MEXICO - Dox Exxis, Tequila and jumping off the boat
November 12th Blog – Ensenada – Bahia Santa Maria
San Diego, will always be remembered as the place we walked the furthest to get everything we needed, and the place where Johnny left us after living with us in our little pod for 2 months. We also became part of the little community on the Police Dock - which is basically the Municipal Docks which only cost $5/day for 5 days and then $20/day for a further 5 days – then you have to move on.
I have noticed that it doesn’t take long to feel that we belong in these small communities in a very short time. A few boats we knew from the BCA Fleet group were there, including Len and Joan on Warana – Len very generously fixed our battery charger for us, which we would have had to ship somewhere to get a bridge rectifier installed – instead we found the little bugger(the rectifier, not Len) in Radio Shack and Len installed it.
We also found a perfect trade for the 45 lb. Bruce anchor that Tony found while diving in Emerald Bay, Catalina. Our neighbours Peter and Denice on Sapphire had a Danforth which fit perfectly onto our stern rail to be used as a stern anchor, and our Bruce fit perfectly only his bow roller.
We had a little dock party on November 5th which enabled us to meet more of the people who are traveling down the coast. A couple of boats with young families aboard from Washington and Oregon, and other US boats who had already experienced cruising Mexico and wanted to repeat the experience.
Tony was able to help Ernie from Morgana, a boat from Campbell River, with his SSB radio weather fax system and internet. So this is how this community functions, having fun with each other and helping each other out with information.
It is interesting to note also how much mis-information circulates through this community, i.e. paper work needed to exit the US, and the paper work needed to enter Mexico, what you can and can’t bring into Mexico.
Mexico
The info in the back of Charlie’s Charts on cruising Mexico seemed to be right on, and the marina we stayed at in Ensenada, the Baha Naval, also made sure that our paperwork was in order before running the immigration gauntlet. It wasn’t that bad, some people use agents to help them – the agents speak English and will help you if needed. It did take us about 3-4 hours to get it all done which was a little tiresome as we had only managed a couple of hours sleep on the way from San Diego to Ensenada, another one of those rolly trips that leave your equilibrium disturbed for a day or so after landing.
At the end of the ‘gauntlet’ run we were required to show all of the accumulated papers from the various departments finally to the Customs Officer, who showed us what appeared to be child size traffic lights with a big button at the bottom. ‘You push this – red, we search your boat and green , finito’. We were so nervous about pushing the button that when it turned green we both jumped up in the air whooping for joy.
Then we went in search of a fishing license.
That was a lot easier and so well worth it. We caught our first fish yesterday – a bonito tuna – very yummy and enough for 4 meals. Not bad for $94, maybe we’ll catch some more fish before out of Mexico.
We like Ensenada, though it has its touristic side its still very much a Mexican town that is not totally reliant on the ‘gringo’ – I hate that word – for their living, so one is not constantly harangued by people who need your money – what money?
We went to a really great bar called Housongs,with an old friend we met in Blaine a couple of years ago - Trevor from McCoushla (sorry Trevor) took us around town on our first evening there, - called Housongs. We were almost the only gringos present, the drinks were good and we were basically left alone. On the table next to ours were a middle age Mexican couple – a very proud man having his shoes cleaned while sitting at the table and a woman who was obviously besotted by him draped all over him. I asked them if I could take a picture – I know, very touristy – but it was a huge contribution to the mood in that bar. There was a mariachi band of about 6 men playing around a table of 3 local men and they were all singing to each other just because they liked to. When I applauded I was cautioned not to because it might make me seem even more like a tourist mark – ‘well its rude not to show appreciation for such a great performance isn’t it’.
The Baha Naval has one of the biggest, cleanest haulout facilities I’ve ever seen, the management team, Rogelio and Arturo were great, spoke very good English and genuinely liked their interactions with their c lients.
7th November From Ensenada we were heading for Turtle Bay, landed our first fish as mentioned above, no wind, motoring in calm seas, feeling very happy with the conditions and the speed we were making – a current helping us along, running the motor at about 2000 revs at a 6 – 7 knots. (Now I’m looking at the log because I can’t remember that far back). Generally from this day until the evening of the 9th we went from no wind – to nice sail with a single reef and the happy comment that Moondance is dancing to double reefed genoa only running on a broad reach at about 6 – 7 knots, sometimes more hurtling down a wave to wishing to a helluvalot less of this wind.
