It was the best of times. It was the worst of times.

Our first week in Mexico has pushed the limits of what one can experience on a small sailboat. We have enjoyed spectacular scenery – arid deserts and craggy mountains superimposed upon a liquid blue foreground, friendly Mexican fishermen, and some of the best sailing of the trip. We have also endured a terrible storm in a dangerously exposed anchorage and Mexican beaurocracy at its best.

We spent 2 days in Ensenda, clearing in on the first day (3 hours of 'streamlined' efficiency) and visiting a museum and a festival on the second. We stayed at Sergio's marina for a very reasonable 10 dollars a night (negotiated from 20). We had supper with our friends from Butukia, Francis and Beth, enjoying cactus tortillas at their lovely house, which overlooks the harbour.

Our next stop was Isla San Martin, where we spent 2 days, climbed the volcanic hills, and chatted with fishermen who were harvesting Sargaso (seaweed) and sea urchins (see pictures). The views from the crater rim were quite fine and the anchorage is well sheltered from the strong southerly winds we experienced. Some pictures follow:

 

Isla San Martin - fishermen returning from anchored panga Note the fishermen on the shore gathering seaweed.

 

Seaweed press for baling the weed

.  

Rani chats with Ramon and friends on Isla San Martin

 

Seals lazing on the lagoon at Isla San Martin

   

Chris with his cactus pal - he ended up with a number of spines in his foot from similar plants.

   

Rani and Chris on the top of the extinct volcano

   

Rani standing on a lava flow.

   

Curious seals - they followed us around the lagoon.

The next day we sailed south, but llight winds and an evil spinnaker wrap saw us stop only 10 miles away in San Quintin. This anchorage is open to the south and proved to be a very bad place to be in a south east gale – very very bad. We enjoyed calm weather here during the first day and Rani was able to disentangle the spinnaker from the forestay after I hoisted her to the mast head. That night, the wind swung again into the southeast and rose gradually to 25 and then 30 knots gusting to 40 in squalls of rain and hail. We should have left immediately and returned to San Marin, but we hung on thinking that the front would pass through in a few hours. The next day, the seas were up, running to 6 and 8 feet and breaking like surfer's waves right into the anchorage. We had a sleepless night and spent that day adjusting the chafe protection on the rode and watching the pressure on everything build. Lil' Bugger was in the water and flipped around with each swell like a kite without its tail. The anchor roller started to bend alarmingly, so I moved the anchor rode to the bow cleats and doubled up the chafe protection. Everything held, however and the anchor never dragged – thank heavens for lots of chain and a good heavy anchor.

Early in the second night, the wind swung to the south west giving us a some shelter from the nearby rocks and beach. However the boat now lay side on to a huge swell and was thrown on her side at one point. The outboard motor sheer plate was torn away and the motor began to swing freely on its mount. I must admit that I was only truly worried during one particularly nasty squall when the rain felt like nails and the tops of the waves were coming apart and blowing in wraiths of spume across the troughs. It seemed amazing that our anchor could remain dug in during such violence.

Rani however was terrified. She told me later that this was the most frightening experience of her life (and she has had quite a few that I would have thought would top it!). The lightning storm on the 2^nd night was the last straw for her and she made ready a 'ditch bag' and got out the life jackets in case we had to swim for it. Rani spent a lot of time staring out the windows at approaching waves and worrying about me out on the foredeck adjusting the anchoring tackle. To her credit, she is still on board the boat although she did tell me that maybe this sailing thing is not her cup of tea. I replied that everyone feels that way after their first storm at sea, but I don't think I convinced her :)

After the storm, we sailed south, staying in radio contact with Ali Baba, a 35 foot sailboat that weathered the same storm, albeit in the somewhat protected harbour on San Martin Island. We had a glorious 36 hour sail to Turtle Bay. Some flying squid ended up on our decks during the night (see picture) and the second day, we sailed into the lee of 20 mile long Isla Cedros (see picture).

 

Isla Cedros on the way to Turtle Bay 

 

Flying squid landed on deck overnight 

 

Squid on the dodger - this greeted us when we woke up!

In Turtle Bay we met Tim and Sue of Ali Baba in person and will have a potluck dinner with them tonight. We plan to spend a couple of days relaxing here before our next leg to Magdelena Bay where we will most likely celebrate Christmas. We hope to get in some hiking and whale watching (the grey whales calve in nearby bays).

Pictures from San Diego and Ensenada

We made it to Ensenada. I took 2 days and we ran into some very powerful Santa Ana winds on the first day that came up suddenly and caught us with the big jib up. We sought refuge in Descanso Bay and continued the next day to Ensenada where we anchored for a day and cleared into customs (a 3 hour process including a trip back to the boat for the outboard serial #!). Anyway - we are now legal in Mexico and getting used to struggling with Spanish and various culture shocks. Pics below are from our stay in San Diego and visits with friends and relatives. Thanks to our hosts for a great 2 weeks!


Anchorage view at sunset in San Diego

America's cup yacht - a bit faster than us!


