We have had a busy couple of weeks visiting with friends and family, making new friends (fun!) and finishing boat chores and doing errands (not so fun) before we head into Mexico.
Dana Point to San Diego
We had a great sail from Dana Point into San Diego – we used our code zero (large reaching sail) most of the way and enjoyed seeing multiple pods of dolphins as we made our way down the 50 miles to reach San Diego. As we neared the headland off of San Diego, the kelp beds were thick and there were many crab or lobster pots (not sure which) to avoid. I was glad we had plenty of daylight left as we entered the harbour and we took to hand steering our way through the boueys and kelp.
Anchorages and temporary moorage in San Diego.
We spent the first two nights at the guest police dock on Shelter Island. This allowed us to have our mast inspected (insurance) and we met two other ‘kid boats’ which was an added bonus. The dock is nothing special and the facilities were adequate but it was fun to let the kids run from boat to boat while we chatted with new friends.
San Diego Harbour has an easy to use website where we were able to go online and book moorage at the police dock ($1 per foot/night which is good value) and book anchorage permits (free). We made an appointment with the harbour police to inspect our boat (that we have holding tanks etc) prior to being issued a cruiser’s permit. There are three main anchorages for cruisers in San Diego: Glorietta Bay, Cruiser’s anchorage (A9) and La Playa. Each have there own rules and caps on length of stay.
Our favourite anchorage by far was Glorietta Bay where we were next to two sandy beaches and had easy access to friendly Coronado Yacht Club where we had reciprocal privileges to leave our dingy worry free while we explored San Diego. Our next favourite is La Playa (reservations only on weekends) next to San Diego Yacht Club (where we were also able to use their beautiful facilities and tie up our dingy). A9 anchorage was noisy (next to the airport) but convenient to do errands and its right next to downtown.
GC 32 Foiling Catamaran Extreme Sailing Series
We were lucky to arrive in San Diego at the same time as the GC foiling catamaran sailing series was in town. We joined the spectator boats on the sidelines in our dingy and had front row seats to the Cats zooming downwind at 30 knots. Wow, it was fun to see them up close and I think we all wanted to have a ride on one.
Friends and Family!
We are fortunate to have friends in San Diego who kindly took us shopping to pick up some last minute supplies, then hosted us for a lovely dinner at their beautiful home overlooking the El Cajon valley. We were boat neighbours when Slingshot was in Hawaii at the Ala Wai Marina and we caught up trading stories of the mvarious trials and tribulations of boat work in exotic and not so exotic locals. The kids carved pumpkins and we enjoyed a relaxing evening. Thank you Larry and Marianne!
Then my parents met us and we enjoyed catching up with them on board Slingshot. They rented an apartment in Coronado and took the kids to the Aircraft Carrier – Midway museum for a day, and then to the famous San Diego Zoo. This allowed Gavin and I to get the boat organized and finish more errands. We capped off their visit with a delicious meal at San Diego Yacht Club where we met friendly Paul Cayard.
We also met some new boat friends with other kid boats – and at one point had 6 kids on board downstairs playing boardgames and the adults in the cockpit enjoying a sun downer. Unfortunately these boats are not doing the Baja HaHa as they are heading into Mexico a month or so later than us, but we are hopeful to meet up with them in Mexico at some point and we are looking forward to meeting new friends in the Baja HaHa Rally.
Errands and Projects before Mexico
So what types of errands and projects you may wonder? Well, there have been many! Here are some of the items we ticked off:
Ordering spares, parts and supplies. It is difficult and expensive to import spares while in Mexico and in the South Pacific, not to mention time consuming, so we did a large order of additional parts and supplies using the mail delivery service at a local postal service. I can’t help but think we will still run into items that we need to order while we’re away but hopefully this list will now be much smaller. Our list ranged from bottom paint, additional fuel and oil filters, extra fuel tanks for our dinghy.
Provisioning. We shopped for food and other provisioning supplies and the boat is stuffed! We topped up the medical kit, (thanks Suzanne for all of your tips and help!), ordered more kids books and novels (the kids are enjoying reading their books and I’m told it will be harder to find English kids books in Mexico and the South Pacific).
Money exchanging – we need Pesos and there are no bank machines within easy access for the first stretch of the baja.
Cleaning the bottom. As I write this Gavin is still scrubbing the bottom of the boat. We have a fabric boat scrubber that we have been using, but we need to do the keel, rudder and
A CO2 tank so we can make our own bubbly water. This is much easier than carrying it back to the boat and we all love it.
Water-maker – service and ensure it is running properly. We have a spectra watermaker. We have not used it while on our trip so far (we have large water tanks and there is an abundance of clean water) so Gavin has been working on it, replacing seals and and replacing filters etc. It is working and this will come in very handy while in Mexico and beyond.
Schooling – This is not an errand but is an ongoing project! The kids did a push to get ahead in their schooling so we can ease back a bit during the Baja Rally.
Fuel top up! Our tanks are full! This is not good for sailing fast but prudent given the prospect of extensive fueling up ahead and expensive fuel in Cabo.
Baja HaHa!
There are 168 registered boats with whom we will sail the 750 miles to Cabo. It is a friendly ‘race’ with two stops along the way and motoring is allowed (I think there is something about not going below a 4kt average). We are looking forward to this event and it will be a big test for Gavin and I as we navigate overnight passages on our own (with many nearby boats) with the kids. Slingshot will be tracked via the Baja HaHa tracker and also the predict wind tracker on the blog. We will be out of service range for the next couple of weeks so our next post won’t be until after the Rally. Here’s to fair winds and following seas!
