15.11.2004 Ensenada, Mexico
Five days in Mexico and so far we have enjoyed a lot! It's good to get out of the western culture time to time. Our first impression of Mexico: relaxed atmosphere, friendly people, tasty food.
We arrived to the harbour of Ensenada during the night between Tuesday and Wednesday. We anchored among ten other cruising boats. The passage from San Diego was good, NW wind round 15 knots, boat speed 5-6 knots. The last few hours we had to motor since the wind died. 
Ensenada is located in the Bay of Todos Santos. We were in the middle of the bay, when we saw in the radar someone coming close to us. It was a boat without lights. It passed very close. Soon the spot in the radar started to approach us again. We saw also with the binoculars that a boat was surging towards us. It stopped just behind and lighted us with very powerful spotlight. Nothing had been said in VHF. Then the light went off and the boat turned. Everything happened so quickly that we didn't even have time to be scared. Probabaly they were looking for drugs or something.
In the morning we went to clear in. A Canadian sailor, Greg, was frindly to show us all the offices - immigration, port captain and a bank. In the port captain's office they asked for an insurance, how nice it was to show the document! So we didn't waste our money (see the previous update). On the other hand, we don't know what would have happened, if we hadn't had insurance. Formalities were done in an hour (583 pesos which is about 50 US dollars) and we were free to explore the town. Our first real Mexican burritos tasted delicious and the price wasn't bad, about 3 US dollars. From the street stalls you can get really inexpensive meals.

Marina Baja Naval. Behind it is the anchorage. 
Cruising ships visit Ensenada regularly.

We spent three nights in anchor, then we moved in to marina Baja Naval, because the price different between anchoring + dinghy dock, and a marina slip wasn't great. In addition, we have bikes again, thanks to Sylvie and Jean, who gave us their bikes in San Diego. Transporting the bicycles with the dinghy every day would have been troublesome.
It costs 5 dollar per day to anchor in the harbor. To tie the dinghy, you choose one of the many small docks/marinas. The cheapest is 3 dollars, the most expensive is 11 (actually 5.50 per person), but for that price you can use shower. You can pay either in US dollars or Mexican pesos.
On Saturday we bicycled to fleemarket outside the citycentre. We found a backpack to replace Auli's 20 years old, well served one. They also sold fruits and vegetables at the market. We bought a couple of papayas (1.40 US) and an agave leaf. It should be good to high bloodpressure. If I understood correctly the Spanish explanation, you cut the agave and eat it with salt and lime, for instance with bread. We tried with avocado, it has very mild taste. On the fish market we were not so lucky. Not knowing the local fish or their names (except tuna, barracuda, mahi-mahi) we ended up buying something which wasn't so tasty. Well, we have to try another kind next time.

The men scratched the spines off before selling the agave.

On Saturday evening we went to town and it turned out to be the right moment: the oldest bar in Ensenada was celebrating its 140th birthday. The party was going on outside at the street because all didn't fit inside. And it probably went on early into next morning, but the generous tequila shots were too much for beginners, and we left at ten.

On Wednesday we'll leave Ensenada and spend a few weeks outside the towns. The next town will be Mazatlan, since we will most likely skip Cabo San Lucas.

23.11.2004 Bahia de Tortugas, Mexico
The 300-mile passage to Bahia de Tortugas, Turtle Bay, went with conditions from calm to good wind. First we had one totally calm day, then one day with perfect wind, and the third day between these two. On the second day we hoisted mizzen and mizzen staysail and made 7 knots. But still we saw a sail in the horizon coming gradually closer, which woke up our racing instincts. That didn't last long, the staysail broke and we lost one knot of our speed. However, the defeat turned out to victory (and to a big amazement) when the boat was passing: it was motoring! The beautifully shaped sailing vessel had genoa up, but the main was reefed and tightened in the middle. The boat was motoring in 15 knots beam wind. Well, well.
We stopped on the tiny island of San Martin, which is inhabited by the sea lions - until their death. The beach was full of sea lion bones and sculls. A longer expedition inland was prevented by thick wall of spiny vegetation. It's ingredible how many different kind of plants survive in the dry soil.

First time during our three and half years trip - or more precisely, during the whole existence of Kristiina - the engine cooling system got blocked. The reason was kelp, which is floating plentiful on the sea surface. We tried to open the pipe with air pressure (dinghy pump, ineffective), then with an iron stick (too thin). Finally a railing wire opened the block. The plumbing work took about half an hour. After a while the engine started to warm up again and water didn't run properly, but this time cleaning the filter from the kelp was enough.

Bahia de Tortugas, a village of 4000 inhabitants on the mid-Baja California, is a popular stop among cruisers for three reasons: there is no port captain i.e. no paper hassle; it provides an all-weather anchorage; and you can get fuel. The first eager diesel seller came to us before we even had anchor down, in the darkness of 10 pm. We didn't need fuel, but the 2-3 vendors have been busy with coming and going boats. The village seems to get a good deal of its livelihood from the visiting vessels. A sardine cannery was closed 8 years ago, leaving most of the people unemployed. There are only two fishing vessels in the bay, so it's not a fishing village. There are about 20 cruisers anchored in the bay, the daily change is about 5 vessels. The village has several small stores and an internet. You can have an expensive shower in the hotel (50 pesos!).

The village is covered with dust. Only some brightly painted walls distinct from the overall colour of dust, greyish-brown. It probably rains very seldom. The only green spots are planted trees and bushes, in addition many have pot plants. Every house has a fenche - and you should see the materials! Pieces of wood, plywood, tin sheets, tyres, bricks. We even saw a fence-embankment made of used fridges. Every yard has a barking dog or two, some have chickens. Children are shy and smiling, shouting 'hola gringo' when we pass. There are houses of every sort, from large, painted stone residences to plywood huts that look more like kids' playhouses than real homes.

The most peculiar buildings, however, were found on the cemetery (we were taking an evening walk without camera, so you have to be content with a written description). Instead of gravestones and crosses there we small houses. Though some we bigger than the plywood homes nearby. All the gravehouses were very well kept, tidy, painted and decorated. There were wooden doors with carvings and golden knobs, different shapes of glasswindows, glasspaintings, brick decorations, statues, and of course crosses and pictures of the Holy Madonna. Inside the house - those we could see in - was the grave tomb and a lot of flowers and decorations. Most of the Mexicans are Roman Catholic. Maybe this is a normal way, but for us it was new and most special graveyard since the Tongan sand piles.

There is a shortage of building material,  so anything goes.

Our plan has changed a bit: we are going to sail directly from here to the mainland, to Puerto Vallarta, about 700 miles away. But let's see where we find us next. Hasta proxima!

The weather was perfect for drying fish: thin slices are soaked
in soya and hanged to a rope

One morning, just after the sun rise, a minke whale was visiting us. About ten metres long, slim baleen whale was rounding Kristiina for an hour. It came close, turned sideways so that we saw the whitish belly, swam a bit away and came up to breathe. This was repeated several times. Every time the whale came a bit closer and turned sideways when it was next to the boat. To see us? Probably whales are able to see above the surface as they are able to see under water. Some times the whale was behind us, some times on either side. Then it dived under the boat, sideways. The strong and musculous tail was pedaling slowly. The whale came up to the surface and departed.

The mizzen staysail has been up a lot. It increases the speed with one knot.
 Also the spinnaker was used a few times on the passage
 Bahia de Tortugas - Puerto Vallarta.

The pink bridge joins two houses, that belonged to Richard Burton and Elisabeth Taylor. Burton bought the houses when he was making the movie The nights of iguana. And there are some iguanas here:

Colourful craftswork of the Huichol indians.

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