Jeff,
After reading of your return from Catalina, I feel justified in my decision to leave my boat in Ensenada. I sailed to Ensenada, leaving San Diego very early Saturday. The sailing was marginal and for the first time ever, mostly a port tack. Still, the winds were mostly light and I spent a lot of time motorsailing. Sunday was great as Mardi Gras was in full swing in Ensenada, but in the afternoon the clouds started building and I noticed a chill in the wind. I hit the rack early, hoping to get U/W at 0200. My crew decided to party until departure time as I told them that we would be motoring for a good portion of the trip home since it is normally directly into the wind, and they could sleep along the way. At 0100 I got up and the wind was blowing about 23 kts and the rain was coming down close to horizontally. I waffled until about 0300 and things were still pretty dicey, so I made the decision to take the bus home. As we rode the bus up the coast I saw a fairly large power boat heading north. he was going slowly and taking water over the bow with each wave.
If I had made the decision to try to make the trip north... given the adverse current, waves and wind on the nose, I suspect I would have made no more that 3-4 knots. That would have made a very long and uncomfortable trip. Until next weekend the boat is secure in a marina in Ensenada.... besides, now I get two trips to Ensenada instead of one!
I hope no one from SF or the Seattle area reads this. They will think I am a real wimp since this type of sailing is fairly routine for them.
Tony
Peregrine Spirit
E 380