Our journey has begun and we are in Ensenada, Mexico! On Wednesday we left San Diego to begin our journey south. In our time at Sun Harbor Marina in San Diego, we took a few extended sails (to the Channel Islands, to Avalon and Two Harbors, Catalina Island, and to Oxnard/LA to visit extended family), waited for hurricane season to pass, started acclimating to boat life (and WOW, what an adjustment it was moving across the country and on to a boat, plus boatschooling, not having “regular” routines, ….), sailed with dolphins, saw whales, met welcoming neighbors, visited museums, went rock climbing, surfed a fair amount (the boys), enjoyed visits from grandparents, went to Joshua Tree, made way too many trips to big box stores, learned about the boat, did regular maintenance and bigger projects (some but not all expected…), met new friends, and spent much time in the marine-related neighborhood around our marina. Amongst other things, I learned more about marine heads (toilets) than I ever wanted to know – including that there is a lot more to learn – yuck! We confirmed that it is true that cruising means working on your boat in exotic locations, and San Diego felt exotic to us. Our time in San Diego also somehow was not enough time to exhaust the sightseeing or spend time with as many people as I had hoped. Sun Harbor Marina and San Diego was the perfect place from where to cast off, and we have now untied those dock lines. Grateful for the wonderful people who supported us in beginning this journey.
As for our journey to Ensenada: our overnight passage began with an electronic compass malfunction that showed our boat spinning on the chartplotter even though we weren’t spinning, so we hand steered using our regular compass for a few hours rather than use autopilot. We were basically going in small zig zags whenever it was my turn to hand steer, and the current pushing us off course wasn’t helping. We (ok, really Jason) tried several potential fixes for the electronic compass. We paused contemplating solutions so we could celebrate crossing the border (see photo) with the boys. Next we essentially went in circles to raise sails, then again to lower them after we found hand steering with sails during an overnight passage to be too exhausting and an unnecessary added complication. THEN somehow the electronic compass started working! Our hypothesis is that all the turning in circles may have recalibrated the electronic compass, which we later realized might have been adversely affected by magnets in Wyze cameras that we just bought for the boat and were stored near the compass. A story we couldn’t have made up. Autopilot back on, and overnight watch shifts began!
Upon arrival in Ensenada’s harbor, we spent time floating while we cleaned up and Jason recalibrated the compass again by doing figure 8s on the boat. We raised our yellow Quarantine flag (shows we hadn’t checked in with the government yet), checked in at marina, went to government office to check in ourselves and the boat, enjoyed unique tostadas from a famous food stand, returned to boat, replaced Q flag with the Mexican flag and…. the journey has begun! We expect to be in Ensenada until we have the right weather window to continue south – likely at least a few more days. #Everydayisagift #LiveEveryDay
Nice job mom!