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.