Fwd: [kensblog] Update # 17 - Preparing for Departure in San Diego
Begin forwarded message:
Greetings all!
This is it. Tomorrow morning, early, we will cross the border into
Mexico.
Today was a fairly light day. I think everyone, on every boat, had
last minute errands to do. This was the last chance to buy food
prior to entering Mexico (boaters call it provisioning). Things like
fresh vegetables had to wait until the last minute, and that minute
arrived earlier this evening. It was also the last chance to make
any repairs prior to crossing the border.
For Sans Souci, today was a day of refueling, provisioning,
cleaning, and last minute fixes. We had a bit of a scare when our
diesel furnace suddenly stopped working. It provides hot water for
the boat, as well as space heating. On one hand, it wasnt a big
deal, in that we have a backup system, but getting parts in Mexico
is difficult. We wanted to get it fixed today, but with all that was
going on, it was tough to find time to focus on the repair. Late
tonight, Jeff solved it by discovering that a sensor on the hot
water tank had failed. A little jiggling got it going, hopefully
permanently, but probably not. It was more of a nuisance today than
a real issue. I mention it only because it seemed it added a layer
of tension that we really didnt need. The bottom line: We are back
to 100% operating status.
I attending a couple of Fubar meetings today. At the first meeting,
John Rains, who wrote the Mexico Boating Guide, gave an overview of
our upcoming trip. John was introduced as having run the west coast
of Baja over 100 times. I arrived at the meeting expecting a site-
seeing slide show on Baja, and didnt bring my charts. Instead, John
gave an overview of the days ahead by detailing which islands we
should go inside of, and which to go outside of, and which cliffs to
hug and which cliffs to avoid. I suspect it was great information,
but much of it went over my head. He was speaking about places Ive
never been and couldnt mentally place on a map. Someone did raise
their hand and say All of these hazards you are describing. Are
they on the charts? John said yes, and I felt much better.
After John spoke, we had a presentation by Bob Jones, a weather
router, with Ocean Marine Nav. For those not familiar with weather
routers, they are weather experts who provide assistance to
boaters while under way. These people charge a relatively modest
fee, and make predicting the weather much simpler for a boater. You
call them, tell you where you are going, and they help you make the
critical go/no go decision (sometimes it is better to stay in port
for a few days waiting for the weather to improve). The weather
routers can also suggest alternate routes to help you avoid bad
weather. I know boaters who never use, and dont really trust,
weather routers, preferring to do their own analysis of the
available weather data, and I also know boaters who use multiple
forecasters to get multiple opinions, and then pick the one they
like. The weather itself, of course, uses no weather router, and
does whatever it wants. I personally would always use a weather
router on any major passage.
Bob Jones job should be fairly easy on this trip. He told us what
we were all expecting: This should be a comparatively easy run. We
have reasonably light winds (under 20 knots), with the wind behind
us. For tomorrows run he was projecting even lighter winds; 5-10
knots with calm seas (2-4 foot swell, on 20 second intervals). The
only negative in the report is that we should expect fog for our
departure. This will make leaving port interesting.
John Rains presentation was intended to give us the big picture of
the route south. It was not intended as a detailed briefing. Prior
to each leg there will be a captains meeting in which the leg will
be discussed in intense detail. I attended the captains meeting,
and was curious to find out how we were going to sequence the boats
for the journey. When it appeared this would not be discussed I
raised my hand to ask how we would be grouping the boats. Bruce
Kessler, our chairman, gave me one of those looks which immediately
helped me understand that this was a dumb question. His response:
Ken. This is a 65 mile run. I think everyone can find their way to
Ensenada with no problem. Still not quite understanding, I pushed
and said So, does this mean I can leave whenever I want? He said:
Absolutely. Bruce then went on to explain that he was mentally
thinking of the rally as getting its real start in Ensenada, when
we begin the 335 mile run to Turtle Bay. This will be roughly a 36
hour run and require much more planning.
Half of the boats in our group will not be requiring fuel, and half
will need to take on fuel whenever possible. I mentioned yesterday
that Buddy Bethea, a Nordhavn 55 owner, traversed this same route
just last week. Heres what he had to say about taking on fuel in
Ensenada:
It is an impressive port with large cranes for cargo ships, and a
significant presence of sail and power yachtsbut no fuel docks!!
Diesel is sold only by the 55 gallon drum, rolled to the boat and
pumped a barrel at a time into the tanks! We tied up at the Baja
Naval Boat Yard with plans to top off AF with about 600 gallons,
however, they could not get more than nine barrels (495 gallons),
and for that we had to wait for its arrival by pickup truck at 2 PM!
I do not know, but Im guessing that most, if not all, of the boats
requiring fuel, will depart at dawn, in order to get to the fuel as
quickly as possible in Ensenada. Bruce Kessler has reassured
everyone that adequate fuel will be available, but I know that
people will sleep better after the fuel is in their tanks.
We have our own reason for wanting to arrive early in Ensenada. I
was supposed to have met with the people from immigration in
Ensenada here in San Diego, but because I arrived late, I missed
that meeting. I will have more paperwork to do than the other boats,
and want to get started early. I also want to get into a slip, and
will not really feel comfortable that I have a slip until I am
physically in it. Today, my slip assignment switched three times. I
started the day assigned to the Cruiseport Marina, had a voice mail
that I was now at the Coral Marina, and heard later tonight that I
have a nice slip at the Ensenada Marina.
Its now midnight, and I want to be underway at 6am. More tomorrow
from Ensenada!
Thank you!,
Ken Williams
Sans Souci, Nordhavn 68
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