Thursday, November 12, 2009
San Diego to La Paz Mexico
So we head out from San Diego Harbour at 4:00 pm on Nov 1, so that we can get out of all the traffic before it gets dark - this takes about an hour. The plan is to travel over night and be at Ensenada, Mexico bright and early in the morning so we can get a jump on clearing customs and then continue on our way south. Well we should have done our own planning (we let "Captain Phil" do it) as the jaunt from S.D. to Ensenada is only 8 hrs at our normal 8 knot speed, so in order not to be to Ensenada in the dark (not wise to enter Mexican ports in the dark - charting is not really good) we had to travel at 5 knots, most people can walk faster than that. Happily, the water is flat, the winds are calm and we have the light of a beautiful full moon. We try out "our" idea of shifts, Cindy 7:00pm to 9:00pm (so Glen can have a nap), Glen 9:00pm to 12:00 midnight, Cap Phil midnight to 3:00am, Cindy 3:00am to 6:00am (or when ever Glen came up). And because everybody has so much rest, Glen basically runs the boat for the rest of the day with Phil taking a turn for a short time. I love my shift time as I got to have both the beauty and serenity of the moon lit waters, with the boat softly swishing through the night and the glory of the dawning days. We seriously couldn't have asked for better traveling conditions for our whole 6/24 days of travel. We have been blessed and completly spoiled.
Clearing customs in Ensenada was quickly done, we hired the marina agent to take us down to the clearance office and within 1 hour we were back at the boat fueling for the rest of the journey. All of the books we have been reading suggest that the customs process will take one to two days, I think the agent idea sped things up. So off we go. Why are we traveling night and day and not stopping along the way??? Well a couple of reasons, we have a good weather window to get to the Sea of Cortez right now, there are really only a couple of places to stop on the outside on the way down and we also don't want to have a Captain hired to spend time holiday-ing (so we have to get to an airport asap to send him home). Glen did throw the brand new fishing rod out (not literally) several afternoons and finally we caught a dorado fish. After fishing salmon, there is not much sport in this type of fishing. Basically you drag it in and clunk it on the head. Done deal. Well - not so for our first time, seems the fish didn't want to be dead so once clunked and stunned, when we brought him into the boat, he decided to come back to life and trash around, causing great commotion. Captain Phil finally jumped on him to restrain it while Glen finished him off. (the fish). Again the lovely water conditions played in our favor as we set the fish cleanning table up on the back swim grid and I processed the fish. Dorado makes lovely sashimi and is fantastic on the BBQ. I guess we will be able to survive. We arrived in La Paz, Costa Baja Marina on Nov 6 about noon. La Paz is a nice city, more quiet than Cabo area. We have found the grocery store, which is like any back home (stupid books!!! - I have so much stockpiled food on board). There sure aren't many tourists here (yet?). Suprisingly, not even people on their boats, even in the downtown marinas. We tested our dive gear by going under the boat to clear the sea weed collected in the stabalizer arms, makes for lots of noise as you are traveling. So our diving skills are refreshed for when we head out to Isla Espiritu. We will be diving on some of the reefs and having some fun. Glen has flown back to Calgary today for a funeral (his nefew), he'll be back here on Sat. So I will keep a low profile, keep the boat shinny and swim at the lovely beach that we have access to. We have discovered that our attempts at Spanish - suck. Unless you pronounce the word exactly correct, the people look at you like you have four heads, so Glen has decided that he will just use sign language. Seems to work best. So for now - Adios!
Clearing customs in Ensenada was quickly done, we hired the marina agent to take us down to the clearance office and within 1 hour we were back at the boat fueling for the rest of the journey. All of the books we have been reading suggest that the customs process will take one to two days, I think the agent idea sped things up. So off we go. Why are we traveling night and day and not stopping along the way??? Well a couple of reasons, we have a good weather window to get to the Sea of Cortez right now, there are really only a couple of places to stop on the outside on the way down and we also don't want to have a Captain hired to spend time holiday-ing (so we have to get to an airport asap to send him home). Glen did throw the brand new fishing rod out (not literally) several afternoons and finally we caught a dorado fish. After fishing salmon, there is not much sport in this type of fishing. Basically you drag it in and clunk it on the head. Done deal. Well - not so for our first time, seems the fish didn't want to be dead so once clunked and stunned, when we brought him into the boat, he decided to come back to life and trash around, causing great commotion. Captain Phil finally jumped on him to restrain it while Glen finished him off. (the fish). Again the lovely water conditions played in our favor as we set the fish cleanning table up on the back swim grid and I processed the fish. Dorado makes lovely sashimi and is fantastic on the BBQ. I guess we will be able to survive. We arrived in La Paz, Costa Baja Marina on Nov 6 about noon. La Paz is a nice city, more quiet than Cabo area. We have found the grocery store, which is like any back home (stupid books!!! - I have so much stockpiled food on board). There sure aren't many tourists here (yet?). Suprisingly, not even people on their boats, even in the downtown marinas. We tested our dive gear by going under the boat to clear the sea weed collected in the stabalizer arms, makes for lots of noise as you are traveling. So our diving skills are refreshed for when we head out to Isla Espiritu. We will be diving on some of the reefs and having some fun. Glen has flown back to Calgary today for a funeral (his nefew), he'll be back here on Sat. So I will keep a low profile, keep the boat shinny and swim at the lovely beach that we have access to. We have discovered that our attempts at Spanish - suck. Unless you pronounce the word exactly correct, the people look at you like you have four heads, so Glen has decided that he will just use sign language. Seems to work best. So for now - Adios!
