11-26-15 Thursday 8:00pm. Departing Chula Vista, San Diego.
Started the engine & untied the dock lines.
9:00pm. Took one Dramamine (just in case) and one piece of candied ginger to wash down the taste. Boy-oh-boy are they nasty – I read somewhere that you’re supposed to chew them so they work faster/better. And if you really want ’em to work fast, chew then let it sit in your mouth for a while…
11-26-15 Thursday 9:32pm
Passed under San Diego Coronado Bridge. Just about 1.25 hours away from ChulaVista and about the same to get to the ocean. Nothing like going north in order to go South… (kind of reminds me of places in Seattle).
11-27-15 Friday. 2:02am
Slept my two hours, took another Dramamine & now it’s my watch.
I can just see the line of the bridge 10 miles back & it smells like there’s something burning up in the distance.
11-27-15 Friday 9:56am Ensenada, Mexico
Well, that didn’t last long – John tried to sleep up in the cockpit while I was at the wheel and couldn’t get comfortable, and I was feeling cold and a little puke-ish, so I went back to bed for a few more hours. Got up at sunrise to be designated driver and John slept. I saw dolphins and was able to get some video, but those little guys are fast and I don’t think I was able to get much of anything. The autopilot worked fine & I woke John up at the waypoint for Ensenada.
Put up our yellow ‘quarantine’ flag and Marc & Laurie guided us in. She was out on the rocks taking pictures and both he and Don were at our dock to help us land. We are at Cruiseport – where the cruise ships tie up, and we’ve already heard announcements & bells & gongs. The official boat-checker guy came and didn’t even ask to come on board – so much for having to toss those last few apples & oranges (darn it).
We went to the office to begin checking in and need to head back over there in an hour.
11-27-15 Friday 12:09pm
Filling out forms to get our temporary visa and boat permits. All in one building. Good. But it’s a really good thing we have Jonathan, from Cruise Port (I don’t know, is it two words or just one) along to help/guide/encourage the people behind the counters. I wonder how many times a day/week/month he does this. Drive to the office. Start here. Pay there. Now go wait in this line. Okay, now over there again to pay some more. Back into the other line, now sit and wait… for about an hour is predicted… (and it’s now 12:46 and we’re sitting and waiting on the sit-and-wait bench…) Now back to the pay window. Then to yet another window. Supposedly our last (1:18 – yes – done!) Seemed like it was going to take forever.
We are currently tied up at the end of D-Dock. We have a slip at Cruise Port, we just don’t know which one yet. Going to take a nap for a while & figure it out later.
11-27-15 Friday 4:23pm
Well, it’s later. Woke up to a marina guy asking us (telling us) could we move, please, oh, so sorry, but there’s this big-ass boat that needs the spot that your little boat is currently occupying and could we move to G-28. Ok. Well, when we in the marina office earlier one of the spots available for us was G-2, so we said ok, we’ll move (well, yeah, had to) but we’d like to go there instead. Ok. No problem. So as we’re heading there, we go past Don (another Chula Vista B-Dock person) and he’s like ‘where you headed?’ And we tell him. And he says, well, wait, the boat in G-1 has a line going across G-2. So he books it over there (along with Marc, who happened to be walking by just then) and they untie that and help with our dock-lines. Good people.
11-27-15 Friday 5:34pm
Just finishing up our first meal here in Mexico – pizza! Ate at the restaurant, but they sure have a cute way to deliver take-out!
We were going to walk down and say hi to Marc & Laurie (they were out), and met the people in the boat across from us – Bob & Jane, who have been in Mexico six years and at this Marina for a year. They’re from Canada and have a motor home and a boat and spend time in each. Very nice. Then we went to put on warmer clothes to walk into town to get some food. When we came out, Bob was walking by and we asked him for recommendations and he mentioned a few places – then he offered to give us a ride into town so we’d only have to walk one way. Super-fine! Alfonso’s Pizza was our go-to restaurant for dinner and breakfasts! Thanks, Bob!
Wi-fi passwords, 67DC41710A. Office and EnsenadaECV2 for the docks.
11-28-15 Saturday. Ensenada, Mexico
Woke up around 6 after going to bed a little after 7.
Walked to the bathroom, small but clean, then made coffee (mine with chia).
Just looked at the fuel gauge. 7.3125 gallons used in 13.8 hours of motoring to get here. Three of those hours were in San Diego Bay where they have a no-wake zone so we were at 4 kts, not efficient.
We have entered the ‘everlasting boat maintenance phase’ of sailing. When Val was home this past summer, we had the head re-plumbed to get rid of 23-year-old stinky pipes. It smells much better now (like not at all, TG) but when they put it back together something didn’t get re-seated correctly and the base of the bowl leaks. John worked on it in Pt. Angeles, but it’s still leaking. We won’t head farther south until it’s fixed, which may mean that we’ll need to have a part (parts?) sent from Seattle.
