Log 5 - Santa Barbara to Ensenada, Mexico See Photos Here Charlie's Charts, the cruising guide we use while traversing the coast of North America, says that once you round Point Conception, you leave behind the cool, foggy weather of northern California and enter the warm, dry weather of southern California (or as they now pronounce it: Kahlifornia). Boy, did they get this wrong! After an initial day of warm weather in Santa Barbara, we experienced fog and overcast skies for most of our stay in southern California. This, however, didn't dampen our spirits and we had a great time in this area. We spent four days in Santa Barbara, enjoying the Spanish-style architecture of town and the nice, clean marina. We also spent a few days walking through downtown, marvelling at the expensive stores (sorta like Beverly Hills), the expensive cars and the expensively-dressed teenagers (who, for some reason, didn't seem to attend school but, rather, sat a expensive restaurants eating designer salads). Nancy's brother Bob visited us while we were here and drove us around town in order to find a Trader Joe's (we needed more black bean dip and Two-Buck Chuck). On September 28, we left the dock in Santa Barbara and immediately had problems. As we were motoring out of the harbor, the transmission cable disconnected from the shifting lever, meaning that we had no forward or reverse. We managed to drift into an empty berth and, with the help of some local fishermen, tie up long enough to repair the problem. After about 30 minutes of repair work, we were once again on our way. We motored in light winds for 30 miles to Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard. This is a huge harbor, with thousands of boats in multiple marinas. But, for some reason, there didn't seem to be any humans around. There were empty restaurants, empty stores, empty houses - kinda weird. We spent a couple of days walking around (in the ever-present foggy gloom) and dedided to leave. We departed Channel Islands Harbor on October 1 and had a great downwind sail, using a poled-out spinnaker, to Marina Del Rey. Once again, we had problems while approaching the entrance breakwater. When we fired up the diesel, in preparation for lowering the sails, we smelled a "burning wire" smell and saw some smoke come from the engine compartment. Kinda scary because there are hundreds of wires running through the engine compartment and any one, or all, of them could be the problem. So, we shut down the motor and continued sailing in moderate winds. Luckily, the entrance to Marina Del Rey is divided into motoring lanes and sailing lanes (this is also a HUGE harbor). We continued sailing all the way into the harbor and up to the guest docks, where we quickly dropped sails and started the motor long enough to tie up. We then set about diagnosing the problem and found that our battery isolater had developed a crack and the insulation had started to burn. Luckily, we found a West Marine about 6 blocks from the docks and bought a new isolator, which we installed the next day. We really enjoyed Marina Del Rey. We spent a day walking over to Venice Beach, where we strolled along, looking at T-shirt shops, body-builders, Rastamen, palm readers, artists, and a strange guy who rode around on roller blades while playing electric guitar plugged into an amplifer that was strapped to his back. During our stay in Marina Del Rey, we also took a bus ride to downtown Los Angeles. Kurt had in mind going to the Museum of Contemporary Art, but, since we couldn't find it, we somehow mangaged to end up attending a taping of Hollywood Squares! We also took another bus ride to Santa Monica, where we happened upon a huge farmer's market and street fair. We also found an Apple Store where we bought an Airport card for one of our Macs (We figured we'd be able to dial into to the internet through Hotspot zones at Starbucks. It wasn't until we got to a Starbucks that we found out you have to pay a $30/month fee to T-Mobile in order to use a Hotspot zone. Kurt figures that after the amount of work he put into printing T-Mobile posters, he ought to get a FREE account!). Also, while in Marina Del Rey, we once again ran into our friends Gary and Dayle from the boat "Forever and Ever". We had them over to Gumbo one night for Nancy's world-famous lasagna. On October 5, we departed Marina Del Rey for Newport Beach. There wasn't much wind so we ended up motoring the 47 miles with no breakdowns (other than the First Mate landing on her ass when she stepped off the boat at the guest dock at Newport Beach). The harbor at Newport is interesting as, once again, there are thousands of boats, but this time not at marinas but on mooring buoys. Balboa and Lido Islands are located within the bay and are home to some of the nation's most expensive real estate. Relatively small (1100 square foot) homes START at 1.5 million dollars. The interesting thing about this harbor is that, even amongst all this opulence, you can rent a mooring buoy for $5 a day, making this harbor very attractive for us budget-minded cruisers. We really enjoyed Newport - being on a mooring gives you a front row seat for all the harbor activity: small cruise boats, sailboat races, multi-million dollar yacht arrivals, etc. While moored here we were visited by Mary Vance, one of Nancy's fellow employees at Abacus. Mary drove us around, showing us the sights at Laguna Beach, Laguna Hills, Huntington Beach and the Newport Pier. We were also once again visited by Nancy's brother Bob, who spent the night with us before heading back home to Sacramento. We also, once again, ran into our friends on "Forever and Ever" and had a fantastic shrimp pasta dinner onboard their boat. We departed Newport Beach on October 11 and had an uneventful 14 mile trip to Dana Point harbor. Uneventful that is, until after we had tied up in a guest slip and returned from the showers. The Skipper, upon reaching into his back pocket for his wallet, found it missing! The last time he remembered having it was on the way to the shower, so he ran up and searched the showers. No luck! He ran back and searched the boat. No luck! At this point he assumed that someone had stolen it out of his pants while he was showering. This was REALLY bad news because the wallet contained a fair amount of cash AND all his credit cards and ID. The Skipper, while in a very evil state of mind, went searching in all the trash cans and parking lots along the waterfront, assuming that whoever stole the wallet would take the cash and credit cards and throw away the wallet. While