The Land of Shorter Shadows

   Dear Captain Lonnie,

   We have to thank you for getting us through what could have been a very difficult time. We purchased your “90 Day Yacht Club Guide to Ensenada” before we even bought our boat. Our questions were answered with regards to marina services and traveling around town as well as just basic local knowledge. You even addressed our “fear factor” issues and we enjoyed that chapter very much. Attitude begets attitude, this we found to be very important guidance and should be regarded as the “best advice ever given” when entering and traveling in Mexico. We’ve had our boat for seven months now and we make sure to keep your book in the car or on the yacht to visit points of interest (on land and water) and our favorite restaurants which we discovered through your book.

   We have found a smile and a little Spanish does go a long way here in Ensenada. Our advice to your potential book buyers, “you don’t have to own a boat to buy this guide!”

   Ken and Terry Pope, m/v Paradise Found

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  Thank you for outstanding and exceptional regular updating on this accident (the APL Panama grounding), yours is by far the best if not the only site updating developments and showing numerous photographs which as involved insurers we are most interested in, have also reviewed other parts of the website, truly enjoyable, just love the musical intro clips to each section, great design, well done amigo!!!

  Thank you for writing your book and your prompt reply to my e-mails and very helpful offers/suggestions.... you being there sharing your local extensive knowledge takes much of the fear and uncertainty out of a big move that buying a yacht in Ensenada, Mexico represents... Great photos and information, priceless to me so far away.  

  Brian, Anguilla, British West Indies

  Lonnie, I am grateful for your book. It was like having a local along to introduce me to a number of exciting possibilities on my first drive to Ensenada. I am even more grateful for your advice regarding sailing to Ensenada next month.

  Terry Gallagher

  We talked to you just after we arrived on our boat in the Marina Coral. I want to thank you for the information in your book. I followed your course and waypoints and found it to be a safe passage. This was our first time to Ensenada by boat and we made it at night leaving San Diego at 2300. We did have to make one course correction due to a large tanker heading into the Rosarito Beach area, just as you said in your book.

  Thanks so much , Mike & Ronnie Mann , S/V Aquila

  Love your book ...we used your waypoints and advice. We just pulled into Marina Coral on Porto Bella. On our first drive north we used what we now call "the Bible" when I made a wrong turn in Tijuana and we found ourselves headed for Tecate briefly ... then a circle was blocked off and it was reassuring to see your land marks on the map of Tijuana and know that we were in the right area. Hope to meet you ... and not become one of your power boater stories!

  John Davids, San Francisco

  This book says “insider” from the opening page. You clearly have spent plenty of time in Ensenada and know it inside and out. The level of detail here is impressive throughout-any reader would feel they’re in good hands following your lead. Overall, too, your writing is clear and conversational; it’s apparent from the tone that you are sharing with fellow sailors, and not merely showing off your expertise. Also, the inclusion of maps and diagrams throughout enhances the value of the text in this book.

  Writer’s Digest Self-Publishing Book Awards Review (April 5, 2004)

  Sea Ya, Joe Weathers

  35 years ago I bought a book called, "The Complete Idiots Guide to the VW". I rebuilt an engine and did brakes using that book. Since that time I have purchased many books on self help including books in the current "For Dummies" series. Lonnie has written a book that takes me back to my first self help book. He tells it like it is. And the book does so in plain English. Any idiot or dummy can follow it. I'm living proof. Thank you for this book, I have suggested it to several people as a must buy. Also, as a retired educator, I find the book both humorous and very well written.

   Happy yachting all, John Scott  

John and Candy Scott celebrate 37 years of marriage on their new sailboat at the Coral Marina

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  Your fact filled "The 90 Day Yacht Club Guide to Ensenada" is a true blessing to us. We wouldn't leave home (Seal Beach, CA) without it! Without this book, we would be ...more-or-less ...lost! Every time we head into town (Ensenada), we bring "The Book" to answer our questions; and so far, every question we have had! Thanks for putting this publication together. If I had seen it in our local West Marine, I would have bought it prior to our sail south to Ensenada. What isn't mentioned in your book is the important benefit of your up-to-the-minute updates that you provide personally at the Coral Marina, like the latest new restaurants! A suggestion for your great book. I needed a chain-to-rode splice while at our slip in the Marina Coral. Victor Sanchez, a young "20 something old" in the Marine Store adjacent to the Coral Marina Office, did a fantastic job splicing my 5/8" 3-strand rode to my anchor chain. I asked him when he could do it - he said in an hour! He charged so little, that I gave him double his price for the great service...right at my boat!

  Steve & Wendy Jones

  See you soon in Ensenada!

 I'm the big guy you met on Sunday. We met at your van when I was checking out the sailboats and the marina. We discussed the Fish and Toy drive you are sponsoring. My next trip back I'll certainly try and round up some donations. This is a great deed you do and you should be commended. I then asked you for details on the "90 Day Club". Your book was a great read. You have a very good style putting pen to paper. The book did indeed supply me with many of the answers to basics regarding how to embark on the 90 day process, but more so, your book serves as a great guide to the area and reinforces many things I have found on my own in my years surfing the region. Regarding the club, I would like to stay current on changes to policy as well as additional detailed information you may have in the future.  Suffice to say the information in your current edition will only be an initial reference.

