Many people have asked us why they should buy our book if they can read our blog for free. Just like Part 1, the book is very different from the blog. Here are a few of the differences between the two:

• Prologue: Picks up where the Prologue of Part 1 left off. It focuses primarily on the research we did as we planned for our journey and addresses the majority of the questions we were most frequently asked.
• Several new stories from the journey – And there are some really good ones!
• Many details have been added that were best left undisclosed while we were still on the journey (sometimes we didn’t want our parents worrying about us; sometimes we didn’t want to incriminate ourselves!)
• In Retrospect sections with great insights — so you can see the situation through the eyes of a newbie as we learn, while simultaneously seeing the same situation through the eyes of experience.
• Streamlined stories – some complained our posts were too long and detailed, the book is a condensed version they will enjoy more.
• Formatting is first person, through Christi’s eyes – Some complained they didn’t like the third person format, so they will enjoy the book more.
• Actual dates on each post. On the blog, the dates are not real time, which is a significant piece of information for anyone hoping to follow in our footsteps.
• All profits will go to our cruising fund. The more books we sell, the sooner you can start reading about our next journey! So, buy one and get all your friends to buy one, too!

People have also asked us why we broke the series up into four books instead of only three. We had very different experiences in each of the four world regions, so it was best for each region to have its own volume.

• In the South Pacific, Part 1, we spent most of our time in sparsely populated areas communing with nature. And we did a lot of rough sea time, learning about boating the hard way.
•  In Asia, Part 2, we were mostly in densely populated areas building cultural bridges. Our sea experiences were also different from the Pacific, with both our best and worst passages occurring in this region.

• Prologue: How we formed the dream and the early planning stages.
• The entire 21 day passage from San Diego to Nuka Hiva has been re-written. At that point, the blog was in real time and we didn’t want people to worry about us. But the truth was that it was tough!
• Many new stories from the journey – And there are some really good ones!
• In Retrospect sections with great insights — so you can see the situation through the eyes of a newbie as we learn, while simultaneously seeing the same situation through the eyes of experience.
• Streamlined stories – some complained our posts were too long and detailed, and the book is a condensed version they will enjoy more.
• Formatting is first person, through Christi’s eyes – Some complained they didn’t like the third person format, so they will enjoy the book more.
• Actual dates on each post. On the blog, the dates are not real time, which is a significant piece of information for anyone hoping to follow in our footsteps.
• All profits will go to our cruising fund. The more books we sell, the sooner you can start reading about our next journey! So, buy one and get all your friends to buy one, too!

Q: What is the exact cost of cruising, and why will no one will tell me?

A: We briefly addressed this in FAQ #26 and on this post, but since the question keeps coming up, we’ll try to be more explicit. When we were trying to budget, we were also frustrated at the lack of hard numbers for costs. But, now we understand why. There are many factors that can affect/change the costs.

First, nothing will dominate more than the cost of the boat. Not just the purchase price, but the maintenance and repair costs. We think the rule of thumb estimate that it costs 10% of the boat value for maintenance and repair is a very rough number. If you buy a 60 year old, 60 foot wooden hull for $15,000, you will for sure spend more than $1,500 a year in maintenance and repairs. On the flip side, we have a three year old, solidly built boat, and we spend nowhere close to 10% of our purchase price on maintenance and repair.

The older the boat, the more likely you will need to spend on maintenance & repairs. That means you need to increase your boat cost budget for each and every year you plan to be out. We can attest that Kosmos does cost money to keep, but once again, at three years old we still haven’t hit the 10% mark.

What tends to go wrong on boats is fairly predictable, as are the maintenance needs. You should be able to realistically figure out what your boat will need over time and plan accordingly. Also remember that outside the US, boat parts are generally VERY expensive, so if you will be cruising outside the US, quadruple the estimated cost of each part.

The cost of insurance is directly tied to your boat, as well (see FAQ #26).

Likewise, the amount of fuel you will use is directly tied to your boat. The more fuel your boat burns, the more the fuel cost. We used about 11,800 gallons of fuel. On a 47, we probably would have used more like 17,000 gallons of fuel. Your route and generator use also impact fuel costs. How many miles is your route? Do you have a lot of goodies on board that use power, and will thus need to run the generator often?

While amount of fuel can be predictably gauged, fuel cost is more of a wild card. Fuel prices are volatile. We saw fuel increase in price by about 100%. And, fuel prices also vary from country to country, so today fuel prices will be X in the US today but Y in Oman today. So, once again, the route you choose will affect what you pay for fuel.

Another wild card is the exchange rates. Sometimes it can work in your favor, sometimes not. For example, we saw the Euro go from 1:1 to 1:1.6 while we were out. We were unlucky in that regard world wide.

Costs vary drastically based on where you choose to cruise, which once again goes back to route planning. Some countries are cheap. Some are very expensive. We can only tell you which countries are cheap or expensive, you have to decide how much time you want to spend at each spot.

Likewise, how you choose to travel makes all the difference. If you choose to stay in anchorages, cook food aboard, stick with inexpensive locally produced foods, and don’t partake in a lot of activities that cost money, your budget will go a lllooonnnggg way. But, if you want to stay in a marina, rent a car to go to a cool tourist spot, pay for the tourist activity, and then eat out three meals because you were away from the boat all day and couldn’t cook, you could easily rack up $300 per day.

