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

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.

The Latest From Ensenada

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

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

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

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.

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.