We headed out of Turtle Bay in a good weather window, promising (and delivering) three days of flat seas and low winds.  We stopped overnight at Cedros Island, very close to a seal colony - which was noisy, but very interesting. In amongst the hundreds of seals were a few very large Elephant seals. I have never seen these before, but it is pretty clear why they have this name! There were also lots of babies (cubs?) clambering all over their mothers.

 

      

 Check the size of that nose!                                                                                            Very playful seals  

 

 

The next day was the 4th July, not only Independence day for the USA, but also Phil on Tetu's birthday, so we made him a cake and a card! 

 

  

 Not bad for "baked at sea"                                                                   Time2 & Tetu at Cedros island

 

We then set off for our 32 hour trip up to Ensenada - which was a very easy run. Time2 is now tied up at Cruiseport Marina, where we plan to leave her for a few months. Ensenada is a big town, about 100km south of the USA border and has good facilities for boats. This marina is inside a bigger harbour, so very safe and protected. On arrival we met Carlos a local guy who takes care of boats and he immediately got to work giving Time2 a good wash to get rid of all the caked salt we had picked up on the rough ride last week. What a pleasure to walk on a clean deck again!

On Saturday we will help Phil take Tetu up to San Diego, as his current crew do not have American Visas. We will stay there for a few days and then head back by bus to Ensenada.

 

I have been adding up our stats for 2012, and it goes something like this:  Arrived in Panama in mid February, took a quick "spare parts" trip Florida, then transited the Panama canal and cruised Pacific Panama. Then moved on to Costa Rica, El Salvador and Mexico, stopping all together at 58 different places and travelling just under 4000nm .. no wonder we are a little tired!