Baja Ha-Ha Cruisers Rally

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Baja Ha-Ha Cruisers Rally

A 750-mile cruising rally from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas every fall. www.baja-haha.com Smaller vessels may apply for special dispensation.

Baja Ha-Ha is the 750-mile cruisers' rally from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, with stops at funky-but-fun Turtle Bay and spectacular Bahia Santa Maria. The event is open to monohull and multihull sailboats and motor vessels 27 feet or longer that were designed, built, and have been maintained for offshore passages. The Ha-Ha is absolutely not an offshore hand-holding service, and is only open to sk

ippers and crews who would have sailed their boats to Cabo anyway. While weather conditions on the Ha-Ha course have generally been benign during past events, everyone must be prepared for whatever the Pacific Ocean might dish out. Entries must have a minimum of two crew, and at least two crew on each boat must have overnight offshore experience. The concept behind a rally as opposed to a race is for folks to have fun sailing with friends rather than against them. As such, every boat that finishes the Ha-Ha is a winner, no matter if engines have been used for safety and/or convenience. Nonetheless, folks are encouraged to sail as much as possible, and those who sail the entire course are lauded for being 'soul sailors'. There is a roll call each morning which includes checks for medical and mechanical emergencies, a professional weather report from Commander's Weather, a request for positions from all boats, and a brief chat-up about fish that were caught and other fleet news.

10/27/2024

OUTFITTING QUESTION.

The wife of a friend of mine says it's a rule of thumb that there should at least 13 cutting boards on a catamaran when you take off cruising. And only that few because catamarans are so weight sensitive.

She also says that the other rule of thumb is that there be at least two Tupperware containers for each foot of length or the boat.

What do you think?

10/24/2024

WORK AT DUNKIN' DONUTS AT POINT LOMA AND STILL BE ABLE TO AFFORD THE RENT ON A BRAND NEW THREE-BEDROOM HOUSE IN A GATE COMMUNITY?

I didn't think it was possible. Then Dona and I ordered coffee and avocado toast at the Dunkin' Donuts on Rosecrans near Shelter Island in San Diego.

The woman at the window appeared to be in her mid to late 40s and was a good-natured rebel. I could tell the rebel part because she had lots of tattoos, including her entire neck.

I don't how the subject came up, but she told us she lived in a very nice, new three-bedroom house in a gated community. For $500 a month!

"Where?" I asked.

"Tijuana," she replied.

"Isn't crossing the border each day a pain?" I asked.

"Not if you commute by motorcycle," she said, "because they don't check motorcycles. And I ride a Yamaha 650. It takes me five minutes to cross the border and 20 minutes to Pt. Loma."

Obviously this rebel doesn't obey the speed limits.

Anyway, the avocado toast at Dunkin' Donuts is actually pretty darn delicious.

If you're in the Shelter Island area for the Ha-Ha and are looking for dining suggestions, I've got a few.

The Brigantine. This is sort of half a quiet restaurant, which we've never been in, and a sports bar-ish noisier restaurant in the other half. The reasonably priced spinach salad is excellent and easily works for two people. We've eaten almost everything on the menu, and like it. Sand dabs! Monday nite is Happy Hour all nite, with all kinds of drinks and food for $7 each. We probably eat at the Brig more than anywhere else.

Supannee House of Thai by Suree. Really excellent Thai food, including the green curry and the soups, and more expensive entrees. My only complaint is the duck. They offer some wretched thing called 'mock duck'. From summers in Paris I am something of an authority on duck and all the ways it can be prepared, and I can assure you that 'mock duck' tastes like s--t! But everything else is very, very good. One caution. Like a lot of restaurants in sleepy San Diego, the kitchen closes at 9 pm.