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Oct 31, 2009 - Halloween. Trick or Treat.
We've been sitting at Pier 32 in San Diego since Oct 23, the boat has been here since Sept 13. We came early to attend a Nordhavn Rendezvous, which we did by car on Oct 24. We attended a seminar on cruising Mexico and met a fellow Nordhavn'r, owner of the new 75" sports fisher. We spent a sunny afternoon viewing his lovely boat and getting to know each other. The captain that we are using to go to Mexico, Phil Newton, is also taking this 75" down to Puerto Vallarta starting Oct 25, he will be back in time to motor south with us on Nov 1. We had some friends (racing buddies) from Laguna Hills join us for dinner on the boat one evening, so we re-hashed every race we'd ever attended with them and it left Glen wondering if slow boating was where he wanted to be. Kidding, he is committed (at least for now). So other than those two events, it has become a little boring just hanging out. The weather hasn't been really great, only about 18 degrees and a stiff breeze, but I guess that it is better than wearing a parka. Right? Tomorrow we head out on the first leg to Mexico. We'll leave at 3:00pm and travel over night to Ensenada, Mexico, where we will clear customs and such then head straight out on our way south to La Paz as our first real stop off. We will have to catch up on our sleep and send Phil off to catch his plane then we will be on our own for the next couple of weeks exploring places in the Sea of Cortez.
We've been sitting at Pier 32 in San Diego since Oct 23, the boat has been here since Sept 13. We came early to attend a Nordhavn Rendezvous, which we did by car on Oct 24. We attended a seminar on cruising Mexico and met a fellow Nordhavn'r, owner of the new 75" sports fisher. We spent a sunny afternoon viewing his lovely boat and getting to know each other. The captain that we are using to go to Mexico, Phil Newton, is also taking this 75" down to Puerto Vallarta starting Oct 25, he will be back in time to motor south with us on Nov 1. We had some friends (racing buddies) from Laguna Hills join us for dinner on the boat one evening, so we re-hashed every race we'd ever attended with them and it left Glen wondering if slow boating was where he wanted to be. Kidding, he is committed (at least for now). So other than those two events, it has become a little boring just hanging out. The weather hasn't been really great, only about 18 degrees and a stiff breeze, but I guess that it is better than wearing a parka. Right? Tomorrow we head out on the first leg to Mexico. We'll leave at 3:00pm and travel over night to Ensenada, Mexico, where we will clear customs and such then head straight out on our way south to La Paz as our first real stop off. We will have to catch up on our sleep and send Phil off to catch his plane then we will be on our own for the next couple of weeks exploring places in the Sea of Cortez.
Monday, October 5, 2009
Introduction
This is the first entry to the Mystery Ship Adventures. Mystery Ship is the name of our 64 ft Nordhavn, passagemaker style boat. Glen is the Captain and that would make me, Cindy, the first mate. We have been boating on the west coast of Canada for the past 25 years and have decided to expand our explorations. Our new journey began Sept 7, 2009 when we started out from Sidney, B.C. and headed south for San Diego, Ca. There were four of us on board, Captain Phil Newton, friend Gary Mason, Glen and myself. We ran 24 hour days and arrived in San Diego about noon on Sept 13/09. Other than two and a half days of running in the fog, the trip was uneventful - exactly how we would have wanted it. The ocean had a gentle 1 meter swell, the winds were moderate and the boat ran well. We all caught on to the night shifts - thank God for alarm clocks. The boat is resting at Pier 32 Marina while we are at home for a bit. On Oct 23/09 we arrive by air back in San Diego and begin preparations to head into Mexico on Nov 1. We decided last winter that we had had enough of snow and cold and we wanted to try living in a warm climate for a change. This blog will be a compilation of our experiences in order to keep in touch with our friends and family. I hope that I will be able to pass on to all of you why we find boating so exciting.
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