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)

People we met in Catalina Harbour and Dana Point

It seems like if you stay in a place for a few days, you will meet at least a couple of interesting people. We were anchored in Catalina harbour for a week and enjoyed the company of four very different people - a young Alabama man cruising on a small engineless boat, a seasoned charter captain and harbour master who gave us a plethora of tips about cruising in Mexico, and two gentlemen from Los Angeles who were cruising on a lovely Bill Garden designed Porpoise ketch, named 'Reprieve'.

Justin is from Alabama and is bound for Panama and beyond in his small (less than 26 foot) but seaworthy Pearson sloop.


Justin and Poseidon, a Pearson Ariel sloop.

One night after we had him over for dinner, a strong Santa Ana wind blew through the anchorage around midnight. When we got up to check and reset our anchor we could not see his boat, which had been anchored near us for 3 days. I rowed out to look for him and later asked other nearby boats if they had seen anything, but it was not until 3 pm the next day that we saw his little blue boat sailing back to the anchorage. His anchor had dragged and he woke up only after the boat had drifted out to sea, fortunately missing the cliffs and other obstructions on the way. He had been unable to sail back against the winds and had spent a sleepless night drifting and beating into strong winds. We treated him to a good stiff drink of the local Buffalo Milk that evening! Maybe because of this incident, Justin has decided to stick around and find work at Avalon (a small city of 4500) on Catalina Island before he heads further south.


Casino at Avalon - the 'big city' on Catalina Island.

Bruce works as a harbour master at Two Harbours, taking care of the local mooring fields. He lives on a large ketch moored in Catalina Harbour and has spent about 11 years on the island in various roles, working as a charter captain before that. We spent many enjoyable hours chatting with him about Catalina Island and the years he spent in Mexico.


Bruce on board his ketch.

Dennis and Roger were over to Catalina Harbour for a few days on Roger's immaculate ketch, 'Reprieve'.


Reprieve anchored in Catalina Harbour. This was our view when we woke up each day.

Dennis and Roger invited us to dinner at the (only) restaurant in Two Harbours and Rani enjoyed sitting on a throne during the meal.


Rani on her wicker throne with Dennis seated to her left.

We were given a tour of Reprieve, which Roger built largely by himself between 1965 and 1976. She is beautifully constructed with many clever touches and boasts a mahogany interior.


Rani and Roger in the Salon of Reprieve.


Roger and Dennis rowing over to say hi.


Here are a couple of pics from Catalina that did not make it into our earlier blog post:


Sailing to Catalina Island - amazing rock formations on the Pacific side.


Chris getting ready to clean Ladybug's dirty bottom.

While we were in Dana Point, we had visits from Rani's friends, Sangeeta, Ajay, and their family (Rani knows Sangeeta from her days in Windsor, Ontario). We also met up with my friend Kevin, with whom I spent some time exploring Death Valley a few years back.


Sangeeta, Sangeeta's mum, Ajay, Roshan and Sanjay.


Kevin and Chris enjoy a light air sail off Dana Point.

One of the best aspects of traveling like this is the opportunities it gives us to meet interesting people and to share our trip with friends and family.

Off to San Diego

We have been enjoying the town of Dana Point for the last 4 days. We met up with friends whom Rani knew from her days in Windsor, Ontario and a friend of Chris's from LA over the weekend. It was great to spend a few hours in their company and we enjoyed showing them our little world.

Dana Point is named for Richard Henry Dana ("Two Years Before the Mast") and boasts some impressive cliffs from which Dana loaded hides into a sailing ship. The sailors would throw the hides off the cliffs and those that got hung up would require that a sailor be lowered on the end of a rope to free them! The cliffs are now covered in multi-million dollar homes and gated communities - a huge improvement over what Dana saw in the 1830's - NOT!

People have been pretty helpful and friendly here, including the Sheriff and staff who have visited us twice on Ladybug to make sure we don't hang around too long. There is a 5 day limit to anchoring here (3 days in other nearby ports) so we have an incentive to keep moving at a reasonable pace :)

More when we get into San Diego...

Bison Hunting

Catalina Island is nearly 60 square miles – more than 18 from Land's End on the west tip to Jewfish Point on the east, and 7 miles across at its widest. It is owned and run mainly by the Catalina Island Conservancy (thanks Leslie for your comment below re Wrigley family ownership). Portions are leased out for recreation, boat mooring fields, and camps. A portion of the revenue from these goes to to the state of California in lieu of property taxes. This creates an interesting environment – a benevolent and apparently well run autocracy.

Water is precious on the island

The town of Two Harbours, off which we are currently anchored, is a company town run by one of the leasees who maintain 100's of mooring buoys in dozens of harbours, a general store, restaurant, snack bar, and dive concession. Only employees of the Santa Catalina Island Company may live in the sprawling and eclectic enclave of houses that lie between Isthmus and Catalina harbours. The small town atmosphere (only 200 people live here) means that everyone waves at you when they walk or drive past.


Catalina harbour


View back toward Catalina harbour from Silver Peak Trail


Hiking to Silver Peak

We are anchored under Catalina Head with mountains all around and cacti growing down to the water. Because we are outside the moorings, it is nearly a mile row to the jetty. When you land, a broad red dirt road lined with Eucalyptus runs across the peninsula to Two Harbours. Rani remarked it reminded her of Australia. Old VW vans, pickups, and jeeps repose at the head of the jetty and as we walk into town, we pass a high school bus that makes the 1.5 hour trip to Avalon each school day.


Looking at the west end of the island on the way to Little Harbour

The island has a unique flora and fauna, including bison and a type of silvery fox. We saw one of the foxes on our fist hike up to Silver peak the day after we arrived. A very bouncy little fellow who hopped away from us over prickly pears and Toyon bushes. From day one, I was keen on seeing a buffalo. These animals roam the island, a remnant of ranching operations early in the 20^th century.

A thrilling video of our hike to Silver Peak and a good shot of buffalo dung can be seen here.


Bison dung - a big one!


And a bison hoof print - note quarter for scale

On our first hike, we found considerable bison spoor and tracks. The photos above show a particularly fine specimen of the former and a hoof print with a quarter to provide scale. A sailor anchored nearby told us he had seen a buffalo in the early morning grazing near the jetty. However the beasts proved elusive until yesterday.

Parson's Landing - a walk-in campground

We were on a hike to Little harbour to go snorkeling when Rani grabbed my arm and gestured at what looked like a large shaggy brown bush. The buffalo was a couple of hundred yards off the trail resting in a patch of tall grasses. As we approached, it lumbered to its feet and ambled very slowly past us and along a well worn track back toward the resevoir that sits on the hill overlooking Two Harbours.

Prickly pear with unusual hand-shaped fruit cluster


A bison - finally!

We were elated with our sighting but even happier when on the return trip we spied 4 bison on a ridge quite close to the place of our first encounter. We were careful this time to approach slowly and keep a reasonable distance (see sign below for why this is a good idea). The buffalo is not a very animated creature and the ones we watched were either sitting or swishing away the swarms of flies that must be very unpleasant in the intense heat. We felt sorry for the creatures with their thick pelts. Click here for a video of Chris and the bison.

More bison - we saw 5 in total

Swimming at Little Harbour after a hot 3 hour hike - a nice interlude on our bison quest.