2012.12.29. 7:23 PST 65F


We had a very positive experience at Ensenada. Based on other cruiser’s recommendation, we planned our stay the Cruiseport marina. The staffs here are very professional, not only process the majority of paper works for custom clearance, immigration etc, also drove us to the immigration office and assisted the entire immigration procedure. It took us about 2 hours to get everything done, much faster than we had expected. After that, we got a ride to the TelCel, MX mobile carrier, to get a prepaid sim card and 3G data plan. Cruiseport even arranged an English-speaking lady to help us at Telcel.


Marina office



Seal on the dock

Cruiseport has been a Nordhavn favorite. We found 4-5 Nordhavn trawlers here, including “Time2”, a N57 with reverse pilothouse, and “Autumn Wind”, a N62, right on our dock. We had been on “Autumn Wind” at the trawlers fest at Anacortes, WA, when we were shopping for N62. She subsequently had a change of ownership and left Pacific Northwest. Out of curiosity, we walked over, hoping to meet the new owner, and we had our best luck there.

N57 Time2

N62 Autumn Wind

Tomas, the founder of “Baja Naval”, a well-known boatyard in Ensenada, purchased “Autumn Wind” earlier this year. He invited us onboard for a tour. “Autumn Wind” was built in 2001, 4 year newer than Gray Matter. Although the boats have similar layout, “Autumn Wind” is just that much newer. We were admiring her pristine condition.


Then came the highlight of our day. Tomas took out his Charlie’s Chart for Mexico, and gave us a full load of his favorite cruising spots in Mexico. As you can image, Tomas is the Mr. Encyclopedia for Mexico cruising. We couldn’t believe our luck to get all these knowledge at the beginning of our Mexican trip. Made all the marks on Google Earth, I have a feeling that this conversation had completely changed our Mexico plan. We are fired up!


Another interesting episode. While we were chatting in Autumn Wind’s salon, two guys walked over and were looking at the boat from outside. Before I realized what happened, Mark yelled: “that is Bob”, and jumped outside. It turns out one of the guy is Robert Conconi, previous owner of a N62, a N76, current owner of N86 “Aurora”, future owner of THE N120, which is currently under construction. Mark got to know him at the APT hydraulic class earlier this year. Bob and his son came to Ensenada on a cruise ship and were just walking around to check out boats. What a small world!

Cruise ships are frequent visitors here

Our first day at Mexico turned out to be much more interesting that we had anticipated. Once again, we are amazed by the community built around Nordhavn. Sharing the love of Norhavn, the love of long-rang cruising, people just click instantly — something truly special.

[google-map-v3 width=”350″ height=”350″ zoom=”7″ maptype=”satellite” mapalign=”center” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”31.855,-116.621{}cruiseship.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]