¡BIENVENIDO A MEXICO!

We had a wonderful time catching up with our family and friends in Carson City and Tahoe over the Holidays, we also grabbed our genoa out of storage and various spare parts we’d ordered for Tino Pai. It was sort of Christmas-like to unwrap the supplies: a toilet base, macerator, gluten-free cake mixes, door hardware, spare alternator belts, dry bags, and various other items to take back with us. We also had a couple of boxes of coloring books, crayons and candies to give to fishermen and locals for their kids as we travel in Baja. We enjoyed a white Christmas and all the festivities (thanks Jen, Judy, Alex and Morgan!) but before we knew it, it was time to head back to San Diego to prep the boat for departure to Mexico.

Arriving back at the slip late on Dec 26th, we unloaded the rental car, fell into bed and slept well that night! We woke the next day to realize that the boat that had arrived at the slip right next to Tino Pai was another Norseman 447. “Hekate” is a center-cockpit that we’d coincidentally been moored close to in Avalon. We got to know Nathan and Sasha over the next couple of days and were delighted to hear that they too were headed to Mexico. With three sister ships now neighbors in the same marina, we estimated that Tino Pai, Hekate and Andreas make up around 5% of all the Norseman 447 yachts ever produced (and about 10% of the rarer aft cockpits). It’s a small world!

We spent a couple of days installing the genoa, cleaning the boat, packing away spares, and making sure everything was ready for our departure for Mexico. With Tino Pai shipshape, pesos acquired and documents in order we backed out of the slip at 4:15pm on 29th December and made our way out of San Diego harbor for our overnight passage to Ensenada. We were excited to enter Mexican waters just before 6:30pm, counting down our longitude on the chart plotter. Another milestone reached!

Nathan and Sasha are familiar with the route to Ensenada, and they had advised us to pass Islas Los Coronados to the west in order to avoid fishing lines and cray pots in the channel. We followed their advice and while passing the islands at 8pm we settled in for a straight run toward Bahia de Todos Santos, the islands outlined to port in the lights of Tijuana. With the wind astern too light to drive us under sail, it was a largely uneventful night passage under motor except for a truly magical moment… just after 11pm we were visited by a pod of dolphins, so clearly outlined in bioluminescence we could see individual markings and their eyes as they turned to watch our bow steaming lights. We could merely come up with “ghost dolphins” or “underwater aurora” to describe it, both woefully inadequate as it was among the most beautiful sights we’ve ever seen. They captivated us for 20 minutes as they surfed our bow wave, taking turns and darting off after fish that – unfortunately for the fish – were also illuminated in the luminescence.

We arrived in Bahia Todos Santos just before dawn on Friday 30th January, and had to slow our progress for about half an hour for better light before entering the channel into Ensenada. Our reward was a magnificent sunrise over the hills behind the city. It was a nice moment entering the harbor beneath the massive Mexican flag flying over the Malecon – famed to all who visit Ensenada, especially by sea. We tied up in our assigned slip at Baja Naval marina at 7:15am and had about an hour to drink it all in before the marina staff arrived to discuss our generator repairs… even before the harbor master for our clearance! We were then escorted from the marina to the port captain’s office for clearance into Mexico. Everything was taken care of for us, and half an hour later we were cleared in and back at the boat. That same morning work started on the generator (to sort out the cutting out issue). Our friendly mechanic diagnosed a faulty heat sensor switch, and said he’d be back Monday to advise if he could find a replacement. We were free to explore Ensenada!

Our friends Jim & Stephanie on SV Cynthia Anne were waiting ashore to welcome us. They’d departed from Alameda the summer before we did, and after spending a leisurely time exploring the California coast had been in Ensenada for about a month before our arrival. They greeted us spectacularly, right in the middle of the Malecon with a mariachi band and tequila shots! It was appropriate, and hilarious! We then headed off for a meal followed by drinks at Hussong’s Cantina, recommended to us by many.

Over the next week we came to like Ensenada very much. We ate a lot of amazingly good tacos and tostadas, especially around the fish market at the waterfront, as well as exploring local restaurants around the downtown area where we became fans of birria. With Jim and Stephanie, we celebrated the New Year, visited the famous “La Bufadora” blowhole south of Ensenada, and spent a fun day sampling local wines at wineries in the valley around Guadalupe to the northeast.

Unfortunately, there was no replacement sensor switch to be found in Mexico and ordering in the States had a 3-6 month lead time. We ordered one to be picked up when we visit in the summer, and for the meantime purchased an externally wired switch so we could monitor the generator temperature from the cockpit. That would take a week to arrive, so we extended our stay in Ensenada. Wet storms hammering California to our north were tossing up rough seas a long way south, and peripheral fronts from those large systems meant there were no weather windows, so the extension suited us.

During those storms wet weather flooded parts of Ensenada, and the river washed dirty water and a massive amount of garbage into the harbor. Tino Pai had a ring of dirt around her waterline from the mess. Storm swell into the harbor had the boat surging on her dock lines; we’d put out extra dock lines and had 8 out at one point to dampen the motion; she’d had quieter nights at anchor. Baja Naval is in an excellent location, but it is exposed to swell and the wakes of the many harbor tour and whale watching boats that charge in and out of the harbor. They created bigger wakes than the daily cruise ships.

We decided to use our extra time to make a quick dash to San Diego, to the Mexican Consulate to apply for Mexican residency. If we could demonstrate sufficient financial means, residency would mean we’d not need to leave Mexico every 6 months to renew our visitor visas. Shan booked the appointment and put together all the paperwork needed per the immigration website, and off we set. We hired a car to the pedestrian border crossing in Tiuana where our Global Entry passes made for an easy into the US. An equally easy tram ride into downtown San Diego had us checked into the hotel midafternoon.

We picked up a few things we needed and enjoyed San Diego for a couple of nights, but sadly the visit to the consulate was fruitless. Unclear instructions on the website coupled with a very unhelpful official means we’ll need to try again in the summer. For example, we’d not realized that “passport copy” meant a copy of every page of the passport, not just the information & photo pages. There were a couple of similar glitches, but lesson learned from our experience; we’ll be better prepared next time.

Returning to Ensenada, Nathan and Sasha had arrived on SV Hekate so we caught up with them at their new favorite bar & restaurant “El Corralito”. It’s known for the walls and ceiling being covered in signed & graffitied US dollar bills – clearly a favorite with expats.

As much as we enjoyed Ensenada, as the end of January approached, we were looking forward to getting into remoter areas of Baja and ready to move on. We’d been eying a weather window, and as it firmed up we decided to head south. We prepped the boat (it’s funny how a month in a slip spreads things out) and at 9:50am on 31st January we exited our slip. We made a quick stop to refuel at Marina Coral just outside the city harbor, where Jim & Stephanie helped with the lines. With a goodbye and “see you in Turtle Bay” we were off toward San Quintin – it felt great to be under way again.