Author: sailoregil

Last night we had dinner sitting at the best seat in the house! The sunsets out on the ocean are gorgeous! The boat was rolling side to side while I was trying to roll out dough for biscuits but I’m slowly getting my sea legs back after being at the dock in San Diego for two weeks. I was on the boat only a few hours out in the ocean when I started feeling ill. Thanks to the drug Meclizine I began to feel much better within a few hours.

This photo was taken while eating dinner at our outdoor table cruising a few miles North of Ensenada, Mexico.

Kevin and I were on watch until midnight last night and then again at 6am this morning. The other sailboats in the rally have scattered and now we are all miles apart without anyone in sight. We have seen more dolphins in this area than ever before. It is always exciting to see them swimming towards us. I try to take pictures but they are so fast diving in and out of the water.

The weather has been sunny with light winds. We have done a fair amount of motor sailing today. The winds are suppose to pick back up in the next day or so as we get closer to Turtle Bay.

The marina was bustling this morning with sailors getting last minute projects completed and food for 10+ days stowed. The mariachi band stopped on our dock and played a few songs to get everyone excited for Mexico.

We have all brought baseball equipment, toys and games for the kids in Turtle Bay. The village is small with a population of 1500 people. They love baseball and they need new gear. When we arrive we are going to play a few games of baseball with them and then have a bbq on the beach. The villagers have offered to cook our fish and make us tacos!

It’s been fun spending 2 weeks in San Diego. The weather has been great as well as our fellow cruisers.

I ordered a new bike to replace the one I had stolen but the bike could not get to me in time so Kevin bought himself an e-scooter at the local bike shop. Here’s a picture of him leaving West Marine carrying a new fishing pole on his scooter. It’s worked out good because he gave me his bike to ride. It’s hard being at the end of Shelter Island without any wheels. Everything is so far from here.

This past week has been busy with provisioning, safety training, seminars, and parties! As part of the preparation, we had to ride our bikes a few miles carrying laundry to the laundromat, we had to pick up the pesos we ordered from the bank for Mexico (small villages do not have the means of spending American money or processing credit/debit cards). We had to get several small bills of American money for the panga boats on the Baja coast, (they only want American money to transport us to shore), we had to find a place to buy a Mexican fishing license for each of us so we can fish on the way down the coast, and we had to find a Mexican courtesy flag to fly on our boat once we enter Mexican waters. So much to learn!

Our friends, Gary & April visited us this weekend and drove us across town to pick up special cables needed for the new lithium batteries. It was great seeing you two! Thank you!

Our departure tomorrow is at 11:00 am. It will begin with fire boats leading the parade in San Diego Bay spraying water, another boat will be full of music from a mariachi band, and the Grand Poobah will be sailing his 65′ catamaran that will be our mothership with100+ sailboats (including us) following behind. Once we are out of the bay and in the Pacific Ocean we will hoist our sails and the Baja Ha Ha sailing rally begins.

We are doing last minute preparation before departing for Cabo San Lucas on Monday morning, October 31. While Kevin is out of town, I am sewing covers for the jerry cans containing diesel that are stored on the foredeck. The hot sun breaks down the plastic containers so these Sunbrella bags will protect them. We carry 20 extra gallons of diesel so I have 4 bags to make.

This week we will be doing last minute projects such as swapping out the batteries, installing dinghy wheels on the dinghy (for hopefully successful beach launches) 😎 and having a few minor warranty issues repaired, laundry and grocery shopping.

Towards the end of the week we will be provisioning. We have all the spare parts we need but we will need food for us and our crew for 10-14 days. We don’t want to bring too much because the Mexican agricultural officials will board our boat and confiscate any meat, eggs and vegetables. They will charge us to incinerate what they confiscate. So I will only purchase the amount we need after I finish my menu planning.

