Category Archives: Information

Information we discovered during our travels.

Ensenada Check-In and Lunch at El Rey Sol

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Monday, December 2, 2024 — There were two main reasons why we usually went to Marina Coral instead of Maina Cruiseport whenever we were in Ensenada. The first was that Coral has a fuel dock, and they used to offer a discount on fuel if you stayed in their marina. However, Coral no longer offers this perk. In fact, it is currently cheaper to buy fuel in San Diego than in Ensenada!

The other reason is that Coral will help you with your Mexican check-in paperwork for a nominal fee. This service has paid off in spades for us in the past, especially when we needed help getting a new Temporary Import Permit (TIP) after our first one had expired (note to cruisers: Always make sure to renew your TIP prior to expiring. Getting another new one issued on the same boat can be a nightmare). 

Nowadays, Cruiseport offers a check-in service, too. Between the lack of fuel discount and the fact that we can get check-in services at Cruiseport, we may choose to go to Cruiseport in the future. While Coral is very nice, it’s also pricey, has serious surge issues, and is on the outskirts of town. Of course, Cruiseport has issues, too, particularly with soot from the cruise ships, noise and touts. You have to pick your poison.

Yesterday, the marina had told us to be at the marina office at 0930 to do the check-in. After they packaged up all of our paperwork for the authorities, they shuttled us into town, where all three offices (customs, immigration and port captain) are conveniently housed in one building. 

This was the busiest we’d ever seen it. We had to wait over an hour for our turn, but once we were served, the paperwork took the typical 45-minutes to process. 

Once we were done with that part of the paperwork process, we celebrated by having lunch at our beloved El Rey Sol. As always, the food was wonderful. 

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Emergency Training: Inflating the Old Life Raft

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When Kosmos was new, we bought a six-person Winslow life raft that was vacuum-sealed for extended life. We got a Maxi model with food, water, EPIRB and lots of great features. All these years, we kept it under the settee in the salon, so it was very protected. Even though it was 18 years old, we believed it was still in good shape thanks to the protected location.

Unfortunately, our insurance company wouldn’t recognize such an old life raft, so the insurance company insisted we get a new one before going to the Sea of Cortez. We chose the Winslow Ultra-Light Offshore four-person model that has all the same non-perishable goodies, but does not have perishable items in it. Our old life raft was 70-pounds — there was no way Keith nor Christi could launch it without help. The new life raft is 35-pounds, which Christi and Keith can each manage alone.

Our ditch bag was a large, heavy duffel bag. We’ve replaced it with three water-proof backpacks (one for each of us). One of the backpacks has the perishable things that were previously in the life raft; the other two have the rest of the contents of the old ditch bag. With the bags on our back, our hands will be free to launch the life raft and deal with other things.

We decided it would be a great safety training exercise to inflate the old life raft. Our friend, Marty, joined us. Marty gave us a lot of helpful information. Here is a video Marty took of it:

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Keith’s Perspective on Joshua Tree/Le point de vue de Keith sur Joshua Tree

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Joshua Tree national park was amazing! The first day we drove there. We stopped to get food at a place called Farmer Boys. We went to my friend Heath’s campsite.

Le parc national de Joshua Tree était incroyable! Le premier jour nous avons conduit jusqu’à Joshua Tree. Nous nous sommes arrêtés pour manger à un restaurant qui s’appelle Farmer Boys. Après ça nous avons conduit jusqu’à l’emplacement de camping de mon ami Heath. 

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Yosemite National Park Days 4 – 5

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Wednesday, July 26 — Eric and Keith were both pretty tired from yesterday’s hike, so we decided to rent bikes and spend the day leisurely riding around Yosemite Valley with Greg and Heath. Greg and Heath had brought their own bikes with them on this trip; they rode their bikes over to the Ahwanee hotel and we agreed to meet them there.

On the day that we’d arrived in Yosemite, we found out that bikes can only be rented for the day. The rental place opened at 0800 and the bikes must be returned within 8-hours. We walked over to Curry Village and arrived at the bike rental place 2-minutes after they opened. We were dismayed to see it was a long line.

At 0815, the first party was done with their waivers/paying. We realized that at this pace, we’d been in line for well over an hour. We gave up on bikes and caught the shuttle bus to Yosemite Village, then walked the approximately 1/2 mile to the Ahwanee Hotel. Along the way, we passed a bike rental shop in Yosemite Village with no line.

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