Ensenada, Mexico
01 November 2016 | Ensenada, Mexico
The clearance process into Mexico at Ensenada was a complex and drawn out affair requiring many forms to be lodged with several departments in a particular order. Also, the fact that at this time of year there are many boats heading south meant that the government building was packed with gringos clutching papers with fingers-crossed. I would have to say that it ranked up there with the bureaucracy of Japan, although considerably less organised.. and that is not a good combination. However, we did survive.
It's around about this time that the external hard drive (on which we store our photos) failed. I had backed up the majority but not recently so at this point in time don't have many photos of this phase of our journey. Hopefully we can recover the data on it.
Our intention was to sail southwards via Isla Guadalupe but until we arrived in Ensenada we were unaware that it had been designated as a Protected Area and so we required a permit to visit. Further enquiries revealed that entry by private boat would have been possible however it would take at least 10 days which meant mooring in Ensenada for that time which we were not willing to do. So we took the coastal route.
One of the tricky parts of sailing this coast is the lack of good anchorages. The weather is generally benign, however the winter storms in the north Pacific, especially the Gulf of Alaska , result in large swells invading the coastline rendering these roadstead anchorages at the often unpleasant and, at worst, untenable.