The Vortex Voyage: 2011

Friday, December 9, 2011

Swimming With the Whale Sharks

Hi everyone,
The other day we went swimming with the whale sharks. They are almost the largest sharks in the world (I believe there is one bigger one, Mega Mouth), but they are very slow, docile and harmless. They eat krill, not humans, so we weren't scared. Well, not much anyway. Sharon got so close to one that she had to back off to keep it from touching her. At one point, it turned and came at her, mouth first, Wow!

They hang around La Paz, in the shallow water. There were also a lot of manta rays there. It was really something.

It was hard to get good pictures, but here are some of the better ones.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Videos - Ensenada to La Paz

Monday, November 14, 2011

The Trip to Cabo

We did it! We sailed (well, motor-sailed really) all the way from Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas.
We left around noon on Oct 24th, sailed for three days and two nights until we arrived at Turtle Bay (Bahia Tortugas). The trip was mostly uneventful. We had 11-foot swells the first night, but that was mostly during Jesus's watch, so we slept through most of it. We caught our first yellowtail. Not a bad size fish, probably around 6 pounds. We made sushi with some of it, but it was too much and we ended up throwing the rest out.
During the day, a tiny little yellow bird flew onto the boat. He stayed with us into the night, even going into the cabin and spending about a hour or so walking around and checking out the v-berth. Funny thing, the cats never knew it was there. It was so cute, we think it was too tired to fly to shore. He was gone the next morning, so he must have eventually made it.
We didn't see much of the BaJa HaHa fleet until just before we arrived at our first stop.
There was a baseball game the day after we arrived. Many of the boats didn't get there until the day after we did. The following day was the famous pot luck beach party. There were around 500 or so sailors and their crew and families (for some). The food and company was great and fun was had by all. There was lots of fish, as most boats caught something, and something large at that. Someone caught Marlin, but had to let it go, too big. Someone caught a 61 inch Wahoo.
During the next leg of the trip, we saw some great sun rises. We also experienced something call the "green flash" during one of the sunsets. Kind of neat, just before the sun set, it turned green.
This time we caught our first Durado, or Mahi Mahi. What a beautiful fish! This one was about 3 feet long or so. Jesus made us some ceviche, which was delicious. We later marinated some filets in teriyaki sauce and grilled it. Also delish. We still had too much and had to throw some out.
We saw dolphins many times, playing in our bow wave. The water was so clear, it was awesome to watch them. We could hear their squeaks too.
During one night, many baby squid jumped onto the deck. We heard one sailor say that one even hit him in the face! During another night, some flying fish got on deck.
Our next stop at Bahia Santa Maria was a little different than the first stop. There was not a thing there. But amazingly, for our beach party, a band showed up and meals were also cooked for everyone. We hear that this little "town" magically appears once a year, during the BaJa HaHa.
The last leg, to Cabo was the shortest and the easiest. The first night there was a "I can't believe we cheated death once again" party. We ran into some engine problems and missed the beach party, but we made the awards ceremony the next night, where we won 3rd place. (Everyone got 3rd place unless they got 2nd or first.)
We think our engine problems are fixed, so we're now headed to La Paz. More on that once we arrive.

Saturday, November 5, 2011

Checking in from Cabo San Lucas

Well, we arrived safely with the head of the fleet. Currently, we have some major engine problems that are preventing us from leaving for La Paz. Just as well as we've been advised to wait until Friday (today is Saturday) anyway due to a strong northern wind.

We found a mechanic with the fleet who is willing to help us if he is able. We're having breakfast in a local restaurant with WiFi so we thought we should provide a brief update.

We have lots to report, but will wait until we have some time.

So far, it's been quite awesome even with the problems. It's so cool to jump off the boat into to the 84 degree water.

Monday, October 24, 2011

Leaving Ensenada

We're just making our last minute adjustments - putting our steps and bikes, etc on board. We're fueled up, our water tanks are full and so are the fridge and freezer.

We'll be leaving within the hour.

Next update, from somewhere else.

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Red Tide, Glowing Fish and A Wet Security Guard

Hi all,
We thouht we'd make a quick posting as we have a few moments.

We've been busy making all our last minute repairs and stocking up (lots) before we take off.

Things have been interesting around here. For the past week or so, there've been these "Red Tides". At first the water just got sort of cloudy. Then it turned red. It's neat, for some reason it's making some of the fish phosflorscent (not spelled correctly). At night, there are these little glowing trails in the water as fish swim close to the surface. It some kind of natural phenomenom, too many microscopic organisms or something like that. Alas, it is poisonous. It's killing a lot of fish and birds. It's really starting to stink.

