Rugged Bahia Tortugas

Nap time aboard, and tessa is singing "buenos dias". She and I got back from a kayak trip into this small town to get some fresh groceries. We walked on dirt , unpaved roads, visited 2 tiny stores, and got lucky finding avocado's, bell peppers, cabbage and bananas.  And off course, a yummie, which she ate with gusta while I tried to converse in my less than poco Spanish with an older local man, who had lived in this former cannery town for 50 years. She had walked up to him, said " it's yummie", then they high-fived , and he kissed her on the forehead. Sweet, you can tell they love kids in Mexico.

We arrived on Tuesday 5 PM, being under way for 2 days and 2 nights. Tiresome for us, but for the little one, it's just life as usual with a lot of playing, "I spy" games, eating and sleeping. Two hours before we caught our first fish, a 15/20 pound Dorado, brilliant colored fish, also known as
Mahi Mahi. Catching it was easy, however we were not really prepared what to do next. Tessa  was back into the cockpit after her nap and wanted to see it all. We did spare her the less appealing part of killing the fish as well as gutting it. Tod did an excellent job on his first fish, and we enjoyed great fish steaks the next days.

Some other firsts since leaving Ensenada: our water maker is in full action, making about 6 gallons/hr (yep that is slow, so it needs to run for hours to fill our 90 gallons water tanks).  And we have finally used our "car", our RIB dinghy with outboard. Dinghy wheels are installed as well, and we learned the hard, wet way, that they need to be up before landing.  The deserted beach with great shells was so worth it tough.

All is well aboard Bliss, happily swinging at anchor. Toddler question of the day: " at the doctor, you get a haircut too?" Also, "Buddha is a diver", after a tiny bronze Buddha sculpture bounced overboard.

We were celebrating our 5th yr wedding anniversary with a day sail of 50 + miles to the next stop of bahia Asucion.

1st Catch!

fence of the school

big surprise, a great playground in this town

sunset towards our next destination

First post via radio

We are approaching the end of a tough 50-hour passage, from Ensenada to Bahia de Tortugas (Turtle Bay). Actually, the sailing/motoring has been easy (some more wind would have been nice... we only sailed a few hours). But being awake all night and then dealin with Tessa all day is tough. Current position: 27 degrees 50.90' N, 115 degrees 15.31' W. This is being sent via our SSB radio! (more about that later)
-Tod

Hola Mexico!

Another fun ride with our spinnaker up! We left San Diego Thursday early with not much wind, but 3 hrs later we were flying with a combination of sails. Ten hours after leaving San Diego, we arrived in Ensenada, where we reserved a slip in very friendly Baja Naval. Tessa practiced her HOLA on several people. We know she will be ordering our food in Spanish soon!

Today we spent all morning on clearing into Mexico, getting our visa's (for 6 months), boat import papers (boat can stay here for 10 yrs). Al tough this was all conveniently located in one small building, it was a good exercise in patience. Tessa and I decided to leave the party earlier, and go home for a nap, well at least one of us was...Ice cream, happy 'fish tacos' hour, dancing to a mariachi band, and just walking around in our usual 1 mile radius (limitations of going traveling with a toddler, who just thinks that even a trash can is awesome) filled the afternoon.

On a side note, we have a very fast internet connection here, faster than we ever experienced before. We realize this will be very short lived, as we are making plans to move further South to the more remote part of Baja California. 

Leaving Point Loma Lighthouse behind at 6AM

Our chart plotter confirms we have arrived in
Mexican waters

raising the quarantine flag, before you have officially
cleared into Mexico

"I need my reading glasses" for all the paperwork

 

time to raise the Mexican flag after we cleared in

at the civic plaza close by, sculpture of Mexican hero and former
President Benito Juarez

practicing mariachi

the fish market has a huge selection

Last stop in the USA and WHY?

In the cockpit, before bedtime, Tessa is asking Tod: “what are you doing” Why”? Then she says to me “papa is drilling, making holes for solar panels”. Question to Tod “ is that prescent (crescent) mimi (aka moon)”? To me: “the moon is skying”.  We are in the WHY phase big time with our talkative 2.5 yr old.

great walk path in Point Loma neighborhood. Tessa
likes to take Baby Holly for a ride (and yes, she picked her
all pink clothes)

Bouganville galore, love it. 

Tessa and Tod went out to run some last days -errands this afternoon, and I did the laundry. We have been in San Diego since last Friday. It's our first and last stop in a large city in the US. Close to Point Loma we had 2 war ships within close proximity. The navy's presence while we entered the harbor was something different than what we are used to see in San Francisco Bay. 

Our host yacht clubs are both on Shelter Island, a mecca for marine stores/suppliers and within the very nice Point Loma neighborhood.  We are currently staying at the San Diego Yacht Club, and boy, am I glad that we are not at the guest dock (where all members can see you while sipping their drinks), but some where " in the boonies".  We don't have a yacht, we have a great plastic sailboat. Having said that, we had 2 nice encounters with members of both clubs. One older gentleman gave me a ride home from the store, just when I was about to load 30 pounds in my backpack for the 1.5 mile trek home. Another kind club member offered to take Tod anywhere he needed to go.

Last day here tomorrow before we head down to Ensenada. Our friends John and Priscilla with their lovely dog Bo are kindly lending us their car to go to the "winkel", we know who is excited to go!