Learn to sleep on the boat.

I'm not talking about the nightly sleeping, although of course that is important but not generally a problem. The first night while cruising is always the hardest for me. If you are not on watch, you had better sleep or the next day you will be on your ass, like today for instance.

We left San Diego last night at 8pm anticipating a morning arrival in Ensenada. It took a while to settle down after the excitement of waiting all day and then seeing the lights of Tijuana made me want to stay up until we crossed the border. It seemed like a little celebration, but it was forty-five minutes into Brian's watch and time I needed to be sleeping before my own watch so down I went...for maybe 2 hours.

We sleep in the salon while we are underway so we can keep an eye on each other and be within earshot if needed on deck, and if the engine is on it can be a bit distracting to me unless I'm dead tired....which I wasn't.

When I came up for my watch, the wind had picked up and we were ahead of schedule so I turned the engine off and sailed. It was a full moon so it was bright out and the lights of the peninsula were nice. Brian had reefed the sails before we took off in case the winds came up and sure enough, around 1:45 am they did. When they reached 15 knots, I decided to bring in the jib, being cautious on my first night watch in a while. They gusted up to 20 knots but we just sailed along easily at a slow speed because of the mainsail being reefed.

I tried to sleep again on Brian's second watch with not much luck and finally got up around 6am to watch the sunrise. It was very cool to watch the sunrise coming into a new harbor.

After pulling into the slip, we were required to immediately report to the port captain for customs and immigration. This procedure went extremely well thanks to the assistance of the staff at the Hotel Marina Coral. A driver took us into town and helped facilitate the process. I am the proud holder of a six month visa!

We lunched on a quartet of ceviche (fish, shrimp, octopus and clams) and sumptuous shrimp at the Mariscos Bahia de Ensenada (desde 1939) washed down with dos XX cervezas. It was yummilicious!

And then, after showers, crashed for 2 hours, which could have lasted through the night. This is what I'm talking about!! If we would have slept better while we weren't on our watches, we would not have been so tired. This will improve of course, it's always the first night. Learn to sleep on the boat!!

Salud!