We came back to the boat mid-Dec after finishing up the two houses back in Seattle and leaving them in the capable hands of our property manager (units are now live on Air BnB: Modern Treehouse and Retro Retreat), wrapping up work, and dealing with everything else that comes along with quitting your land life for a few years. We arrived back at Ophelia exhausted and in need of some rest.
We spent about a week in LA doing a few projects including replacing the propane solenoid, changing engine oil, washing the boat, re-bedding a leaking porthole, stockpiling zincs, stockpiling oils, stockpiling lubes, stockpiling one of everything from West Marine since it was walking distance to the boat. It was cold in LA and we were wearing our warmest cloths. Eager to get out of there, we set off for a 100nm motor to San Diego late at night in dense fog. Swell was larger than we were expecting and we both immediately got sea sick and had no food prepared to eat. Dolphins came to play in our wake and swam right up against the stern of the boat. Jesse threw up on them. Hopefully they forgive us and don’t tell their friends down the coast to stay away.
Finding favorable winds for our transit down the US Pacific coast was a big loss overall. When we and the boat were ready to move, the wind wasn’t going in the direction we wanted or wasn’t blowing at all. We could have waited, but we wanted to get to the better sailing grounds of Mexico instead of sitting around US ports waiting for better weather windows that may never have come – so we motored on.
San Diego was a blast. We got a cheap slip in Mission Bay, spent time with friends enjoying the city, caught a ballet, caught an emo Christmas show, did a few more boat projects (water maker here we COME!), celebrated our 2 yr anniversary sponsored by Lucy and George (such clever dogs sending us drinks at a bar across the town and down the coast), turned Jake and Bailey’s house into a shipping and mail services center, and stockpiled even more supplies and spares including a Costco run for all the honey and maple syrup.
We took a road trip to Ensenada to get the expired TIP (temporary import permit) on our boat canceled, a huge relief. I had never walked across the US/Mexico boarder and it was quick on the way into Mexico. We found excellent coffee right across the boarder in Tijuana, and then picked up a rental car to drive to Ensenada a few hours South. We dropped off our paperwork to get the TIP canceled, stumbled into an top notch breakfast spot, and then drove back to Tijuana. Getting back across the boarded to the US was another story – The line was wrapping around city blocks and didn’t budge an inch for the first 30min we waited. I started to wonder if the whole boarder was closed. But shortly after we considered abandoning the crossing attempt, the line moved forward and we made it through shortly after.
For Christmas day we brunched, walked the Pacific Beach boardwalk, and got day passes to the resort next to the marina to enjoy the pool. We raced each other down the water slides (I won every time by a landslide) and wowed the other guests with our crazy plans to sail around the Pacific. We were getting ready to get out of San Diego.
Jesse ran around town making a few last minute purchases: a spearfishing set up and wing foil gear.
Ophelia Offshore 
Leave a note in the logbook