The other morning, Sharon got up for her usual trip to the facilities. It was early and still dark. There was a man in the water in the slip across from us. Turned out that one of the security guards fell in. Sharon couldn't get him out so quickly ran up to the security station for help. Bit of a mystery there, poor guy. I think he was in there for a while.

The hotel/marina is hosting what looks like a beauty pageant here this weekend. Could be interesting except that they make us move our cars whenever they have an event like this.

We hope to make one more post before we leave on Oct 24. Boy it's coming quickly,

Friday, October 14, 2011

October 14, 2011- Preparing for the BaJa HaHa

Its nice to be back in Ensenada. The weather has gotten a little colder. Normal daytime temp is around 20C, but we've been up to 25C. Nighttime cools off quickly. We hit the dewpoint right after sundown and things stay wet until sunrise again.

We're leaving in10 days! It is exciting and a little scary thinking about it.
It took us a while to get moving after we arrived. Somehow, our power was turned off long enough to have thawed everything in the freezer. It took us all day to clean it up. Then Neil got sick. We also discovered that water got into one of our food storage areas. That was a hell of mess (and stink) to clear up. The smell was so bad, we're not sure we'll ever get it out of our heads. Hopefully all the bleach and vinegar we used did the job well. We're learning a lot!

We've been busy, as usual. We have a few minor things to take care of before we leave. We've been getting updated Mexican papers. We're working with a nice lady and she says once we're done, we can drive our car in Mexico (we couldn't get it licenced in Canada anymore). We will also get free medical care. We need to make some minor adjustments to the dinghy setup. And we have a new loadhailer speaker to install. We need to install new wires for our steaming lights. We have a second anchor holder for the bow coming that needs to be installed. No skidding material has been installed, for the most part on the parts of the deck that didn't have it (the house). We'll probably finish it today.

Neil is learning a bit about scuba. We've got all the equipment and he's been trying it out in the pool. (Sharon has her license.)

We're not sure where we'll end up in La Paz. There are many marinas there and some beautiful anchorages. We're planning on using the time there to decide how we prefer to journey - via the marina/city life/car, etc way, or via the free and natural way, on the hook.

Everything is under control. We're almost ready for the big trip.

Monday, October 3, 2011

October 3, 2011- LA

Hi everyone,
This is just a quick note to let everyone know that we once again had trouble getting into the US.

When we left Ensenada we decided to go via Tecate instead of our usual border crossing near San Diego. There was a major construction accident at the border that crushed 50 or so cars and sent many people to the hospital. As a result, many of the gates were closed and we weren't sure we'd be able to get across in time for our flight.

Though the line up at Tecate was short, they held us there for 7 hours, with their nonsense again. I tell you, there are a bunch of idiots on power trips manning the US border. The officer handling us was so stupid, he thought our file stated that we are NOT ALLOWED TO LEAVE the US!?!?!? He also had his days all mixed up and thought we had crossed the border the day before. We left a day early and its a good thing or we would have missed our flight for sure.

Coming back was also a nightmare. We got to the airport 4 hours ahead of our flight, but Customs dragged their asses and made us miss our flight again. So, here we are in LA, the only flight we could get. We're leaving soon to catch a train to San Diego where our friend Bert is picking us up.

I don't think we're ever going to try getting into the US ever again. We leave for La Paz at the end of October, so we'll be able to catch our flights back home directly from Cabo San Lucas to Toronto. NO MORE US BORDERS!!!!!

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Sept 10 – 13, Ensenada to San Quintin

We just completed our first real voyage. We left Ensenada at 9 am on Sept 10 and returned to Marina Coral on Sept 13 at 5 am.

It was quite an adventure for us. We saw lots of whales and were fortunate enough to have the camera in hand when a blue whale came within 20 feet of our boat. We caught a giant squid and several sea gulls. We used our Auto Pilot (AWESOME) and cooked while underway. We spent 3 nights out at anchor and got a few surprises.

The first night we had calm seas all night and everything was great when we were moving. We used the GPS and radar and arrived at San Quintin at around 7:30 am. We dropped anchor to try to get some sleep, but we got a surprise when the anchor dragged cause the seas were calm no more so we left at first light.

The second night there was so much rocking and rolling, and clanging and banging around that we again left at first light.

The next night was quieter and we had a really good sleep. The forth night we were going to anchor out at Todos Santos, the island near our home marina. But there was a boat on fire there, so we decided to go the extra hour and a half and head for home.

We got a lot of it on video. Sorry there are so many clips, but they are pretty short.

We did enjoy the trip a lot, though. We also learned a lot. We have a few more, little things to take care of, but we’re almost ready for out trip to Cabos San Lucas. Actually, we will visit there, but we’re headed into the Sea of Cortez. La Pas.

