Mexico!

As I write this, Calder and Cora are up in the marina common area playing cards with some other cruising teens they met, live Mexican music plays in the background, and Chris and I evaluate weather systems and decide the best course of action for an incoming weather system – should we get ahead of it or wait another 7 days in Ensenada?  We’ve opted to leave tomorrow for a longer passage and try to stay ahead of the system.  It will be our first overnight passage as a family over 24 hours and I feel a sense of excitement and apprehension.  So, first to back up – we are in MEXICO!

The last days in San Diego were spent filling up food, fuel, and water; as well as setting up some technology for weather routing and boat tracking.  See our Predict Wind page for our route in real time:  https://forecast.predictwind.com/tracking/display/SV-Terikah/  Calder finished the exhausting task of waxing the hull and I processed much laundry and kept on top of school. 

Our delay meant that we connected with the Hulebak family much to all our happiness, playing Can-Jam in the sunny sand at Mission Beach.  Our friend John and future crew mate took time from a separate family vacation to visit for a few hours and got stuck helping do last minute boat chores.   

We snuck in a trip to the San Diego Natural History Museum, seeing the fossils we studied in boat-school come to life. 

We continued to connect with other boat families in San Diego.  We were excited (and thankful) when our friend Brad signed up for the voyage to Ensendada.

November 22, 2023 was the official departure of SV Terikah on our family voyage.  We left at 4am in the dark – cozy in our Alaska foulies, porpoise playing in our bow waves in the moonlight, dodging fishing, commerce, and military boats in the dark.  Our dock neighbor even rolled out early to help us cast off and video our departure. 

We crossed the border from the US to Mexico at sunrise, Calder raising the Mexican flag. 

Wind off the land from the East (Santa Anas) made for an uncomfortable motion for a couple of hours, but settled and we were able to get our asymmetrical sail up for the first time.  Sailing downwind with this sail was pure joy; averaged a very pleasant 6-7 knots in 10-15 winds. 

Thankfully, no one got sick on our passage.  We did some 360 degree circles to calibrate our plotter’s compass along the way, napped, saw dolphins, porpoise, whales, sea lions, and a bunch of open ocean.  Into Cruiseport Marina, Ensenada, Mexico at 3:00 pm. 

With a population of about 280,000, it is the third largest city in Baja, and the second-busiest port in Mexico.  All very surreal.  About 70 plus miles covered, but we completely forgot to reset our GPS trip meter to know for sure. 

Thanksgiving and we have much to be thankful for!  The check-in process went quite well, as we checked in with Customs and the Port Captain.  In Mexico, we have to check in and out with the Port Captain in each port.  

We had a totally unique experience with friends for a Thanksgiving dinner at El Rey Sol; something was lost in translation, but it ended up being a delicious and memorable meal. 

The kids have met other cruising teens from Canada and Hawaii that they’ve been having fun with, from helados (ice cream) to playing billar (billiards).  There was also a potluck for the marina; so enjoyable to meet others (from Germany to Australia) and hear their stories and their trajectories. 

Today, we felt legit when we walked 1.6 miles to the nearest Pemex that actually had diesel, to fill two 5 gallon jugs with fuel, and then took turns carrying the heavy jugs on our way back to the boat. 

We also filled up jugs of potable water (20 pesos per 5 gallons) that we transferred into our tanks.  We are on water, fuel, and electricity conservation mode.  Last night, we smelled something burning on our boat – we jumped up, I grabbed the fire extinguisher, and we checked our outlets and electrical panel.  No need to fear, it was just the smell of burning garbage from somewhere on shore.  Our anchor windlass is not cooperating and the part we ordered is not going to get here in time for our departure tomorrow so Chris is going MacGyver on it for the time being. We could wait here, but appears it would be over a week before our next window and we are anxious to get moving. 

So off we go on our first family overnight passage, which should take us about 42 hours and get us tucked snugly into Turtle Bay just ahead of this incoming system.  We had hoped to explore a few spots between here and there, but this is a good reminder that despite all our planning, for better or for worse, we aren’t in total control.  For the two type A adults on this boat- that can be a challenge.