Hola Ensenada!

After two failed attempts we finally crossed the border and are now tied up at the Marina Coral in Ensenada, Mexico. 

I've worked out our engine problems for now, spending a day with a local diesel mechanic in San Diego who checked everything out.  I was able to fix the transmission leak and that seems to be fine now.  We're just going to live with the oil leaks for now.  Fixing it would require a large effort and expense that we can put off until the problem gets worse. 

Oil leaks are common for these old British-made Perkins diesels.  I read a comment online that stated the only reason the English don't make computers is because they can't figure out how to make them leak oil.  Apparently, I'm not the only one struggling with this issue.  We're carrying extra oil and will be keeping a close eye on it. 

And, now we're in Mexico.  It took a while but we made it.  We left San Diego at midnight and motored for 13 hours in light winds to get here.  The plan was to do our immigration check-in and wait out a little weather over the weekend before sailing out on Monday.  We pulled in yesterday around 2 pm to find the port captain had already closed his office for the day and Monday is a national holiday.  Once again, our plans fell through.  It looks like we won't get our visas until Tuesday now, so we'll be here a few days.

The next stop will be Turtle Bay, a protected anchorage about half-way down the Pacific Baja coast.  It's a 2-3 day sail from Ensenada and the longest leg for us. 

After a little time in Turtle Bay we'll do a few day sails to anchorages south of there until Bahia Magdalena, a large protected bay where we'll spend a few days.  From there it's a 2-day sail to Cabo San Lucas where we plan to spend a night on the hook before moving on. 

We were planning to jump across the Sea of Cortez to Mazatlan and work our way down the mainland coast to spend the holidays in Zihuatenejo.  We're a little behind now so it may be Christmas in Puerto Vallarta. 

It's hard to put a date to any destination as nothing seems to go as expected.  At some point you just have to drop all expectation and just go where and when the circumstances allow.  But, for now, that's the general itinerary.  We'll be posting updates as they come.  Hasta luego.