It was just 70 miles or so to get to Ensenada from San Diego so we thought an overnight trip would be best. We also wanted to get there early enough in the morning so that we could complete all of our check in procedures during office hours.  We arrived at Baja Naval marina at 9am.  Jose the man at the marina ofice was very helpful with getting us organized to present to the harbour master and all of the other offices.  Luckily the offices are all in the same buikding in Ensenada as opposed to scattered all over the town like in many other Mexican ports of entry.  Our friends Doug and Lyneita Swanson from Comox, BC on board their Coast 34 Ka’sala were at the marina too!  In Ensenada we were surprised by how much garbage was strewn around the streets, sidewalks and harbour…  Everywhere we looked, it seemed, there was garbage. And nobody seeed to mind or even notice!  So we tried to stop noticing too…  when in Rome, as they say….

The following day we went to the bank (Scotia Bank no less!) to get pesos and also go grocery shopping.  We thought we lost our hand cart in the grocery store at one point (panic!!!) but we found it again.  The walk back to the marina all loaded down with our stuff was an adventure.  The sidewalks were cracked, uneven, had huge potholes and sometimes were nonexistent…  but we made it and it was fine.  I wish we’d known how much cheaper provisioning would be in Ensenada…  they have everything we expect in a grocery store… and much much cheaper than San Diego…

The idea was to leave for Turtle Bay the following day.  Our friends on Ka’sala left the marina at 10am on Nov. 28th while we left at 11:45.  Once we were out there, and the weather was so good (north wind 10-20 knots at various times) we decided to keep going to Magdalena Bay.  Pete and I decided to do 6 hour shifts through the night. This would allow each of us to get 6 hours of uninterupted sleep at a time.  I think this worked better than our 3 on 3 off from before.  Three hours of sleep at a time over many days becomes very difficult to live with…  Even though Pete took maclazine for this part of the trip too he still felt seasick most of the time…  he’s noticed that wheat (gluten?) makes him feel worse,which made for limited options for snacks and meals…  this was difficult.

We arrived at Bahia Magdalena around noon on December 3.  It is like a desert oasis here.  Sand dunes right beside the sea shore… White powder sand…we have been swimming and snorkeling near our Anchorage in Puerto Magdalena, hoping to get over to Bahia Maria for a bit of boogie boarding later today…. Surprisingly, there is cell coverage here so our T-Mobile service is working.  Its spotty though so we are not renewing it.  We’ll probably get a telcel Sim card in La Paz.  I can’t load any photos right now so that will have to wait too… Hope to add them in La Paz.  Not much farther now 🙂