12. Arrival in San Diego
When we entered the large bay of San Diego, captain Brian explained the history of how it was discovered and how San Diego was founded. The drive into the bay was impressive because of all the boat traffic going on, especially all the US Navy ships and many helicopters which were coming in and out. Besides military ships, legendary sailing vessels and the Patriot Jet Boat, a speed boat which puts its guests in a party mood with neck-breaking manoeuvres, drove by.
Brian lowered the Mexican courtesy flag which was traveling a few thousands of miles this year in Mexican waters. In comparison to the new one it looked pretty washed out and tousled by the wind. I had the honour of having Brian hand the bleached Mexican flag over to me because I had mastered so many Mexican miles on his catamaran. Before we could head on to the home Yacht Club of the Southerneze we had to check the boat and ourselves in at the police station. The process of the U.S. customs wasn't that customer-friendly at first as we had to click our way online through a number of websites. Ultimately, however, the process was rapid and most of it was electronic: There was a virtual onboard tour for one of the officers which was only recorded by the smartphone camera, and each of us talked to him for a few minutes. And we were already checked in. Then we could get the yellow quarantine flag back down which we had hoisted for the time we had stayed in US American waters without being checked in officially.
We could continue our journey and make the last miles sailing with a slight wind that pushed us to the Coronado Bridge. On these last few meters we had a fantastic view of both the Coronado Island as well as Downtown San Diego.
