This one is long but I tried to put a lot of pictures, it is from the 3 day sail from Ensenada to Turtle Bay (which is where we are now). I also put more pictures on the last blog from what we saw and where we stayed in Ensenada.

1/25/15

We went to check the weather in the morning and it looked good so we left around 1130am. 

Sailing has been uneventful mostly. We saw quite a few dolphins but nothing else. I put Oliver to sleep around 8 and woke up at 1045pm to take over watch. We use a red light at night to see since it doesn't affect your night vision but it is also kind of creepy. 

The light pollution coming from the US is shocking. I know that has to be what it is since I have seen it from Catalina Island and I do not see any of it from Mexico, well bits and pieces here and there but nothing like from the US, it almost looks like the sun is going to rise but it is midnight. I am a little more afraid tonight. I guess because we are a lot further from the shore and can't see any lights where there were a lot more lights on shore going from San Diego to Ensenada. 

The picture below is what we look at while we sail at night. The green screen is the radar that tells us if anything is within a 2 mile radius, it also will alarm in case we miss it. The computer has the little red boat and line which shows us where to stay so we adjust the autopilot accordingly to stay on course. We also check to make sure the engine isn't overheating if it's on. I usually do all of those things every 15 minutes depending on the conditions, the time goes by surprisingly fast. 

It blows my mind to think of doing this without any instruments. There are many times I just have to remind myself to trust the instruments because it gets really, really dark and you can't see much ahead. I guess it's the same kind of thing as flying at night. My biggest fear and Paul's too is hitting a container that has fallen off of a container ship, like in the movie All is Lost. If you haven't seen it a guy hits one while he is sailing (I guess those containers fall off of those big container ships in storms, who knows if they float or sink) and has to abandon his boat and almost dies…yes we watched that movie and still left:)

1/26/15

I was on watch for 5 hours last night while Paul got some sleep. Then I woke up at 8am to Paul turning the engine off and all of the dishes drying on the counter flying onto the floor because the boat heeled and Paul had forgot to secure everything. Among the dishes was a knife…can you imagine Oliver or even Paul or I getting stabbed by a knife flying across the boat. Ahh, I was not happy and I don't think either one of us will make that mistake again. After that I thought that it was good we were getting some wind since we had been motoring for some 20 hours and when we sail it is (usually) so peaceful. Well it was a lot of wind and it brought big waves. We have been bobbing up and down for the last 3 hours and we only had the wind for 2 hours. So now we are jumping up and down and the engine is on. Double bummer.

The boys are taking a nap. The sun has finally appeared and the seas have calmed down. I just wish we could have some wind. Paul said the wind this morning was up around 26 knots which is a lot. I could hear it but was busy keeping Oliver busy and trying not to think about how uncomfortable it was. Now it is 4 knots. It was nice to have the engine off if only for a few hours, I hope the wind picks up and we can sail more today. I don't mind the engine so much at night since I hate to have to fuss with the lines at night but during the day it sucks. It is hard to believe we have 2 more days of this. I guess it is going by ok but I miss running to Target to buy crap I don't need haha.

We did get more wind and only had to have the engine on for a lit bit today. I think we sailed at least half of it. I made some supper and we just hung out listening to music and playing until bed. It turned out to be a great day minus this rough morning.

1/27/15

I am at watch now it is midnight. Paul's 32 birthday is today. I think he is so happy to be spending it out on the water, I am happy for him. I brought some stuff to make a cake but we may wait until Turtle Bay. I have a quiche we will have for breakfast. The night has been easy. We had to turn the engine on at the beginning of my watch the wind was gone and we were barely moving. I am ok with that. Paul says the engine noise drives him crazy but to me it just becomes white noise. I do like the quiet of sailing more though. 

The ocean is like a glassy lake right now, reminds me of good water skiing conditions. When I woke up the moon was so big, I could only see half of it but it looked like a planet all red and orange. It 'set' only an hour or so after my watch started, I was sad to see it go, it was so bright and beautiful. I tried to get a pic of the moon before it went down but the picture, as usual, doesn't do it justice. The stars are again amazing. It is hard to find the big dipper there are so many.

Yikes it's 4am and I hear the radar going off and sure enough something is on there. I quickly look to where it says the thing is and there is a boat. Yikes, that freaked me out, I did not see that coming. Crazy to think there are other people out here, they were going the opposite way though and about a mile away so we just watched them pass.