Ototo Sushi in Liberty Station. Although there are sushi places that are closer and more expensive than Ototo, we're always more than happy to make the 10-minute bike ride to Liberty Station for lunch. They have a lunch special every day that might feature chicken, braised ribs, salmon or what have you, and it comes with miso soup, a salad, four pieces of sushi, rice, and a pile of tempura goodies. It's less than $20, and is plenty for two or for lunch and dinner. They also offer a killer sashimi salad that is overflowing with fish chucks. So good. Most nights they close at 8:30 pm!!!

Pomodoro. Every now and then you have to have pork osso buco on risotto, don't you? Pomodoro, located in an old house, can be cramped and noisy, but the spirit and food are great. Dona and I both got osso buco and the bill came to $100, which after super low Paris prices almost gave me a heart attack. But the osso buco portion is so large and we could have shared it and still both been stuffed.

Ketch. A few years ago the incredibly dank and dusty institution that was Red Sails was torn down and replaced with bright and open Ketch, a hip indoor-outdoor place that always has plenty of sports on. While it's a great venue, in just a few years the prices have soared and the quality of the food seemed to have soured. They way, way too much salt on everything, and the fried calamari is more grease than seafood. But it's convenient and cool, so we still go there from time to time.

The San Diego YC has some terrific food. The salads are different and excellent, and Dona likes the braised ribs. Danny North and I both had the seared ahi recently. It's sort of soupy with bok choy and other stuff. Different but delicious.

A couple of old favorites are out of action. Steve Rock's long time sailor hangout Fiddler's Green is no more, as it's in the process of being completely redone as some hip new place. And in a real tragedy for junk food fans, the Der Weinersnitzel on Rosecrans is being remodeled and out of action.

There are many other restaurants in the Shelter Island - West Marine nexus that we don't know about. If you have any suggestions, let fly!

10/22/2024

NICOLAI AND ASSEN, THE SD CAPTAIN AND COMEDY TEAM

Dona and I had one of our most laugh-filled lunches the other day with Nicolai and Assen, a couple of hilarious Bulgarians twins who do delivery work under the name SD Captains.

And do they ever do delivery work! They spend about 320 days at year at sea, shuttling boats short distances as well as from one side of the world to the other. I think it was Nicolai who said he's done at least 23 trips between Hawaii and California. For them a trip from Vallarta to Seattle or San Diego to Lauderdale is like ringing a bell.

Why do they work so much? Because they are old school and think their wives should be home taking care of the kids instead of working.

The two got started on the water at age seven when they were two of about 125 kids asked to join a sailing Bulgarian sailing club run by the military. Only one other person of the 125 stuck with it.

In communist Bulgaria the military is in charge of all sports, which is why Bulgarians specialize in manly sports like wrestling and sailing instead of dainty stuff like golf and tennis.

As you might expect, there was no coddling or complaining with the military, where hard-nosed discipline was a speciality. Instructions were given and had to be followed.

Nicolai and Assen quickly learned that life wasn't fair, and that group goals were more important than the individual feelings. If one or two men were lost in the accomplishment of a goal, it just proved that life wasn't fair, didn't it? Get over it.

They also learned that being part of the sailing program meant a file was created for them. "If the Turks or Greeks were going to attack Bulgaria from the south," Nicolai explained, "we were going to be called up to be cannon fodder for three days until the Russians could get there."

The twins figure that the military approach was both good and bad. On the good side there were strict standards that had to be met to get a license. If didn't matter if you were going to be operating a 27-ft sailboat or a 1,000-ft tanker, you had to pass the same test.

On the down side, the military is not exactly big on nuances. For example, they were importing 30-ft boats from France for training. But the military cut the budget for the program by 30%. No problem, thought the guys in charge, we'll save money by importing them without engines and installing some big car engines we have laying around. And use cheaper masts from Poland that kept breaking.

If we remember correctly, Nicolai won a visa lottery for a green card and came to Chicago in the late '90s or early oughts. He hated the cold. He ended up flying to San Diego, a place no Bulgarian had ever heard of, just before Christmas. He got off the plane all bundled up and was shocked to find out it was warm. San Diego has been Nicolai and Assen's home ever since.