The other repair is a loose connection on the AIS (automatic identification system). This is an important feature to have, as it lets us identify and see the location of a ship and its name, its bearing relative to us, and its speed. It’s nice so that if you want to hail them, you can call them by name (and so that you don’t go bump in the night).
11-28-15 Saturday 9:02 am
We were going to go walk the docks and instead met James (and Quentin & Vladimir) and ended up talking for an hour. James is very green-minded, nets garbage out of the water, collects recyclables, cleans the beach, plants trees, collects fecal matter for fertilizer, etc. very interesting guy.
John has taken the gasket off the toilet – Terry has suggested removing, turning it over and re-installing it, but it looks like it has a ridge built in so that doesn’t seem possible. He’s going to lightly sand the base & put it back together. We’ll see…
11-28-15 Saturday 12:47pm
Well let’s see. So far today I went over and talked with Laurie & got filled in about: Ensenadacruisers.com; there’s a ham radio guy Terry Sparks, boat name ‘Sunnyside’ at Marina Coral if we need assistance & Laurie has a book we can look at; Ham radio check-in is at 7; Cruisers net on VHF 69 at 8 (not on Sunday) and Monday at 10 line dance – right up my alley.
So I went up and learned some line dances with Lisa leading and a few other people participating, then Jane & Bob took us to the grocery store. The store had special parking spots for women with children right up front with the handicap spots. Back at the boat, I bleach-washed the produce & we had leftover pizza for lunch.
Next we’re going to walk into town, have a look around and maybe buy our fishing licenses, since we have a hook on board, we each need one (Mexican law).
11-28-15 Saturday 3:48 pm
Just back from walking into town. Quite the tourist trap everywhere you go, from women with small children selling candies and toys to the guy wanting me to go into his store ‘for just a Mexican minute’ so he can show me something. Yeah. No thanks. Mariachi bands, stands with woven blankets, leather goods, food and drink. Here, take the shortcut through my bar and it’ll take you right back to your boat. (Wink, wink, nudge, nudge)
We bought some smoked atun at a smoke shop and some Sturgeron (highly recommended by my nurse sailing friend in Seattle, Janet, for seasickness) at one of the many pharmacias, and politely said no, thank you, dozens of times, I don’t want to buy anything. I’m ready to go do it all over again tomorrow. And speaking of pharmacies, anything you want or need? How about Viagra? and Viagra-Man? You sure?
It looks like John may have gotten the toilet fixed, so that’s good. Seems there was some paint spray splotches that may have interfered with the gasket sealing correctly.
One big drawback to having a big-ass cruise ship right next door is that it totally blocks the sun – it’s 4:00 and the sun has ‘set’…
Marc just came by and invited us to join them (and Don & Lisa, other people from Chula Vista) to go to a steak house. Ok. Let’s!
11-28-15 Saturday 7:28pm
Just back from dinner – a Brasilian steak house (never heard of it, but I guess it’s a thing). “Salad bar” with cactus sautéed with onion and corn, potato salad, guacamole with a variety of salsas, mushrooms in a garlicky cream sauce, spicy shrimp salad with cucumber and onion, sushi, empanadas, oh and I could go on if I remembered more. I tried to get one bite of each thing. Then, these guys come around with meat on a skewer that they slice off and you grab it with these little tongs. There was garlic beef, lemon beef, mustard beef, chorizo, chicken a variety of ways, different flavors of pork, octopus, roasted onions, jalapeño with bacon and cheese and then a roasted pineapple dusted with cinnamon. Oh, then they brought around the dessert cart (chocolate cake, flan) and a mariachi band came and played and sang along with John’s requests for songs. Super yummy.
It was Marc & Laurie and Don & Lisa and us. After dinner, they continued on to go see the new James Bond movie (they were hoping at least for English subtitles) and we came back to the boat.
11-28-15 Sunday 6:46 am Ensenada, Mexico
Got up around 6 (the latest we’ve gotten up recently), used the head (seems to not be leaking), made coffee and ate sweet rolls that we got yesterday at the grocery store. They look like triangular empanadas and they have fruit jam inside. Then we looked through the Mexico Boating Guide to figure the next steps to getting farther south. The most recent version of what we’re thinking of doing would be stopping first at Cabo Colonet. (PS as it ended up, we went to Punta Santo Tomas first.)
11-28-15 Sunday 8:17 am Ensenada, Mexico
Went up to the office, as that’s where we have wi-fi available – they have one set up that’s supposed to give us access from the dock, but I haven’t heard of anyone successfully getting on yet. Maybe that’s why it’s called ‘Marina Test’, and met Marina, the cat who lives here. She had a pretty badly chewed up tail, so someone took her to the vet. And then there are the dogs who run around, thinking that they own the place.
Posted some photos to Facebook and ‘invited’ Ann, Joan, Linda and Nancy to be able to view my photos on iCloud.
John moved the boat a bit in order to get more sun – it’s possible that we won’t need to hook up to shore power and will be able to just use solar.
11-28-15 Sunday 10:08am
I’ve been to the shower and back. Very nice. In addition to the communal showers, they gave a private room as well with sink, toilet and large shower. The water took a while to warm up (I was afraid I’d be taking a luke-warm shower) but then got nice and hot. Felt good.