The best advice we can offer is to do research. Research the boat you want and the realistic problems you can expect. Research where you want to go and what realistic costs are. Remember your lifestyle isn’t going to change. If you like to eat out now, you’ll still like to eat out while traveling. If you like nicer things now, you’ll like nicer things traveling. If you drink heavily now, you will drink twice as much while traveling (maybe more) and booze is usually disproportionately expensive in most countries. If you think you are going to live a much more meager life while traveling than you do at home, think again. Chances are you will be unhappy if you try to drastically cut your lifestyle down too much.

Always estimate high on costs, and then pad your budget by 25%. We used every penny we had budgeted, pad and all, and then some. But, we also had the attitude that we only had two years of a “break from life” before we would go back to work and make more money, so we made the most of the time we had, including springing for tours, eating out, and other activities many cruisers choose to skip. Had we been more frugal, we probably would have had some money left. It is all about personal choices.

We were joined by a journalist from Circumnavigator for the trip down. We pulled out as soon as she arrived. We actually had to fight the instinct to go north or west, and instead turned south. We used the never used in 2 years “reverse route” feature of the plotter to set a reciprocal course back to San Diego. Going back on our previous course seems wrong. Our plotter draws a red line where we have been. By definition of our circumnavigation the red line has always been behind us. Now we were following the red line.

Right away, we realized the automatic stabilizer system wasn’t working. Oh no! Had the Nordhavn repair guys broken something while they were doing the work to the boat? It was odd because the entire system that was offline, not just an individual fin.

Anyway, the seas were calm and following, so there was no need to put the paravanes down, and we made the ride without stabilization. The ride was pleasant and we made excellent speeds, doing over 7 the entire time and at one point getting to 8.1 knots. It is so nice to go with following seas! Also were particularly light in weight, with less than 175 gallons of fuel. We never would take off from a port that low on fuel.

While we were riding along, a passing boat hailed us. It turns out the guy was interested in buying a Nordhavn and has read our site. Wow. Kind of crazy! This is the third time we have randomly bumped into a blog reader. We met one in Panama and one in Huatulco. It is really weird to have a total stranger say “Hey! I know you!”, but weird in a good way.

After we arrived back, Eric was doing some standard checking in the engine room. He noticed a little bit of oil in the main engine’s coolant. Uh oh. Right away, he knew what the problem was. Some of the transmission cooler o-rings have gone bad and are not keeping the oil and coolant separated. It seems to be a problem on all this engine when they get to about the 3 year old mark, so he actually has been watching for it.

It seriously feels like Kosmos knew. She knew she had to get us home, and she held off on serious problems until we were home. She knows it is ok to break now because we are done traveling and it is easy to fix all the problems here in San Diego.

On Thursday, Eric finally started work for real. He has gone back to his same job, and there was an enormous pile of work waiting for him, including an important project with a looming deadline. There will be no easing into work life for him. He literally has to hit the ground running. He put in long days on both Thursday and Friday.

On Saturday, Eric woke up feeling like he was coming down with a cold. Wow. His immune system must be down from the last cold he got while we were in Greece. Eric tried to go to a conference on Saturday and a boat show today, but, since he wasn’t feeling well, didn’t spend much time at either.

Christi has been trying to get caught up on blogs. She is several weeks behind in writing. She also has been working on wrapping up all the loose ends in life that we couldn’t really deal with while we were gone, things like sending the defective camera back to Olympus, disputing overcharges on bills from months ago, and dealing with residual paperwork regarding her business that is still haunting her.

Look forward to more Q&A, stay tuned!

Trip Duration
Overall Time: 2 years, 2 days (733 days, 2008 was leap year).
Days at sea/days on land: 199/534 = 27% time at sea

Boat Numbers
Average speed entire trip: 6 knots
Engine Hours: 4,774
Generator hours: 1,902
Nautical Miles: 28,940 (33,821 statute miles, 53,539 kilometers)
Diesel consumed: ~11,800 US gallons, 44,600 liters
Main engine failures: None

Passages
Number of passages 7 days or longer: 8 (3 alone, 5 with crew)
Guests that did passages with us: 14 (counting the overnight guests on the Panama Canal transit)
Longest non-stop passage just the two of us: 10.33 days from Oman to Egypt
Longest passage with crew: 21 Days, San Diego to Nuka Hiva (second place was 20 days from the Canary Islands to Guadeloupe)
Largest waves encountered: ~18 feet (South Pacific)
% time at gale winds (34-40 knot): ~0.5%
% time at calm winds (0-4 knots): ~5%
% time active fin stabilizers run: 99%
% time paravanes deployed (in addition to active fin): 10%

Stops Along the Way
Total Countries/Overseas Territories visited on Kosmos: 33
Total Countries/Overseas Territories visited including land travel: 34
Total stops made with Kosmos: 77
Total places visited including land travel: 111
Average amount of time stayed in a place without moving Kosmos: one week
Longest time without moving Kosmos: 59 days, the first time we went to Aghios Nickolaos, Crete, Greece. Made a 3 week trip to the US and did some extensive land travel in Greece in that time.
Trips back to CA: 2 trips, each lasting 3 weeks, one to help out with family and one to do some work.