Nicolai ended up doing low grade jobs moving boats around for dealers and charter companies because he'd been told that people with green cards couldn't get captain's licenses. For four years he suffered from that misinformation. He ultimately found out you could indeed get a six-pack license if you had a green card.

Nicolai got the news and signed up to take a class to get the license. After he all but slept through the first lesson, the instructor pulled him aside. "This course costs $1,200," he said, "I'm worried that you're not going to pass and will have wasted your money." Nicolai told him he thought he knew most of the course material.

So the instructor asked him what lights a tug pulling two barges should show at night if the captain had died and there was an obstacle to port. Something like that. Having learned the rules of the road the military way, it was an easy question for Nicolai.

The thing about being brought up under Bulgarian military rule is it made the twins tough. Shortly after Assen arrived in the States in the early 2000s, he was diagnosed with cancer and given nine months to live. Somehow the twins managed to get a big personal loan, which ultimately took them many, many years to pay off, to get him treatment. And he recovered.

Four months after surgery Assen was delivering a small boat up the coast with a couple of other people. It was rough, wet and cold, and they were barely making a knot. Yet in three days Assen never once came below. He never complained, but every couple of hours he'd ask to have some sandwiches or toilet paper handed up.

Concerned, the rest of the crew called Nicolai. "Don't worry," Nicolai assured them, "because of his cancer surgery he can't bend his knee and go below."

Three days out in the nasty elements didn't bother Assen. "I had a job and I was doing it," he told us with no emotion. "I knew we would eventually reach our destination."

As you might expect, the twins had to start at the bottom in the delivery business. They got the worst of the worst jobs for the better part of 10 years. Boats that weren't really ready to go to sea, owners trying to be as cheap as possible — that kind of stuff.

For example, their first real delivery was from Honolulu to California. All they got was plane tickets. No pay.

It didn't help that in those early years they were known as a couple of Russians.

It was hard and sometimes dangerous work, and didn't pay well. But their Bulgarians hardened by the military, so they stuck to it.

But for the last 10 years things have been different. Having established excellent reputations, they got lots of repeat business. These days they can mostly pick and choose between jobs, and mostly deliver high end motor yachts or large sailboats. They've paid their dues.

We asked them each which was their roughest moment.

For Assen, it was getting hit by 88 knots of wind delivering a big Nordhavn a quarter mile off the beach at Tehauantepec. It was no big deal, it was just windy.

For Nicolai it was crossing the Colombia River bar one nasty night. It was blowing about 30 knots, which meant nothing. The seas were about 15 feet, but fairly long period. so the Coast Guard gave him the go ahead. Nonetheless, the 80-ft motoryacht started surfing down the big swells. When it did, Nicolai had to put the engines in reverse to slow it down, which caused cavitation, which caused the engines to die. So he'd have to restart the engines, put them in reverse again, at which point they'd die again, and he'd have to start them again.

But that wasn't the worst of it.

It was a $5 million motoryacht, so when the guy bought it his wife naturally insisted on having the wood changed on a big island in the galley. It looked pretty and all that, but this 600-pound island was only attached to the rest of the boat by four wood screws! So as the yacht surfed down waves, the galley island started surfing around the inside of the boat. Fun times.

The one thing that surprised us is that Nicolai and Assen both say their average delivery speed is 8 knots, even when they have boats that can go faster. And they often do two-person deliveries, even when going long distances.

I didn't take any notes during lunch, so I hope most of these facts are right. And what isn't conveyed is how funny Nicolai and Assem are. We laughed and laughed and laughed.

Perhaps the biggest laugh was for what they thought of the meager requirements to get a U.S. Coast Guard license to carry passengers. What a joke!

Nicolai and Assen are no joke. They're the real deal.