11-27-15 Sunday 1:27pm
We decided to walk into town to find some tacos and saw Marc & Laurie returning from a grocery run. They recommended what ended up being the El Parian restaurant – they didn’t remember the name, but described a bright pink building past the Smart & Final grocery store. Easy enough to find and great art right there on the table! I had tostadas pollo(3), and John had carne enchiladas plus 2 diet cokes for about $12.50. Better than the RV Special back at Chula Vista …
Then we stopped at Smart & Final (I don’t know why that name) and got more fruits & veggies. Following protocol from blogs I’ve read, I’m bleach-washing all produce to reduce the chances of a) critters & bugs and b) intestinal problems.
Well shoot. Didn’t pack meat marinade. Guess I’ll need to improvise. Red wine, olive oil, a bunch of spices and some of the limon Mexicano – little limes that I got at the grocery store earlier. We’ll know when we cook it tomorrow how I did on the spices.
11-29-15 Ensenada, Mexico 4:00
We started to head out to walk around and Ulysses came by – French, maybe 28 years old. He owns a 100+ year old boat with two wooden masts. He needed quarters for the laundry so I got some for him.
Then we walked around for a bit and went down his dock – he’s on H. He came back from the laundry and invited us on board. It’s just about a floating museum and I took some pictures. He’s going to sail it through the Panama Canal but first he needs to turn one of the masts because it’s twisted. Sounds like a huge project but he seems quite matter of fact about it. Clamp, hydraulic jacks, turn on a greased plate, cut, re-install.
11-30-15 Ensenada, Mexico 6:15am
Up just before the sun. Since it gets dark by 6 or so, and there isn’t much to do at night, and we go to bed by 7:30 or 8, getting up early is pretty easy. And it’s not very warm, so we sometimes wear strange combinations of clothes…
At 7 they do the ham radio check-in and at 8 is the VHF one. We’ll probably check out both this morning.
Ok, so not the ham one, as there are hundreds (thousands?) of channels (frequencies), but we’ll check out VHF-69 at 8.
And so much for singing the praises of the hot shower yesterday – today it was just cold.
11-30-15 Ensenada, Mexico 9:26am
At the office for wi-fi to see about uploading photos to Picasa on my phone. Says error 404 but seems to be working – very very very slowly. And if I get too far away from the office I lose the signal. Kind if frustrating …
Just met Suzanne – E-32 – whose boat sank at the dock last week. I may walk by later and see what’s that all about – she said they don’t know why or what the problem was and they’re working on salvaging what they can. I can’t remember if it was Laurie or Lisa, but one of them was talking about what a great community it is here and how everyone looks out for each other, and that somebody’s boat started sinking last week and everyone pumped and bailed and tried to help out. Guess it must have been them.
11-30-15 Ensenada, Mexico 12:46pm
Well, I was going to write about the morning and lunch, and now here it is (6:58pm) and we just finished dinner.
What a day. Ended up heading out after lunch to see if there was a marine supply store that would be able to get us a new AIS antenna, as that seems to be what the problem is.
Long story short, we ended up finding the antenna (that we can order if we need it) then walking about 5 miles (‘a fucking marathon’) trying to find Home Depot & Costco, which we never did find because we wanted to have time to get back to the boat before dark. Moral of the story, never trust the scale on a ‘tourist’ map. It looked like it would be a reasonable walking distance… not.
Costco list – Bob & Jane are going – he’s out of bacon and offered a ride. Belvita, Nugo, Granola, Graham crackers, Peaches
12-01-15 Tuesday Ensenada, Mexico 6:01pm
Costco is medium different. Some products the same. Some in diff packaging. Some diff stuff – like you can buy scooters (I should have taken a picture). Oh, and yesterday we were about 5 blocks away from the shopping area when we turned around…
They didn’t have Nugo or Belvita or graham crackers, but instead I got round crackers (with sun-faces in them) that are like a cross between nilla wafers and graham crackers, vanilla cinnamon (bland) crackers and corn chip flat-bread crackers. Of course when I bagged them up for storage (blogs highly suggest no cardboard allowed on board) I had to try them all. I also got blueberry, strawberry and apple fig Newton type cookies. And some wine from Chile (on sale!) that’s pretty darn fine. Should have gotten a few bottles.
Earlier today John worked on the AIS issue. It’s weird because it’s intermittent – the green light (good – it’s working) will be on, then the red light (nope, it’s not working) will come on, then it’ll turn green again all on its own. Hard to fix the problem when you don’t know what it is and it’s so variable.
We went to a panaderia that we had seen the other day and got some sweet rolls and little loaves of bread. The sweet rolls were good. We got one apple and one cheese, but the bread (while quite adorable) wasn’t very good. We also went to the Smart & Final and got chips (not too salty) and salsa (nicely hot) and some disinfectant made for fruits and veggies (so I don’t need to use bleach water) – sold right there in the produce section.
