14 November 2000
San Diego was a very busy port with 140 boats going south in our regatta and hundreds of other boats gearing up to go south for the season on their own. The week went by really fast as we did the final prep and provisioning. Two days before the start (Oct. 29) there was a final registration/ BBQ/costume party. The costumes were a great ice breaker and stress reliever, Suzette was dressed as a tropical bird and Paul was a Mexican port official complete with badge and a hand open for bribes. Some of the costumes of note were; 4 snowmen in paper coveralls, stove pipe hats, orange paper carrot noses & corn cob pipes; one man wore a potato on a rope hanging about crotch level and his wife wore a lemon. When asked she explained that he is a dic-tator and he called her a sour puss. There were a lot of creative things done with bed sheets as well.
The start of the Baja Ha-Ha 2000 was on Tuesday October 31, at 11:00 a.m. approximately 112 boats crossed the start line heading south. The first leg was 360 miles, at sunrise on the morning of the third day we were one mile north of the finish line and the wind died completely. Being that we had just sailed 359 miles we were not about to start the motor though most of the others did. It took us another 2 and ½ hours to drift across the line. With a bit of celebration we motored into Turtle Bay and anchored and slept for three hours then showered and started to explore. Over 100 sailboats at anchor in the tiny little town of Turtle Bay was kind of like the super bowl coming to their town. For two days we visited their one restaurant, paid the kids to watch the dinghies, gave out candy to all the others and gave clothing to the church and orphanage. The second day there was a beach party and everyone got to practice landing their dinghies in the surf, a sometimes wet experience.
Leg 2 was 240 miles. We had good wind and sailed the whole way on that one as well. We anchored in a huge bay called Bahia Santa Maria. We had our first taste of Mexican lobster when a fisherman motored by the boat and offered us lobster which Paul cooked up for breakfast. They were yummy!!!! There are no towns in Bahia Santa Maria and the nearest paved road was ten miles away. Never the less an enterprising local brought a "restaurant", 50 cases of beer, a rock band and set it up on the beach. A fish and lobster dinner was US$10.00 and beers were US$2, they must have made a fortune! You had to cross a river bar to get to the beach and it was suggested we all take the local fishing pangas as transportation to the beach, US$1 in and US$1 out. Except that the price went up to US$2 for the return trip! The guys in the pangas deserved it in a way as they had to go quite a ways on some of the trips and some people had a hard time remembering where there boats were. It sounds simple, but once it gets dark getting back to your boat can be a bit of a challenge, especially in a crowded anchorage like that.
Leg 3 was shorter but slower due lack of wind, 180 miles to Cabo San Lucas. We sailed the whole way again. We were very disappointed in our finish until the following day at the beach party when we discovered we had gotten in ahead of quite a few of the competition. At the awards banquet we very pleased to be announced as the winners in our class! Sailing all the way earned us our first as well as fairly good time performance, the two boats that tied for second place had only motored 15 and 18 minutes each! Our friends Wendy & Garth won their class as well.
Today it’s the 14th , Tuesday I think, we are swinging on the anchor in Cabo San Lucas listening to Jimmy Buffet. Both of us have had slows days suffering from late night parties, heat and the different food in town. We are planning our next leg to La Paz and we will be heading out on the 16th. We will be taking our time which will get us to the next computer to read our e-mail about the 19th or 20th. We will be traveling with Wendy & Garth on "Velella" and Rick & Grace on "Crocodile Rock". Email has been a great way to stay in touch with everyone, we are just surprised at how much time it seems to take. But if we were writing letters I guess it would only be to a fraction of the people we are contacting. Hope all is well with everyone.
21 November 2000
Well nothing goes actually as scheduled when cruising but we have been having a great time. Moral of the story is to have a game plan, but nothing fixed in stone. We left Cabo San Lucas about 7:00 a.m. on Thursday 16 November under gray skies, seemed a bit like the northwest, but warmer I guess. Did a combination of sailing, motoring, and motor sailing on our way up to Los Frailes and arrived after dark but were talked in by some Baja Ha-Ha boats that we had left with that day. At this time of the year "Northers" are very common, they are Santa Anna type winds that blow down the Sea of Cortez generated by high pressure systems over the southwestern US and typically last for 4-5 days. As the Sea of Cortez is fairly shallow they also make quite a bit of chop and make going north miserable. So we stayed in Los Frailes until Monday morning, adding three days to our trip to La Paz. There were about 20-30 boats there at various times, some trying their luck in leaving and then coming back and others arriving from Cabo. Most were from the Baja Ha-Ha fleet so it was fun to be "stranded" with a bunch of friends that we got to know better. Dinners on other boats, beach walks, great snorkeling etc. After another gray day on Friday it was clear blue skies but with 20-25 knots of wind. Snorkeling was fantastic with lots of tropical fish just off the beach, but there were also lots of small silver bait fish that almost made the snorkeling a bit claustrophobic at times. The last night we were there we had a fleet cocktail party on a Sundeer 64 (64 foot boat, huge in comparision to Altair) but it was great to have a place to have a party for 30 people or so.
Over all the three days spent in Los Frailes was a nice way to relax and unwind from the go-go-go of the Baja Ha-Ha. It was also nice to be in familiar a group, but a smaller group and not to have any real agenda. The Baja Ha-Ha organizers do a great job of trying to keep a wide range of people happy and content, from younger like us, to older, to kids, fast boats and slow boats. They also have it set up that people can come on a two vacation if they were along just for the race. Some people where there just to do the Baja Ha-Ha and were heading back to the US right after (seems a shame to just turn around but….) to people like us that were using it as a starting point of a greater adventure.
Most people were planning to leave on Tuesday when the Norther was completely over but we decided to leave a day early on Monday so we could get in and out of La Paz (do laundry, provision, do email) before the next norther comes which is expected on Friday. We spent the night at Bahia de los Muertos and caught up with friends Wendy and Garth that had by passed Los Frailes instead of going in at night. It was nice to enter an anchorage during day light, the last three had all been wide open bays but entering an unfamiliar anchorage at night is always a bit stressful. Today (Tuesday) we came north to Puerto Ballandra, just outside of La Paz. No wind so we have motored the last two days. This is a beautiful bay and we have seen people snorkeling at the entrance so we will head out to do that after we do our chores (Paul is changing the oil while Suzette is updating this). The landscape is fairly barren, but very dramatic and beautiful. The edge of the water is a brilliant emerald green where it meets the steep shores.
We will spend Wednesday and Thursday morning in La Paz then we plan to head out the local islands (Islas Espiritu Santu, Isla Partida and maybe others) for a week or so before returning to La Paz for a few days. Then it will be over to the main land arriving in Puerto Vallarta by 16 December as Paul’s parents are coming down for a week. If anyone has any mail they want to send to us please try to get it to them before the 15th so they can bring it with them. (c/o Baker 35774 - 27th Avenue South, Federal Way, WA 98003).
Hope all is well with everyone and that you have a good Thanksgiving. If anyone has any favorite places on the Mexican coast please let us know via email.
Adios for now,
Paul & Suzette on "ALTAIR"