Ensenada, Mexico - San Diego, USA
Nimue
Thu 16 Jun 2016 23:52
We accepted the marina deal to stay 3 nights for the price of 2, which still worked out at $80 per night. At least this gave us all the time to check out of Mexico on a Saturday morning. This was a no hassle check out, as the marina employed a guy who did all the formalities with the authorities and all we had to do was 'turn up’ at the customs office!
We were all eager by now to get into the USA, so slipped our lines at first light (around 0530am!) and by 1330 were sailing past the Mexican border and into USA. As we approached San Diego, we were greeted with lots of noise…..it was mayhem; as every type of craft appeared on the water, helicopters were flying overhead and planes were taking off from the busy San Diego airport.
We covered the 61nm to San Diego by 1500 and made our way to transient slip No5 on the Police Transient dock. Fortunately, we had booked the slip on the way up from Ensenada, as there would not have been enough space for us to check in on the actual Police dock. After making a few calls to Homeland Sec. two officials eventually turned up and they stamped our passports for 6 months.
The following morning we went into town and purchased our cruising permit ($19), which allows Nimue to stay in US waters for up to a year.