Speaking of water, it’s not potable here. Some people have in-line filters on their hoses and some go so far as to run it through their water maker filtering system as well. We’ll do it the easy way. We’ll walk over to the office and tell them we want water & they’ll get the water company guys to come with their truck and we’ll get our tanks filled. Done. Well, not yet, but it will be.
So our friends Janet & Paul showed us some of their photos from their Mexico trips using Picasa. Ok. I’ve got an account, sounds like an easy way to share them, so I got a Picasa app for my phone (spent $1.99 on it). I grabbed the first batch to upload and got an error message but I also got the little blue bar showing under the photo showing progress. K. Looks like it’s working. But only while I’m near the office for wi-fi, so it took a couple days. But they show greyed out and they aren’t selectable, so I guess they really aren’t there and didn’t really upload – after how many hours later? Did I mention frustrating? I guess I’ll try tomorrow with my computer.
We got the sextant out this evening and we took a sight in a star. It’s kind of a precise-timing kind of thing, because it has to be dark enough to see the star, yet light enough to see the horizon. Tomorrow we’ll do sight reduction to compute the intercept distance, the diff between our assumed angular distance from the star and the actual measured distance, which tells us the correction to make to our assumed position. (Reading back through that it sounds like I know what I’m talking about. I don’t.) It tells us how close we were to getting it right. I think. In order to get your position, you’d need to shoot two, and even better, three stars.
Found out today that Susanna, with the sinking boat was able to get her engine started. Good news. Bob said that they think that it was her bilge pump back-flow preventer that failed. We have two bilge pumps, so that should never happen to us. Good thing. She had water up to her settee cushions.
12-2-15 Wednesday Ensenada, Mexico 6:50am
What I have learned so far:
* Writing the date and day at the beginning of the day in these notes helps me to keep track of what day it is – yesterday I thought it was Monday until Bob corrected me at Home Depot while we were out on our Costco trip.
* Keeping cups back from the edge, out of ‘bump’ area is important. No I didn’t, but it was really close with an open bottle of mighty fine wine last night. That would have been very upsetting in too many ways.
* It’s quite easy to get up at 5:30 since it’s dark by 6 and I’m in bed before 9 (8 most nights so far).
* Walking around town on a non-cruise-ship day is like walking through a different city. The wide open sidewalks, missing kiosks and locked storefronts vs people selling their goods, foods and services (and it almost seems like ‘selves’).
* Speaking of walking around, you’ve got to have 360-eyes. If you’re looking down to make sure you won’t trip on a broken sidewalk or a projecting piece of rebar, and you need to check what overhang or sign is at forehead level. Luckily the one I walked into was lightweight and moved when I clocked my forehead into it.
12-2-15 Wednesday Ensenada, Mexico 6:26pm
Just finished dinner – smoked tuna that we got the other day with a dish I call Orzo Alfredo (just made that up) and green beans on the side. Good, easy, one-pot. Works for me. Walked past the Smart & Final to the Calimax instead. Got bread, milk, cheese, a few more limes and apples. We’ll see if this bread is any better than the bakery bread.
Marc winched John up the mast earlier to take off the AIS antenna and put some gizmo up there as part of the testing he’s doing to figure what’s wrong with it.
I spent a few hours at the office (gotta love that free wi-fi) uploading photos onto Picasa using my computer. Next batch I’ll do differently, and compress them after getting them from phone to iPhoto, then pull up the Picasa app. This time around I already had Picasa open when I was offloading the pictures from my phone and it started the upload automatically – and I thought, ok, fine. There it goes. And goes. And goes. And goes. Sheesh. Compressing first will make the upload take less than half the time. Much better.
Every morning there’s a cruisers net (that’s us) on the radio (channel 69). There’s a host who first asks if there are any emergencies that anyone needs help with, then a check-in of who’s listening in, tides & weather, who’s new to the area or who’s leaving, if anyone needs a ride anywhere, and it goes on for 15-20 and covers lots of info. Today somebody said something about yoga, so I’m going to go tomorrow. It’s going to be by one of the other area marinas (there are three, Cruiseport [ours], Marina Coral and Baja Naval).
12-3-15 Thursday Ensenada, Mexico 7:11 am
The Marina talks at night- well, really all the time, but when it’s quiet you can hear it – but not in an annoying way. Kind of a white noise that all is well. The variety of sounds include squeak, rattle, moan, chatter, yawn, tap, groan, chirrup, gurgle, and then there’s the occasional splash of a bird going after some fishy food in the water or somebody talking or laughing. Sometimes it sounds like a farm, with the horses over there and the dog being restless and rattling his chain in the night. No cows, though. Nobody moos here.
From the net: Music at 6 la taverna sports bar restaurant
12-3-15 Thursday Ensenada, Mexico 4:41pm
Went and did yoga with Lisa, Liz and Eden in a central plaza by the heads. Dusty and dirty. I cheated on the poses that you’re supposed to put your arm out to the side and rest it on the ground. We’ll do it again Saturday morning, but not there. I’ll wash my mat between now and then – ugh. The only reason I have a yoga mat in the first place is because John was going to use a chunk of it to do a repair. And of course it’s white so it Really shows the dirt. This photo shows Lisa, me and Liz at Cruiseport.
