Sunday, February 22, 2009

San Diego February 2009




After we came back to San Diego from Ensenada, we spent a great deal of time in the San Diego area. (nearly 2 months) We had a wonderful time and made many new friends. We stayed for a couple days at the Marriott Marina and at the adjacent Roy's Restaurant and Bar we met some wonderful women, Mary Jo, Carly, Lisa and Katie!!! We had a great time with them, visited Mary Jo's wine bar a couple of times, and were assisted with travel all over San Diego. We wanted to take them out on the boat, but we never got our schedules lined up. So, if you are ever in San Diego and want great wine and food, stop in at her wine bar, Enoteca Style!

We anchored out quite a bit, in A-9 "Cruisers" area near the airport and Sea Port Village. It was a simple dinghy ride to get to Little Italy, Gas Lamp and downtown. When we anchored in A-5, Glorietta Bay, we would take the dinghy to the Coronado Yacht Club and then tour all over Coronado Island. We even squeezed in a tour of the historic Hotel Del Coronado. We knew the weather was going to turn nasty, so we found a slip at the Harbor Island West Marina. Sure enough the rain and wind kicked up and hit 25-30 knots with gusts to 35 and 40. We felt safe and warm in our slip at Harbor Island.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Ensenada to San Diego Jan. 23 to 26, 2009


We left Ensenada at about 8am on the 23rd and again were treated to wonderful seas and weather. It was a quick and uneventful ride back into the US. No fish were caught and no whales were seen and only a few dolphins were sighted. We made great time and arrived in San Diego at the Municipal Docks around 3:30pm. We checked in with Customs and were good for the night. We stayed four days on the municipal docks just enjoying the weather and walking and biking around Shelter Island.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Baja Naval Marina, Ensenada Mexico Jan. 20 to Jan. 23, 2009




Baja Naval is right in downtown Ensenada and that made it great fun for us. On the 20th, we checked in with the Port Captain, Customs and another agency and 4 hours and $100 dollars or so later we were cleared. Trudy and Del had check in and were headed to Turtle Bay the next day, but we decided to not go further, as I needed to keep in contact as part of my job search. So we stayed in Ensenada and we walked all over the town and went into and took pictures of all the tourist stops. Hussong’s Cantina, Papas and Beer and various other tourist places. We met a number of locals and spent time walking and just getting to know Ensenada. One day we rented motor scooters and went north of Ensenada to check out Hotel Corral Marina. It was very nice as it is part of the hotel and a resort, but it is not walking distance to town. We continued our scooter ride south down towards the “Blow Hole” in the southern part of Ensenada, about 25 miles. The weather got a little nasty and started raining and getting a little too cool to be on a scooter, so we turned around after about 20 miles. South of town are ranches and farms and a great deal of open space. People had warned us about the trouble in Tijuana and possibly Ensenada, but we never met anyone unfriendly or felt threatened any time. The people we met were all friendly, helpful and most spoke English as we practiced our Spanish.

Sunday, February 1, 2009

San Diego to Ensenada Mexico Jan. 19th 2009


Well it is time to catch up on what we have been doing. We met up with Del and Trudy and their friends and we left San Diego at 6:30 am on Jan 19th bound for Ensenada. We followed Island Grace their 47’ Nordhavn, down the coast and into Mexico. We had bought a couple of 7 day Mexican fishing licenses before we left. Along the way at about 1:30pm, I caught a nice 30 inch, 10 pound tuna. That was a kick, trying to get it on board, killing it and cleaning it on the front deck where we have a wash down. Trudy had told us a cleaner way to kill the tuna instead of a club, was to pour cheap alcohol over its gills. All we had was some cheap Sour Apple Schnapps. So all over the tuna it went! It worked, the fish died quickly and possibly peacefully? The strange part was having a fish that smelled like sour apple schnapps while you clean it, not a bad thing either. We shared some tuna with Del and Trudy and then yummy sashimi for us on our first night in Mexico. The entire way, the seas were great, calm 5 feet and 12 second swells, a warm 70 degrees, lots of dolphins, and we arrived in Ensenada at about 4:30pm. The coast line of Mexico looks much like Southern California, Tijuana is huge and Rosarito Beach is very developed. In Ensenada, which is where the cruise ships come in, we stayed at Baja Naval Marina, which has an impressive boat yard, decent marina and a great deal of ocean surge.