Friday, September 9, 2011

Sept. 9, 2011 Marina Ensenada

Hi everyone. We’re a bit late with this update for a couple of reasons. As usual, we’ve been very busy. Right now, we’re preparing for our trip south, which means making sure all the equipment and systems are in working order.

We now have both water tanks up and filled as well as both fuel tanks. We’re ready to go across the ocean now (but don’t worry, we have no intention of doing so). We have over 250 gallons of fuel and 240 gallons of water.

Getting the house ready for sale has been consuming some energy as well. Not too bad, cause our agent Stephanie has been doing a great job. And it didn’t hurt that Edna and Dong, the downstairs tenants have been helpful, cleaning the house and mowing the lawn. I think it goes on the market today, but we won’t be taking offers until we get to Toronto.

We tried going up and down the mast ourselves and are sure we can do it now. See the video with Neil way, way up there.

There was a huge power outage here yesterday. We understand it took out most of Southern California as well. It was a good exercise for us, though. We were able to switch our batteries over to the house set and run off the inverter. We made sure the fridge/freezer worked and we watched some video off the PC, battery power. It wasn’t long enough for us to get used to living off the grid, but it did ensure us that everything is working properly.

Monday, August 29, 2011

August 29, 2011

Hello friends and family.

Well, we took a big step the other day. We signed up for the BA JA HA HA. We’re paid up so we’re committed. The plan is to leave from Ensenada, meet up with the other boats and go from there. We’re also planning on taking our Mexican captain so we will have some additional experience and safety onboard. There are parties and meetings in San Diego as well as a parade. We’re thinking about whether or not we should go to any of them. Our information package is being sent to Toronto so we can get it when we visit.

Which, incidently, will be on Sept 17. This time we’ll only be there for 2 weeks. Border crossings are getting easier. Our last two times, we were pulled over for additional screening, but no one wanted to see our papers, besides our passports. Perhaps our file is getting cleaned up. Anyway, we’re selling the house in Scarborough and we expect to be reviewing offers when we’re there. We’re selling it with optional furniture. Hopefully, the new owners will want it, so we won’t have to deal with it.

We’ve been technically challenged the last little while. The power supply unit on the dock for our boat suddenly stopped working. Luckily for us, there is no one in the slip next to us, so we’re plugged into their outlet. Our cable went out and just came on now. It was out for a week and because of that we’ve watched most of our dvds. They were supposed to be for when we are at anchor. We’re going to have to get some more, that’s for sure. Our Magic Jack isn’t working. Our subscription ran out and when we went to renew, we were automatically taken to the Mexico site. We thought we set it up properly, but the system wouldn’t take our credit card. The system isn’t very flexible and we’re waiting for someone to fix it for us. Its been over a week too.

Otherwise, we’ve been learning more about the boat. We’re figuring out the GPS unit. We found out it includes a chart plotter, which is excellent! We’ve also trying to figure out the radar and inverter.

We got our dinghy davits. They look beautiful. Now we have to get a pulley system and we’re rolling! We also got a new anchor installed. Our chain is out getting painted. We’re slowly getting her into tip top shape for our departure. The HA HA leaves on Oct 24. Not too long now. It’s a little scary, but very exciting.

Today we went inland a bit to visit Mexico’s wine country. When we left the marina it was 22.5 degrees. About ½ hour later, it was 43 degrees. Both of us felt, though, that we could handle this type of heat. It is dry and in the shade with a little breeze, it wasn’t too bad. If the Sea of Cortez is like this, it’ll be great.

Here are a few short videos of our day. We were at native Mexican lands and you’ll see some historic structures and some colourful clothing.

Bye for now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=met2krG4Z0U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G07SN0DA8K0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahopnt4UVT8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahopnt4UVT8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTImwD4jcCw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IXz8NpWP1U

An Ensenada song we got Neil Diamond to do
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0lg5cY4UQI

Saturday, August 20, 2011

August 20, 2011 - Ensenada

August 15, 2011

In keeping with our promise to update the blog more often, here’s the latest.

We were busy last week. We had visitors from San Diego. Our friend/broker Tom sailed his boat to Marina Coral along with a couple of friends, Ken and Ryan. It was different and fun having guests who had their own boat. They also had another boat arrive the next day along with 4 or 5 of their friends, who also happen to be friends with Fernando, one of our friends from E dock.

So we did a lot of sight seeing and socializing. Ryan bought a big halibut from the fish market and cooked it on the bar-b-que on paper. It is the first we’ve heard of cooking on paper on a b-b-q, but it worked out great. The following night we had dinner, brats, on their friend’s boat, Tara. We were lucky in that they put us all on the same dock.

