It’s a beautiful sunny day here in San Diego. The temp is in the 70’s and there isn’t a cloud in the sky. For the past 4 nights we’ve enjoyed the hospitality of the San Diego Yacht Club located on Shelter Island. They have some great facilities including a hot tub we enjoy at night and a salt water pool for lounging during the day.
This area is sort of a Mecca for the cruising sailor. There are sail lofts, marine stores, and countless other shops conveniently located within walking distance. Pretty much every boat headed to Mexico stops here for provisions and parts before crossing the border. You can definitely spend a lot of time (and money) here. We wanted to do a major provisioning run so we decided to share a rental car with Petter and Octavia on Bella Marina since they’re just a few docks over. In a 13 hour shopping marathon we visited Fry’s Electronics, Wal-Mart, Costco, Walgreens, PetSmart, Trader Joe’s, Von’s, and had lunch at In-N-Out. We filled the mini-van to the roof twice with mostly non-perishable and frozen items that will last us a really long time. We ended up buying a 12 month supply of food and litter for Mishka that should hopefully last until we get to New Zealand. I know it sounds a bit extreme- after all they do have cats all over the world but we’d rather spend our time diving and surfing rather than tracking down a bag of Persian Blend 30.
The abundance of parts here has allowed us to take care of some much needed boat projects. Our water maker is once again producing delicious fresh water , the Optoma HD 65 projector is showing movies again, and we even splurged for new stereo speakers for the salon. Things are coming together quickly and we’re zeroing in on a good day to make the 60 mile jump to Ensenada to check into Mexico.
Our plan is to hop down the Baja Coast making stops in Turtle Bay and Magdelena bay before turning the corner at Cabo San Lucas and heading into the Sea of Cortez. It’s just over 700 miles from San Diego to Cabo. From what we’ve heard Cabo is expensive and touristy with a rolly anchorage so we’ll keep on going in favor of another anchorage about 20 miles to the north.