Here we are more then a month later in Ensenada, Mexico aboard the Super Servant 4, the same ship we last saw in Brisbane when we loaded the Queen Jane aboard the semi-submerged yacht carrier on January 14th. Unlike that summer day down under it is dead winter here and, even though the map says Mexico, it is damn cold here. 

It is now 7:15pm and the Queen Jane – still aboard the Super Servant 4 transport ship – is about to get back 
in the wet stuff. The crew arrived yesterday morning in Ensenada, Mexico and spent the last day getting the boat ready for the trip up to San Diego. The total distance to SD is about 62 miles. The SS4 is currently in the process of ‘sinking’ itself. Once all of the boats are floating, the procession will begin and we will all proceed to leave the ship. Some boats are staying here in Mexico for several days (or longer) and some are heading North tonight, like us. Conditions look good with clear skies. It is damn cold, for us anyway, somewhere in the mid-50s I’d say, though I have no thermometer. Its hard to judge wind speed and direction in here as the shipping port and containers, and the harbor, are blocking much of what is really going on. During the day we had anywhere from 10 to 20k from the NW and West, according to our instruments. Right now our wind indicator is showing 5k from the SE which leads me to believe this is a localized condition and not representative of what we will find outside. 

We finally got our boat off the ship at 9:30pm. The process was well orchestrated and there was “no drama” involved. We picked our way out of the harbor in pitch darkness following buoys which were not on the chart until we cleared the harbor entrance. Winds were 10-12k from the NE for the first hour, then shifted to the NW at 8k for a while then increased to 12-15k from the North and then back to 8-10k from the NW.