10/18/2024

GREAT NEWS FOR FOLKS WHO COULDN'T GO TO MEXICO BECAUSE OF 'UNCANCELABLE TIPS'.

Apparently the Mexican government has just now, after years, come up with a process for 'ghost' and other bad Temporary Import Permits to be cancelled. Primarily these are those that were issued by Aduana prior to 2005.

We know this based on the report from Sally Aldridge of the Santa Cruz 52 Sweetheart, who was told the boat had TIPs from 2001 and 2004 that couldn't be canceled because the Mexican bureaucracy didn't have a process to do it. We know, crazy. But wanting to do the Ha-Ha so badly, Sally was determined not to take 'no' for an answer. So she headed to Ensenada seeking a solution.

'Good luck', we thought, having dealt with Mexican bureaucracy many times before. But miraculously, Sally succeeded. We're not sure if it was because of her determination or because Mexico just changed the crazy policy, but here is how it went for her:'

"We had two pre-2005 TIPs to cancel, one in 2001, and the other in 2004

"On the morning of October 16 we walked across the border at PedEast at San Ysidro and caught the ABC bus down to Ensenada from Tijuana because we didn’t want to mess with driving a vehicle across the border. Walking over the border turned out to be super easy, with no lines, and the bus was nearby, comfortable, and inexpensive.

"We got to Ensenada around 10:30 am and started at Banjercito Ensenada on Ave Teniente Jose Azueta. [Banjercito, the Mexican military bank, is the agency that has been in charge of TIPs since 2005.]

"We spoke to Elia Beatriz Urquidi Cobos, who is a manager there. She speaks great English, and we showed her the following:
— Boat registration
— Form 1300 from U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, which can be obtained at the airport in San Diego.
— Our passports.
—The Banjercito report about our TIPs. We got this from BC Connections, who charged us $50.

"Elia made three copies of each, and verified the existence of the old TIPs in her system.

"She then explained that we needed to go to the Aduana office down the street to start the process.

"At this point Elia stepped outside to direct us to Aduana, and there was Jorge Badille, the manager of Aduana. The two spoke. I'm not sure if they just 'ran into each other' or whether this was planned. But it turned out to be a very fruitful conversation. Jorge reviewed our documents right there, and confirmed that everything was in order, and told Elia what else we needed to do.

"Specifically, we needed to write a letter to the Aduana asking for the old TIPs to be cancelled. We need to include the old TIP numbers and the names of the previous owners in the letter. We also needed to state that we are the new owners of the boat. Then print it, sign it, and make three copies.

"We went to the Tourist Information Office around the corner to do this. They were very helpful and made print outs and copies for us for free.

"Then we went to the Aduana de Ensenada with all the paperwork. The office is at Blvd, P.º Olas Altas 110, Recinto Portuario, 22800 Ensenada, B.C., Mexico

"This office is behind a heavy layer of security, and they told us that only one person can go through. So Michael, my husbanad went, as he is the appointed 'manager' of our LLC. He spoke to the woman at the desk, and she asked for the letter to be in Spanish. So she translated it for Michael. He wrote it out by hand, and she stamped it. She told him it would take one week to get the TIP cancellations done.

"We then showed the stamped letter to Elia back at the Banjercito. She said she actually needed a printed and stamped image of a 'cancellation screen' from Aduana to get the process going on the Banjercito side. She said once she has that, she could send it to the Mexico City Banjercito, and it could be canceled out of the system intraday, depending on time differences.

"So we went back to Jorge at the Aduana to ask for that. He committed to doing at 10 am the next morning, and email it to Elia. So we stayed in Ensenada overnight just to make sure all went well.

"We stayed at the Hotel Coral, as it was a good chance to speak with Fito Espinoza, the Dock Master, who is very experienced with TIPs and immigration. He suggested we "stay on" Jorge as he'd had some old TIP cancellations go nowhere with Aduana in the past. Fito was very interested to hear about the results of our efforts, as it would allow him to help many other boat owners.

