Un-Impounded !

Wow - we made it to the boat and are well into getting her ready for the
passage across the Pacific! Hooooo-Raaaaa!

A few notes on un-impounding our boat:
The Mexican authority AGACE impounded Kailani in late November. During our time in the US, we arranged for a Lawyer to call and make an appointment with AGACE in Tijuana. This was a frustrating process for Rey (a relative of the Oberst family). Not only that, it's a logistical nightmare to travel between the boarder of US and Mexico as it can take up to 3 hours to cross, unlike the German/Swiss crossing we're used to.

In the end, we were notified on the afternoon before the appointment day that Kailani had been released. Seems they needed to see the hull number and ours is very hard to locate unless you know exactly where to look. The agent received some assistance from David (our boat neighbor) who
told us later she was gorgeous - thank God for that otherwise he probably wouldn't have noticed and run to her aid.....

So, after receiving the news that Kailani was freed we headed south across the boarder to Ensenada, Mexico to find our 42' little beauty waiting for us to give her some L-O-V-E! And man, did she need it. This is a fantastic marina, but it is one the dirtiest we've ever stayed in. Between all the cruise ships and container ships that come and go, the black exhaust they belch out is brutal on the boat and it's rigging. It's taken a number of days just to clean her up again. Aside from all that, we've been busy preparing her for the passage. Bill wasn't too happy when he had to move his tools from all the prime storage spots on the boat and demote them to much less accessible spaces in order to make
space for all the food we've had to buy. So far, we've done 3 big shops for groceries and still aren't finished. Only two more to do!! I (Carolyn) am in heaven! I get to buy so much FOOD!! Then I get to EAT IT! :)

Stowing some of the food

But in all honesty, it's been a real organizational nightmare. We've pretty much unpacked everything from every locker and reorganized the stowage. And all in very small spaces. Aarrrggghh.

A bit of work has been done on the engine - changed the coolant after finding a leak in the line, replaced the brushes in the alternator and gave the ol Westerbeke a good dose of TLC and hope she'll reciprocate in kind. We've also had the boat hauled out of the water and spent 3 days on the hard to have the super strength Mexican anti-fouling applied which contains about 75% copper and also have two new through hull fittings installed for devices to monitor our depth and speed. The quality of work was excellent and we wouldn't hesitate to recommend the 'Baja Naval' boat yard to anyone. We also managed to set up the Monitor Wind-Vane which we've nick named "The Butler" to help steer us all the way to New Zealand.

Bill with the poor guy who applied our antifouling

Kailani back in the water in Ensenada with the wind vane attached

Now we're working on the rigging. So far, we've both been up the mast for different reasons and have pretty much got it all together. We checked the head sail and stay sail foils only to find that quite a few grub screws were missing. Grub screws are nowhere to be found in Ensenada so we were forced to order them on ebay. We hope that another of boat neighbor, Jack will bring them down to us next week when he returns from his visit north.

Bill doing more wiring work

Carolyn replacing the hatch seals

So at this point, we hope to depart Ensenada and set sail for the Marquesas by mid-March. If all goes well, we'll make it. Connectivity to the Internet is almost impossible in the marina, so posting has been difficult. But thanks for your patience... and stay tuned for more in the days to come.......