From Long Beach to Ensenada

Sailing directly from Long Beach to Ensenada typically takes around 24 hours. Since we haven't yet sailed long distances on our own, we chose to split the journey. On Captain Maureen's recommendation, we included a stop in Oceanside. $48 a night for a guest slip. Although this would extend our overall trip, we believed it was beneficial to ease into it gradually.

The sail took about 10 hours and was pretty uneventful. we left at about 8:30 in the morning and there wasn't much wind, so we only had the mainsail up and had to motor along at over 6 knots the whole way. We did see our first dolphins during this part of the trip. Eric was napping at first, but I managed to wake him up for the second group of dolphins that were chilling in the algae seaweed with various sea birds, including pelicans. No pictures at this time, you'll just have to take our word for it.

I too had a good nap in the cockpit. It was chilly in the shade.

Eric hasn't seen this much sun in decades

As we approached Oceanside, we found ourselves navigating through a variety of military ships. Despite using binoculars, we couldn't clearly identify the types, but we're fairly certain one was an aircraft carrier. With Camp Pendleton located at Oceanside, this came at no surprise.

Docking was a breeze for Eric, I still don't have the stomach for it. One obstacle we encountered there were the sea lions that made our assigned dock their hang out. Once on dock I had to use the line to shoo them away. They were very vocal about their displeasure. And man they stink. We were trying to make our way down the dock to head to land but had no path by the animals. I tried clapping but one of the sea lions thought of me as a little fool and was not intimidated. He mad himself tall and barked [?] at me. Thankfully at the right time a boat with lifeguards passed us and came to my rescue. With a boat hook and flippers they were able to shoo them off the dock and into the water to find a new place down the dock to chill.

Very stubborn sea lions. They were not impressed by my attempt to shoo them.

Eric and I marked our first extended journey together by dining at a nearby restaurant, where I enjoyed some wings and a beer. As two seasoned sailors, we officially embraced our status and went to bed early to prepare for the next leg of our adventure.

We figured we'd kick off the next part of our trip in the afternoon because we wanted to get to Ensenada the next morning instead of at night. We weren't too confident with docking yet, and we weren't sure if the Cruiseport had good lighting. Plus, this gave us some time to fix the radio, which still wasn't working. Eric worked on the wiring, and finally, after days of trying, we got a response on channel 16. You're technically not supposed to use 16 for a radio check, but since we weren't having any luck on other channels, we decided to give it a shot.

Before heading out, we grabbed some much-needed showers and thought we'd fill up our fuel tanks. To our surprise, they were still pretty full! Even after practicing prop wash and prop walks, plus a 10-hour motor sail, we only used 10 gallons of diesel. By the way, fuel docks are pricey!

Once everything was wrapped up, we headed out around noon. Fighter jets zoomed overhead, military ships were visible in the distance, and helicopters buzzed around. It was noisy but pretty awesome. The air was chillier than the day before, but the sun kept us warm. Eric had cooked us some spaghetti which I warmed up in the evening marking another milestone for us. Eating food we cooked on the boat while on our way. Once the sun set, though, it got really cold. At night, we had to wear our foul weather gear under our life jackets to stay warm. We were a bit on edge, but land was always visible about 11 nautical miles away. I checked the weather again to see what the night had in store for us. The wind wasn't going to pick up. More motor sailing it was. We took two-hour shifts during the night, with Eric staying wide awake while I grabbed the first bit of sleep in the cockpit.

On my shift in the dark I kept an eye on lights in the distance, watched the radar and kept en eye on the charts. I would often change my position in the cockpit and use the binoculars to make sure I didn't miss anything.

Having land in sight all night kept us at ease.

Our console at night

During Eric's next shift, we spotted some mysterious lights in the distance. At first, we thought they were from islands we’d pass on our starboard side once we hit Mexican waters, but they turned out to be from a fishing area. We finally relaxed a bit, moving around every 15 minutes or so, and the whole night went by without any interruptions. It was actually pretty uneventful until we reached the bay of Ensenada at 5am. It was my turn to watch, so I decided to slow down and creep closer since it was still dark. I wanted to wait for the sun to come up before heading into the marina. In the distance, a boat started to appear, but as it got closer, it turned out to be a giant cruise ship, and I was right in its path. I knew from checking the charts that there was a cruise ship port right next to the marina. I moved aside and watched it enter the port.

Early morning around six am approaching Ensenada

View off of port side to the west

crawling into the harbor

Another cruise ship was coming up behind me, and since the sun was almost up, I woke Eric so we could head into the marina. We followed the same route the ship took to enter the port and then went into the marina. It was getting lighter, and we could finally see where our slip was. Luckily, a neighbor was already up and helped us dock the boat. Since there are two boats per slip, it was a bit daunting for us, but as usual, Eric handled it well.Once the boat was tied up and we knew the marina office wasn't going to be open till 9am there was only one thing left for us to do. Get sleep under warm toasty blankets.