Its not so much the wind, we would love to have 25 knots, gusting to 35 without the huge waves that build up with it which never seem to come from one direction. That night I did most of my watch from the cabin, poking my head up to look around to make sure that no other stupid bastards were out there waiting to bump into us, and then darting back like a gofer before getting run over by a truck.
We didn’t come in a Turtle Bay; to do so would have meant taking big seas abeam and we knew we could still keep going. This part of our trip is just about getting as many miles in as possible.
So late afternoon on the 10th we pulled into Baha San Hipolito, which was actually quite a wide open bay and until we got right into it we were still running down the waves and thought it wouldn’t be a good anchorage. But the further in we went the land breeze coming down off space like plateaus took over from the swells and the wind waves which were quite small took over. We were the only transient boat in the bay – a few large fishing boats were anchored way over on the other side and a couple of small pangas were anchored close to the shore.
San Hipolito is a small fishing camp/village, not much more than a few shacks and container type units. The cloud cleared a little at sunset, which we were grateful to see after a couple of days of squally wind filled clouds. We ate crackers and nuts for dinner and went to bed at about 1900 hrs.
After being a sea for a few days doing our 2 – 3 hour night watches we really value our full nights sleep and Hipolito was not exception. A whole night’s sleep has become such a luxury, a tonic that makes us feel so great the next day.
This day started with a visit from a panga with 2 very good men – didn’t get their names, but we really liked them. They spoke way better English than our pathetic Espanol. They had fish and langosta (lobster) to trade, and we were definitely in the market for lobster. They belonged to a fishing cooperative, much like our local farming in Langley. They have buyers for their catch which is mostly sardines and langosta.
They asked how many lobsters we wanted – and when I said 2 – they were incredulous. ‘Only 2????’ – ‘we have no freezer ,ok 4’ ‘It makes no difference to us, have more’.
What you want?’ – Do you ave beer or wine?’ – ‘No sorry, not enough’ – ‘We have childrens, do you have bandaids?’ I knew we had lots of bandaids somewhere but didn’t think I’d be able to find them within the next half hour or so. We settled on a couple of baseball hats and a can of carnation milk. Our first trade, we hoped we had not upped the trading price for others who follow, and we hoped that these nice, hardworking men got what they wanted. They were very happy for us to take their picture.
That day – the 11th November kept getting better – our trip since Sidney recoring 2209 miles, 10 – 15 knot wind all day without the almost constant huge swells, sailing at 5ish knots with lovely clear skies and the anticipation of langosta for dinner.
Just after dinner we were sitting in the cockpit with the side flaps in the dodger – I usually put them in at night preparing for the usually stronger winds and protection from the occasional splashes - when whack, whack, whack and big splash on the leeward side of the boat. Tony starts looking into the rigging thinking a shroud had pinged loose and was flying around the boat . Flying was the right word, as we rolled over a swell a shoal or is it flock of flying fish decided to take off from that wave and unfortunately for them were stopped dead by us. Some of them went right over and splashed into the water on the other side of us, but 5 of them were all flapping about on both sides of the deck. These fish were all about 9 – 12’ long and were desperately trying to fly off the deck. Their wings are beautiful and they also seem to have little floppy fins further down their body which look a lot like undeveloped legs. Tony saved most of them – he went out onto the deck and picked them up carefully, as you would a bird, and put them back in the water. What a mystery of evolution they are.
Another big wind night with big seas - which though I hate because they frighten me, do realize that we need in order to get the speed we need.
After another night of almost no sleep the wind died down enough for us to need to motor. When we started the motor we noticed that our alternator was not only not charging at its usual 14 volts, it actually seemed to be pulling charge from our batteries. So in the aftermath rolling seas Tony put our spare alternator on, and so far so good.
At time of writing we are anchored at Bahia Santa Maria with a few other boats, two of which we met in San Diego. We had another of those fortifying sleeps and woke up this morning full of energy. We swam this morning, and while doing so cleaned the grass which has miraculously managed to grow while we are moving on the portside of the boat, since Catalina Island when we last cleaned it. Tony replaced the zinc which fell off one windy night, we showered and sunbathed.
Days like these count for at least 5 of those nights when I’m scared to look at the following seas and sick of my dirty hair and general feeling like crap.
We are looking forward to so many more of them.
Just arrived in Cabo San Lucas – don’t know anything about it yet, except it has the most incredible rock formation at the entrance to the harbour.I’ll post more on Cabo when I have some info.
