Tuesday, March 25, 2008

SpringTime in Ensenada

I spent three days at the boat in the beautiful Mexican Sun. Ensenada was full of Spring Break '08 college students and there were the usual cruise ship people in shorts with black shoes and socks, quite a sight. 

I replaced the fresh water pressure pump and continued to put the boat"back together" . 

CHECK OUT MY NEW WEBSITE AT www.rossbowling.com, FOR THE CONTINUING PHOTOS OF VITA BELLA

Monday, March 3, 2008

Vita Bella esta es en Ensenada!






In spite of Yacht Path International, She has made it to Ensenada. Joined by Chuck Pascal, my nephew Ryan Pfaff and his friend Jason, I was re-united with the boat last Saturday Afternoon. We hooked up in San Diego and drove the 1.5 hours to Ensenada. We had been advised by Yacht Path that we would be offloaded at 12:30. We stopped at the Coral to check out the arrangements, and to have a look at the slip. I was told by Vito, the Marina Manager, that we needed to complete all of the paperwork and get the import permits before 1PM or I would need to stay until Monday. SO, we did the Mexican shuffle, completed all of the required stuff and with a pocket full of $10 bills went to the Port captains office. We had to pay off the Little Immigration guy with the beady eyes and shiny mustache, as well as the guy from the Coral. Ah, crocked Mexico. I was getting to the point that the thought of a taco was not looking very good. 
Once we were done with the import and tourist card shuffle, we went to the Yacht Path office at the CurisePort Marina office. The office was full of grumpy folks waiting for their boats. They were told that the Crane on the ship used to offload the boats "Broke". We went to lunch downtown, and then walked back to the YPI office. Still nothing new. Several of us , in a very nice way, DEMANDED answers and we were finally told the "truth". It seems that there was a fire aboard the ship and unloading operations were stopped. 
Well our 12:30 offload turned into a 4:15 offload and the wind had really picked up. We made it to the Coral in less than 20 minutes in a 25 knot wind and some 3-4 foot rollers, to find our slip down a VERY narrow fairway. We got the boat tied up and settled down by 5:15. Yacht Path was to have sent some folks to clean up the boat, which DID NOT HAPPEN.
We worked into the evening on Saturday and were up at 6AM to get going again. Thanks to Ryan, Jason and Chuck, the boat is sitting cleaned up, and the Bimini is set back up. It will take one more trip to get a few things back in working order and all systems operational. But it is good to have the boat on the West Coast.