Why it is I can't say, but Ensenada has a completely different feel to us after spending a few days here at the Marina Naval dock. Our other trips to, or should I really say "through" Ensenada, always viewed the town as just a stopping point on a trip to a better destination. The Cruise Ship terminal bringing collage kids attempting to drink Mexico dry played a role in our thought about the town and maybe it just was too close to San Diego (only 57 miles by boat and about the same via car) but what ever it was, we like Ensenada. And with marina slip prices being almost 1/2 of those in San Diego and Central California, what's not to like?

Besides resting, Lori has spent most of the last two days rotating the 15 loads of laundry through our washing machine and to the life lines to dry. Not just our clothes are clean, but all of our blankets, sheets, towels, and even our seat and bed cushion covers are now all clean and smelling nice once again for our homecoming. Come Monday evening with the boat all clean and tidy, or at least the best we can make it at the moment, we will start the final week of our 4 yr cruise and head for San Diego. After a quick check-in at the San Diego Customs Dock, we will leave immediately for Catalina or if we can make it Santa Cruz island, wait out a bad wind day on Thursday, and then with any luck we will be attached to our Port San Luis Mooring on Saturday 18th. With school starting for the kids on August 24th, we will be a few weeks behind schedule...but I guess any arrival day before the first day of school is actually quite an accomplishment for the crew of THIRD DAY.

I guess at times like these, during a life transition, it would be customary to take a moment to reflect and look back on the last 4 years. What were the highlights, what we learned, what we would do differently, and how we grew as people from the experience. Quite honestly, however, I'm a little too busy to take the time for any reflection at the moment! We left Port San Luis with two little kids and somehow are returning with young adults to get settled into high school and 8th grade. We left with no jobs, and I'm returning with the chore or conducting interviews to hire an employee to help build water makers, now that our monthly sales have outpaced my business partner's ability to fill orders without help. I have a USCG Captain's License test scheduled that I need to study for that will let us operate THIRD DAY Sailing Charters Inc out of Port San Luis. Lori has her medical boards renewal test coming up that will give her the option of resuming her PA-C work. And then there is my long long list or projects to renovate THIRD DAY:

Install a diesel fired boat heater...uggg
Finish the complete interior varnish and repaint project
Replace the galley counters
Re-varnish the cabin sole
Make fibertex and Sunbrella covers for the boat
Repaint the pilot house with 2 part epoxy
Replace the current deck non-skid with KiwiGrip
Prep the boat hull for new paint that we will do back in San Blas...ah...a hint ahead!
That's enough of the list now because writing anymore will make me dizzy.

Besides, you don't want the advice of this Cruising Bozo anyway. (ok...I will give it anyway at a later point0 What you want is to figure things out during your own adventure. The most valuable advice that I could give the cruiser in planning is simply this: It's easy folks. Stop the worry. Stop the "gotta buy more gear excuse". Stop the delaying tactic of saving for a bigger boat you don't need. It's Mexico folks...it's not the South Pacific...it's not Cape Horn! You can cruise Mexico on about anything that floats. Don't read a single article, don't attend a single seminar on "how to cruise", and certainly don't listen to a single internet expert on proper off shore cruising! Just buy that $10,000 30ft-er, rent your house to cover your house payment, take an extended leave of absence from work (I don't know...call it a mental Health crisis), sell your car to load the cruising kitty, and then send me the link to your Cruising Blog!

Ok...not everyone wants to cast off and go cruising but enjoys reading about it. Well, then add our friends blog to your read list to get your fill once the THIRD DAY blog turns from a Cruising Blog into a Living Aboard Blog. Tom and Jeanne aboard SV Eagle keep their blog fresh and updated frequently and have my mindset of what I think is a down to earth view of cruising. They are spending their first summer in the Sea or Cortez, so there are bound to be some great blog reports from them. Here's a link to their Blog Big Left Turn.