 Gregg Klang  

  Great book and website Lonnie - You have become the "Ensenada Expert" these last few years.

   Pj, Geri & the Tasha (in memory)

   Tsing Tao

  My son Jamie met you in the bait and tackle shop at the Marina Coral, thanks for helping him with the discount on the launch fee. I go out to the Todos Santos Islands a half a dozen times a year or so and I love the ramp and the security. Thanks for the help your book has given us!

  Bob Gove

 Good Show!  We really enjoyed your book during our stay in Ensenada. Our boat is home in San Pedro though we miss the friends that we made in Ensenada. We wish you good luck and continued success with your book.

  Connie and Don Martin  

  This is just a short note about our family finding your book useful to our family’s travels to the 90 Day Yacht Club. We are from the San Francisco area and bought our boat in Southern California and are willing to commute to Ensenada and leave the boat there because the area is so great to visit and warmer than we are used to in Northern California. The book is a great help in enabling us to enjoy a safe and confident trip.

  Ted Schosen

  I have purchased a 45' Bayliner in anticipation of joining the 90 Day YC in Oct, 2003. Thanks for your help, I really loved the book; well written, humorous, and very helpful. Thank you for your insightful research and dedicated devotion to the people of Mexico and their future enrichment.

  Les Betz

  Thank you for putting pen to paper and creating this fun and informative book. We read your book cover to cover and used it to sail to and enjoy Ensenada. The tax information confirmed what I had already researched, wish I had found the book earlier, it would have saved me a lot of work! The navigational info and the marina layout maps were both accurate and helpful. I really enjoyed the chapter on marina etiquette! We need to have more people read this chapter! I mostly enjoyed getting to know Ensenada and the wonderful people who live here. There really is a different pace to Mexico and the people of Ensenada are so warm and friendly. Your book has been a great guide to the area. We did all the touristy things; hair braiding, shopping for silver, leather goods and Mexican pots. My daughter and her friend had a blast riding ATV's on the sand dunes and were delighted to fulfill a livelong dream of riding a horse on the beach. We found all these places thanks to your book. We even found the bakeries you recommended, I don't know if I should thank you for those or not! We took our boat to Ensenada for tax compliance, as you aptly refer to it, but we fell in love with the area and will be back time and time again.

  Thank you for the great book, see you on the dock!

  The Geislers

  Great job on your books. We are really enjoying them. We spend quite a bit of time in Mexico (2 or 3 times a year) to different places. We have been to Cabo San Lucas but not to northern Baja. These books are both very informative and entertaining general purpose tourist guides for all that may want to travel to Ensenada.  We look forward to visiting with you when we are there traveling in our land yacht, our motor home. Thank you for publishing a book that enables the road warrior to enjoy Northern Baja! 

  Wadine Nunn,  

  Atlanta, Georgia

  I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed and appreciated your book. My wife and I put it to good use recently when we took our first boat trip from San Diego to Ensenada, Mexico. Originally we had planned to make the trip with two friends who have considerably more sea experience than we do. Unfortunately, they had to cancel at the last minute. My wife and I discussed whether we should attempt the trip alone. We had a certain amount of anxiety because we had never traveled by sea to Ensenada. Our previous boating experience was limited to local fishing trips and a trip to Catalina. Since I had already made reservations at the Coral Marina, we decided to give it a go. We started our trip about 4:00 a.m. at Pt. Loma, buoy 5, and were in fog and heavy marine layer almost immediately. Thanks to our ability to set the auto pilot by the GPS waypoints described in the book, we were able to concentrate on using our radar to stay out of harms way. Although our visibility wasn't great, the sea was smooth as glass. We arrived safely at the Coral Marina about 10:00 a. m. and were greeted warmly by the dock hands who helped tie up the boat, and the marina office staff who squared away our paperwork with the Port Captain and Immigration. We celebrated our arrival by having drinks and lunch at the Gastelum 57*, a restaurant you recommend in the book. This was a very nice place to dine. The food and service were excellent. Our return to San Diego mirrored our trip to Ensenada. We encountered lots of fog, marine layer, poor visibility, but calm seas. However, by this time we were feeling pretty cocky because “we had already been there, done that.” We were feeling like seasoned mariners by the time we arrived at the Port of San Diego Customs dock. We arrived home safely and with considerably more confidence than when we started.
   Lonnie, I commend you for writing a great book. It is very readable and has great information that would help anyone not acquainted with Ensenada. Everything included in the book, from the article about the fear factor, which we certainly experienced, to the charts and maps, were extremely helpful.

  Best wishes for success with your book.
  Gene and Irene Newton,
  Former educators now retired.

  *Gastelum 57 was closed in 2003

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