John spent his day figuring what parts to order for the antenna and I went on the bus (beer & the madonna present) with Marc & Laurie to Home Depot, Walmart, Costco & got some lunch at a fruit & veggie restaurant. Not only does Costco sell scooters (I find that so amusing), but Walmart has a guy on the side cutting cactus and an interesting pre-packaged assortment of chicken parts.
Tonight we’re going to go to La Taberna, a sports bar restaurant that has a quiet room in back that people can use to play music.
12-3-15 Thursday Ensenada, Mexico 8:32pm
So, we’re back from the bar and tired and ready to go to bed. Music wasn’t quite John’s thing, but Detroit was beating Green Bay when we left, and I learned something – Dos X beer comes in two varieties, lager and amber. Didn’t get lager, got amber. It was the correct choice for me.
12-4-15 Ensenada, Mexico. Friday – in a few hours it’ll be a week that we’ve been here.
Things I’ve learned from Bob:
* The grocery store baggers work for tips only, so make sure you have some coins to give them.
* All taxes paid in Mexico go to Mexico City and they decide where they’re going to be spent – obviously not on the sidewalks in Ensenada.
* If your house is unfinished – for example, you have rebar sticking up where you’re ‘going to add a second floor’ – you pay no property taxes.
* You can’t sue the city here, so if you trip on the rebar or crater in the sidewalk, you’re on our own.
* There is no water that comes out of a tap that is fit for drinking, unless you have it delivered to the cisterna on your roof.
12-4-15 Ensenada, Mexico. Friday 1:56pm
We walked into town this morning and stopped at Starbucks. My gift card from Emily (my lead teacher last year) worked and my phonetic name in Spanish on my cup was “Zu”.
Then we continued on to the marine supply store to follow up on the email John had sent them yesterday, ordering antenna parts, and they hadn’t received it. Back to Starbucks (free wi-fi) to resend it, then back to supplier to confirm order. It should arrive in about 5 business days.
Walked across the street to get fishing licenses and ran into Pat, who had just arrived from Chula Vista last night. Found out that you only need one fishing license per fishing pole, not one for each person on board, so that saved us $40.
Then we went to Soriana, to see if their bread was any better than the other stores that we’ve found so far, then to Smart & Final (the closest store to our boat) to buy water. We’re also going to have water delivered to the boat. Should have filled the tanks in Chula Vista…
So, ordered water delivery and were told that it would happen between 1:00 and 2:00 and now it’s 5:07. Okay…
John’s been working on moving the AIS box so it won’t need to split and share the antenna, and he has two antennae on order. The problem is that the way the box is manufactured it needs one certain size of screw, which we have, but where he’s wanting to install it he needs a certain length so that it doesn’t poke through into the quarter berth, which we don’t have. Tomorrow we’ll go to Home Depot.
Well finally. The water guys came around 6:30-ish. 100 liters for 95 pesos. Port side tie for our boat works well, as both of our water access thingies are on the left side of our boat.
12-5-15 Ensenada, Mexico Saturday 6:58am
Slept in again today
I was so proud of myself last night. After the water delivery, and after the Marina settled for the evening, I became aware of a ‘ba-thunk’ gently repeating itself as the boat moved and rocked. So I put on my headlamp and went up to check my first hypothesis – the boogie-board. It had been moved in order to access the deck fitting at the bow of the boat for filling the water tank, so I scootched it around and tucked it in tighter behind the surfboard so it couldn’t move. Back downstairs, congratulating myself, I notice the same gentle ‘ba-thunk’. Hmm. What else could it be – and maybe it’s coming from the other side of the boat. So I go back up and there’s the sextant case – maybe that’s it. So I move that so it’s unable to wobble any more. Back down below. Same noise. Ok. So, nothing else is loose up top, maybe it’s something down here. Ah – it’s in the galley – ah – it’s behind the stove in the cupboard where we keep glasses – ah – it’s the glasses. So I fidget them around so they hopefully stop moving and go to bed. Slept fine.
And then the P.S. to it – I was making coffee this morning and heard it again. It wasn’t the cups after all – it’s the cupboard door itself. If it isn’t all the way shut it wobbles.
12-5-15 Ensenada, Mexico Saturday 3:33pm
Went over to Baja Naval to see Don & Lisa’s boat get splashed. They had a new through-hull put in and bottom paint. John went on board and brought it back to the Cruiseport marina with them. We had Valkyrie’s bottom paint done last summer in Seattle and it’s weird to see them out of the water.
Meanwhile, I went with Marc & Laurie to get coffee at the pizza place (ends up they do breakfast as well). Then we went shopping – found the Soriana that John & I had not found the other day along with a hardware store and a few dollars-store type places.
After that, John & I did some internet stuff at the office and went to pizza place and got humongous green salads and one order of lasagna to share. Good thing I had gone for coffee earlier in the day and saw somebody at another table with the lasagna and knew how big it was.
