San Diego

Upon arriving in San Diego, the first thing we needed to do on our project list was to head to Tijuana to get our TIP, the form that says we can have our boat in Mexico legally. The crews from Raven and Gypsy went together to Otay Mesa to hit the banjercito, the Mexican military bank that issues TIPs. We took Uber, a bus, a train and another bus to get there. A day pass for the transit system is $6 so it ended up being a great deal as each leg otherwise costs $2.50. We got a cab in Tijuana that charged us $8 for a six block trip. The driver did not get tipped! Walking back to the border, Kevin spied a taco shop. Great food and it introduced us to tamarind water, which was very refreshing in the heat.

We stopped at Trader Joe’s on the way back to the marina and on the bus were a couple wearing Pellucidar polos. Their boat had been moored a row ahead of us in Avalon and was flying a HaHa flag. Turns out they were another PNW boat, from Seattle. They knew one of the boats across from us at the Police Dock. It’s a small world. We’d met another HaHa boat, Blue Sugar at Two Harbors on Catalina Island. We were starting to converge.

Next on the agenda was to get to Costco and get Nina a new pair of glasses. We were there via transit so we didn’t buy much and there’s a mile and a half walk from the marina to the bus stop. We stopped by the local library to use their internet. We went back to Costco via car the next day with Raven to provision.

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We decided to have a play day and go to the San Diego Zoo. Bill had been there when he was in college on a family trip. The animals were nice to look at but the landscaping is amazing.

One of the nice things about doing the HaHa is the chance to meet people. Gina, from Raven, put together a happy hour for the HaHa boats at Shelter Island and about ten boats got together and ate and chatted. Women Who Sail had a meet up at the Silver Gate Yacht club one evening, so six of us from the Police Dock HaHa group headed on over. We didn’t realize that we were supposed to RSVP, but they were gracious and let us stay. Beside the HaHa group, there were local cruisers, folks just back from the South Pacific, and racers. All levels of sailing experience. Nina met a few more women doing the HaHa, some who had been cruising the South Pacific (one had met Velic in Savu Savu), women new to sailing, and the woman whose boat had rolled off the Oregon Coast 150 miles short of completing their circumnavigation.

Back to Costco again – glasses are ready. We hit the library again to use the internet. We needed to print some things out and scan some documents. They don’t have guest passes! One of the staff offered to let us use her card as a work around but another mentioned that we could just get a card. Fortunately, we had signed up for a San Diego mail pick up, we could use that address to get a card, otherwise the cost would be $36. Nina now has a SDPL card and can check out two items until she brings in proof of address. Their checkout limit is 40 items, 3 weeks for books, 1 week for movies and they have no fines (unless you don’t return it and then they will bill you for it). Meanwhile, we got on their computers, Bill got our Mexican fishing licenses and got things scanned. He also called the bank to let them know the money we were spending was not fraudulent. We had to buy a print card for a not intuitive printing/scanning system. Everything got done in the end. We headed over to Costco for a cheap lunch and this guy in line says “didn’t I see you at Kaiser yesterday?” We’d gone in to get part 2 of our hepatitis shot and he’d been there. Nina asked if he was doing the HaHa as he’d been talking about boats to the woman with whom he’d been conversing. Turns out he is the Poobah of the HaHa. We had a nice chat and mentioned that we’d volunteered to help flip burgers for the big kick off party.

Back to the search for boat stuff. Next to Costco is a Lowes. Our search for coconut fiber for the composting toilet was unsuccessful. Back on the train and bus so it was just as well. Coconut fiber is bulky and there’s that walk back to the marina. Stopped on the way at West Marine to look at more fishing gear. Nina had tried fishing on the way down, but was unsuccessful. Pam and Carl sent us off with a lovely kit, but practice was not making better. In talking to other fishermen, it seems you can never have too many lures, so we added a cedar plug and a bird to our collection.

Our time in San Diego was coming to an end. We got the dinghy restowed. Raised the sails to try out the 3^rd reef on the main; see how the staysail set. All the boats in the marina were in high project mode. Crews were starting to arrive. We finally got insurance for Mexican waters. Bill found a marina to stow the boat during the hot hurricane season in Mexico. Time to cast off!