returning empty-handed to the boat, the Skipper was met by the First Mate who had miraculously FOUND the wallet ON the boat! Talk about relief! We celebrated by going out for a nice Mexican dinner. The next day, we departed Dana Point at 5:30 in the morning. We motor-sailed all day in light winds, reaching Point Loma at about 2:45. While rounding the Point, we had to dodge kelp beds, lobster trap buoys and about 300 sailboats (all either racing or sailing back into San Diego Bay). We had read in Latitude 38 that we would have to be "wildly lucky" to get a spot at the Police Dock, or, for that matter, any slip at any marina. So we were prepared to anchor somewhere in the Bay but were very pleasantly surprised to find quite a few empty slips at the Police Dock. So, at 4:00 we tied up and immediately met our friends from Bainbridge Island: Gary, Sue and Amy on the boat "Pegasus". The Police Dock in San Diego is a great place to be because it is centrally located to all the marine industry stores and because it is a cheap place to tie up ($10 a night, with a maximum 10-day stay). A day after we arrived, "Forever and Ever" once again showed up and, soon, we met quite a few other cruisers heading south. Once again, as we did the last time we were here, we ended up spending quite a bit of time and money buying last-minute must-have supplies for the boat. We got our boat insurance papers signed and went to the Mexican consulate to get our visas. We also took trips to downtown San Diego and to Old Town to see the original hacienda-style beginnings of San Diego. Our guest crew for the trip to Ensenada showed up on October 17 (Nancy's brother Bob and his neighbors Mike McDermott and Bill "Guillermo" Molina). Bob took Nancy to Costco where she spent WAY too much money provisioning for the trip to Mexico and, later that evening, we had a farewell party on the dock (because Gumbo Ya-Ya would be the first of many boats leaving for Mexico). We first attempted to leave San Diego on October 18 at 5:30 in the morning but were forced to abandon departure when we noticed that the alternator wasn't working. We could have continued but decided that it would be easier to repair or replace the alternator in San Diego than in Ensenada. After a few hours of diagnosis, it was determined that the alternator was not defective, nor was the regulator. The problem was a loose wire that became detached when the new batter isolator was installed back in Marina Del Rey. So, we repaired the problem and spent the rest of the day goofing off. The next day, we once again departed the dock at 5:30 in the morning and were, once again, forced to turn back when we notice the tachometer giving very radical readings (indicating another alternator problem). This time, however, we decided to switch to a back-up voltage regulator and continue our journey (electing to solve the problem in Ensenada). We motored away from the dock in pea-soup fog, making for a nerve-wracking exit while dodging incoming fish boats and buoys while not being able to see a thing. Not fun! Eventually, the sun rose, making it a LITTLE easier to see and we headed south in no wind toward Mexico. We motor-sailed all day with the fog finally lifting but the overcast skies remaining. As we approached Ensenada the fog started to fill in again. We were relying on our computer charting software (and radar) to show us where the entrance to the breakwater was because, by the time we arrived, we had 1/4 mile visibility again. As we were approaching the breakwater, Bob, Mike and Bill were all on the bow trying to visually spot the breakwater while Nancy was below watching the computer and the radar. Just as the guys on the bow spotted the breakwater, Nancy said that the computer showed us going AGROUND on the breakwater! This shows that you can't always trust charts that were originally drawn up many years ago (sometimes geographic objects aren't where the charts show them to be). We were feeling pretty good about things as we motored through the entrance and into the harbor when, once again, the fog socked in to zero visibility (this in a harbor populated by sailboats, commercian fishing boats and a large cruise ship making ready to leave!). As we motored very slowly toward where we thought the marina was, the fog finally lifted revealing the town of Ensenada under blue skies. Nancy called the marina on the VHF radio to find out where we were supposed to tie up (we had made reservations via email) but was told by a person who spoke almost no English that we had no reservation. Luckily, we had an ace-in-the-hole: our crewmember Bill Molina, who was born in Chile and speaks fluent Spanish. He got on the radio and was quickly able to persuade the marina operator that we indeed DID have a reservation. We were directed to a slip and were soon met at the dock by a couple of marina employees who took our lines and helped us tie up. We spent the evening strolling the streets of a very nice Ensenada and having a great dinner at a local fish restaurant. Bob and Mike got a hotel room as they intended on staying up really late enjoying some of the "after hours" activities available in town, while Bill, Kurt and Nancy spent the night onboard Gumbo, knowing that we would have to deal with the entrance paperwork and the impending haul-out in the morning. The next morning, at 8:00 am sharp, boatyard workers came to our boat saying that they were ready to haul the boat out. So, we immediately moved the boat over to the slipway and within the hour, Gumbo Ya-Ya was out of the water and propped up on land in the cleanest boatyard we have ever seen. Then, the marina manager took us to the Port Captain's office, Imigration, the bank (to pay imigration fees) and back to Imigration (to get our tourist cards). When we got back to the boatyard, the yard manager was there to look over our boat in order to give us a firm estimate for the paint job. Its worth noting that this is a VERY impressive boatyard. The ground is all paved and washed down daily, the showers and toilets are immaculate and the workers are all very professional AND friendly (none of these attributes apply to most boatyards in Washington and California). So this is where Gumbo Ya-Ya will be until mid-November. Kurt will remain with the boat to oversee the project, while Nancy flies up to Seattle to visit Korum, Jherek, Sara and all our friends up there. She'll return to Ensenada on November 9 to help prepare the boat for launch. We SHOULD be back in the water by the 15th and then we'll start our trip toward Zihuatenejo for Christmas.