Now that they are gone, we miss them. But Tom says he’s retiring next year and we hope to meet up with him somewhere in the Sea of Cortez. We think we’re going to meet up with a lot of people in the Sea of Cortez.

We’ve still got some work to do on the boat. We’re considering getting a generator/watermaker. Expensive, but what is the price of independence?

No new videos this week. Sharon did see some porpoises in the marina, just behind our boat. They were darker in colour and bigger than the dolphins. There were only two (or perhaps 3, counting a baby) and they were very quiet. We’d heard they were coming in after the anchovies. The water is teaming with those tiny, shiny little fish.

We say a poor injured (or something) pelican, in the slip across from us. Poor thing just kept swimming around in circles. Maybe he was blind. One of the security staff was going to call someone to help it. Not sure what happened but the next time we looked, it was gone.

One of the marina workers caught (is that the right word) a nice, big fat starfish the other day. It was just clinging to the piling. Everyone got involved in the operation, bring poles and nets and buckets. It took some doing and the help of half a dozen people, but he was able to extradite it from the piling in one piece to take home for his aquarium.

Piggy is getting less shy everyday. He loves to go outside on deck and he now goes out during the day. He sleeps in the cockpit most of the time. He still runs from everything, but some of our dock mates have seen him now.

We should be going to San Diego this Thursday to pick up a bunch of stuff on our shopping lists. It might be our second to last visit for supplies before we head south. We’ve starting stock-piling. We need to get a lot more cat food and litter. Not to mention Miracle Whip, bagels and everything else non-Mexican we can think of. Also need to get some boat parts.

Signing off for now.

Update – Aug 20

Once again we’ve taken too long to update the blog. So, here goes, assuming we have a good Internet connection.

We went to San Diego for the day on Wednesday, then went to the boat yard the next day. Cleaned the boat, got new dinghy davits installed and had neighbours over for dinner, so you see, we really are busy.

We’re re-evaluating our plans to go south. We might still decide to go with the Ba Ha Ha Ha and still take a captain along. It would be a slower trip, but with lots of learning and experience along the way, not to mention parties, etc.

A couple of photos for your enjoyment:

Cats in the cockpit.

One of our Canadian neighbours on Canada Day, can you see the flags? Even the dog had the Canadian flag on..

Gotta go and post this….

Monday, August 8, 2011

August 8, 2011

We’ve been remiss, not updating the blog often enough. So, we’re going to start trying to update it once a week.

We’ve been busy lately, getting a lot of work done. We had the sail cover re-sewn, and had some places on the mainsail re-enforced. They did a pretty good job, and cheap. We also bought a major windlass, for pulling up the anchor. We’ve got dinghy davits on order, which are for lifting the dinghy out of the water. We had the boat cleaned and polished. We’re getting there, getting ready to head south, that is.

We had Neil’s family for a visit and they stayed onboard. It was interesting having so many people in such tight quarters. Neatness becomes important, they’re so much more stuff on board. Well, we survived it.

They brought us our new video camera, so we’ve been playing with it. Also, in order to make updating the blog easier, we’re going to include more video and less words.

Here’s a video of our visit to the blowhole with Neil’s family. You’ll see Moe, Steven and Thomas.

And the fish market:

There’s a blue heron that’s been hanging around:

And an usual shot of the boat moving, from the dock.

Adios amigos.

In no specific order the videos are below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9a2sH_hjTkE&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1KTsrsGvl6Q&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1qkOmJicgQ&feature=youtube_gdata
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6aPJzKHmGc&feature=youtube_gdata

Here are some pics as well:

Bathroom signs at a restaurant in town

Concert at our hotel marina

Friday, July 29, 2011

little vortex voyage

Keeping everyone updated, we apologize as we are busy fixing up the boat. However, until we do a full blog enjoy some videos of us in our little vortex.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGuW8BmljN4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5UP_Q4iubjU

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Dolphins and Barracuda

Buenos Dias, Tardes and Noches
It’s been a while since our last update, so we need to do some catching up.

The weather here is very predictable. Everyday/every hour is between 18 and 22 degrees celcius. I hardly ever rains. It rained once a few weeks ago for a few minutes in the morning and we guess it rained last night or early this morning cause there was some evidence (not much). Our bike seats were wet and there were a few wet spots on the docks.

It is overcast (more foggy than cloudy) at the moment, just like every morning. It usually clears up by nine, but in June, the fog bank sticks around a bit longer and it sometimes doesn’t go away until one pm or so. They call it “June Gloom”. Next month, it will clear up and get a bit hotter.

