At 00:05 we started the engine for our trip north to San Diego and by 00:20 a.m. we were underway heading out to the harbor at Ensenada. It was a quiet and calm night as we continued north about 6 miles off the coast. By 4:00 a.m. with Anita on watch, we had covered almost 22 nautical miles. A couple of fishing boats had passed us during the night. One had come up astern and passed us inside of the land.

The day turned out to be cloudy, but the sea stayed calm; with no wind, we continued under the engine. It was now 6:50 a.m. and we had covered just over 35 nautical miles since leaving Ensenada. At 9:10 a.m., we added diesel. The clouds and broken up and we now had some sun.

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By 11:00 a.m. we were closing in on San Diego, crossing the border back into US waters. We had one large ship which was heading 90 degrees to us and heading for the shore. After passing us astern he dropped his anchor. There were many sailboats enjoying the day out and after turning into the channel leading into San Diego, we were passed by an idiot driving large a powerboat and leaving a big wake which washed over our decks. I guess he was showing off to his guests.

At 1:40 p.m. we arrived at the ‘Q’ dock and tied up. It is here that you call customs and immigration from the Phone provided just up the walkway from the dock. Already on the dock was another sailboat that we had seen leaving the Marina Seca yard in Ensenada. They had been staying at the Hotel Coral Marina which is just up the coast from Ensenada proper.

We waited on the Q-Dock for the wind to die down. There was a strong wind blowing 90 degrees to all the guest docks which are behind the Q-Dock. These docks are managed by the police and have limited short-stay options. As we had been assigned an up-wind berth (#6- even numbers are up-wind docks). We finally moved later in the afternoon (#7) which had a nasty nail sticking out of it which I hammered in.

The boat next to us had also been in Marina Sec having the bottom done and had seen our boat there when they had been launched. The guy on board was a single hander.

The US has a nice way of helping you check in.  If you have a valid CBP decal you can use their app to call ahead once you are in range of a receiving station. They will either clear you in using the app or ask you to go to a Q-Dock to be manually checked in. In our case, the annual decal had not arrived, so we went to the Q-Dock. We gave the officers doing the check in our paperwork and confirmation receipt, so we did not have to pay a single-entry fee for check in. We were waiting for our Decal number. The very next day, we received an email with the decal number which is what we needed.