Quick little entry today on our time in Ensenada, before we head further south and onward towards warmer weather.

First day in Ensenada, after getting into the marina around 10am was basically a shot day. Jay and I were wasted from a full 12 hour sail and little sleep (we are working our way up to 4 hour shifts versus 2 AND getting our bodies to adjusted to longer sails.)

After checking in with dock master and main office, as I shared earlier we were told to come back tomorrow to officially check in. We headed back to the boat to relax/sleep. I made us each a small celebratory marguerita, which we could barely finish because of sheer exhaustion. Checking out our surroundings, we booked at one of the newer Marinas, Cruisport Village. Decently sized marina, with other California boats just across the way from our slip (San Fran, Long Beach). A small team of workers across from us working on an American's boat, as I can hear him chatting away with the workers. We both took an afternoon siesta, waking up around 3. Still feeling the exhaustion, we fought to stay awake thru dinner. Jay grilled small pieces of tri-tip, and we sat in the cockpit watching the sunset and the massive Carnival Cruise ship just beyond us, as they signaled their horns before leaving port (Assuming this is the San Diego to Ensenada three day cruise)

Passed out promptly at 7 and slept a full 12 hours....

Day Two in Ensenada, we had a somewhat lazy start. Made coffee and went up to use showers to get ready for our morning of paperwork and check in. The facilities are clean, but completely open....which made for a wee bit of an uncomfortable shower. Despite loving the luxury of a long hot shower, I was in a rush to get out as there were no doors to the women's or men's rooms and any passerby could easily peep in the shower rooms....oh the luxuries we trade for the nomadic lifestyle.

Morning was spent at the Port Captain's office signing forms and officially getting checked into Mexico. Prior to our departure, I was in charge of all the logistics and paperwork planning. I referenced multiple books and blogs of other cruisers that had traveled West Coast into Mexico to understand what the check-in process is like (commonly referred to as the "Paperwork Cha Cha Cha" as it is varied and can be a complex confusing process, which varies port to port and country to country) Despite my confidence in being able to figure it out as we went, with differing information, I eventually hired a broker in San Diego to help guide us thru the process. And by "guide" I mean, send him an exorbinant amount of money to expedite and process all paperwork ahead of time, with the assumption that everything would be quicker and smoother and all done upon our arrival. This was and wasn't the case once we got here.

Enrique from Cruisport drove us over to the Port Captain's office. The previous day, Michelle in the Cruisport office and whom I had been emailing with prior to our arrival to set up our slip, gave us our completed TIP (temporary import passport for the boat identifying all the major items on board) as well as our arrival slips to the marina. At the Port Captain's office, we simply signed forms for our temporary Visas as well as paid fees to Port Captain. The entire process took no more than 30 minutes and cost USD$65 total for the Visa and USD$17 for the Port Captain. Pretty painless. Since I didn't (and couldn't) take any pictures, I am "borrowing" these from the internet:


front of the Port Captain's office, just a short drive from Marina


inside the Port Captain's office

After this stop was done, Enrique drove us over to get our fishing license (which is mandatory if you have any fishing gear onboard) We have three poles and two spearguns, so it was very necessary AND we are very much looking forward to catching and eating fresh fish! Down a small little side street Enrique drops us off at a small sportfishing shop, where USD$100 later we each have our license for a year. One hour later and we are all done with check-in and paperwork. Our Canadian friends had a similar experience, but were smart and able to take a short bus ride while in San Diego to Tijuana to get their TIP forms....and at half the cost. They also had someone from the marina take them over to the Port Captain's office to aid in translation and expedite their forms. Lesson learned for next time--no need to have a middle man, and no need to pay the extra costs that I am not really sure what it helped with in the end. Ah well.....