San Diego, will always be remembered as the place we walked the furthest to get everything we needed, and the place where Johnny left us after living with us in our little pod for 2 months. We also became part of the little community on the Police Dock - which is basically the Municipal Docks which only cost $5/day for 5 days and then $20/day for a further 5 days – then you have to move on.
I have noticed that it doesn’t take long to feel that we belong in these small communities in a very short time. A few boats we knew from the BCA Fleet group were there, including Len and Joan on Warana – Len very generously fixed our battery charger for us, which we would have had to ship somewhere to get a bridge rectifier installed – instead we found the little bugger(the rectifier, not Len) in Radio Shack and Len installed it.
We also found a perfect trade for the 45 lb. Bruce anchor that Tony found while diving in Emerald Bay, Catalina. Our neighbours Peter and Denice on Sapphire had a Danforth which fit perfectly onto our stern rail to be used as a stern anchor, and our Bruce fit perfectly only his bow roller.
We had a little dock party on November 5th which enabled us to meet more of the people who are traveling down the coast. A couple of boats with young families aboard from Washington and Oregon, and other US boats who had already experienced cruising Mexico and wanted to repeat the experience.
Tony was able to help Ernie from Morgana, a boat from Campbell River, with his SSB radio weather fax system and internet. So this is how this community functions, having fun with each other and helping each other out with information.
It is interesting to note also how much mis-information circulates through this community, i.e. paper work needed to exit the US, and the paper work needed to enter Mexico, what you can and can’t bring into Mexico.
Mexico
The info in the back of Charlie’s Charts on cruising Mexico seemed to be right on, and the marina we stayed at in Ensenada, the Baha Naval, also made sure that our paperwork was in order before running the immigration gauntlet. It wasn’t that bad, some people use agents to help them – the agents speak English and will help you if needed. It did take us about 3-4 hours to get it all done which was a little tiresome as we had only managed a couple of hours sleep on the way from San Diego to Ensenada, another one of those rolly trips that leave your equilibrium disturbed for a day or so after landing.
At the end of the ‘gauntlet’ run we were required to show all of the accumulated papers from the various departments finally to the Customs Officer, who showed us what appeared to be child size traffic lights with a big button at the bottom. ‘You push this – red, we search your boat and green , finito’. We were so nervous about pushing the button that when it turned green we both jumped up in the air whooping for joy.
Then we went in search of a fishing license.
That was a lot easier and so well worth it. We caught our first fish yesterday – a bonito tuna – very yummy and enough for 4 meals. Not bad for $94, maybe we’ll catch some more fish before out of Mexico.
We like Ensenada, though it has its touristic side its still very much a Mexican town that is not totally reliant on the ‘gringo’ – I hate that word – for their living, so one is not constantly harangued by people who need your money – what money?
We went to a really great bar called Housongs,with an old friend we met in Blaine a couple of years ago - Trevor from McCoushla (sorry Trevor) took us around town on our first evening there, - called Housongs. We were almost the only gringos present, the drinks were good and we were basically left alone. On the table next to ours were a middle age Mexican couple – a very proud man having his shoes cleaned while sitting at the table and a woman who was obviously besotted by him draped all over him. I asked them if I could take a picture – I know, very touristy – but it was a huge contribution to the mood in that bar. There was a mariachi band of about 6 men playing around a table of 3 local men and they were all singing to each other just because they liked to. When I applauded I was cautioned not to because it might make me seem even more like a tourist mark – ‘well its rude not to show appreciation for such a great performance isn’t it’.
The Baha Naval has one of the biggest, cleanest haulout facilities I’ve ever seen, the management team, Rogelio and Arturo were great, spoke very good English and genuinely liked their interactions with their c lients.
7th November From Ensenada we were heading for Turtle Bay, landed our first fish as mentioned above, no wind, motoring in calm seas, feeling very happy with the conditions and the speed we were making – a current helping us along, running the motor at about 2000 revs at a 6 – 7 knots. (Now I’m looking at the log because I can’t remember that far back). Generally from this day until the evening of the 9th we went from no wind – to nice sail with a single reef and the happy comment that Moondance is dancing to double reefed genoa only running on a broad reach at about 6 – 7 knots, sometimes more hurtling down a wave to wishing to a helluvalot less of this wind.