New Activities We Experienced
Active Volcanoes
Being an Emergency Medic (Eric)
Elephant Riding
Hawngs
Hitch hiking (Christi)
Land Sailing
Navigating through heavy traffic in busy ports
Parking in a slip not as wide as or boat
Really bad seas
Repairing boat systems
SCUBA diving in deep water, caves and shipwrecks
Segways
Swimming with sharks, dolphins and whales
Touching Komodo Dragons
Transiting Canals
White water rafting (Christi)
Wind Surfing
Zip Lines

Crime & Corruption
Bribes given: One, to transit the Suez Canal in one day. (It is possible some of the agents we used to check in/out of countries paid bribes, but only the one official ever asked us directly for a bribe)
Robberies/Break-In’s: Zero
Pick pocketing: one, when Eric’s phone was lifted in the Cairo Airport
Pirate attacks: Zero

How Many…
Bones did we break?: Eric broke a little toe, none for Christi
Cameras did we destroy?: 5
Cars/scooters did we rent?: 21
SCUBA Dives did Christi do?: 55
SCUBA Dives did Eric do? : 57
People were guests aboard Kosmos: 27
Times did we get sea sick?: mild sickness, lots and lots. Serious sickness, Eric once and Christi none.
Times did we have an ailment bad enough to go to the doctor?: Zero for Eric, two for Christi (though the second time she e-mailed a friend for a diagnosis instead of going in).

To The Best Of Our Knowledge…
We are the fourth smallest power boat to make it around the world, but we think the second smallest boat shouldn’t count because they didn’t have continuous crew.
We are the youngest couple to circumnavigate on a power boat

At first the seas were ugly. Eric was really sick and Christi was green. It is kind of surprising to us how fast we lose our tolerance to the ocean. The longer we sit in port, the more likely we are to be green when we do finally go out again.

The seas slowly but surely calmed down throughout the night, and by dawn it was pretty darn flat outside. It was foggy out. Not so foggy that there was no visibility, but foggy enough that we couldn’t see the mountainous Mexican coastline at all. And we were running pretty close to shore.

We got to the US border at around 0900. We were expecting a coast guard cutter to be sitting on the border, ready to question us, but nothing was around except a fishing boat. All was quiet. On a clear day, you can see Point Loma from the border, but because of the fog, we couldn’t see it until almost 1100. We couldn’t see downtown until we were almost all the way to Point Loma.

We made a quick detour over to the outermost channel marker buoys. Two years ago we had videotaped ourselves leaving, and took footage of the markers. Now we were taking the same footage, but coming from the other direction. We turned into the channel for San Diego bay. Our San Diego to San Diego world circumnavigation was now officially complete. The journey is now officially over.

We had often wondered exactly how we would feel at this second. Would we be sad, glad, excited? But, surprisingly, we were both pretty mellow and totally unemotional. Maybe it was because we were tired from only 2 hours of sleep. But the lack of emotion was definitely more than just being tired. The glow and euphoria of completing the circumnavigation had faded after a few days in Ensenada.

In all honesty, at that second, it felt more like we had been in Ensenada for a 10 day vacation and that we were heading back to San Diego to go back to the usual work routine, just like we used to do before we left. It felt like we had never done the circumnavigation, that life was still status quo and hadn’t changed for us at all. Everything about this run had felt the same as before. Everything in the bay looked the same as before. It was like we had instantly stepped back into our old life and our old routine. It was kind of surreal.

We pulled in to the channel a little before 1200 and were tied up to the customs dock by 1215. You call the customs office on a phone and give them all your pertinent information, and then they send agents to inspect the boat. It took about an hour for the two customs agents to arrive. When they boarded, they explained that they had already done a background check on us and the boat and had classified us a “low risk”. The paperwork took about 45 minutes. The female agent questioned Christi and the male agent questioned Eric in separate rooms. They asked each of us the same questions separately to make sure we gave the same answers. Then they went through the boat with a little hand held gizmo that detects explosives. We asked what they do for people who aren’t “low risk” and were told they bring dogs and sometimes will confiscate the boat and tear it apart. Lovely.

We can honestly say that these agents were probably the strictest we have encountered in the entire world. They had no sense of humor. They emanated an aura that said “we’re going to find what you are hiding and bust you”. We’ve never had any feeling like that before anywhere else in the world. Even when we have encountered curt officials with no sense of humor (rare), they usually just want to do their job and leave, they aren’t trying to bust you.

Then we went to or slip and tied up. The first thing we did was get lunch from a favorite local sandwich shop and pick up our mail. Next, we went to a car dealership to buy a car. Eric had long ago chosen what he wanted. Since diesel had served us so well around the world, we got a 2009 Jetta turbo diesel.

We went over to Coronado to check out the dock where our “welcoming” was going to be tomorrow. They have been rebuilt in the time we were gone, so we wanted to make sure they were going to work out OK. The new docks are fine. We managed to stay up until 2200, then crashed hard.

