Seems like a bad Halloween joke, but it's not. Thursday evening, just after sunset, went to start up the engine. We were south of Ensenada. Transmission wouldn't shift into neutral. Opened everything up we could think of, nothing obvious. With no engine, no recharging: no fridge, no autopilot, no communications. We thought about heading for Ensenada but figured it would be hard to find a Volvo engine expert.
SO - we turned north. Spent the night bashing and tacking - we figure we sailed 60-70 miles to make 15 miles north. Yes, it sucked. Friday morning we called Sea Tow, who met us about 11 miles south of the Coronado Islands and towed us (8-9 knots!) back to San Diego. Now we are at the guest dock at Southwestern YC. Trip over - we can't catch the fleet and can't get to Cabo in time for me to make my flight back to return to work.
We'll be heading back north to home once the problem is resolved.