This week I also need to work with the yacht agency on departure documentation from Cabo. Every time we move the boat to another Mexican port we will need to follow the procedures set by the port captain for that particular port. The Mexican officials love paperwork! They are just now getting computers in their offices but until they are up and running they are still using lots of paper forms and stamping each document and of course charging for each seal they place on a document (and, they only accept pesos, no credit cards). This is the reason for using the yacht agency. They have someone who runs around and pays these fees for their clients and files all the required documentation.

I really miss my ebike when I have errands to run. At least most of the Uber drivers have Tesla’s in this area so I’ve gotten to ride in many different models. My friends who live in Nevada, April & Gary, are coming to visit next week and offered to bring my new bike which is being shipped to their house. I can’t thank them enough!

The next blog entry will be later this week as we get closer to our departure date.

I ‘ve been hearing this loud clicking under the boat after dark and couldn’t figure out what was causing it. It sounds like loose wire connections. I checked around the boat and couldn’t find anything wrong. I was getting worried something may short out and cause a fire. I asked my dock neighbor and he laughed and said its the pistol shrimp. The locals refer to them as snapping shrimp because of the sound they make. The Pistol Shrimp is said to fire a “shot” of heat that is just as hot as the surface of the sun! The Pistol Shrimp’s claw shots are louder than a pistol. The sound alone from the pistol shrimp’s claw is loud enough to knock nearby animals unconscious! There must be several under my boat to make the kind of noise I’m hearing.

Today started out great waking up to the Star Spangled Banner playing, lots of bright sunshine, and a nice bike ride to a coffee shop. While I was out I decided to run a few errands. Since I’m not familiar with the areas of town where I was headed, I decided I’d better lock my ebike with both cables and locks I had with me. I came out of the grocery store at my last stop this afternoon and my ebike was gone and the two cables and locks were laying on the ground. They had been cut with bolt cutters. The security guard at the store had been in and out of the door but he said he hadn’t seen anything. I got an Uber ride back to the boat and filed a police report. This evening I got a message from the San Diego Police Department that my 4 page police report I filed had been rejected because steeling an ebike in this area is considered grand theft auto and therefore I need to file a 47(D) report. A detective is suppose to contact me. I’m going to miss my bike since we are at the end of Shelter Island and it’s several miles to any services.

The Uber driver said he could drive me down by the river to the chop shop where he was sure I could find my bike. Ugh!

When we arrived yesterday we had a permit to anchor in Glorietta Bay near the Coronado Bridge. The Harbor Patrol here is very strict. They were using bright spot lights at 1am this morning to make sure we had a permit and that we were flying the lime green Baja Ha Ha flag. If we didn’t have both the flag and permit, we would be violating their rules. It was an interesting anchorage. We woke up this morning to the Star Spangled Banner being played loudly throught the bay. One of the military bases was across from us. They were out doing training exercises in their inflatable boats. We enjoyed our morning coffee while watching them race back and forth in front of us.

We were able to secure reservations at the Guest Dock on Shelter Island (pictured). We are at the dock near the red circle. We will be here until we depart for Mexico on October 31st. The island consists of hotels, beaches and marinas. It’s a beautiful place and it has a giant Yokohama Friendship Bell at the end of the island given to the city of San Diego as a gift by Japan in 1958.

Kevin is going home tomorrow for a few days to prepare our house for the winter and take the ski boat out of the water and store it. In the meantime, I am going to stay here on the boat so the marine service guys can do some warranty work since they have a service center here in San Diego. Kevin is also looking into replacing the batteries with Lithium Iron. Our solar panels are producing more energy than the current batteries can store. We would like to get these installed before leaving for Mexico. If they are sent to Mexico we will be required to pay duty on them. I brought along my commercial sewing machine and some projects so I will be making covers for the 4 jerry cans containing diesel that are on the deck. There are several Baja Ha Ha rally sailors staying here so I will have lots of company.

