Ensenada: Finishing the Big Move

It took almost eleven days to get Circadian back together after she arrived in Ensenada.  It was exhausting, but I got it done with only minor problems.  As soon as I was "done," I left on the first good-weather day for San Diego.  Here's the story:

As soon as it arrived from San Carlos, the truck with

 Circadian was waiting outside Baja Naval

at first light.

The only problem along the way was multiple flat tires,

probably caused by the heat in Baja.

Once Baja Naval opened, things happened fast!  As soon

as the truck pulled in, the Travelift got the boat and

put her in the water and the mast was put on movable 

stands.  I had to immediately move Circadian into

her slip to free-up access to the Travelift dock.

In the slip for the next ten days while I put Circadian

back together.  No mast!

From my slip I could watch the cruise ship dock almost

every morning.

On the other side freighters loaded and unloaded.

On the nearby malecon, there was always something 

happening.  This  show was part of a week-long 

arts festival.

This egret was a regular.  It fished every morning

from this shore power cord, which, conveniently, 

slowly lowered the bird to the water and lifted it up

again as the boat moved.  It was effective, and the 

bird got a lot of fish.

This black-crowned heron seemed to like

watching me next door as I worked on

the boat.

It took about three days to get the mast ready to be 

re-stepped.  Because the crew at Marina Seca failed to

label the rigging wires, I had to sort out the puzzle.

Much of the running rigging had to be sorted out too.

Then all the rigging as well as the radar antenna 

had to be remounted.

Once the mast was prepped, the crane was called.

Once again, when it arrived a couple of day later,

things happened fast!

Once the mast was back on the

boat, I had to get the sails back

up.  When the messenger line

for hoisting the jib broke,

I had to climb the mast to

replace it with a stronger line.

The lump at the top of the mast

is me.

It really wasn't that much fun.  While up there,

I also checked the anchor light LED because it

wasn't working despite checking out when the mast

was down.  It was secure, but it and the steaming

light still aren't working.  A project for later.

It took two days, but I finally got both sails up.

Once the sails were up, the Baja Naval crew

tensioned and tuned the rig.

While waiting for the mast to be stepped,

I made new davit lines to replace the old

and failing ones.  I used dyneema, so

they should be more durable.  Turns out

that single braid dyneema is pretty easy

to splice.

I didn't have time to do much site-seeing, but saw a few

interesting things in the course of running errands and

going into town for lunch.

This old anchor displayed on the malecon near my slip

was found off of Santa Rosalia and came from a

19th century French ship carrying copper ore.  

See my Santa Rosalia post to learn about the history 

of copper mining there by a French company.

The Plaza of the Revolution was right in front of Baja Naval.

Big busts of revolutionary heroes and Ensenada's famous

huge flag are proudly on display.

Two blocks from the malecon is the main tourist street

that has lots of restaurants and shops catering to tourists.

I by chance decided to eat at El Rey Sol and discovered

it was an excellent French restaurant.  

There is always music of course, and it was fun to see

this ol' gal rockin' out and having a good time.

Oxxo is the Mexican equivalent of 7-11 stores in the US.

But Mexico has more Oxxo stores than Carter's got pills.

It has become a running joke among cruisers when 

giving directions to say "It's right near the Oxxo,"

because they are everywhere.  This is about the

closest together I've seen them:  about 150 yards!

And of course, the church.  Big, but not

especially beautiful.