Ensenada, settling into boat ownership

Marina Coral

We began to find our rhythm in Ensenada. We knew where to find the best fish taco, we had our juice guy, and we had our boat to work on!

Best way to start the day, with a fresh juice! (and if you're feeling brave add some cactus)

First thing to do was inventory

Where did I put that screwdriver again?

Next, we needed to outfit the boat. Thankfully Ely, Jim's wife suggested we visit 'Los Globos', an area of 'segundos', second hand shops. These thrift shops are stocked with things brought from the US, donated or taken from the sidewalk. Most items are priced from a few cents to about twenty dollars. We saved a lot of money this way and it was fun finding treasures and happiness in things that were perfectly useful and functional and beautiful and that others deemed to be junk.

Outfitting the galley

Mark at the Segundos

Sometimes we would get back to the boat and throw stuff out if it wasn't right "After all, it was only 30 pesos!" we would laugh all the way to the rubbish bin. Some of my great finds include a 'Le Creuset' teapot, a set of cast iron pans, a mismatched collection of finely engraved old-fashioned cutlery, tools, picture frames and three different globes.

Mark managed to reconnect with his old employer and was lucky to negotiate a part time deal. So, once a week he would drive up to San Diego for work. He would come home with trolleys full of gear for the boat, and always food- organic milk, cheese, sour dough bread, berries- all luxury foods to us since they are hard to find in Mexico.

 Finding a balance between 'real world' work and boat work was difficult at times, but yet amongst all the work he managed to score himself some modeling work, as the marina's poster boy!

Meanwhile, I kept busy with odd jobs. I gave the bathrooms a fresh coat of paint, built some shelves to create extra storage, and fixed and replaced the upholstery.

Painting the heads... and the drop cloth (woops!)

I got this!

But the biggest job was re-bedding the windows to fix leaks. Sanding back the wood, varnishing the frames, getting new glass cut, using silicone to re-bed the glass into the frame and then sealing it back in place. That job took a couple of months and we ended up sailing up to San Diego without our windows back in place! Bad move- YES, but we took a risk and it worked out.

I celebrated my birthday with some delicious Camaron (prawns) Rancheros for breakfast, followed by a margarita at Hussong's. Outside there happened to be a wine festival going on, so we walked around, drank some Sangria and watched the grape stomping competition.

We had some visitors too. First my parents, Florence and Alain came to help us out on our maiden voyage. It was the first time mum and I had been sailing together since I was a baby!

A two year old Layla with mumzy Florence

Alain holds onto the sissy bars

Alain brought us an inflatable SUP, and gave us a few pointers. This SUP will also serve as our back-up dinghy when we are anchored but don't want to hoist the dinghy. Perfect.

Sampling foods (one of our favorite family past times) was of course what we did! After all, we are French non? So we visited the Guadeloupe Valley, wine region of Baja California, where they have some amazing restaurants. On a friend's recommendation we went to La Finca Altozano, and were not disappointed!

Guadeloupe Valley, wine country

We hit the fish market where we tried the classic fish taco...

    

We also had some lobster at Porto Nuevo,

but we always had to leave room for dessert with Alain around!

Churros

After all that food (and a little Aztec 2 Step), it was time to call it a day.

Thanks for visiting!

Pretty soon after, Marks mum, Sandy came all the way to visit us from Boston! It was my first time meeting Marks mum, and we had a great time together. Sandy loves the water, so we spent some time at the marina Jacuzzi with a few cocktails!

We also went to Rosarito and enjoyed a day at the beach.

We visited the Bufadora (Blowhole), and walked through the markets there,

On Sandy's last day, we took SV Timoneer out for a sail. Our friend Rae-anne also hopped on at the last minute. We sailed to Isla Todos Santos and back.

Marks friend, Burkey also came for a visit. We went on a fishing trip and caught mostly little red snapper and Mark caught a decent Ling Cod, which we cooked up at home. Interestingly the flesh is blue but this colour disappeared when I turned it into a curry.

At the local market we admired the Mexican sweets and I found a Frida Khalo inspired necklace,

which then inspired me to dress up as Frida for Halloween! How lucky we were to be in Mexico for

 Los Dias De Muertos (Day of the Dead). We hadn't planned our costumes, so Mark ripped up one of our boat 'rags' and went as a ghost. We hit the clubs with our friends Randy and Melinda, and admired peoples' costumes.

 Randy talked me into going diving with Great White sharks. He was working on a boat and hooked me up with some work too! I was scared hopping into the cage alone and it didn't help when the dive masters poured a bucket of chum over my head!

And then suddenly BOOM! My US visa arrived. This meant we could finally cross over into the US. No more commuting for Mark!

After 5 months in Mexico, it was time to leave. The day before we set sail for San Diego, Ensenada hosted the Baja 1000. With our friends Linda and Gary, we watched from the sidelines as trucks sped past spraying us with fuel. Only in Mexico could you watch a race this closely! People were constantly running across the track and cheering each-other on as they risked their lives doing so.

at the Baja 1000 with Linda and Gary

                    

               

 We felt very grateful for our time in Mexico, but it was time to go. By the light of a full moon, we made our way out of the bay and headed for San Diego.