Man it is 330pm and still not much wind. It gets old having the engine run all the time, I thought we would for sure get another break this afternoon. We still could I suppose. I want to make Paul a bday cake or some brownies but he said he didn't feel like it. We did just see our first whales. I have to admit I don't look too much since I usually read on watch or am playing with Oliver. They were pretty far away so no telling exactly which kinds but we were told we would see grey whales so probably safe to assume. There were at least 3 that we saw blow at one time. It is crazy, kind of looks like puffs of smoke, especially as they get further away. One breeched too, not crazy high but definitely saw the body come up and just above the surface with a splash back down. As much as I would love to get close they could do serious damage to our boat so better they be far away. We also saw 2 more ships today, container ships just where we saw the other last night, it must be a shipping route.

Finally got some wind around 430pm, we are going fast now (that means 6-7 knots which is basically mph). I think Paul said the wind is 10-15 knots and the ride is no too bad however I feel sea sick. After all this time on the water with none I feel it now. Weird. If we can keep this wind we will get there in the late morning! If we lose the wind it could take us another 12 hours and that would mean getting there after dark which means we would have to tool around waiting for the sun to come up which would suck big time. Lets hope we keep the wind tonight. 

1/28/15

The wind kept up all night, it stayed between 11-15 knots, until we got to Turtle Bay around 11am. I am so happy we got here. Almost 72 hours exactly it took us. Paul stayed up most of the night since the wind was blowing so hard and Oliver wanted me to sleep with him, it was a lot rougher than usual otherwise he usually sleeps great on the boat. I did give Paul a few 1-2 hour naps throughout the night but it was not enough I know he is tired. We plan on anchoring and then he can nap and Oliver will too then we will go to town and try to find some laundry and showers…showers for sure. We've been seeing tons of whales too, I think our count is 11 right now.

You can barely see the back of the whale but it's there. They can go under for like 15 minutes so it's hard to get a picture and we are rocking around constantly

This place is very small and rustic. As you can see from the pictures it is not a touristy place. The few 'restaurants' I have seen are peoples homes who have converted part of it which is very cool. I saw two markets but they are more like scarcely stocked convenience stores and none of it is on any sort of main street we just found it by walking around. It is funny that they are at least 100 miles from any other town but there is wifi all over the place that you can pay to use. It's also much cleaner than Ensenada which is nice, at least from there not being trash in the water and the water is clear. 

We are just pumped. We got to have some beers with some other cruisers (about 8 of them) at this little hole in the wall 'bar' that was right on the water overlooking the boats or we never would've found them. It was nice to talk to everyone about where they are headed and what their experience is. Then we paid $12 to shower at a motel, it felt amazing, it was a week today not touching water. I have never gone so long not even jumping in the ocean or anything, we were disgusting. 

Sunrise while on watch...not too bad

Strip of houses

Main dock

More houses,we get beers at the house on the far right

1/29/15

Rained all day. Stuck on the boat. We just played games and read a lot. The kindle broke, I am so bummed, will have to figure out a way to get a new one. We sat up after Oliver went to bed and looked over where else we want to go along the coast, we think we will leave for Punta Pequena, which has one of the longest rights called Scorpion Bay (for surfing) in the world if I am correct, tomorrow or possibly the next day. We both brought our surf boards so it would be fun to get those in the water. We must get off the boat tomorrow rain or shine!

1/30/15
So far we walked to their biggest supermarket, which is like a nice gas station store. We got eggs, milk, fresh tortillas and the like. We walked and it was super muddy from the rain yesterday, Oliver slipped it was funny. I took some pictures of their muddy streets, it is so strange to not have anything paved, but I forgot the camera.  I have been teasing Paul thanking him for this luxurious vacation. Will try to put them up later.

Just one of the many muddy streets

I am now calling Paul, Yusuf (after Cat Stevens)

1/31/5

We leave today. Hopefully will get wind and swell so we can surf. Will check in later. I hope you all are well!!

1/25/15
We will leave for Turtle Bay in a few hours. We decided to wait an extra day since the forecast was calling for good wind but 3 meter seas which wouldn't have killed us but made for a semi-miserable sail. Everything is going good, we have just been walking around and killing time, we are ready to get out of here. We just need to stop at the market and pick up some fresh produce and we are on our way. Should take us 3 days to get there so don't expect anything until at least that long. I put some pictures up on the last blog.

Main street Ensenada, tourist stuff

More shops

Pharmacy...who needs a prescription!