We continue to make lots of friends here at the marina as well as through the cruiser’s net. We recently attended a party held by some cruisers who just moved into a house here in Ensenada. The house is awesome, its got 3 bedrooms, but the master has a sitting room bigger than our bedrooms back home. The backyard is all ceramic tiles, no mowing necessary. They rent it furnished (nicely to boot) for about $760/month. Not bad. It really is a lot cheaper to live here than in the US.

We’ve made a few Mexican friends, including our new sometimes-captain, Jesus.

Here is a video of our first outing. We’re still honing our video-taking skill, so sorry for the amateurishness of it. We’ve just ordered a new camera, which should be a lot better. We keep losing our videos on this one, it thinks it’s out of memory. Oh well, it was cheap.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpBbTVUtPdk

We went fishing for the first time yesterday. The fish weren’t biting much, but just before we returned to the marina, we caught one. A nice 5 pound, or so, barracuda. Here is a picture of the fish. We had it for dinner last night. Yummy.

While we were out, we saw dolphins. This time, we caught them on video. Sorry for the quality, but it really is impossible to see what the camera is recording at the time…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPhfXxa0Vvs

We’ve been working on the boat, getting little things fixed or tuned up. We blew one of our fenders, so will be looking for a replacement. Everyone here tells us we need a second anchor, so we’ll be looking for one of those too. Our friend Jesus is helping us learn the lay of the land, so to speak. He showed us where we can get second hand anything. He says it would be good to shop there for anchors and fenders and fishing lures. We’re planning on going there this afternoon with our friends from our dock.

Tomorrow we’re heading back into to San Diego to get some groceries and some books for us to read on weather, or the Baha and to get some planning guides and cruising books, etc. We’re also going to stock up on $2 wine. Jesus tells us we can trade a bottle for 4-5 lobsters farther south. He’s letting us know what is good for trading. So far we know to bring used clothing, filet knives, sharpening stones and any toys or candies for the bambinos.

Got to go now, so we can load the videos up and get this posted before we get busy again…

Adios Amigos.

Friday, June 10, 2011

The Latest From Ensenada

Today is Thursday. Normally, on Thursdays, we attend the so-called “yacht club” meeting. It is really just a collection of cruisers from our marina and the other one in town, “Cruise Port”. We meet at a restaurant that does not have a liquor license, so we bring our own, usually wine. It costs us 20 pesos each (around $1.70) for what we believe is to pay for the owner’s license for the night. Not sure about that, but who cares, its cheap. Most of us will order dinner there, so its all good for the owner, who just happens to be American. The food is decent, American food, except for the pizza. We’ve never seen pizza like that before. We think its just pizza toppings on a giant tostada. There is a little guy who always comes along while we’re eating selling DVDs. We usually buy a few from him. Only 20 pesos each. Again, cheap. Today, we’re going to skip the yacht club.

We returned to San Diego on Tuesday. Getting into the US was difficult again, probably because we drove (and the customs officer thought we were carrying over $10000, even though we told him “NO”). We got pulled over again. It was an hour and a half delay we could have done without, but we got through. Every customs officer tells us to make sure we carry all our papers with us. We have a big blue folder with all the papers they could possibly want in it. We purchased some new lines and some fishing equipment, as well as some groceries. The Mexican border is a joke and getting through is a breeze. You drive through it and when they point at you to pull over, you still keep driving.

We also purchased our Mexican fishing licenses. So, everyone, that means if you come to visit, you will need a fishing license if we go out, whether you want to fish or not. That is the rule here in Mexico. Everyone on the boat must have a license. A license isn’t expensive. Its around $5 for a day, $20 for a week, or $45 for a year.

The Baha 500 came and went. There was quite a lot of excitement around the whole thing. It was something to see with the trucks jumping off ramps and skidding in the dirt close to hitting viewers. We got some video for you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTYGE5AAHtc

There was also a mushroom festival in town a few days ago. That was fun too. It was similar to other type festivals where we purchased a set of tickets, which we traded for food and wine, etc. samples.

There is supposed to be a Paella festival coming up, but we heard its been sold out.

Yesterday, we lost Sharon’s bike. Early in the morning, we discovered a flat, but maybe, because of the flat, the bike was unstable and fell into the water. Or, maybe someone took it. We reported it to the marina office, who called security and they checked all around the marina as well as looked at the video from the cameras. They said they’d have their divers check around the boat in the morning, in case it did fall in.

Well guess what? It did fall in the water, the divers found it, and brought it back up for us. We were advised to hose it off right away, so Sharon got the hose going, and promptly made the bike fall back into the water. Yep, the flat tire did make it unstable. We got the divers to bring it up again (for a nice tip) and the bike is now at the shop, being repaired (the flat) and cleaned up.