Emotionally, our feelings varied throughout the day. One moment we’d feel like we never left and the journey never happened, at another moment we’d feel like we can’t believe we are home for good. Honestly, in a lot of ways we are having a hard time with the concept that we aren’t going to be traveling anymore. It really hasn’t sunk in yet.

We have to admit that being in San Diego feels good, mostly because it is so comfortable here. In Ensenada we felt like we were wearing an old pair of jeans. Here were feel like we are wearing flannel pajamas.

Two things that are significant to Ensenada happened on the same day, three days ago. One, the news reported for the first time on the Swine Flu outbreak in Mexico City. We are kind of shocked at how out of control the story has gotten in such a short time. You would think the world was ending because a few people got sick. Why does it affect Ensenada? Because the media is warning people not to go to Mexico. Ensenada is thousands of miles from Mexico City and there is not one single case in the entire state of Baja California, but for some reason the entire country has been deemed unsafe. That is a horrible blow Ensenada’s already depressed tourist industry.

The second is traffic signals were installed along the main drag. This was desperately needed. There were crosswalks along the boulevard, but no stop signs or traffic lights. When pedestrians used the crosswalks, it was something of a chicken run and cars often did not stop and would bare right down on the pedestrians. Likewise, when you were driving and wanted to go straight or left, that was also a chicken run. Usually it was easier to make a right and go around the block than it was to try to fight traffic on the road. The lights haven’t been turned on yet, but when they are, it will really help make that road safer for all.

Eric got the bikes out and we have been going out for a ride every day. Ensenada is a great place for the bikes. The outer areas are hilly, but close to downtown it is flat enough land that riding isn’t painful. One day we rode along the boardwalk. We got busted by a cop who told us we had to walk our bikes. Oops! The boardwalk is scenic. Here are a few shots along it.

Interestingly it looked like there was some kind of cheerleading competition going on. There were dozens and dozens of cheerleaders from several different schools walking around along the boardwalk all in full dress. Here and there, we would see a group practicing assorted routines and stunts. It was fun to see.

We went to the northern downtown area, which is even more touristy than the southern end, where the marina is located. Somehow, we never made it that far north last time we had Kosmos here. The northern end is mostly souvenir shops and nightclubs, but visually is just as charming as the southern end is. The big name places, like Hussongs and Senor Frogs, are at this end.

We have also explored more of the city beyond the downtown tourist center, going to restaurants recommended by the locals and to assorted non-tourist businesses as we do our life chores. The rest of Ensenada, visually speaking, is an ordinary looking city with little unique charm. It is not especially clean, nor is it dirty. Few buildings stand out as being either run down or super nice, most are pretty average. And, like the rest of Mexico, there are quite a few half built buildings dotting the town. And we haven’t seen a single military person patrolling at all.

We have had some great food. We have found that non-tourist restaurants have big portions at low prices. One morning we went out to breakfast and had Mexican eggs benedict. Instead of English muffins, there is a tortilla, and instead of hollandaise sauce it is a cilantro cream sauce. Yum. It has the usual poached eggs and ham, of course. Our breakfasts were served with a basket of assorted pastries, which Eric loved. Christi finds Mexican pastries to be too dry for her liking. Here are what Mexican pastries look like:

We had lunch one day at a sushi restaurant with some very creative rolls, using ingredients like spicy mango salsa, bananas and cilantro sauce to jazz up more traditional rolls. They were great.

We went to a mom and pop restaurant that only serves one thing a day, with the menu changing daily. That one thing was chicken enchiladas accompanied with beans, rice, salad and vegetable soup. Man, was it good. Enchiladas are one of Christi’s favorites. Seasoned meat or cheese is wrapped in corn tortillas and smothered in a smooth, spicy sauce, then baked. It is topped with cheese and sour cream. The vegetable soup was clearly made from scratch, with big chunks of assorted vegetables. Mmmm….

We tried chili peppers stuffed with some kind of tuna concoction that were also really good. Chili peppers stuffed with cheese and deep fried are a popular Mexican appetizer, but this is the first time we have seen them stuffed with tuna.

We have hung out with Stephanie and Lance some more, as well as made some new friends in the marina, including a couple who have also circumnavigated (on a sailboat). We have also befriended a couple security guards at the marina, too. We definitely spend a good chunk of our days socializing.

As for chores… we hired someone to wash and wax the boat. He didn’t do the greatest of wax jobs, but he was cheap, so we got what we paid for. The important thing is that he got out all scuff marks from the paravane chain that we got on the run to Nicaragua. It amazes us that no matter how much we beat Kosmos up, she always seems to clean up just fine.

We went to the dentist. The dentist here is cheaper than it is in the states with insurance when you factor in the co-pay and deductible. The cleaning was exactly the same as what we get in the States. We wonder where we can hunt down a dentist who does the amazing hi-tech cleaning like we got in Singapore?

Christi is desperately trying to get caught up on blog writing, knowing she won’t have time once she goes back to work.

We are also taking care of lots of little things that we know we’ll never get to once we are working again. Like what, you ask? Oh, just odds and ends. One example is writing a complaint letter to AT&T to try to get a refund for the phone fees for the last couple of months since she still has no service. Another is looking into plane flights for our upcoming trip to Greece. Yet another was arranging a slip in San Diego.