Its not so much the wind, we would love to have 25 knots, gusting to 35 without the huge waves that build up with it which never seem to come from one direction. That night I did most of my watch from the cabin, poking my head up to look around to make sure that no other stupid bastards were out there waiting to bump into us, and then darting back like a gofer before getting run over by a truck.
We didn’t come in a Turtle Bay; to do so would have meant taking big seas abeam and we knew we could still keep going. This part of our trip is just about getting as many miles in as possible.
So late afternoon on the 10th we pulled into Baha San Hipolito, which was actually quite a wide open bay and until we got right into it we were still running down the waves and thought it wouldn’t be a good anchorage. But the further in we went the land breeze coming down off space like plateaus took over from the swells and the wind waves which were quite small took over. We were the only transient boat in the bay – a few large fishing boats were anchored way over on the other side and a couple of small pangas were anchored close to the shore.
San Hipolito is a small fishing camp/village, not much more than a few shacks and container type units. The cloud cleared a little at sunset, which we were grateful to see after a couple of days of squally wind filled clouds. We ate crackers and nuts for dinner and went to bed at about 1900 hrs.
After being a sea for a few days doing our 2 – 3 hour night watches we really value our full nights sleep and Hipolito was not exception. A whole night’s sleep has become such a luxury, a tonic that makes us feel so great the next day.
This day started with a visit from a panga with 2 very good men – didn’t get their names, but we really liked them. They spoke way better English than our pathetic Espanol. They had fish and langosta (lobster) to trade, and we were definitely in the market for lobster. They belonged to a fishing cooperative, much like our local farming in Langley. They have buyers for their catch which is mostly sardines and langosta.
They asked how many lobsters we wanted – and when I said 2 – they were incredulous. ‘Only 2????’ – ‘we have no freezer ,ok 4’ ‘It makes no difference to us, have more’.
What you want?’ – Do you ave beer or wine?’ – ‘No sorry, not enough’ – ‘We have childrens, do you have bandaids?’ I knew we had lots of bandaids somewhere but didn’t think I’d be able to find them within the next half hour or so. We settled on a couple of baseball hats and a can of carnation milk. Our first trade, we hoped we had not upped the trading price for others who follow, and we hoped that these nice, hardworking men got what they wanted. They were very happy for us to take their picture.
That day – the 11th November kept getting better – our trip since Sidney recoring 2209 miles, 10 – 15 knot wind all day without the almost constant huge swells, sailing at 5ish knots with lovely clear skies and the anticipation of langosta for dinner.
Just after dinner we were sitting in the cockpit with the side flaps in the dodger – I usually put them in at night preparing for the usually stronger winds and protection from the occasional splashes - when whack, whack, whack and big splash on the leeward side of the boat. Tony starts looking into the rigging thinking a shroud had pinged loose and was flying around the boat . Flying was the right word, as we rolled over a swell a shoal or is it flock of flying fish decided to take off from that wave and unfortunately for them were stopped dead by us. Some of them went right over and splashed into the water on the other side of us, but 5 of them were all flapping about on both sides of the deck. These fish were all about 9 – 12’ long and were desperately trying to fly off the deck. Their wings are beautiful and they also seem to have little floppy fins further down their body which look a lot like undeveloped legs. Tony saved most of them – he went out onto the deck and picked them up carefully, as you would a bird, and put them back in the water. What a mystery of evolution they are.
Another big wind night with big seas - which though I hate because they frighten me, do realize that we need in order to get the speed we need.
After another night of almost no sleep the wind died down enough for us to need to motor. When we started the motor we noticed that our alternator was not only not charging at its usual 14 volts, it actually seemed to be pulling charge from our batteries. So in the aftermath rolling seas Tony put our spare alternator on, and so far so good.
At time of writing we are anchored at Bahia Santa Maria with a few other boats, two of which we met in San Diego. We had another of those fortifying sleeps and woke up this morning full of energy. We swam this morning, and while doing so cleaned the grass which has miraculously managed to grow while we are moving on the portside of the boat, since Catalina Island when we last cleaned it. Tony replaced the zinc which fell off one windy night, we showered and sunbathed.
Days like these count for at least 5 of those nights when I’m scared to look at the following seas and sick of my dirty hair and general feeling like crap.
We are looking forward to so many more of them.
Just arrived in Cabo San Lucas – don’t know anything about it yet, except it has the most incredible rock formation at the entrance to the harbour.I’ll post more on Cabo when I have some info.
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