Finally Heading North

When you need diesel fuel in San Juanico, Antonio Camacho is the man to see. Our new friend, Juan, picked us up on the beach, and then he hauled us and our fuel cans to Antonio's "gas station. Once back to the beach, we were able to dinghy the fuel back to Sea Story for refueling.

When, after six days in San Juanico the wind finally let up at bit, we made a sunrise departure from our comfortable anchorage for an uncomfortable, sometimes rough trip up to Turtle Bay where we arrived at dusk the next day. After a quick refuel, an equally quick re-provisioning trip to town and short overnight rest, we took advantage of the decreasing winds and motored north, hoping to at least make it to the well protected anchorage at San Quintin.

Actually we made it all the way up to Ensenada before the next gale moved in and held us there overnight. Unfortunately, the short stay at Marina Baja Naval was unexpectedly when we became the latest victim of a thief who likes to steal laptops off boats berthed there. After the fact, we learned he had scored at least two other computers in as many weeks; bad news for an otherwise attractive marina with good facilities and equally good service.

The next day, we got an upgraded weather report that had us setting sail at midnight and steaming for San Diego as fast as we could. At 10:00 the next morning, we crossed into US waters and were met by a Coast Guard patrol boat. They politely inquired about our crew's nationality, our last port of call and our destination before they headed out to intercept someone else.

After checking in with customs, we got a berth at the San Diego Police Dock on Shelter Island, one of my favorite berths in southern California. Once safely on the dock, we cleaned up the boat and all three of us booked flights to our disparate locations; Jim heading back to a potential snowstorm in Minnesota, Connie to Davis in time for yet another trip down to Monterey for a golfing holiday, and Florida for my visit to an old friend with some serious health issues.

The next chapter for Sea Story will be the rest of the trip up to San Francisco. We will have a new crew when we leave San Diego on the 10th, and yet another crew when we head out of Santa Barbara on the 13th. More on that next week.....