We are enjoying the slow pace of life here and wish it could last. We are living in first gear right now, and when we get home we will have to jump to fifth gear right away. Now that we have slowed down, we can’t imagine going back to the hectic pace of life we used to live. We know adjusting back to that pace is going to be really hard for us.

We walked by the new construction near the marina and were kind of surprised to see that little is done beyond the frame. This project has been planned for several years now, and grading work had begun while we had Kosmos here. And, come to think of it, the sign was gone. There used to be a big sign saying a museum was going to be built here. We wonder if that means the museum project has been abandoned.

Along the rest of the walk, everything else looked much the same. Several buildings were occupied by different businesses than before, but the buildings still look the same. There are a lot of coffee houses now. Coffee houses must be the new rage.

The restaurant was every bit as good as we remembered it. Eric and Trevor had one of Eric’s favorites, which is a frittata served in a bowl and smothered in a tomato sauce with cactus, red bell pepper (capsicum), black olives, cilantro and green onions. The cactus pieces could easily be mistaken for green bell peppers, though they are more bitter.

Christi tried a new dish, eggs scrambled with shredded manta ray meat, peppers, tomato and onion. We’ve never eaten manta ray before and she thought she’d try something new. It was very fishy.

By the time we got back, the marina office had opened. We went to Kosmos to grab our check in paperwork. As we started down the dock, we saw Stephanie and Lance pulling away from the dock. We went running down the dock, calling out “hi and bye”. They replied that they were getting fuel and would be back soon.

We picked up the paperwork and Eric went to the office to check in. The dock master is gone, but has been replaced with someone who is totally sweet. She went through our paperwork and made sure everything was in order. Then she got a package ready for us to take to the Port Captain’s office.

While Eric was in the office, Trevor packed his bags. He is going to take a bus to the border. His car is parked in San Diego, so from the border he’ll take public transit to where his car is parked. Trevor is really excited to be going home so much earlier than anticipated, both because he misses his girlfriend and because he has a lot of work to do that has been piling up while he has been gone.

The three of us all walked out of the marina together. On the street, Trevor hailed a cab to take him to the bus station and we all said our goodbyes. Eric and Christi strolled down the main drag to the other end of downtown, where the Port Captain’s office is located. We know we keep harping on this, but it felt so good to know exactly where we were going, so good to be somewhere familiar.

As we walked, we laughed about the first time we came to Ensenada http://kosmos.liveflux.net/blog/2006/05/20/first-night-run-and-ensenada/ with Kosmos. Eric had driven the boat down from Dana Point with a couple crew, Tom and Jeff. The path of least resistance to getting Tom and Jeff back to Dana Point was for Christi to drive to Ensenada in her car, pick them up, and then deliver the crew back to Dana Point.

Christi had never driven in Mexico before. She was terrified about driving down after all the bad stories we have heard about reckless drivers and crooked cops that stop tourists to demand bribes. She carefully followed the speed limit and obeyed every traffic sign, even though it infuriated the other drivers around her. She was driving incredibly defensively and considered the other drivers “scary” since they didn’t drive as politely as US drivers tend to. Somehow, she took a wrong turn and wound up on the free road south instead of the toll road south. Supposedly, the free road was laden with banditos that would rob cars stopped at red lights. She was in something of a panic every time she hit a light. Eventually, she saw an entrance to the toll road and was relieved – until she saw that the toll booths had several few armed soldiers around them. The soldiers terrified her and she expected to be shaken down for money above and beyond the toll booth fees by them. She was a wreck the whole drive down and pretty much everything seemed to frighten her. But she made it to Ensenada with absolutely no problems and realized that driving in Mexico isn’t nearly as bad as all the hype makes it out to be.

She was waiting at the marina when Kosmos pulled in. The four of us drove to the officials together, which are conveniently housed in one building. We went round and round and round trying to find the office. Had we walked, we would have found it with no problems, but we had chosen not to walk because somehow we felt incredibly vulnerable being out on the street with our precious boat documentation in hand.

When we did finally find it, we were nervous wrecks. We were both absolutely terrified of checking in. What if they asked for bribes? Could they deny us entry and make us go back to the States if we didn’t pay the bribes? What if there was something wrong with the paperwork? Would they arrest us and permanently confiscate our boat? After all, this is a foreign country where the crooked officials can do anything they wanted, right?

We almost passed out when it turned out there was indeed a SNAFU with our paperwork. Since our boat was brand new, we hadn’t gotten the original hard copy of the coast guard certification in the mail yet. We were trying to check in using a fax copy f the certification, which the Mexican officials wouldn’t accept. Oh, Lord, here comes the request for the bribe in order to take a fax copy. Our worst fears had come true! The boat was going to be confiscated!

But no one had asked for a bribe and they never alluded to confiscation. They simply wanted to verify that the boat wasn’t stolen and is legally flagged. We were so on edge over our irrational fears that we were about ready to have a heart attack over the “horrible ordeal”. But, with a few phone calls to the right people, the issue was all cleared up in a couple of hours. The officials were pleasant and didn’t seem at all like they were “out to get us”. They were simply trying to do their job. We were the ones who made the situation stressful by overreacting to something that was truly no big deal. In retrospect, we should have been thanking them for their diligence, not freaking out about it.

