Pulling out of San Diego
Nov 11, 2015 @ 6am
The CUBAR's official start and we all leave San Diego Harbor ...
First stop .... Ensenada
Travelling to and Arriving at Ensenada – Nov 11, 2015
The trip from San Diego to Ensenada went fairly well… the weather
cooperated and the seas were generally smooth.
Our early (6am) start began a bit swelly (technical term! ) and
we were slewing around …. nothing SL and most of her crew couldn’t handle
!! It was a good first run, which
allowed some instruction on running the boat, and for those who needed it, a
chance to get their sea legs!! Christine
is finding, that being in open ocean is quite different than being up in the
air. Her patch has not quite kicked in
yet.
The CUBAR committee had arranged PRE-clearance into Mexico
and so the final paperwork upon our arrival in Ensenada went VERY
smoothly. We are now “cleared in and
good to go” !!! Phew ….
The evening was ours and the crews of SL, Northern Ranger,
Colibri and Duet (14 of us) went out to a restaurant recommended in
Christopher’s travel book (The Lonely Planet) called Manzanilla and we enjoyed
a beautiful dinner in a very funky (sorry David !) restaurant !!! We had wine, appies, a delicious dinner AND
dessert … all for $66 USD per couple !!!
Fantastic meal and such a deal !!
I like Mexico so far !!
On our first full day in Ensenada, the (amazing) organizers
of CUBAR arranged for a tour of 2 local wineries in the Guadalupe Valley. We hit Santos Tomas Winery and Vineyard Lechuza
(which is Mexico’s version of Burrowing Owl).
LT loves his red !!
Beautiful tasting room at Santos Tomas (above)
Wine tasting at Lechuza
The evening was a Welcome
to Mexico gala dinner complete with a Mariachi band, again, organized by
the CUBAR committee (just can’t give them enough kudos for doing SUCH a fantastic
job of this rally !!).
Our original plan
was to stay another night in Ensenada, but very snotty weather (another
technical term) was coming down from the north (as I am sure the Vancouverites
have experienced already !) and the thinking was to pull out at 2 am and head
for Turtle Bay – 282 NM – a 35 hour run and our first “overniter”.
However …..
After much weather consultation,
the group agreed to forgo our second night (no se admiten devoluciones ….. Spanish
for NO REFUND !!) and we pulled out right after our dinner, at
7pm ….in the dark ! ….. with the current thinking being to bypass Turtle Bay
& carry on through to Bahia Santa Maria … a bay well protected from
northerly winds. We hope to stay well ahead
of the snotty weather. Some of the boats
will pull into Turtle Bay and refuel with the plan to head right out and carry
on to Santa Maria. We are projected to
arrive in Santa Maria Bay by mid-day Saturday at which point we could hold up
if necessary to let bad weather pass through .... we could be there until as
late as Wednesday !!
Ensenada to Santa Maria is a long run …. 66 hours non stop…. Our longest yet.
Christine at the helm
Dinner on board while underway
Checking the night crew schedule
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