Midway Aircraft carrier


View from our anchorage in San Diego

2 Indians in old town San Diego

Chris in old town San Diego

Penguins and whale bones from Robert Bateman (a Canadian artist who lives near our home on Vancouver Island) exhibition

Cranes from exhibition

Toad from exhibition

Dave and Michelle's gigantic home theatre

Ralph, Michelle, and David on Ladybug

Colton and Alexi towing behind in Lil' Bugger

Dave, Michelle, and ALexi on Ladybug

Alexi, Ralph (Dave's friend since highschool), Colton and Ben

Dave, our host, and neighbor, Lilia

Michelle, Colton, and Alexi + Rani - our gracious hostess and family

Chris caught in the act of running to the grocery store in a Monster Truck

Balboa Park architecture - San Diego

Giant kiss

Putting up Christmas Lights

Californiascope - kaleidescope


Waterfront sculpture - San Diego

America's cup racer giving tourists a thrill


Tanya, Tony's better half, and Chris



Tony - Rani's cousin, at the helm



Ship delivering sports fishing boats


Village near our Descanso Bay anchorage


Statue at Cathedral in Ensenada


Little girl in traditional costume

Rani enjoying a roasted corn cob

Ensenada market during festival of the Virgin of Guadalupe

Ensenada square - president's heads


Our crazy friends Beth, Drisanna, and Francis from SV Butukia

Shopping and Visiting Friends in San Diego

We are still here in San Diego! First of all, it's a great place for cruisers to buy provisions before crossing the border. Secondly, there are a number of anchorages around the bay to encourage transients to stay in the city and we are fortunate to have family and friends nearby.

We moved to the cruisers' anchorage near the Coast Guard Station on Harbor Island last Saturday after an eventful sailing afternoon with Rani's cousin Tony and his wife Tanya. We experienced our first real problem with the outboard engine that day as we were leaving the slip on Shelter Island. The engine kept sputtering out but we managed to leave the marina under sail into a very busy bay under control and without attracting too much attention.

Anyone and everyone who has a sail boat here was out enjoying San Diego Bay on that breezy Saturday afternoon in their vessel and we had a lovely sail weaving in and out of the traffic. There were old schooners and America's Cup racing yachts with their 11-story high masts and gossamer sails speeding by with photo snapping tourists on board for an exciting tour of the harbour. We sailed past the San Diego Maritime Museum with its collection of historic ships, including the Star of India built in 1863, and the USS Midway Museum, a naval aircraft carrier which had served in Vietnam and WW2.

We dropped Tony and Tanya off under sail at the Police Dock on Shelter Island and that was not so smooth as we crushed one of our fenders in the process while coming alongside. However, we made it in one piece into the Cruisers Anchorage and Chris found the problem with the motor, dirt in the fuel line, and we have a working engine again.

On Tuesday, Rani's friend Michelle picked us up for a few days' visit with their family and gave us the use of their spare Buick to go shopping for hardware and other provisions. We plan to leave next Tuesday for Ensenada.

Photos to follow....

Arrival in San Diego

We made it into San Diego harbour a couple of days ago. We sailed in the afternoon from Dana Point with a nice beam wind, which died away around sunset and disappeared entirely around 2 am.



Spectacular sunset near Mission Bay - an indicator of rain to come.

We took down the sails, put on our anchor light, and retired below leaving the boat to wallow in the light swells about 10 miles from the entrance to San Diego harbour. Two hours later we were awakened by a shout of "Anybody below?" and a strong searchlight from the deck of a coastguard ship. Rani and I staggered on deck awakened from a deep sleep and tried our best to answer a barrage of questions about where we were coming from and going to. We must have satisfied our interrogators that we were not smuggling illegal aliens (we were only a few miles from the border) because they sped off toward Mission Bay, leaving us to raise sail and carry on to San Diego.

As we approached the harbour we heard helicopters and could just make out the outline of a huge ship a few miles to port. It turned out to be an aircraft carrier and the choppers were practicing lifting and transporting tethered loads from its deck to the harbour, passing right over Ladybug.


Helicopter transferring load during exercise.

Just as we entered the harbour mouth, a military police launch came tearing down on us and cautioned us to stay outside the channel leaving 500 yards between us and the carrier. Click here for a video of the aircraft carrier sailing past us.


Aircraft carrier with escorts.


Rani looking surprisingly fresh after an eventful night at sea.

As the aircraft carrier passed us on our right, a zodiac appeared on our left with a dolphin alongside, which actually jumped completely out of the water! Not sure if they were training the dolphin, but they certainly fed it a lot of fish.


Dolphin and friends.


Dolphin being fed.

We checked in at the police dock and arranged to stay at the dock for 4 days while we left Ladybug to visit Rani's cousins in Oceanside for Thanksgiving. We are tied up in the Point Loma area on Shelter Island and found a very pleasant waterfront hike nearby as well as some good chandleries and marine related businesses.


Beach front walk - Ladybug is tied up a mile or so to the right of the picture.


Colourful landscaping in San Diego.


This lobster is reputed to be 80 years old! (photo taken in Dana Pt)