Market

More market, big head

3 big heads. Important people. I want one.

Juanito's Place, where we kept our boat

Juanito's Dock, they do mostly fishing and tours

The boardwalk outside the marina

More boardwalk

Juanito's hang out

Walking the dock

Mousepad at the dock

Our friend from BC, Michele

Fire boats practicing I think, Oliver loved it

1/22/15

I just tried to write as the day went on...

My first watch. We left san diego around 1030pm, I helped Paul get out of the shallower part of the harbor and then he took over so I could sleep. It was rough at first, the boat was rolling all over the place and I could hear Paul putting the sails up, which is great but doesn't make for a quiet sleep. Oliver was tossing around a lot too. By the time I felt like I really got to sleep Paul was waking me up. It was past my turn, being 3am. I was on watch for maybe an hour when I woke Paul up to check the radar and since the wind was up to 18 knots we reefed the mail sail (made it smaller). We didn't really have to but we were being overly cautious and it was good practice. Paul somehow got the lines tangled or something and had to go mess with it, which is fine, he was tethered in and it wasn't very rough, but it makes me nervous at night. The stars out here are amazing. There is still quite a bit of light pollution coming off of the mexican coast but nothing like LA. It is very peaceful. I have a lot of good books to read so I started in on one of those. 

We almost didn't leave Paul was kind of pushing to wait another day but we had nothing to do and he had already put the dinghy on the boat and strapped it down. I think he was getting cold feet. He said he was tired and I was like well we are going to be tired having to stay up whether it be tonight or tomorrow so lets go. You are the one who has been pushing me to sail to Mexico for so long so lets go already! The only way we are going to get more confident is by doing and 12 hours to Ensenada doesn't scare me very much. None of this really does. I mean I have my moments of fear, mostly irrational (like falling off the side but being tethered and getting caught in the propeller…nightmare stuff, your welcome ;)) but I think that is good, will keep me cautious. I hope we meet some friends tomorrow in Ensenada who have a kid so Oliver can play. We are definitely going to need naps. This would be a million times easier without a child but I know we won't regret it. We will put the jib up too since the wind is so good and try to kill the engine...so much better to sail if we can.

We had some wind and had the sails up but it didn't last so then we had to take them down. Paul didn't sleep very much but he is catching a nap now. I took one this morning when he said he wasn't tired I sure was. Oliver woke up around 0630, the sun was coming up, it was our first Mexican sunrise. I wish we could sail more the engine's so loud. We will get to Ensenada around 2pm I think then we gotta run around while we have daylight and get to immigration and what not, I am hoping it is easy. Paul thinks he saw a whale blow but I didn't see any. I guess there are grey whales along the coast, heading south. 

Otherwise uneventful. Oliver and I are reading books and playing with some flashcards. The land is pretty boring, I mean no cities, mostly mountains. Oliver is being good but he did just ask to get off the boat to run around. It's beautiful weather must be in the seventies and sunny. We couldn't count on just sailing this lag because we had to get there during the day for safety and to get to all the check in places we have to go to. The next lag which will be 3 days at sea we will sail a lot more since we wont know when we will get in. We still will never enter a port we haven't been to if it's dark.

We caught our first fish! A mexican stripped bonito we are pretty sure. I saw something on the line while paul was in the berth reading to Oliver but Paul said oh it is probably sea weed so I was like ok whatever it looked weird to me but what do I know…ha! So like a half hour or hour later I was like check that line and he was like holy crap there is a fish on there. So we pulled it in and looked at our fish book to identify it. It was still alive but all the fight was out of it. We sprayed vodka in the gills and it died fast. I still hate that, makes me sad to see anything suffer. Oliver watched Paul clean it. It made a mess, blood spatters. I was like if that was a bigger fish it would look like a crime scene in here. He got some meat off of it. I would say it was 18 inches and a few pounds. After that excitement we were almost to Ensenada I took a picture of the Mexican flag that you can see flying way out. It has a little port and looks like most harbors for now, we aren't too close yet. Oliver went down for a nap…here we go.

We found the dock no problem and met a guy who helped us with the lines. There is a Carnival cruise ship here and we met a guy from BC Canada who got in a terrible storm on the way down and is slowly fixing his boat here. He plans to head south in a month. We went to pay for our slip for the day and try to go to immigration but they told us to wait until tomorrow because if we go today they will charge you more since it's past 230pm….weird they can do that but whatever. So we walked to the main street and poached some internet quick and let Oliver run around. Before we headed back to the boat for the night we stopped to get a drink and a little pizza, how lame of us I know. I had the best margarita I have ever had in my life! The guy fresh squeezed everything that was in it. It even had some orange and mango, it was nothing like I had ever had before. Then Paul made us fish tacos from our catch that were delicious and that was about it.