Stay tuned for better quality video as we ordered a better camera with 45x zoom capability

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Hotel Coral and Marina

Today we did laundry (ho hum), but while we waited, we played pool in the hotel. It was fun, but Sharon kept swearing that the pool cue was bent!

We found out we could shower at the spa, so we tried that out this morning. Very nice, and they provide the towels. Its cool to not have to carry towels to shower, not to mention washing them. But Neil was surprised (naked!) by one of the cleaning ladies.

There is water, coffee and fresh juices available free, all day long. Lots of our neighbours get their morning fix at the marina office.

I must make a correction to a previous blog. Captain Marty wants to keep us honest and pointed out that boats heel, they don’t list and that we were probably only heeling over at about a 15 degree angle, not 60. Well, it sure felt like it!!

Today, here, they are calling for gale-force winds. We’ll have to tie down the bikes, just to make sure they don’t end up in the water.

We finished installing the netting. So far, its keeping Archie on board.

We made some more video, this time of the hotel, for your viewing pleasure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPbRHW77WuI

Inside Gym and pool at Hotel Coral

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Thats the fact of Ensenada

We got here on a Thursday and are starting to fall in love with Ensenada. First of all, the people are great here. Lots of people are very welcoming with open arms. At the marina people are offering lifts, conversations and smiles. We took a public transportation bus and people were very friendly helping us find our way to Walmart, Home Depot and Costco, all in the same area.We were at Costco and a man wanted us to buy a hot dog for him with his money. We got him a hot dog and drink with his 21 pesos (less than $2 US). The reason why he asked that was because you needed a Costco card to buy food and he didn’t have one. Later on we asked him where we could find a taxi and in return he offered us a ride to where we could find one. He also talked to the taxi driver on our behalf.

The marina has everything we could want. There are indoor and outdoor pools and jacuzzi’s with the use of hotel towels, a snack bar at the pool, a ping pong table, pool tables, a gym, a spa, a sauna, a steam room, tennis courts, a nice restaurant and an amazing view. We are starting to use our bikes here as the bathrooms are very far to walk when you gotta go. Staff are very friendly and helpful as well. They put all of us Canadians together on the same dock. Apparently mexico has lots of Canadian cruisers, an American we met said he came to Mexico to learn about Canadians. It has a nice bay area where you can sail to several islands. There are a few boaters we met that came here intending to stay for a day and ended up staying for more than a year. Here is a video of the great view from our boat.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4A2sWmj5ojU&feature=youtube_gdata

The downtown area has some great tourist stores and restaurants. We ate at a place called Pollo Felize (a good BBQ chicken place). Bought some great souvenirs (cheap leather purses and tshirts) and alcohol. We purchased absinthe from the Chek Republic, supposedly real strong stuff (140 proof) good for running a car as well as drinking it. If you don’t know about absinthe, it was banned in North America for a long time. In the movie “Moulin Rouge” they were drinking it. The price of this 1 litre bottle is $106 US. It comes with herbs inside the bottle that when dried can be smoked keeping you high for days. We also found a great 5% alcoholic cooler for 80 cents a bottle that you buy at the corner store, here the store is called OXXO. The fruit here is very cheap, a large cantaloupe was 60 cents each and looks and tastes good here.

As for projects on the boat, they are still happening. We just put up a net around the rim of the boat which should be great for keeping the cats on board (we hope it works). Putting in a water filter soon and other tasks to come, it never stops.

Things to Consider:

1) Why boat stores don’t use the phrase “ we sell boat shit not bull shit”

2) Why is tuna considered a fruit in Mexico and Jamaica is a flower

3) Why does a payphone charge you 6 pesos for making a call to a cell phone and 3 pesos if its to a land line (this also only gives you a minute to talk)

4) Why does Mexico have such a reputation for being corrupt when it’s the authorities (government) that are, not the citizens

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Our Trip to Ensenada

Well, we made it! We left San Diego around 11 pm on May 18^th and sailed all night, arriving here at around 11 am May 19^th.

It was a rough trip. Everything on the boat that was not tightly secured went flying. At times, the boat was listing over at a 60 degree angle. If you weren’t sitting on the low side of the boat, you were thrown out of your seat. This lasted the entire night long. It was, as the captain said, like being in a washing machine. Holy cow. And man was it noisy! It sounded like World War III down below.

Luckily we took some Bonine before we left, so we didn’t get seasick. Though, the second captain we brought along sure did. Poor guy was so sick, he spent most of the night curled up on the floor of our cabin in a fetal position. Unfortunately, he barfed all over the boat and made quite a mess!! Though he did his best to clean everything up the next morning after we arrived. We took turns steering and sleeping (though Neil slept MOST of the night), but Captain Marty spent the entire night awake and in the cockpit. Good thing for us, he got us here safely.

