How To Get To Ensenada From San Diego

Initially, we were going to exercise a night sail from San Diego to Ensenada. It is about 60 nautical miles and with the days shortening and the contempo time change for daylight savings time, we knew information technology would be incommunicable to do the entire trip during the daylight hours. So, we decided to compromise and exit early in the morning, (before lord's day-up) to arrive before dominicus-downward. This manner, nosotros'd be able to see where we were going, enjoy the new Mexican landscape and throw a line-fishing line out as well. We got upwardly at 3:30am on Tuesday, Nov eighth and were on our way about 4am. It was dark and very foggy throughout the unabridged aqueduct of San Diego harbor. This made for a tricky exit, however, with Bloom's navigation lights and our radar system, we felt confident that nosotros'd observe our style out. It is a long channel and took united states of america a while to exit, but before we knew it, the daylight started to creep in, making everything easier to see. Nosotros sailed on and said good day to the Usa at nigh 6:30am and hoisted our Mexican courtesy flag. The Bloom coiffure gave some loud thank you (Carson requested a wake-upwardly call before crossing the border) and on we pushed towards Ensenada.

Leaving San Diego at dominicus rise

The winds were supposed to selection upwardly at noon that twenty-four hours, merely alas, they never arrived…. This meant burning the fossil fuels the entire way to Ensenada, which made the possibility of arriving after sundown existent, which was not ideal.

Sailing from San Diego to Ensenada

The sun was very low in the sky every bit nosotros entered the bay of Todos Santos and nosotros could non see the urban center of Ensenada up ahead every bit it was hiding behind a huge blanket of fog. What the?! The next thing we knew, the sunday was backside the clouds and the fog was getting thicker and thicker. Although we did not expect to leave and enter a harbor in the dark that day, we did it twice and Jason did an awesome job of docking Bloom. There was barely any daylight left and everything (including our eyelashes!) was covered in misty water droplets. My first impression of Ensenada was the set of Pirates of the Caribbean. It was dark and foggy with wooden docks, sea lions swimming all around us and a huge wooden lattice gate at the top of the docks, complete with a pirate-style transport up on the difficult above us. There were even rats crawling on the row gunkhole that was tied upward a couple of slips over. Wow. Not what we expected! I think perhaps a daylight entrance may have proved to be quite different…

Bloom, in her sideslip in Ensenada

We awoke to glorious sunshine with two cruise ships right behind united states of america and all was well. The marina staff at Baja Naval were very friendly- providing us with a map and instructions on how to go and check in to the Clearing Office. We obtained our TIP (temporary import let, which is required to bring your boat into Mexico) for Bloom, likewise as all of the other paperwork required before we arrived, so this definitely saved u.s.a. some time at the immigration office. We were in and out in well-nigh an hour, which is much less than I've heard of from other cruisers.

CIS in Ensenada, MX

Mayhap it depends on the staff you go when yous check in. Who knows. Bank check in involves an 'Arribo' form (provided by the marina) that you get stamped forth with filling out your FMMs and then heading to the Port Captain to pay your tonnage fees. The marina facilitates a lot of the paperwork for you lot included with your stay, which is fantastic! Anyway, we are at present costless to roam the country for vi months until nosotros have to renew our FMMs, and so nosotros're good for a bit!

Capitania de Puerto / Port Helm in Ensenada

We hit up the taco correspond lunch (10 fish tacos for $100 pesos, which is effectually $6.50 Canadian) So yummy! So we had tacos for the side by side 3 days 7 days for lunch besides. We may besides have had a lot of churros too. Okay, we did. 'Mr.Churro' across the street from the water and light evidence has churros filled with chocolate, caramel, cream or strawberry flavour. Ya. Run across how many days you can resist that 1.

Fish tacos for lunch!

Baja Naval is the cheapest of the iv marinas in Ensenada, and is likewise the closest to downtown. For these reasons, we decided to stay here. As of this post, if yous stay 11 days you simply pay 50 cents a foot. Less than 11 days is $1.00 a foot. Still the cheapest around. I will warn you lot though that this marina tin can be very, very SURGEY! Non sure if that is a word, but your boat basically never stops moving. Nosotros had to take 9 lines coming off Flower to ensure her security in the slip.

Walking the laundry to the laundromat. $110 pesos for a full service load- wash, dry and fold! Awesome.

We knew we had provisioning and laundry to do, etc. and also wanted to exist able to walk to the Clearing Office. The facilities are decent- you lot must pay for drink water past the gallon, but they will bring it to y'all and even put it into your tanks if you lot like, it was also very, very cheap. Diesel fuel is but available at Hotel Coral across the bay. Nosotros plan to walk up with jerry cans in a dock cart to the gas station  (Rudametikin is the merely i that has diesel) and get x gallons of diesel fuel that way. We need to make sure nosotros're maxed out since there is no fuel again until Bahia Tortugas (Turtle Bay).

Carson, enjoying Ensenada!

The Mexican flag finally got put upward onto its empty pole on day ix of our stay hither. What a site. Amazingly beautiful, the humungous Mexican flag almost glows in the sky while it flies. Certain makes you experience welcome and excited to be in Mexico!

Ensenada's behemothic Mexican flag!

With our bellies total and Bloom's tanks all full, nosotros are set and ready for the next leg of our journeying- Cabo San Quintin, which is an anchorage almost 115 nautical miles south from Ensenada. We've checked out which (contrary to what nosotros've heard from other cruisers) only took us about 45 minutes in full and are set to leave this port tomorrow morning subsequently we become the final of our dainty, hot 'land' showers in!

Adios until our next post!

Stay tuned for our adventures in San Quintin and more!

Source: https://sailingwithbloom.com/leg-9-sailing-from-san-diego-to-ensenada-mexico/

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