{"id":59486,"date":"2025-05-12T09:19:42","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T13:19:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/?p=59486"},"modified":"2025-05-13T11:04:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-13T15:04:45","slug":"sailing-avocet-mexico-part-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/people\/sailing-avocet-mexico-part-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Aiming for Mexico, Part 3: Landfall in Ensenada and a 48-Hour Surprise"},"content":{"rendered":"\n        <section class=\"hydra-container\">\n\n\t\t\t                <div class=\"hydra-canvas\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/neely-1024x768.jpg\" class=\"hydra-image disable-lazyload\" alt=\"Marissa Neely\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1400px) 100vw, 1400px\" fetchpriority=\"high\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/neely-1024x768.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/neely-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/neely-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/neely-1536x1152.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/neely.jpg 2000w\" \/>                <\/div>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n            <figcaption class=\"caption margin_top_xs full border_1 hydra-figcaption\">\n                <span class=\"hydra-image-caption\">Marissa Neely stands on the foredeck of <i>Avocet<\/i> as the coastline of Ensenada emerges from the morning haze, marking their long-awaited landfall in Mexico.<\/span>\n                <span class=\"article_image_credit italic margin_right_xs\">Marissa Neely<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\t            <\/figcaption>\n        <\/section>\n\t\t\n\n\n<p>It was 4 a.m. on the dot, so I thought my husband, Chris, was rather punctual when it came to going off-watch and gently waking me for my turn at the helm aboard our 1979 Cheoy Lee 41, <em>Avocet.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<iframe id=\"gkstfcayky\" src=\"https:\/\/cruisingworld.dragonforms.com\/gkstfcayky\" scrolling=\"no\" style=\"width:100%;height:165px;border:none;overflow:hidden;\"><\/iframe>\n\n\n\n<p>Then, I realized I had a question to ask him as he shimmied out of his foulies: \u201cWhat\u2019s that smell?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cTrash,\u201d he replied before throwing himself into our bed, exhausted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Not at all a normal reply, but an understandable one, given that he had just spent hours <a href=\"\/people\/sailing-avocet-mexico-part-2\/\">dodging poorly lighted fishing boats and a partially submerged barge to keep us safe while I snoozed<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I made my way up to the cockpit and found the beanbag nestled abaft the helm, water bottles and evidence of snacks all around\u2014not that the scene after any of my watches looks much different, but I tend to keep all the things I need in a central location. I rearranged Chris\u2019 setup to my liking and then settled in to watch the sunrise with Cleo, our cat, who had stretched off her slumber and stared out over the horizon with her yellow eyes as wide as can be. If only I could read her mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Three hours later, Chris emerged in the companionway, an hour before his next watch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s Ensenada,\u201d he said, pointing. His eyes looked tired, but his smile showed excitement. He had decided to make us breakfast and to join Cleo and me outside. The closer we got to Ensenada, the more alive the VHF radio became with chatter from fishermen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We had read countless articles and blog posts, and listened to tales from those who have cruised to Mexico\u2014but still, I didn\u2019t entirely know what to expect from this country. I reeled in my anxiety, which can get the best of me with negative thoughts, and I focused on how exciting it was to be curious about whatever was in store for us ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>After all, at this point, I had become great at finding the silver lining in our misadventures. I assured myself that if we stumbled into another one, it would all be all right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It didn\u2019t take long to encounter our first challenge in Mexico, and it was a real whopper\u2014when we were told that we had only 48 hours before we had to leave the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Lesson learned:<\/strong> When you\u2019re on a boat and entering a new country, be prepared for anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"\/people\/tip-trouble-no-one-warned-us-about\/\"><strong>Coming next:<\/strong> Part 4, with all our preparations for cruising south of the border, we never expected to encounter this problem.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After a sleepless night at sea, we made landfall in Ensenada\u2014only to be hit with a deadline we never saw coming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":59489,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"BS_author_type":"BS_author_is_guest","BS_guest_author_name":"Marissa Neely","BS_guest_author_url":"","hydra_display_date":"","hydra_display_updated":false,"arc_story_id":"","arc_website_url":"","arc_subtype":"","arc_exclude_from_feeds":false,"sponsored":false,"sponsored_label":"Sponsored Content","sponsored_display_label":false,"post_right_rail":true,"post_right_rail_ad_1":true,"post_right_rail_ad_2":true,"post_right_rail_ad_3":false,"post_right_rail_ad_4":false,"post_right_rail_recirc":true,"fixed_anchor_ad":true,"post_top_ad":true,"post_off_ramp":true,"post_taboola":false,"labels":true,"apple_news_api_created_at":"","apple_news_api_id":"","apple_news_api_modified_at":"","apple_news_api_revision":"","apple_news_api_share_url":"","apple_news_cover_media_provider":"image","apple_news_coverimage":0,"apple_news_coverimage_caption":"","apple_news_cover_video_id":0,"apple_news_cover_video_url":"","apple_news_cover_embedwebvideo_url":"","apple_news_is_hidden":"","apple_news_is_paid":"","apple_news_is_preview":"","apple_news_is_sponsored":"","apple_news_maturity_rating":"","apple_news_metadata":"\"\"","apple_news_pullquote":"","apple_news_pullquote_position":"","apple_news_slug":"","apple_news_sections":[],"apple_news_suppress_video_url":false,"apple_news_use_image_component":false,"footnotes":"","ad_settings_ads_on_this_page":true,"ad_settings_automatic_ad_injection_into_the_content":true,"ad_targeting":"","alternate_title_newsletter":"","alternate_content_newsletter":"","sponsored_image":false,"sponsored_url":"","social_share":true},"categories":[165],"tags":[2000,283,197,2050],"class_list":["post-59486","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-lifestyle","tag-mexico","tag-people","tag-sailing-avocet"],"acf":[],"apple_news_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59486","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59486"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59486\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/59489"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59486"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59486"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cruisingworld.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59486"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}