Sailing to Ensenada

I've had an itch to travel lately. So when a Canadian sailboat was blown into my home harbor, and their crew jumped ship because it was "too rough", I knew what I had to do.

The captain and his wife needed someone to help them sail south. I told them I would be willing join them. I knew nothing about sailing, but I was eager to learn and ready for adventure. I would be joining Michael and Rayana aboard the SV Emma, a 42 foot fiberglass sloop.

The first leg of the trip was from Noyo Harbor to Ensenada. The first few nights we were pounded with high seas. The boat rolled and water sloshed in over the decks. I spent 12 hours a day watching the decks. I wore a waterproof jumper with a harness that I kept clipped into the boat at all times. It was cold, wet, and sometimes terrifying.

I practiced tying knots, studied nautical slang, and read books in my downtime.

— From Journal Entries —

My trip has been going well thus far. I have been in Ensenada for the last 10 days, which has been much nicer than I thought it would be. The people are so kind , and the food is great! I have been staying on the boat with the captain and his wife in a marina on the main strip of town.

It is quite a touristy area, but I have been surprised to find that there are much more Mexican tourists than Americans. The tourist area of the town is well marked - all the sidewalks are kept clean, there are security guards, water fountains with frolicking kids, live music, food stands, a larger than life Mexican flag, boat rides, a train that runs up and down, and stunning views of the port.

The landscape changes when a Carnival cruise ships docks for the day. Then town crawls with white people for about 6 hours, until the ship honks its horn before dark and they all are gone in an eye blink - whereupon it returns to the local scene. It makes me feel almost like a local compared to the rest of the US visitors.

I have been running for an hour every morning, which has been good for me. I even joined a 6k race the other day! It was amazing how many people entered. I didn't come in first, but I definitely should of won the award for 'tallest racer' . There must have been almost a thousand people there. It was free to enter and I got a free shirt. Pretty good deal.

I have been thinking a lot about running lately (sparked by an excellent book that I read, 'Born to Run') and I want to get into longer distances. First I need to relearn how to run in a more efficient way. So naturally , I tried to go for an hour barefoot today (half was on the sidewalk / street, half on the beach) . Now I'm limping because of blisters on my toes. The idea is that if your feet are hurting while running barefoot, you are striking the ground too hard and in the the wrong way. Judging by how my feet feel now, I have a lot of work relearning to do.

Tomorrow we set off for Cabo San Lucas. We might stop at a few anchorages a long the way to snorkel and wind surf, but we will probably try to get down as fast as we can. Hopefully the winds will be good!