Ready for departure

 We head off tomorrow morning for our voyage south. We were supposed to leave today but discovered that we had to visit the port captain one more time to have Katie and Lewis added to the crew manifest. 

Our first stop is the anchorage of punta colnett which is about 70 miles away, we'll anchor there for the night then continue south the next day. Don't worry if you don't hear from us for a while as we won't have Internet other than the sat phone. You can follow our progress on the spot which you can access from our blog by clicking where are we now.

 

Mexico's Oldest Pub and where the Margarita started

Ventured out into Ensenada again today for some more exploring. While cloudy it was a warm 26 degrees C and we arrived at lunch time for the obligatory fish taco and beer lunch which only cost us $3.50 each for three taco's and a beer.

We gave in to the street merchants once again and bought a hammock to join the mexican hat we bought earlier in the week. The hammock will come in handy though as it's a one person upright one that we can swing off a halyard.

Our newly purchased hammock

We headed down to Hussong's Cantina in the afternoon for some drinks at Mexico's (and the the whole of California as well) oldest pub.

Hussong's is fairly famous as the place where the Margarita was created for Margarita Henkel, daughter of the German Ambassador to Mexico. 

Serena trying her Margarita at the place that started it all.

Hussong's got filled up fast with it being a Friday night and is frequented by nearly all locals and it was great that it wasn't touristy at all except for the photographer who took our picture. If you can believe it that's a Polaroid camera he took our picture with below. 

Our Photographer

The music they had was authentic Mexican and we were blown away with the amazing sound they could produce.

Playing La Bamba for us

Mexican entertainment at it's best

Girl who just stood up and started singing had the most amazing voice

We only planned on staying for one drink, but had soon settled in for the night.

Price list. Beers are $2.50!

Lewis and I tried their premium sipping Tequila. Well i sipped mine and Lewis sculled his.

Ensenada

We have been in Ensenada for 3 weeks now and although we are still working hard on the boat preparation we have managed to find time to have fun and explore. We took a trip out to the Isla Todos Santos which is a pair of islands off the coast of Ensenada for Katie and Lewis's first voyage. We planned to anchor and have lunch at the island but the waves were too high and the anchorage is filled with Abalone farms so there is no space anyway. We got close to the island and then turned around. I later discovered that the islands are famous for having some of the biggest waves in the North American continent and the Billabong XXL surfing contest is held here so not such a good place to anchor for a spot of lunch!

On the way back to Marina Coral we were followed by a pod of dolphins again which was a nice treat for  Katie and Lewis. Here's another dolphin video...

The next day we took a trip to La Bufadora with our friend Gene. La Bufadora is a blowhole that is created when the waves and air are drawn into an underwater cave. The waves are pushed through a narrow path and the water is forced through a hole and shoots high in the air.

Mexican cuisine at it's best!

Our friends from Westpoint Harbor Robin and Katherine have their new boat Agave Azul  here at Marina Coral. We visited their boat for a taste of their famous Margherita recipe which is out of this world. It was great to see some familiar faces.

The next day Robin very kindly took us into Ensenada for a wonderful Fish taco tasting tour. They have been researching hard and have found some really great places. We are now addicted to Fish Tacos.

Robin and Katherine's number 2

Robin and Katherines Number 1

The best Taco's in Town! 

The fish taco chefs

Lee and I took a trip back over the border to San Diego to pick up some parts for the boat. We hired a car here in Ensenada. Crossing the border was actually a lot of fun as the Mexicans have set up market stalls selling food, drinks and anything and everything else that you might want.

They walk up and down the lanes of traffic.  It took us about 45 minutes to get across with our fast track pass. It was so much easier with our green cards, no questions and we didn't even need our passports to get in!

We spent the night in San Diego at the Marriott in Old Town which we managed to get for $55 using Priceline ($180 on the Marriott site). Unfortunately they provide free wine and cheese during happy hour every day which is rather irresponsible I thought ;-). We hadn't been to this part of San Diego before and its actually a great place to stay. We were busy running around buying boat parts so we didn't get to explore but we did stop for dinner at Harney Sushi. We loved their Lemon Edamame. We had a few too many drinks and ended up in a Mexican bar drinking tequila, Yuk. The next morning we were feeling terrible but we had to get up early and start on our to do list. Lee picked up some wood and insulation for the water maker box that he is making and I went for a hair cut. I have had all of my hair chopped off!

My new hair! 

Harney Sushi

Us at the Mexican bar where they had the largest tequila selection in San Diego!  This  is us tasting their best bottle.

Crossing the Mexican border was easy, in fact, they didn't even ask to see our passports!. We went through the "Something to Declare" lane which was quite scary as we couldn't see anyone else taking this lane but we had been advised to declare the items that we had purchased and since they were boat parts we shouldn't get taxed. We parked up and noticed a number of other vehicles being searched. I waited in the car while Lee went to try and find out what we needed to do. He came back with a lady who poked a few boxes in the boot, checked the paper work over and then told us that we could continue.

Last night we walked along the water front to the Morro Bay restaurant and had an amazing meal with fantastic views.

Watching the sunset from our table at the Punta Morro restaurant

We took this on our drive back home to Ensenada. Welcome home!

This little home overlooks the ocean just next to our marina. It is embellished with findings from the beach! It has so much character I love it!