12-6-15 Ensenada, Mexico Sunday 6:17am
After yoga, we’ll be going to go to Home Depot and see if we can find the electronics store for coax later today – too much other running around yesterday. Yoga will be here at Cruiseport – the plaza the other day was filthy.
12-6-15 Ensenada, Mexico Sunday 4:46 pm
Yoga was ok. There was a new participant, Shannon, who incorporated a bunch of ohm stuff and ‘tighten up your sex muscles and your anus’ (pelvis floor is how I’ve heard it referred to). Yeah, well, ok then. It was nicer doing it on our clean cement, so that was good.
Had leftover lasagna for lunch then got the orange bus to the ‘micro-plaza’. Home Depot had stainless steel screws, Walmart was super-packed, so we walked in and right back out.
Stopped at McDonalds – they had a condiments bar with ketchup, mustard, pickles, and 4-5 different hot sauces.
All the busses are color-coded for where they go, and you flag them down to get on anywhere and you can get off when you want. So we took the yellow bus to check the electronics store that Marc had found. It didn’t have the coax for the antenna, so John will need to order it. When you get on the bus and pay, you get a small paper that looks a lot like the transfer slips you get in Seattle. Well… maybe not. When we got on the second bus to head back home (which it didn’t – it started going the wrong way so we got off) we had to pay again. The bus driver looked me like I was crazy.
Dinner tonight was Lipton chicken noodle soup with egg in it and bread on the side.
12-7-15 Ensenada, Mexico Monday 7:38am
Today after the morning net, John’s going to go order his wire and I’m going to do line dancing.
Yesterday’s yoga left me with a slightly sore lower back – I’m pretty sure it was a breathing exercise that Shannon led – with your arms over your head elbows locked, straight over-head, while you’re sitting down, breathing out forcefully (with a ‘huh-huh-huh’) while quickly moving your arms out and in (breathing and arms timed so they go together), almost touching your thumbs. The discussion after that movement included light-headedness and transcending the feeling, and achieving a higher state. I’d call it hyperventilating. And it put a weird strain on my back. I think I’ll pass on that one next time.
Ensenada is a dirty, dusty town. Besides the broken sidewalks and trip hazards, there’s litter everywhere and since there’s so little rain, everything is grubby. Added to that is the port boat loading activity. A few days ago it was a grain (?) of some kind that they were loading, with all kinds of floating pollin-y things in the air. I’m fine, but John got enough of a nose-full that he’s been sneezing ever since. He started taking antihistamine yesterday – we’ll see how quickly that kicks in.
12-7-15 Ensenada, Mexico Monday 9:36am
Talking with a guy at the office while doing internet stuff – found out where the fish market is, and learned that it probably wasn’t grain that they were loading, it was probably dirt, and some of it was probably moldy. Nice. Here’s what I found out about the fish market – go on Wednesday or Thursday and be sure to check out the store called Captain Cortez by the movie theatre. Look at getting whole fish only and look at their eye to make sure they’re fresh. Talked with H-27 Shannon (of yoga, boat name ‘Ocean Villa’) and she offered use of her bike if I needed one. That was nice.
12-8-15 Ensenada, Mexico Tuesday. 8:48am
Well we went out to dinner last night and it was a bust. The restaurant ‘Mahi Mahi’ was highly recommended. Great service, but the (overpriced) food was so-so. Oysters Rockefeller had so much creamy (cheese?) sauce you could hardly find the oyster. Clam (really? where?) chowder was just a thick cream soup. I got a garlic (no. garlic. to. be. found.) fettuccini with shrimp (ok) and scallops (gross/rubbery). John’s fish was ok but had way too much sauce and Lisa’s scallops were like mine and inedible. Don’t need to go there again.
12-8-15 Ensenada, Mexico Tuesday, 9:40am
At Alfonso’s for breakfast. With your coffee, you get a flour tortilla with melted cheese inside and some salsa on the side. Good salsa. My mushroom omelette had tomato, green pepper and hot pepper as well as the (I think outta the can) mushroom. So I picked out the green pepper… sides of hash browns and refried beans.
Talked with somebody (don’t remember her name) and was told that ‘180 Degrees’ is a good movie about Galapagos – I’ll need to add it to my need-to-watch list in case we make it down there one day.
12-8-15 Ensenada, Mexico Tuesday, 5:45pm
Just in from another sextant sighting (2 actually). It’s long-undies & fleece weather after short-sleeves and flip-flops earlier. The weather is forecast to get colder and rainy by this weekend.
Speaking of this weekend, we’re supposed to have the AIS & VHF antennae by Friday, so in theory we could be ready to leave before too much longer. We need to wait for getting AIS fixed, we need to make sure we have a good weather window, we need to get John healthy (he’s still coughing and sneezing from the nose-full of whatever that was) and we need to see if we’re going to ‘buddy-boat’ with Wind Charmer (Don & Lisa) and/or Trovita (Marc & Laurie). They’re both waiting to get their temporary resident cards and can’t leave here without them, plus it looks like Don and Lisa have more boat work to do.