"Michael went back to the Aduana office the next day at 10am on October 17, and he stayed there until he had the right documents in his hand. At that point we had two cancelled TIPs!

"We then took those pages to Elia, who scanned them and sent them to her superiors. The old TIPs were cleared out of the Banjercito system within a few hours, and we were able to successfully apply for a new TIP that day. Again, we sat in the office until this was all done, only about 30 minutes, and we now have a new TIP in hand!!!

"Summary: The Sacramento consulate was correct: It is now possible to cancel pre-2005 TIPs with the Aduana in Ensenada. And the Banjercito in Ensenada can get it cleared from their system with the right documentation from Aduana. Fito confirmed that this is exactly how the process worked in the past, but he did not know it was working once again, and neither did BC Connections.

"Jorge (Aduana Ensenada manager) and Elia (Banjercito Ensenada manager) are competent people who seem to have a good working relationship, and they are collaborating together to make things happen. It helps that these offices are down the street from each other. I'm not sure if it’s dumb luck and they have started cancelling old TIPs again at just the right time for us, or we are geniuses. Either way, we will take it !

"There are no charges for the process of TIP cancellation, and it can be done by the boat owner through the official channels without an agent in one or two days. Be prepared for multiple visits to each office.

"Hopefully this bodes well for other boats in this situation.

"Feel free to send any questions to [email protected]."

So that's the story from Sweetheart. If we had a boat with an 'uncancellable TIP', we'd get our b***y down to Ensenada fast. You just never know when things are going to change.

We'd also assume you might have to spend as much as four days or even longer, depending on the many Mexican holidays, short hours of Mexican offices, Jorge or Elia being out of the office, and god knows what else. Whatever you do, bring every bit of paperwork you have for your and your boat. You can never tell what Mexican officials might need to be some obscure piece of paper — including the Articles of Incorporation if the boat is owned by a corporation. [This is actually easily to get online if a California corporation.]

Good luck, everyone!!!

And a double thank you to Sally and Michael for the superb report.

10/07/2024

THAT'S THE TICKET, A ROAD TRIP!

I've come up with a solution to acquiring a not-available-for-sale-in-California Honda bluetooth portable genset. A road trip! I haven't had one of those since bombing around between Paris and Dijon this summer.

It was Assistant Poobah Patsy who suggested I drive to Yuma myself and pick one up there at Home Depot. It's a five-hour round trip. I could do it in my sleep.

It actually sounds like a lot of fun, driving through the 40-mile by five-mile Imperial San Dunes that are the remnants of Lake Cahuilla. A nice change after all that time on the ocean. I need to remember to bring my drone to get some aerials.

But then a combo sounded even better. I've got to see the kids in Redondo and Downtown L.A., so why not go from there to Joshua Tree, which I haven't been to in years, then drop down to Yuma for the genset, then back to San Diego? Or maybe the other way around.

I've already rented a car for 28 days because it's less than $700 including insurance, which is less expensive than getting our Honda CRV registered and insured again. Last year they gave me a Toyota with just 28 miles on the odometer. Maybe I'll be lucky again.

Anybody want to buy a Honda 2006 CRV?

So that's my plan, and I'm sticking to it — unless something else more fun comes along. But I can't imagine what that could be.

10/06/2024

PUTTING THE PROFLIGATE BASH IN CONTEXT

I would like to put to rest any notion that Profligate's recent 1,000-mile Baja Bash was anything special. Compared to the more than 100 Baja Bashes other people do each year, we had so many advantages it was almost like cheating. Let me explain.

1) I believe Bashing between hurricanes in September and October is the best time of year because there are more weather windows and they tend to be longer. Indeed, we had a weather window the whole 1,000 miles.

Nobody knows more about the importance of the time of year than Dona, who with crew has done more than 20 Bashes with Profligate in the spring when most people do them. As such, she's put in many days of Bashing into 20 if not 30 knots of wind, usually because the forecasters told her it wasn't going to get any better for weeks.