The cats survived, though Archie looked pathetic when he first came out after we stopped. Poor thing was moving very tentatively, and was shaking. Piggy was probably worse. But, all is good now and the cats are happy once again and roaming around, they especially like being in the cockpit where they can watch everything.

The day of our arrival was spent checking into the Marina and clearing customs. We finished everything around two pm, including getting a bite to eat. We were so tired, we just went straight to bed.

The next day, May 20, we spent cleaning things up. We had a lot to do, mostly washing everything and putting things away.

We got out both of our bikes and have been using them to get back and forth from the marina office and the showers/washrooms. They are quite far from the boat, so it saves a lot of time.

We still have lots to do. Today, we’re going to work on putting up the netting so we can let the cats roam around some more. We also have a water filter to install, which we may do today.

There is free shuttle service to and from town and we’re thinking of giving that a try, maybe tomorrow.

Its quite beautiful here. Once we settle down, we’ll get some video up.

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

An hour to launch

We are counting down the minutes until we start sailing to Mexico. It took a great deal of preparation to get here in the last few days. We had to get import/export papers, US customs to come to the boat and check out the hull number, lots of reshuffling of items to be stowed on the boat and many errands. We now have two captains who are taking us to Ensenada, Mexico. It's an exciting time anticipating the journey and we have heard that we are in for a bumpy ride. The captain is saying we are going to experience 6-9 foot swells and waves that are close together. And to top it all off, we're sailing all night, starting around 10pm and going for about 8 hours. If there is a time when we will get seasick this is it. Fortunately, we took Bonine so we should be ok. This is going to be a great test to see how we will fare in the world of cruising.

Good news as we now have our hats with the boats logo on it. Our next post will be from Ensenada.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Back in San Diego, Getting Ready for Mexico

Well, we arrived back in San Diego on May 11, well May 12 really, at around 2 am. We were supposed to get here on May 9, but we were held up by US Customs once again, this time at Pearson Airport. We were sent off to the side when we got to the airport for additional screening. The officer we spoke to asked us for return plane tickets. We tried to explain that we were heading to Mexico via our boat on May 16th, but he didn't care. We insisted that since we didn't have return plane tickets, we had to stay in Canada.
We spoke to an Air Canada agent who explained that it was normal, that they would be fined (Air Canada) for every passenger they deliver to another country who does not have a return ticket. She said that normally, it was not enforced in the US, but that they were allowed to send us back. She suggested we purchase fully refundable tickets and just cancel them later.
We didn't buy them on the spot, since there was no flight available anyway, so we went back to Neil's parents. We checked on-line and got the earliest tickets we could find back to San Diego, along with a couple of expensive tickets back to Canada.
When we returned to the airport, we were once again pulled over for additional screening. This time, however, we were let through. The nice officer we spoke to informed us that someone in Detroit (them again!) had flagged us and that we would be pulled over any time we attempted to enter the US. He also said he could see no reason why we should be flagged and that the only way to get the flag removed was through Homeland Security. We've already contacted them, but their e-mail to us stated that it would take a minimum of 30 days. We have some forms to fill out and we're going to follow up as soon as we get the chance.
We ended up on a flight with connections in Denver. Well, there was a big snow storm when we got there and everything was delayed while the planes were de-iced, etc. Here's a picture we took from the airport window:

We also found it curious that all the washroom are marked as "Tornado Shelters". Do you think that is new?

At the moment, we are preparing for our trip to Mexico. We're going to Ensenada for a month, mainly so that we don't have to pay California sales tax on our boat. We will be saving about 7 to 8 thousand dollars. Yeah, its worth it.
We'll be leaving on Wednesday at around midnight, and will be motor-sailing all night. That means we'll have our mainsail up, mostly for stability, but will be using the motor, because there isn't enough wind to get there fast enough. It takes about 8 hours and our captain wants to arrive first thing in the morning. Apparently, in Mexico, you want to arrive on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday early in the morning, while they are working. Otherwise, they will claim to be on their weekend or it'll be too late in the day for them to bother with us. Go figure.
Lots to do however. We have been in touch with Customs (again) as well as a broker to process the export of the boat to Mexico.
Today, we are working on installing our new depth finder, doing all our laundry (and there's lots extra because the cats were here alone for over 3 weeks, with no one cleaning up after them), defrosting the freezer, stowing gear, including our two bikes and making lists of everything we have to do. Things like loading up on meat for the freezer, getting extra drinking water, filling the fuel and water tanks, getting examinations and papers for the cats (we need papers no more than 72 hours old.) and so on and so on.
The other day, we found another blue heron walking on the dock. Here's a video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c92_Th2CMog

Next update will be from Mexico.

