Recap: Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas (w/ pics and vids!)

We have come to an end of sorts to our extended southerly run down the West Coast, from Cape Flattery, the northwestern-most point of the lower 48 states, to Cabo Falso, the true southern cape of Baja California.  We have reached the beautiful weather of Mexico, the warmer waters of the Sea of Cortez, and our home for the next several months.

We anchored in Cabo San Lucas around 2PM on Tuesday, after being at sea for 6.5 days. We travelled 716 nm straight from Ensenada, only motor-sailing for about 105 nm. After one day of being at sea, we were both pretty much acclimatized and were able to spend more time in the cabin, and were preparing more exciting meals than we had on previous multi-day legs. After the fourth or fifth day, we were definitely feeling the effects of fatigue, and were much more irritable than we have been. We started our night shifts earlier, first shift starting around 6 or 7PM because it is almost completely dark by that time. We were fortunate to have some good wind from a high pressure system coming south from the Santa Barbara channel. We caught several awesome sunsets and sunrises, jumping dolfins, and several sailing videos. Note how by the video of about day 5, Matt starts to get a little slow in his video narration.

We are currently enjoying Cabo San Lucas while we deal with all the details of our upcoming wedding (8 days!). Looking forward to the real rest and relaxation that will come with the honeymoon!

Departing Ensenada

Jumping Dolfins

Day 5 at sea, Matt gets a little slower...

Wing-on-wing!

Land's End!!

Arrived at !CABO!

Boring passage details:

Departed Ensenada:  7 Nov 2012, 10:40

Arrived Cabo San Lucas:  13 Nov 2012, 13:45

716nm total (6 days + 5:05), of which 105nm was motored or motor/sailed (23:20)

Becalmed 4 times, motored twice

24 hour runs:

Day 1:  112nm

Day 2:  114nm

Day 3:  129nm

Day 4:  129nm

Day 5:  100nm

Day 6:  122nm

+ 5:05:  20nm

Ensenada to Cabo San Lucas Album

Day 66: 2/3 down Baja California!

All is well aboard the good ship AEOLI. We are currently 55nm west-northwest of Cabo San Lazaro. We are planning to push straight through to Cabo San Lucas, with an arrival sometime on Tuesday currently expected. Fairly pleasant sailing and warmer today!

474nm covered since our departure from Ensenada. Our four 24 hour runs thus far have been 112nm, 104nm, 129nm and 129nm.

25 01.088 N
113 18.597 W

Sent from Iridium satphone.


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Day 64: 1/3 down Baja California!

All is well aboard the good ship AEOLI. 207nm covered since our departure from Ensenada at 10:40a on Wednesday morning, 7 Nov. We are currently 60nm off the Baja coast and 26 miles north of Islas san Benito. We may forego our stop at Turtle Bay as a night arrival is currently expected.

28 42.173 N
115 46.469 W

Sent from Iridium satphone.

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Day 61: Arrived in Mexico!! (w/ pics!)

We arrived in Ensenada this morning, after motoring overnight for 65 miles from San Diego.

AEOLI on the GPS crossing the border

We arrived at the Marina at Ensenada Cruiseport and upon checking in with the dock master, we found that part of the marina service is to help you get through immigration, port captain, and customs – not bad at all for a slip fee of $50/night. They compiled the papers required for each step, drove us to the Centro Integral de Servicios, and stayed with us while we went through each step. We had found this document on the web describing the whole process, and it pretty much covers exactly what we went through.

Mexico Check-in Procedure PDF

 

Other advice is to ensure you have extra copies of liability insurance (although the marina office helped us make copies of all our documents), and that you bring some small change to make photocopies of the tourist visas at the Centro Integral de Servicios (photocopies are required for the temporary import permit). Also, for the temporary import permit, you will need to fill in a list of the equipment on board (we had prepared a list with serial numbers, but only the engine serial number ended up being necessary). We could have gotten through the process without the help of the marina, since we had copies of all the documents required, but it certainly helped to make it a painless process.  Total cost to check-in was $120, including tourist visas, temporary import permit (TIP) and yacht arrival fee with port captain (plus $50 for moorage).

We were finally able to hoist our Mexican courtesy flag after checking in!

We had ridiculously awesome 9 peso (12.5 pesos/dollar) fish tacos at a stand recommended by the marina staff (El Fenix at Av. Espinoza and 6ta.), did our town walkabout and our first grocery store run in Mexico. We are planning to head out tomorrow for several multi-day runs: first to Turtle Bay, then to Bahia Magdelena, then to Cabo. We don’t have too much leeway for time before the wedding festivities begin!

Something for Germaine to look forward to in Mexico!

Ensenada Album

Recap: San Diego

We ended up spending a total of 7 nights in San Diego, 2 nights anchored at Mission Bay, and 5 nights at the Shelter Island Police Harbor Marina ($1/ft/night compared to $2/ft/night at other close-by marinas, but a 1.3 mile walk to get into town). We were not intending on staying so long, but had to run all over the city to get our alternator rebuilt, which set us back a few days. Although most of the time in San Diego was spent doing chores and final acquisitions of American goods, we enjoyed running, yoga and the playground equipment for exercise along the Shelter Island sea wall.  We also got to have dinner with Matt’s friends, Emily and Nick, from Purdue!