In so many ways we are different people now. The Christi and Eric of today wouldn’t have stressed at all about the SNAFU. We would have calmly made the phone calls and patiently waited for the clearance to take place. We can’t believe how much we feared “foreign” and “different” only 3 years ago. Now we embrace both. And we think we were silly to ever be afraid of those things. It is funny how illogical the fear emotion is. Humans on the whole generally don’t fear things that are truly dangerous but familiar, like rush hour traffic. But humans tend to fear the unfamiliar, even if it is perfectly safe. Humans tend to let the smallest and most obscure negative stories about the unfamiliar to become bigger deals in our minds than they are in reality, which increases the clouds in our already clouded vision as to what is safe and unsafe.

Anyway, back to our day. The Port Captain took less than 5 minutes, and we enjoyed our leisurely stroll back. We got back from the port captain’s office about the same time Stephanie and Lance got back from fueling up. Because the blog is so far behind real time, they thought we were in the Caribbean right now, so they were absolutely shocked when they had seen our boat next to them this morning. Here our the two Nordies, side by side

We visited with them some, then they offered to take us out to lunch to celebrate our accomplishment, which was very nice of them. Interestingly, they picked a seafood restaurant we have eaten at only once before, with Richard and another couple that own a Nordhavn 40. The only two times we have been to this place were both with Nordhavn owners. What a small world.

While we were out, we noticed that the town seems to be dead. There aren’t many tourists around at all. The cruise ship is in, but it seems like not very many people are getting off the cruise ship to walk around town. Stephanie and Lance told us that the combination of Americans having less money for vacations, the drug wars, the tomatoes with salmonella, and the kidnapping stories have had a devastating impact on the tourist industry in Ensenada. We had forgotten about the salmonella outbreak last year. Tomatoes infected with salmonella have been a big problem in the US for the last 10+ years, with most of the contaminated food coming from Virginia. Did people stop going to Virginia? No. But last year’s contamination was traced back to Mexico and now people are afraid to come here. How sad. Ensenada is such a great place. What we think is even more sad is that the people on the cruise ship are already here, but are so encompassed by fear that they are missing out on a neat cultural opportunity. As Eric said “You can’t run from the lows in life without also running from the highs, too”.

The afternoon and evening were low key. Eric rinsed the boat. Christi tidied some inside. We played on the internet and watched a movie. BTW, the internet here is really good and pretty cheap.

We are still reveling in our achievement and keep referring to each other as “circumnavigator”.

The most odd thing that happened today was a private jet flew by so low that it showed up on radar. It was definitely flying at less than 1,000 feet, and maybe was even as low as 500 feet.

We were all in incredibly high spirits all day. Christi and Eric were on cloud nine, really. The stars have to have aligned for us for this run, because everything about this leg has been so perfect in every way (except Trevor being sick, of course). The amazing weather. Completing the Baja run in about 1/3 to 1/4 of the time we had anticipated it would take since we didn’t have to stop. Seeing the whales. And now we were literally counting the minutes until our circumnavigation was complete. Just when we thought it couldn’t get any better, it did. We got word from Eric’s company that a project he has worked on for the last 8 years has finally come to fruition. Wow. His project and our circumnavigation are basically done the same day. That is just unbelievable! It is seriously too good to be true! As you can imagine, after we got that news, we were beyond elated. And Trevor was so excited to be sharing the joy with us.

At 18:29 exactly, we officially reached a point we had been to before. We crossed the circumnavigation line, near the island of Todos Santos at 31- 46N and 116-46W.

It’s real. We did it.

Our chart plotter numbers each and every waypoint we enter into it. After we got to that mark, we made a course change to follow our previous line back into Ensenada harbor. That was waypoint number 892. Once back on the line, the next course change was at waypoint number 6. Number 6! It seems like a lifetime ago in so many ways. Even though Ensenada is not our home, we spent three months there with Kosmos and we absolutely fell in love with the town, so we were elated about being back there again.

We approached the Ensenada harbor entrance at around 1945, just as the sun was getting to be low in the sky. The breakwater is different from when we were last here. Thank God we made it before dark. When we first made the decision to speed up to try to get to Ensenada before the weather turned bad, we had debated long and hard. We knew we were cutting it really close and that more likely than not we’d arrive after dark. What had ultimately swayed the decision was the fact that since we had been to Ensenada before, we felt comfortable with making a night entrance. But, now that we see the breakwater is different, making our charts off, a night entrance would have been very stressful. Had we not arrived before dark, we would have done circles in the bay all night in rapidly deteriorating weather. That was yet another thing that went right today. We still can’t get over how perfectly everything has worked out for us and how much good news has abounded.

There was a funky looking huge boat near the breakwater entrance. The machine was in operation and we could see the various mechanical parts moving as it inched along painfully slow. We figure must be a dredger.

But, despite the breakwater wall being different, most everything else looks the same. The giant Mexican flag that Ensenada is famous for was flying proudly. A cruise ship was in port. Sigh. The one and only thing we don’t like about this marina is that the cruise ships park next door to it. Those big ships put out a lot of soot that makes the boats in the marina really dirty.

