Isla Coronado Sur

I left San Diego just after noon yesterday, fueling up at the Harbor Island West fuel dock and then navigating the crowded bay as various class sailboat races and Sunday day-sailors criss-crossed all around. It makes it tricky to manage all the sailing jobs, single-handing and watching out for all the other boats out there (almost all of which have right-of-way on a sailboat under power).

It was about a three-hour sail out here to Isla Coronado Sur, the southernmost of the Coronado islands and the only one with what could even be remotely considered an anchorage – and it’s really more of a “roadstead.” It’s very rolly, horrible for sleeping or even being comfortable, especially with the cold, and it’s only good because I have a relatively short day today to get into Ensenada after a little bit of fishing this morning. As I came in to anchor yesterday, I passed a few boats out there at about 120’ jigging – large charter fishers out of H&M Landing or Fisherman’s Landing (my neighbors on Shelter Island) out for ¾ day or full-day charters.

It’s coming up on 4:30 am, and I’ve been up since 3 – this the product of going to bed at 5:30pm. Partially it’s due to the wind and the movement of the boat at anchor, but mostly it’s due to a severe hangover and lack of sleep Saturday night before my exit from San Diego. I went out with my step-brother Ryan to a few places downtown, then met up with Donna, a friend I’ve met through this blog, and we all went up to Altitude – the cool rooftop bar at the top of the Marriott downtown (the new Marriott, not the hotel/marina where I worked in college). Anyway – it was a long, great night, and the couple of beers and then six or seven Don Julio rocks w/splash of sweet & sour really did a number on me over the course of the night, and that number lasted until… well, still.

I’ll drop a line as soon as it gets light (in about an hour or so) and then start the sail into Ensenada, where I’ll check into Mexico and see what options are out there for communication. I sold my Pactor II modem to friends John & Susan Rabe before I left the dock, as they’re planning a trip to Mexico and then across to the Marquesas and beyond, starting October. And since a sailmail email address (the email you have to use with the SSB radio / Pactor modem system) costs $250/year, I opted to not do that this time, for this one-month trip. It seemed like it would have been overkill to use an offshore modem when I’ll be in mobile service most of the trip and if it really came down to it I could just turn on my iPhone and roam for $0.50/minute. Although I certainly can’t do an annual commitment, I’ll check out what phone & data plans are currently being offered by Telcel, the Mexican cell provider with the best coverage between here and Guaymas / San Carlos. If I could pick up a data modem and get a pre-paid data plan, that might be a good compromise, as I can do everything with data anyway (and Skype).

TT