1/23/15

First thing I hear today from the vberth (the boys got out of bed before me) is Paul going to the bathroom and Oliver telling him to stop singing. Paul was letting off some gas in the bathroom, he was definitely not singing. I started laughing so hard. I mean it's a small boat if you don't have music or the engine on you can hear everything. That still makes me laugh. 

So we woke up and knew we had to go check in with immigration and register the boat and all that so we left to do that first. On the way there this Mexican guy asked us about Oliver and we got to talking, he spoke pretty good english, and then when he learned we were going to immigration he offered to take us…either he didn't think we knew where it was or was just trying to make a buck so we followed him and on the way there (he had a dog) this other dog came out like going to bite his dog and he just karate kicked the thing and it went running back inside. It was hilarious. I couldn't believe it. I was about to pick Oliver up and run the other way. So then we got there and he helped us translate and get through all we needed to do. It took a few hours and a trip back to the boat but we did it. After a nap we headed to the main street and walked around. We bought a Mexican flag to hang on the boat as a sign of respect. We also checked the weather because we heard there was going to be a lot of wind and big swell over the next few days and we were planning on leaving tomorrow for a 3 days sail. It doesn't look as bad as we had heard but we will check again tomorrow morning and make sure. So that leads to right now we are sitting in a starbucks…wow. Will write tomorrow…and try to post pictures:)

Our Bonito fish

The most gigantic Mexican flag (bigger than the ones at Perkins restaurant if you remember)

The marina from the water

This sign makes it look like it's a lot nicer than it is

Paul sleeping on the floor after his watch lol

My first sunrise on watch, I am sure there are many more ahead

1/20/15
We left the Marina in San Pedro around 230pm on the 18th. A few of our friends motored out (on their sailboat) with us to Angels Gate which is the lighthouse that is the entrance/exit to the harbor we have been in for the last 2.5 years. I cried. It was really sad to say goodbye to everyone and especially my good friend Nicole who was there to see us off. There was some wind so we were able to put up the sails right away and our friends took some good pictures of us.

                       

      

From left to right-Henry, Nicole, Lawrence (his boat) and Jason

Final wave goodbye

We were going around 6 knots for awhile then the wind slowly started dying as the sun went down. We ended up turning on the engine. I made some rice with chicken and vegetables for supper. The Coast Guard snuck up on us while I was cooking. They asked Paul for all his info and questioned him a bunch before they left. They said it was strange to be out on a Sunday night and then told Paul Mexico was dangerous, we were like ok thanks we have never heard that before.

Oliver and I all bundled up night sailing

I went to bed with Oliver since I thought Paul and I were going to take turns on watch but every time I woke up Paul said he wanted to stay up. I think he was all pumped up but also kind of thought he wouldn't sleep anyways because he thought I would crash the boat or something. I woke up a lot anyways, just checking on Paul and smelling diesel (super healthy I am sure). Oliver slept great. Paul seemed to do fine and was all happy and jacked up when Oliver and I officially got up in the morning around 630am. We were just hanging out around the entrance of the harbor waiting since it was so foggy we could only see maybe 100 feet in front of us. We had the radar so we were able to know what was around us but it sucked to have to sit there and wait. It was kind of errie just thinking about another boat coming out of the blue and smashing into us, knowing there would be very little we could do about it. Once the sun came up more it burned off pretty quick and we headed in.

Paul and the fog

The Fog 'burning off'

