Checking Out

San Diego, California, USA

Christmas is over.  We are already tired of turkey sandwiches.  BTW, the turkey breast was great - it turned out it was already cooked (must read those labels more closely), so it made our Christmas dinner that much simpler to prepare.

Boxing day (not a big deal here in the USA) was a quiet day for us.  With all of the government offices closed from Friday thru Sunday, we had no choice but to wait till Monday to get our clearance out of the country, so we spent our time taking some long walks in the sunshine, enjoying the nice weather here on Shelter island.  We did go to Starbucks for coffee although we did not need to go there for our Internet - since we have moved back to the public docks, our connection has been much better.

Today, we had to take the bus downtown to visit CBP (Customs and Border Protection) to get our clearance out of the USA.  We gave up our "cruising license"  that we obtained back in Friday harbor some 3 months ago and are now officially able to leave the country - in fact, once they stamp your exit papers, you have only 48 hours to get out of Dodge.  So tomorrow we will be gone!

In anticipation of leaving, we have already obtained our Mexican fishing licenses and Mexican liability insurance - things that you can get locally here in San Diego.  The rest will have to wait untill we get to Ensenada.

As for tonight, we may make a final visit to our favorite spot on Shelter island - Humphreys.  This is a popular resort that has some sort of live music every night, on an outdoor stage in the summer and in the lounge in the winter.  They have a happy hour from 5 till 7 PM every day (1/2 price food and drinks), with the entertainment usually starting at 7 PM.  We have been there for the last two Mondays in a row because it is "Blues" night on Mondays.  Where else can you go and have a decent meal, a few drinks and some great entertainment for under $20 for the two of us - hard to beat.

This view is looking south from Shelter island, through the shipping lane entrance to the harbour.  The islands you can see in the distance are in Mexico.  We will be leaving in the late afternoon from San Diego, in order to do a slow overnight passage to Ensenada.  It is only about 70 miles, but this is further than we can hope to go during the daylight hours (the days are short here too) and we would like to arrive in the morning sometime to give ourselves the best part of the day to clear into Mexico.  That is the theory - we will see how well this all works in practice.

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