Made it! We are now 7nm from our channel mark.  Motoring and Sailing
with the return of the Ensenada Race Boats.  Celtic Song has lots of
salty decks. She is looking for a good wash down and the process of
preparing her systems and training crew for her next cruise out to
Tahiti and the South Pacific.  Pacific Seacraft 40, the best!

See you at the dock!  Diane, Jean, Francis and Bonnie is somewhere! 
​

Approaching Ensenada on our beam.  Wind is backing.  Full sails. 6.3 vmg.
Tricolor on.  This is why we are out here.  Arrival sometime this
evening.  89nm to San Diego. 

Propane stove is working.  Francis put the fuse back in and it fired up.
 "A tincture of time." was the remedy.  Jean is happily on watch,
watching the miles disappear.  Thank goodness I listened to her and we
went way out West on our tack today.  About 40 miles out.  We almost
went to Isla de Guadalupe.  We were on a direct route there for most of
the day.

Francis is the sous-chef and peeling garlic and onions.  We will have a
proper meal of spaghetti and sausage  tonight.  Thanks again to Jean who
bought the homemade sausage in La Paz.  Hot food and sleep and cruising
down the rumb line make for great spirits!  Oh yes, and good news, we are
not getting clobbered by the wind at the moment! 

Grave yard watch.  100 miles from Isla de Guadalupe, 200 miles from San
Diego.  Been sailing toward Guadalupe for about a day now.  Waiting to
hear from Commanders weather for best route to San Diego.  Propane not
working, wind speed indicator broken, spreader light fell to deck last
night, remote VHF out ... peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are tasting
real good ... yep this is a shakedown cruise.  The voice in my head says
"this too shall pass." 

Good Morning,  It is so nice to have the Bay crossing behind us.  The
seas have finally settled down and we are able to make decent speed in
the right direction. Engine has been running at 2300 rpms.  Our next
waypoint is Sacramento reef.

The port spreader light came loose last night with all the banging of
the seas.  It held on for about 6 hours and came down during Francis's
watch.  The bilge pump has been reading 1 pump every few hours.  I am
sure that is from the water coming in through the anchor locker.
Otherwise Celtic song and crew are holding up well.  We are now on a 3
hour watch schedule during the day and Jean suggested we change it to 2
hours at night.  We all agreed.  It was a long cold 3 hours last night
and all you could do was hold on while you were standing.

Today we are looking to catch up on sleep in the calm seas as we
approach the mainland.  Our next waypoint is Sacramento Reef.  The
weather report from Predict Wind looks extremely favorable after we
round Punta Baja. 

​We just said good bye to our friend the Captain of Fishing Vessel San
Augustine.  He is anchored at the N end of Cedros Island. And we are
busting out of the convergence zone now.  Our course is to Ensenada,
approximately 200nm up the coast.

Upon our arrival at Cedros Village the Captain of San Augustine
allowed us to tie up next to him at the dock and then assisted us with
everything from the Port Captain, fuel and food.  He is a friend of
Susie Campbell's and was expecting us.  How fortunate.  Otherwise one
must anchor out and figure out how to get into the town.

We stayed a a short 3 hours at Cedros.  We are officially checked out
and Francis did an excellent job in fueling with a siphon. He made
extra sure to put the diesel in the diesel tanks! Lots of stories to tell.
Bonnie got off because she could not miss work. We will miss her.
Jean re-provisioned and I spent a couple of hours at the Captainia of
the Port.  They were all kind and very efficient. Weather looks great.
All is well, a little tired but well.  We are making excellent time
and thank you to Commander's Weather.  They are a great support.

About 2 miles from our anchor location in Asuncion last night at 2100
hrs with an amazing meal of lamb sausage, sauteed veggies and brown rice
awaiting, the engine died.  Fuel guage read empty.  We hoisted sails and
tacked for the next maybe 2 hours before deciding to drop hook in 50'.
Good experience for anchoring under sail.  And finally around 11 pm we
ate dinner and fell hard asleep in our bunks wondering how we were ever
going to get some diesel.  It delayed us about 10 hrs but Jean and Bonnie
were able to score 60 gallons!  The people at Asuncion were super and
very efficent. They brought it to us in jerry jugs and Francis and Jean
spent the next hour siphoning diesel into our main port tank.  We were
full and our wonderful engine fired up with a few turn on
the ignition and a thrust of throttle.  After a great lunch by Jean we
hauled anchor and headed out.  We are now motor sailing toward Cedros.
We will skip Turtle Bay and pick up more fuel in Cedros and check out
there instead of Ensenada.

Couple of tips for my friends Harry and Susanne on their Island Packet
who are following behind me next week.

1. Bring more diesel than you think you need.
2. It is GREAT to have crew to help with watches ... and just have fun
with. We are on a 2 hour rotation and we love it.  Lots of time for
napping and staying warm.
3. After leaving Falso we found the sea conditions extremely better
close into shore.  Maybe 2 miles out.  The rhumb line was terrible.
4. We rounded Punta Tosca in the early evening by coming up in its lee
and going around.  It worked great.  Seas calmed down close to land and
made it easy to go around.
5.  If you can connect with a fisherman in Bahia Santa Maria request a
ride up the mangroves to the end and then hike into the sand dunes.
They also sold us yummy lobster.
6. For us the passage to Abroejos was the worst.  I would say if you have
time and the winds are bad, duck into San Juancio and wait!
7. We have been motor sailing about 30 degrees off the wind and our
rumbline with either a double or single reefed main, tacking back and
forth and happy when we have a VMG of 3.  It is a pretty comfortable
ride below.

Looking forward to checking out at Cedros, skipping Turtle Bay and
Ensenada and seeing the shoreline of San Diego! 

Automated message shows Celtic Song at anchor.

The captain reported the previous  evening:
​​1900 (UTC-6) - Eyes open, now 30 kt winds, big breaking waves. This to shall pass. Hand steering, sailing crew well.

​Clawing our way to our anchorage at Abreojos.  4 - 6' confused seas with
2-3 second waves. Wind speed 20+.  Celtic Song is purring away at 2500
rpms with a double reef main.  Crew is amazing.  Jean on watch now and
Francis is preparing to relieve her.  Fortunately we ate a good bkfast
and tamales for lunch.  Thank you Jean.  Crew all still doing their
daily cleaning tasks.  Yes, Bonnie wiped the saloon as she was bounced
up and down and back and forth.  Everyone is doing well. And Celtic Song
is awesome.  Love that engine.  We are passing San Ignacio Laguna now.
I was there a month ago with Peggy, Barry, Sharon, Val and Cheryl.  Just
on the other side.  Hope to make anchor not tooooo late in the evening.
Still 25 miles as the crow flies.  However we are tacking on our
rumbline because hitting these waves square on would be too brutle. This
has been the longest 150 miles ever!

That's it for now going to rest before my turn at the helm! 

​(The Admiral adds that the name Abreojos is interesting: it translates to “open eyes” or perhaps the injunction “open your eyes.”)

Good Easter morning,

We are underway. All good here.  Rested crew, clean crew and boat, fully
stocked ready for two + days at sea.  I will be in touch later.  Winds
look favorable.  Diane