First view of San Diego through the fog

To get to where we were going to anchor was about 10 miles so we knew we had at least around 2 hours more of sitting to just get there. It was fun to look at the city and it didn't feel like it took to long but to me that's the hardest part when you are almost there. We got there and no one else was anchored so it was easy and only about 10 feet deep so we didn't have to put out much line. Paul still made me re-anchor before we left because he is always so paranoid about our anchor. I am always like yeah it's set lets go. Probably good we are not the same way with that.
I had a mini breakdown trying to do the dishes at anchor. I didn't do them then night before since Paul said he would then I was trying to do them while Paul took a nap and I was loosing it because there is no room to put the dirty dishes so I can get to the nozzle, then I am all worried about the fresh water so I am trying to do them in the salt with a fresh rinse and it was not very easy. That is the whole thing, nothing is easy! It drives me crazy. I was hollering I would rather be at work. Anyways we got through it and Paul only got an hour nap before our friend Sarah was going to pick us up and we needed to help her move some furniture. It was so great to see her, she was my first girlfriend in California and has lived in San Diego for the last 2 or so years so I don't get to see her hardly at all.
We dropped Paul off at the boat after moving stuff so he could sleep since he needed to catch up bad (I think he was up around 36 hours) and so he could be on the boat in case the anchor dragged, he is always worried about that. I told Paul he is going to have to get used to me being on watch. I can always wake him up, he can't do long stretches like that anymore, he agrees. He is just so paranoid. It worked out good though since I got to hang out with my girlfriend. The next morning we bummed around and Paul came to Sarah's house after he slept 13 or so hours. We went swimming at the Y and just relaxed. Paul got some of the paperwork we need for Mexico. Tomorrow we are planning on running some errands and leaving in the evening. It is only a 72 hour anchorage and it will only take us about 12 hours to get to Ensenada, Mexico so since we want to get there during the day we gotta leave in the evening. I am ready. I feel like we just gotta go.

Saying goodbye to some marina friends

Left to right-me, Jan, Oliver, Mark, Carlos, Sean and Paul

                                                     

Oliver tethered in (we call it his tail)

Remember when I would talk about the long walk from the car to the boat and what a pain it was. This is a picture of most of the walk with Oliver, of course, lagging behind.

1/17/15
We sold the car! Tomorrow we leave for San Diego. We would've left today, everything is ready, but we stayed up late with our friends Nicole and Jason who came over to our boat last night.

1/11/15
We went to the mall the other day with our friends Paul and Steve and Oliver went to the top of this firetruck thing kids can climb on and jumped off of it. It was really high, like 4.5 feet. He did it and was fine and we should've stopped him from doing it anymore but we didn't and after the 4th time he did hurt himself. He cried and told me it was his ankle so he sat on my lap for awhile and then when he wanted to go play he couldn't even weight bear on it, he just dropped to the floor. We had both checked it and he could move it fine but when I saw that I was worried. Paul thought we should wait until tomorrow and see if it's better. It wasn't swelling so I went with it.
1/12/15
He is limping, pretty bad. We are worried he may have some sort of break in there so we are going to take him to the urgent care.
The MD didn't think he needed an X-ray and normally I am totally good with not intervening but I was like, we are leaving the country and only have insurance for another few weeks so we have to make sure there's nothing wrong for certain. He got an X-ray and she didn't see anything so they will call if the radiologist sees anything. So relieved and glad that we can just let him run and he should limit himself.

Oliver getting his Xray, he wasn't scared at all

We went to Carmax to try to get an offer on the vehicles. They didn't offer us much so we will not be going with them. Craigslist it is.
1/13/15
Just running errands, we both feel like we have been living in our cars all day the last few days. I took everything to a friends house and washed it all so we at least have a clean start. Oliver's limp is better but still noticeable.
1/15/15
This was supposed to be our day to leave but the cars aren't sold. I wish we had put them up sooner but it's hard because we needed them, or at least one, until this last week or so. We just weren't thinking. We though they would sell right away. We had one person come and look at each yesterday. Got one offer but don't want to take that yet. We just lowered each one a couple hundred so hopefully we get a lot of interest today. It's good to know that we can get a decent car when we move pack to Minnesota for cheap if we are patient or find people semi desperate like we are.
I feel ready to go. It stinks because I buy everything, fresh stuff, and then we don't leave and I feel like I need to restock again. I hope we get rid of these cars so we can go. I am getting antsy even though I am not necessarily looking forward to sailing 14+ hours to San Diego.
We sold the truck! We took less than we wanted but we really wanted to get rid of one car today. A guy was going to meet to look at the Saturn tonight but he flaked said tomorrow so cross your fingers for us!

Paul with the flare guns...ha!

Oliver playing with the dirt, Jeff and Maggie hanging out with him at the marina

Sea lion trying to find a spot to jump up and sun on the dock

Back of the boat, got new stickers to represent

Saying final goodbye to the truck

Oliver in his spot to eat

In the cockpit, it's still a mess

Did I post this already? Our prince asleep in the vberth

So cute, Captain and First Mate hats