying to hail them on the VHF radio and got no response. He tried calling them on the cell phone – no response. Dave did that too. What was going on??? Well we finally were told that the Police office was closed for the day and we couldn’t moor there. We asked where we should go and they were no help whatsoever. We got pissed and said screw it and found a slip and tied up. For some reason, the police office chose to close and didn’t tell anyone. Nice!!!! We walked up to the building and figured the slip we were in was o.k. so we paid our money for 3 days. It is $10.50 a day to tie up there. Not bad. There are other people who have hung on a buoy but they charge for that too and you can only stay there for a short time. So what we saw were people that had been on a buoy, come into the police dock when there was a spot available to shower and do laundry, then go back to their mooring ball.





We were at the first Marina when you enter the Bay to San Diego. Shelter Island. It was far away from most everything. The grocery store was too far to walk to, there wasn’t a bus service that ran on the island, but you could rent a car. We decided we didn’t want to do that. I had provisioned pretty good with pre-made meals so we weren’t too bad off. What we needed was milk and bread. So much for the idea of provisioning here. I’ll just have to do that in Ensenada. I can’t believe we are still in fog. This is really getting old.

9/28/08 – Sunday
It was nice to sleep in this morning. 8:00am instead of 5:30am. Laundry day today. I used a small laundry room that was within walking distance from the boat and the price was reasonable, $1.25 to wash and $1.00 to dry. After laundry was done, Dave and I walked to see how far it was to get off the island. Shelter Island is mostly Hotels, boatyards and brokerages. There were a couple of deli’s we saw but they were closed. We thought we could get a loaf of bread. Well it is Sunday so not surprised. I’ll have to walk in to town to find a store. On our walk we saw some of the large sailboats like they use in the America’s Cup Races. Impressive and they move. We have seen more Hunter sailboats here than we have at home. All kinds of sizes.

Today was a little bit of a downer for me. Just didn’t feel up to snuff with hardly any energy. I guess that is to be expected since we have been moving everyday almost and in some rough conditions. That’s enough to wear you out. I thought I would be jumping for joy to be in San Diego, but it was just blah!! I’m glad we made it safe and sound though. It was quite a trip. It’s like I’m in a dream. Well I think I will take a nap and I should feel better.

The nap did me good. I called family to let them know we made it to San Diego and we would be in Ensenada, Mexico on the 30th. The sun finally made its appearance. It feels good.

9/29/08 – Monday
We woke to thunder and rain this morning. That was different. As the morning wore on, the weather improved so I walked into town. I found an ATM to get money for Customs, Immigrations, and other check-in fees for Mexico. I found a small grocery store where I could get milk, bread, gin, tonic water and Excedrin. How do you like that???? Walked back to the boat. Dave was feeling like I did yesterday, today. We finally got the fuel rod he had been waiting for and he installed it. It worked like a champ. Hunter tried to tell Dave that the one they sent was the one that was made for the boat. Nope. It was totally wrong and with a lot of phone calling and frustration, we finally got the right one. So now he has to send the wrong one back. So I told Dave I would walk with him to the UPS store which wasn’t as far as I walked this morning. By this time it was pretty warm. We got that taken care of and went back to the boat. That took all our energy. We saw a carrier going out to sea and f18’s would fly over. We also saw black hawk helicopters practice their maneuvers. Pretty interesting and impressive.









Dave and I are beat. Going to hit the hay early.

9/30/08 Tuesday
We left San Diego at 6:30am. Sun wasn’t quite up yet. As we were heading out there was a huge cruise ship coming in. It is going to be a beautiful day. No wind yet and only some small swells. Dave calculated we would pull into Ensenada about 2:30pm. We are going to a Marina and boatyard called Baja Naval. We have made reservations to stay there and get the boat hauled out and painted. The labor is much cheaper and we heard they are very good here. Very persnickety about their work. You would have never known you were in Mexican waters if you didn’t look at the chart program. We saw some gray whales traveling north. One surfaced about 3 feet from the stern of our boat. Surprised the heck out of us. I saw his back and blow hole and then he was gone. He was huge!! It feels like we are moving in slow motion. We are not traveling at 7 knots like we thought we would. We were only going about 6.8 knots. This is going to slow us down and we won’t get to Ensenada until about 3:30pm. The wind would come up behind us and we would put our headsail out. That didn’t work as the wind shifted and the sail luffed. So we had to roll it in. We saw another sailboat that was close to shore and he had his mainsail out, but I think he was motor sailing. He was pulling away from us. Hmm. That didn’t make any sense unless he was just a very light boat. We even pulled our headsail out and tried that – nope. Didn’t help us a bit. So we continued to motor. I am so glad we are coming into port during the daylight hours. It would have been very difficult to find the entrance in the dark. As you enter the port there is a gigantic Mexican flag flying. Can’t miss that. It is pretty.

















