Underway to Ensenada

It’s 01:00 and we are under way from San Diego to Ensenada.  We left Chula Vista at 13:30 and headed up the bay to the Police dock.  The idea was to get up the bay in daylight and then wait until 7 pm or so to leave for Ensenada.  It’s a little over 60 miles and we are in no rush so we should get there at first light.  Cathy took the first watch to midnight and we were close hauled in 15-20 knots.  We charged along.  Come midnight when I came on watch, the wind died and so we motor along.  The win d was from the NE but has switched around to the south.  Rumour has it there is a bit of a blow building in the next few days so we will likely stay in Ensenada through the weekend. 

Chula Vista was great.  Again, the welcome we had was great and new friendships made.  Ah, the cruising life, make friends quickly and say farewell a short time later.  The ocean’s are getting smaller though and I have no doubt that we will run into many of the people we have met somewhere downwind (well hopefully DOWN wind but so far NOT!!).

We spent the last two weeks of December in Ontario doing the work and family thing.  Work is now done for at least the next year.  I gave up the authorship of my course as I can not in good conscience keep it up if I’m not teaching it. Family Christmas was good.  We stayed with Cathy’s brother Alan and his wife and son.  Her mom was there for a couple of nights as well so we got a good long visit.  It could be awhile before we see them again.  We have plans for 2008 but as with all things to do with sailing, plans are subject to much change.  Who really knows what 2008 will actually bring.

I just checked the wind and it has now officially died no wind at all.  Oh well, we did sail half way, better than nothing.  We have managed to get comfortable with the wind vane.  Cathy only had to tweak a couple of times to keep us on course and as the control line is in the cockpit, it’s nice and easy.  We have a really hi-tech system, a cheap piece of purple (that’s why it was cheap) line, run through a block that’s tensioned with a couple of turns of bungee cord.  Sometimes the simple ways work best.  Throughout the whole process of getting wind steering for Tarun, we had so many different opinions.  “Oh, you have a centre cockpit well, you don’t want one with control lines, that’ll never work”.  Then the other side, well, ”boats are made to steer from their own rudder so if you bolt an auxiliary steering system in the stern you put to much pressure on a part of the boat not designed for it”.  At the end of the day, they all work well and we got the Monitor used from friends for a very fair price.  Everything seems to be working OK on Tarun for the moment so hopefully the only expenses we will have in the next couple of months will be for fresh food.