After we got back from the paperwork chores, we brought out our bikes and Jay hooked up our jerry cans so we could refill diesel. SO far this trip has been a motor sailing trip with no wind for most of our journey. Despite this we have only gone thru about 10 gal of diesel, even with all the motoring we have done. Better to fill up now in major cities with clean diesel and keep our tanks topped off. Finding a Penmex that sold diesel was a little adventure, stopping at three different locations before finally asking for directions to nearest one with diesel. Super fun way to see some of Ensenada and it felt good to get off the boat and bike around. This is more of the experience I was expecting for our trip.

After we got back, we moved our boat over to our friends marina, Baja Naval--which in my opinion is a much nicer marina at half the cost (Cruisport is WAY WAY over priced and not at all worth double the cost for basically the same facilities) Baja Naval is also slightly closer to main strip in town, which makes for it being slightly louder, but negligible. After tying up in our new slip, we hooked up with our Canadian friends, to grab lunch and finally finally get our beer and fish tacos. We tried our best to avoid the super touristy part of town (with the massive cruiseship always docked nearby, the local businesses cater to the tourists that pop off the ship) As expected, there are street vendors selling all sorts of things, from hats, sunglasses, jewelry to flowers. As you walk down the street, restaurants will jockey for your business, rushing out as you walk by speaking in english and telling you how delicious and cheap their food is, coaxing you to come in and rest your feet, sip on "cerveza" While one restaurant worker is trying to romance you to sit, their next door neighbor competition, is starting to yell over them telling you their food is better and walking into the side walk, holding their menu and almost ushering you into their seats. Its comical and chaotic as if you slow down or even try to discuss where you want to go with your group, you will be surrounded and they will be in your face, ushering you into their restaurant. After a few blocks of this, we settled on a small alley way restaurant that was mostly deserted. I wish I could say the tacos were delicious, but they were deep fried and battered, which isn't what I was looking for, but damn did the Tecate taste good. We spent a leisurely lunch with our friends, sharing travel stories and getting better acquainted with each other, talking about friends back home, kids and what our previous lives looked like before we both took off on this amazing crazy cool journey.

It was an early night again last night, we discussed our travel plans with our buddies and decided on a leisurely 24nm hike out to Punto Tomas, just a short jaunt down south. Getting us off the dock and out of the city (we are so so done being at marinas and in a slip) Kandy and Dennis still needed to get their exit paperwork, which they wouldn't be able to get until 9am the following day when the Port Captain's office was opened again. In Mexico time speak, that may or may not take a few hours, so we figured best not to plan a long sail in the event we weren't able to leave the marina until later in the day.

Day Three
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Woke up to a bright and clear morning. The dock here is a bit swelly so creaking and swaying of the boat kept us up off and on most of the night. Since we had a bit waiting for Kandy and Dennis, we decided that pumping out would be necessary here, so Jay could switch out a macerator pump for our aft head. (We have unsuccessfully tried this as the other marina, and with this being our last marina for quite some time, it was a now or never chore.)

You gotta love language barriers, and with my minimal conversational Spanish coupled with Jay's almost lack of....trying to explain what we needed to Alonso here at Baja Naval was sheer comedy. All I will say is the game of charades trying to explain what a "pump out" is had me dying laughing. For some reason, Jay kept thinking the english word "sh*t" would be easily translatable and understandable in Spanish and so he kept repeating it while making a pumping motion (think "Shake Weight") with his hands....OMG seriously, why didn't I video this?!?! I actually didn't jump into the conversation with some better translations, just because of the comedy of watching Jay dance around, saying "Sh*t" and making the pumping motion over and over and Alonso's face as Jay kept repeating himself. God bless him for remaining so professional, as I was basically peeing myself at this point.

Needless to say we eventually communicated what we needed and USD$25 later they are on their way to bring the pump-out and do it for us (a dollar for each gallon)

Yes, my friends--this IS the glamorous side of boating. Jeeves, time to pass me the champagne and caviar, it's PUMPout time!

Anyway, there ya go--all caught up now with our trip. Will check back in once we get to our new anchorage--until then!

xx
C