The Home Stretch
03 June 2015
May 13, 2015 The Good Ol' U.S. Of A.
After four days in Ensenada we were ready to leave. We did enjoy the seafood and the people, but we were aching to get home. Also, Marina Coral cost more for four days (actually we only paid for three days as they had a special going) than the marina in San Diego was going to charge us for two weeks. Up at 0430 and gone by 0500 we were underway once again—and once again we had the wind and waves on our nose, normal for us. We motored up the coast staying only about five miles off. The wind and waves smoothed out and we were enjoying a calm ride. Soon we were off the Coronado Islands and we were able to set our jib as we had about 8-10 knots of wind from the west. And before we knew it we were in the territorial waters of the U.S.A—home!
Point Loma was soon visible and we entered the harbor of San Diego to tie up at the police dock for clearance. In San Diego after tying up to the police dock you have to walk up to the building and call on a special phone to have the customs agents come to inspect your boat—the agents work at the nearby airport. I called and gave all of our pertinent information and the agent said that the customs agents would be down as soon as they could. After only about fifteen minutes two agents show up, one comes aboard and the other waits on the dock. First off, they are not customs agents anymore—they are Home Land Security agents. And after filling out a single form (which you can download and pre-fill in) the agent said that was it—we were done. No inspection? Too Cool!
We motored over to Point Loma Marina where our friend and broker Dan had arranged a slip for us. Gillian the marina manager greeted us to the marina and could not have been more helpful and friendly—even offering the use of her car. Point Loma Marina is relatively new and the facilities were new, clean, and secure. We soon had our bikes out and after our ritual walk to Starbucks each morning we would ride our bikes to all of the old places that we had enjoyed in 2009 when we were here last. Dan joined us for sun downers at Jimmy's, a new restaurant right at the top of our ramp. Dan had a new dog named Benjamin that was a Portuguese Pagango and he was so small that he sat on Dan's chest all the time. We borrowed Dan car for a couple of times to buy groceries—Dan is very gracious. We like Dan and Benjamin. We had some maintenance work to do on Serenity; replace the seat boards washed away by big waves, wash/wax/polish the fiberglass and stainless, repair dings in the fiberglass, repair the generator (never ending story), and get her generally spruced up. Our son Scott and his black lab came down the first weekend and had a good time. Ripley, the black lab, loves the water and we had to watch her all the time—but we missed once as she just dove in off the dock. The next weekend our daughter and her family and our other son Chris and his family came down—that was fun. The grand kids had a ball driving our dinghy around the harbor basin that our boat was in. And of course the gkids loved to climb all around Serenity—and what a treat for us, too. After all the kids were gone and the boat chores were completed we set our course to leave San Diego and head out to one of our favorite islands—Catalina.