We left Oceanside this morning as the sun was rising in very rolly seas. The large swells continued for hours. They were coming at our beam (side) which made it uncomfortable. In the distance, we saw a large pod of white-sided dolphins coming our way. They must have been chasing fish. They looked as though they were charging at the boat. It’s always exciting to see them because they don’t slow down. They swim right by and under the boat and in a flash they are off in the distance.

It’s amazing how many deflated mylar balloons we see floating in the ocean. We also saw several of them a few days ago on our way back from Catalina Island. They must drift with the offshore breeze and end up in the ocean. The sad part is the marine wildlife think they are food. We also passed a few lobster traps that had floated out to sea, and a couple of long stem red roses. I wonder if they were from a burial at sea? It’s always interesting starring out into the ocean. You never know what you are going to see.

Upon arrival in San Diego we were overwhelmed by the military presence. There were black hawk helicopters flying above, battleships, air craft carriers and submarines just to name a few. The military base extends for miles on both sides of the bay.

Our friends on Queso Grande II (Lance & Sherry) hailed us on our radio to welcome us to San Diego. They saw us cruise by their marina when we first arrived. Nice to hear a familiar voice. We cruised the bay another few hours to reach Coronado Bay where we will anchor tonight. Tomorrow we will move to Shelter Island and stay at a dock until we leave with the Baja Ha Ha Sailing Rally on October 31. It will be fun to spend some time touring around the city. It’s a beautiful place with so much to do. I’m hoping to visit Sea World while I’m here 🙂

We left Dana Point this morning and sailed 23 miles to Oceanside. There were lots of commercial whale watching boats out today from Oceanside. This area is also famous for its nice beaches and surfing. There is a surfing museum in town. A long boardwalk takes us around the huge marina to waterfront restuarants and shops. Like all the other marina’s on the California coast, there is always the resident sea lions. They are huge and act like they own the docks! This will be our last stop before arriving in San Diego tomorrow. It will be a quick stop to do laundry and spend the night in the marina. We plan to leave early tomorrow morning for our 8+ hour sail to San Diego.

Arriving in San Diego will complete the 2nd leg of our trip. The next leg of our trip will be from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. We will be sailing with 150 sailboats for the Baja Ha Ha sailing rally. It will be exciting to pull into San Diego tomorrow and begin meeting other sailors that we will be sailing with to Mexico. We will be flying our lime green Baja Ha Ha flag.

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.

We took our bikes off the boat and road to Seal Beach. It’s a quaint little beach town with unique shops, wine bars, coffee shops, brew pubs and surf shops. The beach is expansive and wide open with a 2,000 ft. wooden pier. It’s quiet in the morning but later in the day people flock to the beach to kite board, surf, play volleyball and just relax. There are a number of volleyball courts set up along the beach. As I rode back, I enjoyed looking at all the beautiful beach front mansions. This area attracts young professionals and the retired. We road our bikes North over to Naples Island tand continued to Long Beach. It amazes me how many miles long these beautiful beaches expand. We couldn’t stay long because we had plans to meet some fellow Coho Ho Ho Rally friends at Ballast Point here at the marina for dinner.

It was great to see Alex & Daniel, and Ryan, Melissa and their son, Harrison (who is 3 and by the way very cute). They are all living in the same marina and working in Long Beach. Both families will be heading South to Mexico next year. It was great catching up with them and sharing our experiences of sailing down the coast from Seattle and navigating the coastal waters of California.

The rain storms are gone but there is coastal fog in the morning. We are leaving this harbor this morning and plan to sail about 40 miles to our next stop, Dana Point. As we were sitting here, a large turtle floated by. It appeared it had been hit by a boat. Unfortunately, a number of sea animals are killed each year from being hit by boats.

On our way down the coast we passed Laguna Beach and there was a pod of porpoise being chased by a Whale Watching boat. There is a federal marine mammals act to protect these creatures which eveyone needs to respect.

We just arrived at Dana Point Marina which has 2500 slips. It’s a huge place. Time to get off the boat and explore.