I'm not saying you can't find weather windows at other times of year, but they aren't as frequent or tend to be as long.

2) We have options. Because we spend spring and summer aboard our modest boats in the Caribbean and Paris, we don't have to Bash back to California at the less promising times of year to get our boats home for the prime season.

3) When you Bash in the spring and early summer, you're going to be cold. Sometimes really cold. We were too hot for most of our Bash. I don't think anybody used a blanket before passing the halfway point. The last couple of hundred miles was in drippy fog, but that was unusual. Even so, I didn't put on long pants until we passed Tijuana.

4) When we're doing a delivery we're on a mission, so speed counts. Prior to leaving we had the props properly cleaned, so Profligate averaged a hair or eight knots. With that kind of speed you're able to take maximum advantage of weather windows. Boats that only average six knots are much more likely to get caught in less pleasant conditions and/or have to hole up somewhere for a day or even a week.

5) Redundancy. If you're going to motor, there is nothing like having two engines. Each engine of Profligate's engines was out of action for short periods of time during this Bash, but we were always able to do 6.5 knots with the other engine.

If Profligate only had one engine, I'd be much more hesitant to do a Bash during hurricane season. The thought of being a sitting duck out there with a hurricane bearing down is terrifying.

6) Plenty of crew. While Dona and I have done a number of Bashes with just the two of us, life is so much easier when you have 10 hours between your two-hour watches. Not all boats can accommodate as many crew as Profligate can.

7) We are able to take on enough fuel for the entire Bash, which means we don't have to stop and perhaps miss a window.

8) We have Starlink for weather, repair advice, work, and entertainment.

Instead of being battered and beaten at the end of our Bash, our crew was tired, but had so much fun they're eager to do it again next year.

The bottom line is that the 'well done's' accolades should be directed that those two-person crews who have completed a spring Bash aboard a 35-footer. That's a real Baja Bash, and I salute each and every one of them.

10/05/2024

SEEKING SAN DIEGO LOCAL KNOWLEDGE

We arriving in San Diego in later today and are looking for some local knowledge for services during the next month. And yes, we know everybody is busy as all get out.

1) We think our old diesel mechanic has retired, so we're looking for a new one. Primarily we need to get both our Yanmar 4JH3-CD oil pressure senders replaced, but also replace a few hose clamps, belts and so forth.

2) Has anybody used any of the local oil change services with satisfactory results?

We'll be at Driscoll's Repair Dock in Shelter Island.

Appreciate the help.

09/29/2024

BAJA BOOT CAMP IS OVER AND IT'S TIME TO BASH 1,000 MILES FROM LA CRUZ TO SAN DIEGO.

We hope to get out of town by 10 am tomorrow. If the forecast is correct, we'll be riding a 15-knot southerly. That would be as great as it would be unusual.

And if the forecast is correct, a band of lightning will have passed ahead of us a few hours earlier and be gone. It's important we get out because there is lightning forecast in the La Cruz / Vallarta area every day for the rest of the week.

This is hurricane season, of course. Only one of the three hurricane models we follow calls for a hurricane. Fortunately, it is forecast to not form until later in the week and be far to the south of us. We should be well north of Cedros by then.

Touch wood that all of the countless things that need to go right do go right. If so, we should be off Cabo about sundown on Monday night. The forecasts call for generally light to variable winds, although one predicts a light breeze out of the south. That's right, the south.

Forecasts are just forecasts and not guarantees, of course, so we'll be prepared for anything. But things could look a lot worse.

Right now everything seems functional on the boat but the oil pressure sender on the port engine. We'd ordered a replacement part from Catalina Direct because Yanmar was going to take too long and cost more than double. Alas, there seems to be more than one type of sender for the 4JH3-CE, and we got the wrong one. Alas, Catalina Direct has a no return policy if — and isn't this curious — you don't own a Catalina brand vessel.