Lisa just came by with some corn tortillas. She got a big package and shared. The other day she brought by some brownies.
Did a sextant shot of ‘formalhaut’ a star that we can see above the small area of usable horizon that we have. And ohmygoodness, do we ever get some great sunsets around here.
12-9-15 Ensenada, Mexico Wednesday 7:09am
Coffee. Check. Morning notes time. Check. Fortunately I’m sleeping well enough even though John’s coughing and blowing his nose all through the night.
Today is supposed to be our last nice day for a while. I wonder how it’s going to work with wind and rain expected for Friday, which may also be antennae installation day, which would mean at least one trip up the mast. I’m guessing the install would slide to the weekend. Especially since there’s supposed to be a big surge (surge = waves that make your boat move a lot while you’re dockside) going on along with the wind and rain.
We decided to take the bus to Walmart and Home Depot because it’s dusty again here by the harbor and we want to avoid breathing more of it. I wish I knew (and I’m not sure I really want to know) what it is that they’re loading today (and what they were loading the other day).
We’re getting pretty good at the whole bus thing. It’s 10 pesos, which is about $0.60 each way. We (Sue, John, Marc, Laurie, Lisa – Don’s working on his boat) walked out to the street past the taxi hawkers ($2.00/person to go to the MicroPlaza, no thanks) and as soon as we got to the curb, an orange bus beeped at us (to ask if we wanted a ride) and we smiled and waved him down. How nice!
We got a few grocery items at Walmart, Home Depot did not have the drill bit that John needed, but Auto Zone had a funnel that should work for adding water to the boat’s tanks.
After we got back, I went to the office to do some internet stuff while John tried to nap (unsuccessfully) then we had some made-it-on-the-boat spaghetti.
I’m learning some basics about sextant usage and what it all means with some earth diagrams and lines and angles. I don’t know if I understood much of it at all…
James came by and knocked on the boat to see if we’d like to come play Mexican Train, a dominoes game. John passed, but I went over and played – it was fun. I think the last time I played was up at the cottage – I didn’t remember quite how it went but caught on quickly. It was James, Leonard, Quentin (brothers from Belgium doing some kind of environmental film work), and Jan & Chuck (a couple I had not met before).
12-10-15 Ensenada, Mexico Thursday 8:00am – Morning Net News
Some boat names – Nanner-Moon, Halcion-One, Catnip, Duck Breath, Wind Charmer, Traveler, Lock-Find, Wind Watcher, Trovita, Camelot, Rapture, Stray Cat, Sunnyside.
Maloose at A-12 going north Friday can take passengers or flat-stamp mail.
Fuel Dock at Marina Coral Channel #71
$17.05 peso exchange
Friday will be rainy and large surge (24′) winds up to 20kts, falling off to 12′ Saturday. A good day to not go out sailing.
Weather Links shared on the net: StormSurf.com WindyTY.com Magicseaweed.com PassageWeather.com or there’s a pocket grib app for iPad. Also SCT.gob.mx in Spanish, and just highlight what you want translated.
We don’t need those (or internet to get weather) because we have a Black Cat, which is the name of our weather fax decoder.
Breakfast (at our new favorite go-to place, thank you, Bob!) and I got the nopales omelette at Alfonso’s, hold the green pepper. It was good. I think I like cactus.
Walked with Laurie and Lisa to Sears, a variety of shoe stores, Waldo’s & Super Soriana.
The best photo that I didn’t get happened today~ As Laurie and I were walking back to our boats, we saw an osprey fly by with a fish in its claws. The lighting was perfect, the bird was low, holding the fish so that it’s head was facing the direction of flight, the dark fish shape silhouetted against the shine of the water, Valkyrie just behind and to the right. Totally imprinted on my brain, but my hands both were full of grocery bags and I couldn’t take my eyes away to search for my phone.
Some of the drugs we have on board (from Lafferty’s Pharmacy, Ballard, WA)
Azithromycin 250 bacterial, Cephalexin 500, Sulfa, Cipro ophthalmic, Prednisone
12-11-15 Ensenada, Mexico Friday 8:56am
Got some rain last night as predicted and it’s cooler than it’s been, as predicted.
12-11-15 Ensenada, Mexico Friday, later…
Did line dancing. John went shopping with Bob. Worked on my knitting. Walked into town. Checked on antennae – not yet. Soon. Bought pesos. Rice & beans for dinner.
A name I had thought of for this blog – One Hand for the Boat. Which refers to the fact that there’s always movement (unpredictable!) on a boat and two points of contact are not enough, you need a third – so if both your hands are busy, prop your head against something, because if you’re just on your two feet, you won’t be for very long.
John’s comment about how long it’s taking here in Ensenada, this blog could be called Off to a Screeching Stop.
12-12-15 Ensenada, Mexico, Saturday
Didn’t listen to the net this morning so I feel all disconnected.
