Police Docks, Shelter Island, San Diego

On Saturday I called the Police Docks and they had a space available for me. I quickly hauled anchor at La Playa and motored the short distance to Shelter Island. View Map. I did all the paperwork at the office and then tied up at my new slip.


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Its so weird to be in a dock again. I realized I haven't been at a dock since Alamitos Bay back in August. This was the first time since then I would have access to a hose and shore power. I gave the boat a good cleaning to remove 2 months of salt buildup and then plugged in shore power and turned all the electric items on including the AC. It felt good for a while, but was a little claustrophobic being so close to other boats and the shore after being out on my own floating island for so long.

Since this really is the last US stop before you leave the country I met lots of other people in sailboats doing last minute jobs before they left for Baja. Its like a club meeting where people who have had the exact same dream as you, get together to swap stories. Everyone had had the same issues as me, years of planning and preparation and then solving last minute problems before finally casting off. Luckily since I had left 3 months ago, I had more time to fully test out the boat and get things fixed before I cross the border. If you don't get the work done now, its a long way to go before you can find any sort of marine related store down south in Mexico.

The only things I have left to do now are to refill my primary propane tank (gas cooker) and install the dinghy equipment I bought. I will do my last food provisioning trip when I get back from my trip home.

My first Mexican stop will be Ensenada which is only about 60 miles past the border. I will get all my visas and immigration paperwork done there as its an official port of entry for Mexico. I will also top off my fuel tanks for the long 750nm trip down Baja. I'm quite pleased about my fuel usage (considering the lack of wind on this trip) as that means I only put fuel in the boat once since leaving San Francisco 3 months ago and that was only 30 gallons. The tank says 2/3 full right now but its not very accurate. I'm guessing it needs around 20 gallons to fill it back up. If the wind dies at nite on the trip down Baja, I will want to motor to keep my progress up if I see a bad weather forecast.

A few people at the docks are preparing to do the Baja Haha rally which is sponsored by Latitude38, a monthly magazine about sailing on the west coast. I have been reading the magazine for years and considered doing the Baha Haha rally as it would mean sharing the long trip down Baja with lots of other sailors, as many as 200 are signed up. After some thought I decided not to do the Haha as they only stop in 2 places on the Baja coast and they do not allow single handers to do the event. I may try and be anchored at Turtle Bay or Mag Bay when they come thro.

I flew back to San Fran the next day and  was home for Ali and Lisa's birthdays. When I returned to the boat the weather had turned and it started raining! I found a few leaks in the boat and plugged them up before leaving the docks to get my last fill up at the fuel docks.

I got to the fuel docks about 10am just before it really started to pour down. The guys let me stay for a few hours as business was so quiet. I had only been the second customer that day and only one other person pulled up in the next 4 hours. He estimated 75% of all boats in the marina were for sale with the downturn in the economy. I dont think its that bad but it was very quiet!

I loaded up on my last batch of groceries and then decided to head for the Zuniga shoals just outside the main harbor and anchor there for my last day before heading south. This would save me a few hours going back and forth within the harbor. I dropped anchor just before dark.