Day 2

Weslept in and had just awakened when Don called.  He was already at theboat priming the engines and Racors in preparation to taking on fuel.  Andwe thought we were early risers.  We agreed to meet for breakfast so afterquick showers we headed to the restaurant.  We got off the elevator on thelobby level and started to walk do to the lower dining level when Glo misjudgeda step and fell with the wall to her left partially blocking her fall. She is a very tough lady and popped up saying no big deal and that everythingwas fine.  We sat down with Don and had a healthy breakfast of Mexicanpancakes, eggs and bacon.  We got up to leave and that is when Glorealized that there was something wrong with her left foot.  We ordered upsome ice and She headed back to the room to ice down her ankle.

Donand I headed for the Marina office to meet with Fito the Marina Manager, hisOffice Manager Hilda and Pedro the Customs and Immigration expert. We started the paperwork process, which was more involved than I thought. First came the slip contract that we signed and paid for a 4-month slip lease,which gave us a lower monthly rate.  Now the Marina has our credit cardinfo and our bank was open for business.  Next was to set up a cleaning schedule for the topsides and thehull.   She also attached the special instructions to our work order thatstated not to clean the props or prop shafts, which are coated withPropspeed.  Topside will be cleaned twice a month and the bottom, once amonth.  We also gave approval for them to change zincs as required.

Donin the meantime was next door at the Coral Marine  Services office payingthe bill for the tow and fuel drop off. ($1314 USD), which we will try torecoup through our contract with Vessel Assist.  Don headed back to theboat and was going to call Glo to make sure she was ok while I went with Pedroto the Customs and Immigration office. The fun was about to begin.

Glo’sankle had swollen to a good size but she still did not want to see adoctor.  We found out after returning home that she had broken her anklein 3 places.

Pedrotook Johan from Captain’s Paradise and I to the Customs and Immigrations officeto complete the necessary paperwork.  4 forms and $680.00 later wecompleted the process including the Importation documents required to bring avessel into Mexico.  A word of caution.  Make sure that you havesearched your boat to look for anything that would be considered illegal by theMexican authorities.  If you stay at the Coral, Pedro will make sure thatyou remove any unacceptable items, (firearms, fishing equipment if you do nothave a fishing license for your boat and one for every individual on board),more than the allowable limit of alcoholic beverages, etc)) in case theauthorities decide to board your vessel for inspection.  The inspectionselection process is random made by stepping up to what appears to be a trafficlight with a red and green lens.  You push a button and if the green lightcomes on, you are finished with no inspection.  If the red light comes onyou have failed and  they will schedule you for an on board inspection.

Wereturned to the Marina and completed the last of the marina paper work. Fito assigned  us to a close in slip (B-17) and Don expertly moved theMakai from the fuel dock to the slip.

Theslip was wired for 110V/30A power so we asked Fito for 220V/50A and withinminutes of making the request, Fito had his electricians make the change.

16:00

Timeto go home. We had originally planned to depart at noon.  We checked outof the hotel and said goodbye to all of the nice people but not before theymade us promise to come back for the boater’s New Years Eve party at the Hotelhosted by the Marina staff.  Don had arranged for a car service,

           FrankEaton

           EatonInternational Tours

           6274th Avenue

           ChulaVista, CA.  91910

                         (619)479-1536      

Totake us to Amtrak in San Diego for the ride up to Newport Beach where one ofhis staff would meet us to take us to our cars.  Due to the lateness ofthe day, we agreed to use the car service all the way to Newport, which workedout better all around.  Frank’s rates are reasonable if you compare themto the cost and hassle of taking your own car to Ensenada.  Plus the localPolicia, Federales and the US Border Patrol recognize Frank’s service.

TripSummary

Allin all, a wonderful trip.  The water and weather conditions wereperfect.  The boat ran great.  The people in Mexico were warm andfriendly.  We wish that we had more time.  Even when we ran out offuel, it was a learning experience and again we met some very nice peopleduring the process.  Our Captain, Don Ross/Heritage Yacht Sales is awell-qualified boat captain and just an all around nice guy.  Thepaperwork part of the process was a bit more complicated than I had envisionedbut Pedro of Coral Marina got us through it ok.

Make sure that you have all of your necessary papers,Passports, Insurance binder, Documentation/Registration and Bill of Sale/Proofof ownership.  In fact, we recommend the use of an attorney to assist andguide you through the 90 plus1day process to ensure that you take all of thesteps necessary to be in compliance with the tax laws.  We used;

