Leaving Ensenada

We did some walking around yesterday, Renee’ bought a fishing pole and some equipment, also got fishing licenses for both of us.

I bought a hose to wash the boat, I have not had much luck with buying hoses, this makes 4. So far all of them leak. Yes, I have changed or made sure they had gaskets. Most of the leaks have been at the fitting not where the spray nozzle screws on. Some have been faulty hoses (holes in them near the fitting). The downside to these small leaks, is that while I am washing the boat I get pretty wet.

We left this morning at about 9 am, we are not going far, just to Peurto Santo Thomas, about 20 miles out and around a point. Today will be a laundry and make water day.

We saw some really good ideas in Ensenada, as there are a lot of cruisers here. The CUBAR (Cruisers Underway to Baja Rally – Power boats) is leaving from Ensenada today. The Baja Ha Ha (Sailing from San Diego to Cabo) is scheduled to leave 11/4 from San Diego, but there are a lot of boats here that are part of this rally.

This is Dinghy Fuel storage (a great idea!)

This is an Eclectic Energy Wind generator (Very Quiet).

Sunset coming into Marina Coral Ensenada 10/31/19

Leaving Marina Coral Ensenada 11/2/19

Day 2 of our adventure

We left San Diego at 6:35 today 10/31/19, and experience some significant wind (high 30’s) we are still working on getting the sails straightened out. The Jib Sheet is just a little short, this means that it has to have almost no extra in the cockpit when the Jib is furled. Otherwise when we furl the sail we run out of furling before the sail is completely furled. We adjusted it yesterday, and it is closer, but still not quite right. This happened because we replaced the stranding rigging, and took the Jib and the Staysail in to double check the stitching. We had a bunch of work done on the running rigging as well. So, some of the running rigging is not put away like it really needs to be, for example, we have a spare main halyard/topping lift this line comes down from the top of the mast behind the spreaders and is tied off on the pulpit around the mast on the port side. Well this line is a bit loose, and it winds up laying on the mainsail such that when you furl the mainsail it gets tucked in with the sail as it is furled into the mast. This causes problems. So, I need to adjust where it “lives”.

Currently we are off of Tijuana in Mexico, with the Main sail reefed to about 50%, the jib furled and the staysail out. The engine is running and we are doing about 9 knots through the water and about 6 knots speed over ground. We have about 20 knots of wind, and Renee’ is taking a nap. We are about 40 miles from Marina Coral in Ensenada, our planned destination for today. We should get there by 7 pm tonight. Coronado Islands

Sun over Tijuana with a fire to the east.

Well that was a false start…..

So, we got started a little later than we planned. Got as far as the border with Mexico, and …. Sharlene fell and it looks like she hurt her leg. So, we turned around and had an ambulance meet us at the Police dock here in San Diego, and after they left, Renee’ and I brought the boat back to our marina in America’s cup harbor.

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again

So, if you check the link above it will show the track out from San Diego and Back. We should know more later today.

Last night in San Diego

It has been a very busy last couple of months. We have done a lot of repair and updating.

One of the upgrades was installing an Iridium Go! This is a satellite communications device. One of the features is tracking. It will update on an hourly basis. The track stays for 9 months.

Here is the address:

https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/Make_Me_Laugh_Again

We have some good friends down on our boat, Tom and Cynthia Corelis, Bob and Sharlene Miller (who are going with us) and our son Nate.

We got a lot done today, we finished selling our car, switched our cell phone provider, got diesel, filled the water tank, emptied the holding tank, washed the boat, changed the engine oil, & put a bunch of stuff away.

At this point, we believe we are ready to go in the morning.

6 months of preparation

We have been at Sun Harbor Marina, in America’s Cup Harbor, since mid April. The boat came with everything but everything didn’t work. It turned out to be a bigger project than we expected. We were at boat stores everyday, had workmen on the boat frequently, and our budget was thrown out the window. This is out dream so there was no turning back. Our goal of having the boat complete and ready to go on 10/1 (still planning a departure date of 11/1) failed when we took a shakedown cruise up to Monterrey from mid-August to mid-September (close to 1000 mi round trip). On that trip we found that the boat can handle rough seas better than we can. We also found much more work to do. So…here it is the end of October and work is still being done. The end is in sight and we still plan on leaving for Mexico on 10/30 with friends, Bob and Sharlene.