When we were near the breakwater, Eric called the marina on radio. No response. Eric decided we need to advertise our accomplishment and put out our 30,000 mile pennant on Kosmos’ bow (Jeff had brought it to us when we were in Panama even though it was premature at that point. He had faith in us to make it to the 30K mark, though).

Inside the breakwater, we did notice that the sunken ship in the middle of the bay (clearly marked on charts) looks different somehow. Maybe it is more sunken than it was before. We seem to remember it being more obvious than it looked now. We also noticed some new construction around the marina on a plot of land that used to be vacant.

We pulled into the marina and tied up at an empty floating dock normally used for very large yachts. We were bursting with pride. We felt like there should be a tickertape parade through the middle of town to celebrate. Everyone should be celebrating with us on this magical day!

A security guard came running over to us and whisked Eric off to write down our boat info and to find us a slip. Here is a shot of the sunset in the marina.

While Eric was gone, Christi and Trevor danced up and down the dock, with Christi repeating over and over again, “We’re circumnavigators!!! Woo hooo!!!!” She just couldn’t contain her excitement! After the initial burst of energy died off, they watched the sea lions on one of the other docks. There were 4 sea lions laying on it, and clearly they have claimed that dock as their own. They were excitedly barking away, and a juvenile was playing in the water next to the dock. It was so cute to watch.

Eric saw that our old slip was empty and asked if we could move there. The guard said sure. Eric had noticed that there was a Nordhavn 40 located two slips down, in the same spot that Richard (crew member for the Pacific crossing) used to keep his boat. We untied and pulled around to the slip, passing the sea lions. As we neared the 40, we got a look at the name on the back and were thrilled to see the boat belongs to our friends Stephanie and Lance. Yay! We were going to be welcomed home by old friends!

We barely finished tying up before the last bits of twilight were completely gone and it was totally dark out. We have such good timing today! We immediately cleaned up and went to dinner. Christi even put on a skirt since it was such a special occasion. We did knock on Stephanie and Lance’s door to invite them to join us, but they didn’t seem to be home.

This is the first time in 2 full years where we have arrived in a port already knowing the lay of the land. This is the first time in two years where we didn’t have to go exploring. Obviously, we think exploring is a lot of fun, but it felt really good to know exactly where we wanted to go for dinner, exactly where the restaurant was, and exactly how to get there. We are almost reveling in the familiarity. To use an analogy, going to a new port is like wearing a brand new pair of jeans. You are excited about your jeans, but they are stiff and a little uncomfortable. Each day you wear them, they become more and more comfortable. Each new port is exciting, but there is a level of discomfort in trying to learn a new place. Arriving in Ensenada feels like putting on our oldest and most comfy pair of jeans.

So, where did we go to celebrate such a momentous occasion? We went to one of our favorite restaurants, called Los Valeros, which is a short walk from the marina. It was nice to have some old favorite foods. One of the things we love about this restaurant is the awesome creamy cilantro salad dressing. It is still just as good. Being in our old slip added to the nostalgia of the whole dinner experience. The entire dinner event, walk and all, felt to us like we had been transported back in time by 2.5 years.

Over dinner, we debated about when we should return to San Diego. Eric really wants to arrive back on a Saturday so that friends and family can come out and celebrate with us. We talked about going back this Saturday, but decided it would be better to go back next Saturday. We are both worn out from the extreme amount of sea time we did over the last month. We know that the minute we arrive back to “regular life” in the States, we will be busy all the time, so if we wanted some time to rest, we needed to stay here.

We were all exhausted and we totally crashed right after dinner.

Eric and Christi woke up this morning at 0100, having gotten only 3.5 hours of sleep. We immediately went to work getting the boat ready to go. We decided to let Trevor sleep for a little longer, but we got him up an hour later and had him help us.

We mentioned in yesterday’s post that the wind completely died in the evening. The forecast said the calm would last a couple of days. We were taking advantage of this opportunity to make a 36 hour run up the coast to the next suitable anchorage, Magdalenda Bay. We were all feeling pretty grim as we prepared the boat for sea. We have been dreading this last leg for so long, and now it was finally time to face the nightmare.

We pulled up anchor at 0300. The moon was half full and provided decent visibility. There was zero wind as we pulled out of the bay and headed towards the notoriously evil Cabo Falso, the very tip of Baja California. Cabo Falso is a notorious wind tunnel where the wind blows much, much stronger than anywhere else on the run. Many boats get stuck there for days and even weeks because the wind there is often just too strong to make rounding the peninsula possible.

As promised, as we began to round the peninsula, the wind instantly jumped up to 15 knots and the waves suddenly became sharp and tumultuous. Trevor instantly got sick – really sick. The increased wind and sharp waves only lasted a few minutes, though. Once we had fully rounded the tip, the wind died back down and the seas smoothed out into long swells with virtually no wind chop. While the ride wasn’t by any means calm, it really was pretty good, considering. Yes, we were hobby horsing away, but Christi and Eric found it to be tolerable, and not even close to the “uncomfortable” category. Christi and Eric figured Trevor would be feeling better in no time.