Did laundry. Walked to Smart & Final and went to fish market. Organized some stuff in the boat.
The Never-Ending Boat List:
Stove lock, Refrigerator drain, Go up the mast and install radio antennae, Bed the hatch, Paint the wood, Buy fuel, Buy water, Buy propane, Install coat hook, Install new light, Wax exterior of hull.
12-13-15 Ensenada, Mexico Sunday 7:26am
Coffee with chia. Looked at wind-wave forecast as we’re starting to prepare for our departure from Ensenada. Our target date (at this point) is the 17th.
12-13-15 Ensenada, Mexico Sunday noon
Breakfast at Alfonso’s. Yoga. A free and easy how-to about weather in a bit on Wind Charmer.
Walked to fish market. The Captain Cortez store rocked! They had paella (that we got and had for lunch), cute little patty-pan squash, pea pods, lentils and soy sauce. Things you can’t find elsewhere.
12-13-15 Ensenada, Mexico Sunday 7:27pm
Practiced using Winlink, a program that works through the HF (single side band) radio. When it works, and that’s dependent upon having a channel clear that you can use, which we didn’t this evening, you can send emails. We’ll try again tomorrow. If I can get it to work, mail from me will be fromKG7CCJ@Winlink.org.
I had some of the honey we got from a guy near the fish market. Yum. It has some honeycomb in the jar with a bee still in it. And the bees were going crazy flying around the (still sticky) jars. Need to get more before we leave Ensenada.
12-14-15 Ensenada, Mexico Monday 10:08
Practicing with Winlink. Oy. It’s slow and squawky. Sent Ann an email which connected and sent quickly, and have sat here for more than 20 minutes while a file comes in. Propagation tables – another name for the channel selector table, which shows which channels are more likely to work.
Breakfast (a late one – at 11) once again at Alfonso’s, our go-to food and wi-fi spot, then to Arjona, the marine supply place, and they had most of our antenna stuff – enough to get it wired (John found a You-Tube which was lousy, but good enough to get the idea across) and be able to test the AIS. The green light stays on with the new antenna and the red light comes on when the old antenna gets hooked up. Guess it must have been the antenna. Which the Shakespeare (antenna company) said sometimes happens in the 2-3 year range (ours was 3) and they sell them with a 1-year warrantee. Of course.
Cooked up some of the pattypan squash with some (out of a mustard-type squirt container) garlic and leftover rice for dinner. Easy-peasy and yummy.
Oh. And it was Windy today. Blew all day long.
12-15-15 Ensenada, Mexico Tuesday
Cleaned (with vinegar – kills mold & mildew) the dorade vents and some moisture on the headliner in the head, as well as the portholes in our sleeping area. Need to make sure we don’t start growing anything fuzzy.
Morning News –
Net host – Angie on NannerMoon. Traveler, Seahorse, Mario, Carisma, Trovita, Teresa, Sunnyside, Maloose, A-Haluna, Seahorse, CurlySaysWow, Serendipity, WayToGo, Orianna, Camelot, WindCharmer, Esperitu.
Channel #71 for fuel dock at Baha Naval & be sure to check on Channel #14 to transit the harbor.
HF Net 4A 7:30 – 6A, 7:35, – 8A, 7:40 – 12A 7:45. Terry has frequencies
Sailespiritu.blogspot.com – Liz
Current plan (subject to change a few more times). We leave Ensenada Thursday morning. We’ll buddy-boat with Marc & Laurie (Trovita), but not with Lisa & Don. They’ve decided they need a new autopilot. But yes Marc & Laurie, they got their paperwork today and they’re itching to be on their way as well.
Laurie has an auto-immune disease – Scleroderma – wherein your body produces too much collagen. Her hands are the most affected, with her fingers all bent & fixed at the second knuckle. She’s got a great attitude about it though, and has said that she’s not handicapped, she’s finger-capped.
Marc is Mr. Fix-it. If there’s a tool or a part needed, he’s the first person to go to. He’s also the helpful, friendly guy who hoisted John up the mast – twice.
12-16-15 Ensenada, Mexico Wednesday
Our last day in Ensenada. Tomorrow early morning we head south, so today will be some last-minute running around.
Last night at dinner we looked at our map books and decided to do many short day-sails to get to Turtle Bay. First anchorage planned is Punta Santo Tomas, 40 miles south of Ensenada. We’ll see how the anchorage is – if it’s way too rolly we’ll consider continuing on.
8:52am. Off to get fuel
11:02 just finishing at fuel dock. Good thing we didn’t wait for tomorrow morning as it took a while.
Did laundry – hung it on the lifelines, then put it in the dryer so we could wash the boat.
Processed paperwork to leave.
Sent package with Dana to Ann (thanks, Dana!). Met Philippo, who is wanting to hitch a ride south. Too bad our crew list is already turned in for two people.
Bob took me to get propane – what a good guy.
So now we’re waiting for water and we need to go to the grocery store
Water – check. Dinner out – check. Groceries – check.
Book from Arjones – nope. Tomorrow 7:30am John will go pick up.