Dave got a hold of the dock guy and he had helpers on the dock to help tie us up. It surges in the marina so you have to make sure your lines are tight and you have chafe guards on them. The dock man named Fabian, let us relax a little before we had to fill out papers. He came back to get us and we started the process. The customs and immigration office was closed so Fabian was going to do the parliamentary work and then the rest of it would be done in the morning. We found out that Fabian is from the states. He came here as a change in his life. That was pretty interesting. We can use their facilities, shower, bathroom, and a phone that is free. There is also free wifi. We were given magnetic keys to the gates of the boat yard and marina. Everyone is really nice. Most of them speak English. We celebrated with a rum and coke that we finally made it!!!! The weather is warm and nice. We walked down the promenade and saw the restaurants, fish markets and shops. We came back to the boat and cooked up some dinner. Opened a bottle of wine and relaxed.

10/1/08 – Wednesday
We have blue skies and warm weather. It is just beautiful here. We went to the office to see Roger and he would do the other paperwork and take us to immigration and customs. He charges $85.00 for that service but it is worth every bit of it. He can pull strings and get you through a lot faster than if we tried on our own. Plus with not knowing the language that would have slowed us down. So it was pretty painless. It cost us about $300 to pay all the fees, but we are legal now. Didn’t have the boat searched or anything. Roger took us back to the boatyard and upgraded our keys and told us where laundry was and good restaurants and such. Then we went back to the boat and just did nothing. I read and told a little nap and Dave wandered around talking to the people that have been here a while. There is a man that has been here for 5 years. Another couple has been here since June. They have work done and then they just stay. It’s a small marina but close to town. Paul, the man that has been here with his wife since June walked us into town to show us where the good places to eat, where to stay away from, and where the grocery stores were. Also the bus station. He warned us not to go out at night as bad things happen. The people may not be aiming at you, but you could get caught in the crossfire of a feud. Best to stay away. That is why I heard sirens during the night and none in the day time. We picked up a roasted chicken and some bananas from the store and went back to the boat to have dinner. We opened a can of baked beans and had chicken and beans. We were told that they are not big on red meats. You do better with chicken and fish. That is why there is a lot of fish markets around. $50.00 here would provision you for a week. A Carnival cruise ship pulled in this morning. It will be here all day and then leave. They say that the ships come in everyday but Sunday and Mondays. It was a really hot day today. I guess it broke a record. It was hot and humid up until time to go to bed then a little breeze came through. We left our hatches over our bed open and we have had air blowing through the boat consistently since we have been here. Even the locals were complaining a little. It’s pretty interesting. The cruising couples you hardly see the women and only the men periodically. I think it is because it is so hot. They do get out and walk to the store or ride with another couple that has a car here. But what is really interesting is no one is out at night when it is cooler. Dave and I sit out in the cockpit and enjoy the cool of the evening, smoke a cigar and have some kind of drink in hand and it is silent!! No parties here. Oh well. I was watching the cruise ship with all its lights on and noticed their radar was going. Figured they would be taking off soon. I went down below to prepare coffee and all and the boat started rocking. I popped my head out and saw the cruise ship was gone. It caused rollers to come into the bay. We were warned that we need to lock the boat when we leave and don’t leave anything out on the boat as it has a way of disappearing. Paul said he had two pairs of shoes disappear. Also you have to close windows that don’t have screens because they have some huge cockroaches that can get on board. And absolutely no cardboard of any kind on the boat from the stores. Not even cereal boxes and the like. I have read all this stuff and now I am experiencing it.

10/2/08 – Thursday
Well today is the day we get hauled out. I just got out of bed, got dressed and poured my coffee when the crew showed up to get us to the haul out. It was 8:00am. Beautiful morning. Warm with some breeze. When they decide to do something they don’t mess around. It is we are here so lets do it. The dock workers did all the lines and I stayed out of the way. Dave moved the boat around to where the lift was and the guys told us to get off and they did the rest. We watched as they placed the bands under the haul and lifted us out of the water. As they were getting ready to pressure wash her, we were invited to go to coffee and breakfast to a restaurant close by. There were 4 guys. We said sure and followed them. I asked where all the gals were and they said they were doing other stuff so I could be one of the guys. That was o.k. by me. Breakfast was good. We have found that it is better to have pesos here than American dollars. There are ATMs everywhere. It is recommended to use their local bank here. After breakfast we went back to the boat and they were putting the supports around her. So now she is up in the air and there are a group of guys sanding her and changing zincs. We should be back in the water on Saturday. We already have a slip assignment. So we are being taken care of. It is another hot one today. Another cruise ship has arrived. We witnessed their lunch hour. The guys eat then they have a volleyball game. Then it’s back to work. It is kind of neat to watch. It is going to be pretty tonight on the boat looking out over the marina and bay. Hey!!! I just lost power to the boat. They don’t warn you before they disconnect you. They had to unplug us and reposition the cord. No worries. So here we are---our own little paradise. Our dream is being fulfilled!!

This is the view from my boat in the Baja Naval boatyard.