Sailing San Diego to Ensenada

Estamos en Mexico! Our plans in San Diego kept evolving – based on shifting weather windows, where we could stay for free and for how long, what we felt we needed to get done before going to Mexico, and what our priorities for recreation in San Diego were. We made reservations with Baja Naval for the whole period of the 17th through the 26th of October, but when the wind was showing to be slow, shifty, and on our nose the whole way, we told them we likely would not arrive before the 23rd. They said no problem, just call before you arrive…

Left the dock at Silver Gate Yacht Club in San Diego at 10:30 on 10/18, docked at Cruiseport Village at 08:14 on 10/19.

When a weather window opened up unexpectedly – with great wind for the 18th and then expecting to motor well within our capacity for the morning, we decided to get on the water. We called Baja Naval to confirm and… they had someone else in the slip. We were already two hours in to our sail when we got the news and out of signal, so we busted out Starlink and started calling for alternatives. Thankfully, Ensenada Cruiseport Village had room for us, and the manager Octavio was wonderful. In less than three hours, we had confirmation and even a nice dock map with our specific slip highlighted. By 15:30, we could relax and just enjoy the sail.

After that point, it was a beautifully uneventful sail. The wind picked up through the afternoon towards sunset, so we maintained a consistent 4.5 knots + speed over ground with the main and genoa up. About an hour before sunset, wind speeds were getting closer to 20 knots, and the best course had us knocking in the swell, so we dropped the main to get a better downwind course. At those speeds, our ETA dropped as early as 23:45! But by 8 p.m., the wind was low enough that we did our battery math. 48v starting at 65% of a 380 amp hour system (247 amp hours), motored on average using 5.7 amps per hour. We could maintain that speed for 10 hours and still only get down to 50%, so there was room to speed up and keep a 2 knot SOG minimum.

There were few other boats out at night, just a few faraway cruise ships, and the first crab pots and pongas did not show up until nautical twilight in Bahia Todos Santos.

Charles took first watch – heard and smelled a whale, saw dolphins in the bioluminescence, and got 15 minutes of fog so thick he couldn’t even see the bow. I took second watch, got stars and bioluminescence and fish, had an hour of soaking fog, and enjoyed the twinkling of the lights on land. All night was motor sailing, with the motor on 90% of the time, and the genoa dragged out any time it could be useful.

Sunrise over Bahia Todos Santos was beautiful, and getting into the marina was easier than I expected. A Cruiseport Village employee met us on the dock to grab a line and take our paperwork up to the office to start processing. The cost for 5 days at ~$2.15 a foot was just a little less than their monthly rate of $479, so we opted for a whole month, however much we use the flexibility is nice. The dock manager Octavio took us to the Harbormaster’s Office (Ensenada Cruisport Village includes this service in your slip fee), where we got our immigration and TIP done quickly. We finished docking at 08:14, and were back at the boat with all paperwork done by 09:50.

Next steps: sleep and tacos.