Heading to Baja

It's been a hectic two weeks. Six days were spent driving up to Palm Springs, and back and forth twice to San Pedro/LA, back to Palm Springs and then back to San Carlos. We'll be glad not to be in the car for awhile, although the Mexico part of the trip is always more interesting than the U.S. part.
There's always stuff for sale along the road:

It's chile season.....

And there are shrines where people have died in accidents:

The border crossing wasn't bad for a Saturday and the border patrol guy we got knew what a life raft was so we didn't have a problem getting through without opening it. (Thank Goodness)

There was a gorgeous sunset in Tucson that night:

The next day (Monday) we got to Palm Springs in time for a dip in the pool. In the morning we were heading to the freeway to San Pedro and our power steering pump went out and was spewing power steering fluid all over. We called AAA and a tow truck was there in half an hour, we were at the auto repair shop with a diagnosis, an estimate, a promise it would be done the next day, and a rental car delivered within an  hour and we were back on the road to San Pedro with the life raft.

The life raft technician, Fernando, was great. He opened it up while we were there and showed us how it inflates, every thing that is in it,  and what he actually would do to re-certify it. He was in the middle of doing 42 twenty-five man rafts for the Navy, but he took the time to get ours done so we could pick it up in two days (it needs to sit inflated overnight so they're sure there are no leaks).

The twenty-five man life rafts.

Fernando unpacking.

Some of the contents - there's even a fishing line.

Our life raft looks pretty small next to those big 25 man models.

Life rafts waiting to be re-packed.

We had dinner with Drew that night and then drove back to Palm Springs. The next day (Tuesday) we did some shopping for necessary items like cheese, chocolate and a few boat items, had some pool time, and did laundry (there's a washer/dryer in the condo unit).

Wednesday we did another round trip to San Pedro to pick up the life raft.

Thursday morning we were back on the road to Tucson and then San Carlos.

We had all the required paperwork for the liferaft, so legally we had nothing to declare. We went through the "nothing to declare" line at the border and luckily got a green light (not red) so we breezed right through and were back on Loomba-Loomba by late afternoon on Friday Nov. 1.

When we got back the machine shop had the outboard ready and Danny the mechanic put it back together and it's running again. The new dinghy fits in the davits with a few minor adjustments. The sails are on (after a trip up the mast).

Here are some shots of Marina Real and Loomba-Loomba from the spreaders:

We're still going through lockers - purging and making room for the stuff we brought down (while we still have the car to put things in). We have to go up the mast one more time to put the running backs and radar reflector up, Jim has a little engine maintenance to do, the wind vane steering needs to be hooked up and the surveyor needs to finish.

Loomba-Loomba is clean and looking good!

We're planning on heading across to Baja Saturday (a 14-24 hour passage depending on weather and wind), spending a couple of weeks cruising south, and then crossing over again to Mazatlan on the mainland. We're leaving Loomba-Loomba in Mazatlan while we go home for our first grandchild's birth and for Christmas.