But there's a bit of a silver lining, however. The port engine oil pressure had always seemed to be considerably lower than the starboard engine oil pressure, which always concerned us. But in troubleshooting the problem, our mechanic Javier tried the starboard engine sensor in the port engine. Voila! It read just like the starboard engine.

So while we won't have a functioning oil pressure sensor in the one engine, at least I'm heartened by the fact that both engines seem to have the same oil pressure.

We'll have six crew. Dona, who had done the Bash something like 25 times on Profligate. The Poobah, who has done it something like five times. Steve Mueller who has done it twice. Kris Mueller who has done it once. Chris Parker who has never done it. And Larry Burton who did it on Profligate last year, and if memory serves us has done it a number of other times.

Even though we have a great crew, we wish you were coming with us. Assuming Starlink works as expected, I'll post progress reports.

Af for Baja Boot Camp, and the wild Banderas Bay weather in the fall, I'm really going to miss it.

09/29/2024

PROFLIGATE GOT 'INSPECTED' BEFORE LEAVING LA CRUZ FOR ENSENADA

I don't know if this is a new policy or a one off, but prior to leaving La Cruz for the Bash up to Ensenada the Port Captain, who is part of the Mexican Navy, said he needed to inspect our cat. We assumed that he was just going to check lifejackets and such.

He mostly did that, but to our surprise he also dropped down into each engine room to check the serial numbers of the engines. We've brought our boats to Mexico almost every winter for the last 30+ years and never had that happen before.

It wouldn't have surprised us so much if we were checking out of Mexico for San Diego, but we were just checking out of one domestic port for another domestic port.

We have no idea if this was just a La Cruz thing, or just a Profligate thing, or what. We'd love to hear about your first-hand experiences.

CHANGES AT PUERTO VALLARTA AIRPORT IMMIGRATION

Six weeks ago we flew into Puerto Vallarta, and came through the Immigration area of the airport, where they have about a dozen booths. If you've flown into Puerto Vallarta, you've done the same thing. And if you came in during a busy time, you might have had to wait an hour or more to get your passport checked and stamped. It was maddening.

It's all changed. Steve and Chris, two of our Bash crew, flew in today, and the booths were all gone. They had been replaced by machines. They inserted their passport into the machine, the machine scanned the passport and their palm, then it took their photo. After a few seconds, it spit out a 'receipt' with their name, a QR code, and their photo on it.

It only took them a few minutes, perhaps in part because theirs was the only plane that had landed at that time. But things are changed in Mexico, and they are keeping track of who is flying into their country.

09/25/2024

THE GOVERNMENT FINALLY DID SOMETHING GREAT LAST WEEK.

The re-instituted the old process of being able to renew a passport online.

If they hadn’t, Dona and I would have had to give them our passports for two months or more before getting new ones. I don’t like anybody having my passport for that long.

As recently as a year or so it was taking the gov’t an outrageous six months or more to issue or renew passports! As a result, a lot of Americans ended up not being able to use expensive plane tickets.

While this isn’t a bteakthrough, at least it’s getting back to what it had been.

09/24/2024

HAVE YOU iMESSAGED FROM OFFSHORE?

We're hearing unconfirmed reports that if you have a recent iPhone and a recent version of Apple's IOS, you can send iMessages from offshore using just your phone.

Does anybody have any firsthand experience with this?

It had been my understanding that Apple offered this kind of service, but only for up to 10 or so miles offshore, and only for emergencies. I apologize if I don't have this exactly right.

But we're getting reports that now you can make contact from as far offshore as you want, and for iMessages as well as emergencies. It's supposedly a two-year program.

Can you tell us anything about this? We'll be heading north with Profligate in about a week, and we will be trying it.

I'm not sure how recent the iPhone would have to be — I have a 15 — or the operating system. I'm at 17, but could be at 18 tomorrow morning.

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