Stand Up Paddleboard Competition Baby Beach at Dana Point, CA

This is a fun sport we haven’t seen before, SUP races. We sat next to a nice couple who introduced themselves and then proceeded to tell us their daughter was in the race and is the world champion of SUP racing. Her name is Candice Appleby. We looked her up and she is described as ” the winningest female SUP athlete in history”. Pretty impressive young lady. It’s a great spectator sport. The athlete’s have different moves they use to get around the buoys which include knocking others off their boards with subtle movements. No physical contact is allowed.

Coming down the coast we had a hitchiker. It was a sea bird with a broken leg. He rested on the bow of the boat until after we were moored in the marina and then we flew off. He wasn’t afraid of me being next to him adjusting lines.

There is a giant sea lion on the dock across from us. He has been resting there since we arrived. We talk to him evey time we walk by and he opens one eye to look at us. We just got back and the owner of the boat near where he is laying asked how to get rid of him. Kevin managed to scare him off the dock but I’m sure he will be back tonight.

We finished submitting all the required documents to the yacht agency for importing our boat and dinghy into Mexico and filed entry permit documentation for each of our crew. Our boat and dinghy will be able to stay in Mexico for 10 years but we can only stay 180 days and then have to leave for awhile. Now we sit back and cross our fingers that we’ve provided evertything we need to make this a smooth entry. We were told the port captain at Cabo can change the rules at his discretion (and he has). His first requirement was that everyone sailing a boat into Mexico have a captain’s license. Well 99.9% of the sailors do not have that credential so he switched to accepting sailing certficates and boaters licenses. Luckily we have both.

We will leave tomorrow morning and sail 20 miles to Oceanside. We are just about all the way down the California coast. It’s been fun harbor hopping along the way.