There were several boats out fishing and we stayed far away from them all. We chose to take a rhumb line to Magdalena Bay rather than hugging the shore. It would shave off a few miles, and we prefer to be farther out, anyway. At 0400, we rolled up 30,000 miles on the odometer. On this journey, we have spent 196 days at sea, which is 27% of the total time. Or conversely, we have spent 73% of our time in port.

After the sun came up, the wind was light but the seas started to build. By 1100, the swells had gotten bigger, averaging 2 – 4 feet, but were quite lazy and gentle, and coming at long intervals. This motion is such a contrast to the sharp and breaking waves that we experienced coming into Cabo. Of course, we were still hobby horsing some from the mild wind chop, but not that bad. Christi and Eric thought the ride was still pretty darn good, at least relatively speaking, but poor Trevor is still sick as a dog. He is passed out on the couch in the salon (living room), and every time he attempts to move or eat, he winds up feeding the fish. The hobby horsing is too much for him to sleep in the forward stateroom. Christi and Eric already knew that we have built up a tolerance to the seas, but seeing how sick Trevor was when we felt great really drove home just how much of a tolerance we have developed. More than we ever thought possible.

In the early afternoon the wind came back, getting up to 20 – 21 knots apparent. The wind chop picked up and the hobby horsing worsened, but the swells seem to be no worse. While the ride was not as good as before, it was still tolerable. We were making better than expected time, so we were on track to pull into Bahia Magdalena in the early morning instead of the early afternoon. Since we will probably arrive before sun up, we switched our destination to Santa Maria Bay, just a few miles north of Magdalena Bay. We would definitely be to Santa Maria after sunrise.

After dark, the wind chop started to die down. We figured Trevor would feel better, but he didn’t. He was sick all night. It was a dark, night, too. The moon must have been hiding behind clouds, because it never peeked out.

Day 2

At roughly 0530, we passed the site where a Nordhavn 62 sunk, just off the entrance to Magdalena Bay. We’re told that you can see the remains of the hull at low tide. But, it was still dark out, so we missed out on the chance to see it. Eric said it probably would have creeped him out, anyway. At that moment, the wind was at 1 – 2 knots. The wind chop was gone, and the swells were still gentle and lazy. Eric and Christi thought it was a pretty darn good ride considering the fact that we were in head seas, but poor Trevor was still sick.

Shortly afterwards, we checked the weather and saw that the calm winds were supposed to last another couple of days. Should we skip Bahia Magdalena and keep going? The next suitable anchorage is called Turtle Bay and was another 2 days beyond Bahia Santa Maria. As tempting as it was to keep going, we decided we needed to stop. It had been well over 24 hours since Trevor had kept anything down, and we were seriously worried about dehydration. We decided that for his sake, we absolutely needed to get to shore so we could get some liquids in him.

At 0630, we got disconcertingly close to a panga. It didn’t show up on radar until we were practically on top of it. Fortunately, we saw it in time and took evasive action. Those little boats can be so scary! Trevor spotted dolphins this morning, which was exciting.

Around 0700, Trevor got up. We were so relieved to see him move. He wasn’t dead yet! Phew. Then he actually ate a couple bites of food and kept it down. Praise the Lord and hallelujah! We were so relieved to know he wasn’t going to die. How would we have explained that one to his family? Trevor said he felt OK now and agreed it was best to keep going. So, we changed course, doing a rhumb line to Turtle Bay, as was recommended for power boats in the Baja Bash guidebook.

In the early afternoon we spotted about a dozen sea lions all sort of floating along in the water. They were in a fairly small radius of one another, but scattered about, none too close to any other. Here is one sea lion floating on his back with his fins sticking up.

We went outside to look at them and realized the water was full of little red sea creatures. We have no idea what they are. They look kind of like big red spiders or red crawdads or maybe baby lobsters. They are a vibrant red and swim using a weird motion. We suspect the sea lions were munching down on the little red guys.

The vast majority of the ride today we have had light winds on the nose (1 – 6 knots real at most) and the seas are quite calm. We did hit several localized convergence zones where the wind came from an odd direction for a few minutes, or picked up drastically for a few minutes, or both. In every case, the book had warned us of these zones and so the change was expected. As soon as we passed through the small zones, the wind would go back to what it was before.

Of course, we are still getting consistent swell from the north and are bouncing some. Relatively speaking, it is a nice ride for head seas, though there is a bit too much bouncing for it to be “comfortable”. To put the amount of bouncing into perspective, if we put a cup on the table, it will fall over within a minute or two. But if we put a cup on a piece of grippy that is on the table, it stays in place. Our speed has been better than expected, too.

While Trevor is feeling better, he is still not feeling good. He still is spending most of his time sleeping, only up for a couple hours at a time. He isn’t eating or drinking much, either. He also hasn’t kept everything down, but he has at least kept enough down that we know he won’t die. We are still a little worried about him.

The sunset was pretty. The clouds turned all red and the whole sky was awash in color. It was another dark night. Conditions were consistent pretty much all night. Eric made a new friend on the VHF. He is a single hander also doing the run north and he and Eric keep each other entertained with long talks on Eric’s watches.