           David Weil

           Weil & Associates

           Maritime Attorneys and Consultants

           249 East Ocean Blvd., Suite 801

           Long Beach, CA.  90802

                         (562) 432-8618      

Tight linesand keep the shiny side up…

07:30The Makai departed the Heritage Yacht Sales dock in Newport Beach and headed south.  The sky started to turn from dark grey with high clouds to blue as the sun started to rise.  Don Ross of Heritage Yachts was at the helm, the wife Gloria was comfortable on the couch and I was a nervous wreck thinking of how rough the seas were the last time we headed south in our previousboat.  The NOAA weather recording called for calm winds and flat seas with southwesterly swells 2 to 5 ft all the way down to Ensenada and that proved tobe the case.As the Makai settled in on the initial leg of the trip and we set the autopilot toAuto, it became almost boring as we watched the coast line go by, Dana Point,Oceanside, Pt Loma and more.  The calm was often broken by large schoolsof Dolphin, some running with the boat for fun and others busy chasingbaitfish.  The occasional whale would breach and blow sometimes within 50yards always off to our starboard side.Westarted working on the Makai early in October making changes in preparation forthe Ensenada trip.  First was to remove and modify the factory installedcommunications mast. Alcom Marine Electronics from Newport Beach then modifiedthe mast to add a KVH M3 Satellite TV antenna and then had the mast powdercoated to match the color of the pilot house roof.  The base plate had tobe replaced and other work was done to reposition the spotlight.  Thefactory installed VHF is a helm mounted Raymarine 215 DSC unit.  Alcom installedICOM 504 DSC VHF for redundancy and programmed both units with our MMSIcode.  For VHF antennas, 8 ft Comrods were installed.Nextcame a blue cockpit cover made from Sunbrella material by Harbor CustomCanvas.  They also made mesh window screens to cover the salon windows notcovered by the factory provided screens.  At the sametime, Dawn Ellis ofDesigns by Dawn applied the boat name and hailing port lettering to thestern.  We then called in Jason of Jason’s Window Tinting to tint the pilothousewindows.  The California sun and associated UV can do a lot of damage toboat interiors if not blocked.  It seemed like a good idea at the time togo with a dark tinting that blocked 80% of the sunlight and 99% of theUV. During the night portion of the trip to Ensenada this proved to be a mistake(more on this subject later).Wealso made numerous donations to West Marine and Boaters World during thistime.  Black dock lines and fenders, ACR Personal Locator units,additional inflatable PFD’s, New flares and safety kits and numerous items thatwe did not carry over from the old boat.  We did however bring the SwitlikLife Pod rescue raft, which is stored in one of the cockpit storage hatchesuntil we can install a hard canister model.Thenwe had the boat hauled at Sunset Aquatic Marina in Anaheim Bay and all zincsreplaced and installed a new Airmar triducer to mate with the Raymarine DSM300.  The props and prop shafts were cleaned and a coating of Propspeedapplied.13:30Everythingwas going fine.  We were making excellent time about 25 miles northwest ofEnsenada and 6 miles off shore running at 16 knots and then all of a sudden at13:30, both engines quit.  We were out of fuel.  When we left NewportBeach, the helm mounted fuel gauge read half full, (1/2 of the 777 galloncapacity equals 380 gallons).  Don added another 100 gallons prior todeparture for a total of 480 gallons and that should have taken us to Ensenadaand beyond.  We planned to fill up in Ensenada since the Coral Marina’sdiesel price is $2.40 per gallon.  We believe the fuel gauge to be faultyand further examination will tell.17:00Anyway, we got on the VHF and tried to hail the Coral Marina in Ensenada with noluck since our line of sight was blocked by the hills just northwest of Ensenada. Strange, but we were able to reach them via celphone.  The Marinadispatched their fuel barge (Coral Marina’s equivalent of Vessel Assist) and afterthey rounded the point, they hailed us on channel 71 to let us know they wereon the way with several jerry cans of fuel.  The run at 10 knots shouldhave taken them a little under 3 hours.  4 hours later, there was no fuelbarge in sight.  A 56 ft Hatteras, Captain’s Paradise,out of Newport Beachcaptained by Johan Kritzinger pulled along side and asked if we needassistance.  He offered us a 5-gallon can of fuel and we let him know thatthe fuel barge was on its way.  He offered to stay until the barge arrivedbut we did not want to hold him up so we thanked him and he departed.Afterthe sun had set, we tried to hail the fuel barge with no luck.  We calledthe marina office and they were able to contact the barge who said they couldnot find us by the GPS coordinates we gave them. We were hailed on the VHFby Captain’s Paradise as the prepared to entert he Ensenada marina and whenthey learned that the fuel barge was nowhere in sight, Johan turned around andwent looking for the fuel barge.  He found the barge about 15 miles awaygoing the wrong direction and lead them back to our position.  TheCaptain’s Paradise remained on station until 25 gallons of fuel wastransferred, fuel filters purged of air and engines primed and started.Backto the tinted windows, the reflections of the helm instruments off the tintmade it impossible to see ahead of us after the sun went down and it gotdark.  We tried covering the instruments with the exception of the radarand chart plotter screens with towels to block the reflections but still it wasvery difficult to see.  We have already determined to remove the tintingfrom all of the windows facing forward.Wemade it to the Coral Marina and as soon as we slowed down and came off planepassing the breakwater entrance we ran out of fuel again.  We dropped thehook and waited another hour for the fuel barge to come in and tow us to thefuel dock at 22:00.  A little embarrassing to say the least.The crew on the Captain’s Paradise were our guardian angels and there is no way wecan ever repay them for their assistance mainly because they would not acceptanything except thank you.We checked inat 23:00 and with all of the hotel eating places closed, we showered and turned in for the night.