Friday, April 15, 2011

Home to Canada

We're leaving tomorrow for Toronto. We will be back on May 9, a few days before we head to Ensenada, Mexico.

There won't be any posts for a while.....

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Sailing with The Dolphins

Yesterday we sailed out into the ocean again. The waters were calmer than the first time and it was a pretty leisurely sail.

At one point, we noticed a lot of birds, mostly pelicans, hanging around one particular spot, flying around and diving a lot. The captain confirmed that it meant there was probably a school of fish below the surface there.

Neil noticed a dolphin! It was pretty close to the boat, just swimming along side. Then we saw another and another. There were probably at least 30 of them. They must have also been chasing that school of fish. We’ve heard of dolphins playing in the bow wave of boats before, but this was the first time we’d seen it ourselves. What fun to watch them coming close and riding along with us.

Sorry, we couldn’t find the video camera fast enough to get any shots, but we’re pretty sure there’ll be other opportunities.

Here are a few photos we’ve taken recently:

Our new name.

We just thought this was cute.

They have this neat wave thingie down by the beach.

Sharon calls this the "ugly shell house". Whatever would possess a person????

Neil doing the engine check.

Sealions hanging around on a buoy.

Friday, April 1, 2011

Everywhere a Cat, Cat

We continue to work on the boat and go sailing with the Captain. Yesterday we purchased new carpet for the boat. Today, we’ll probably install it. We’re learning a lot about where to buy things and how to do them. We saved lots of money when we bought our own wall-to-wall carpet from Home Depot. We had them cut it (they don’t normally do that) into 3 smaller pieces for us to fit almost perfectly into the salon. We’ll have to do a bit of trimming, but not too much. All that for less than $100. We had to cut the carpet to allow for the floors to be opened, for example, to get into the engine room, or to pump out the bilge.

The cats have been getting braver. Piggy is still a big chicken, but he likes to sit in the cockpit now. Archie, on the otherhand, is up to no good all the time. He jumped through the galley hatch the other night and we found him on the dock in the early morning. We didn’t even know he was gone. He was making friends with our neighbours’ cats. Orlando and Vivian, also becoming friends of ours, have 3 cats. And their cats have been paying our cats visits during the night.

The night Archie got out, he jumped through the galley hatch by jumping onto the counter/shelf and out from there. So that night we closed the galley hatch and opened the one over the dinette. There was no high spot there from which he could jump out. However, during the night we heard some strange sounds. There was a loud bang – it sounded like a hatch falling shut. Sharon got up and lo and behold, one of Orlando’s cats was in our boat. Poor thing was scared to death (and stupid too!). Sharon picked him up and put him out through the cockpit. He apparently jumped in through the dinette hatch. All that banging around must have been him trying to find his way out. He probably tried to jump back out through the hatch and knocked it shut. He also tried to exit via the companionway doors, but they were locked. Poor thing.

We’ve been thinking about how to handle the cats. We’ve gotten collars for them so that, should they get off the boat somehow, people can find their home (phone number, name of the boat, etc.). They have bells on so we can track them easier. We’ve also ordered some netting. You can buy this netting at a marine store for $400 or more, or do like we did and buy it on-line from a sports netting place. Only cost us about $75. It should be here any day now. Trouble with the netting is that it won’t work if the cats decide they can jump over it. But if they do, we’ll figure out something else. We’re able to keep them in the cockpit by closing it all up. If we have to, we’ll get some of the plastic sides replaced with screens, for the summer. Talk about summer, it hit 29 celcius here yesterday.

Our new name is half-installed now. The transom (back) and most of the work on the starboard side is done. Pretty soon, we’ll be christening her and performing the mandatory renaming rituals.

We have to have her new name and numbers installed before we go to Mexico. Since we’re going to Toronto in a few weeks, for a few weeks, we don’t have all that much time. We have to arrange with a broker to have the boat exported to Mexico. Even though we’re not going very far away, it IS Mexico. We’re trying to decide if we should come back to get the car or leave it here for the month or so we’ll be gone. And, of course, if we take it with us, we’ll have to do everything backwards again to get the car back here.

We went sailing yesterday. It was a gorgeous day. We got to witness homeland security chasing down a rogue boater. The police had their guns out cause the boat refused to slow down. Eventually, though, the boaters stopped. It was just two young guys with no shirts on probably just doing what they do at that age. Dumb!

We’re going to take today off and go sight seeing.