November 15, 2000
We spent our time before the Ha Ha started running millions of last minute errands to get ready to go to Mexico. We bought charts all the way to New Zealand, including the Galapagos, where we plan to head after we leave Mexico in March. We met lots of other boaters preparing to head to Mexico. Many were participating in the Baja Ha Ha (a race/cruise rally of boats on a convoy to the cape) and many were heading down on their own later.
A few days before the start, the Ha Ha rally organizers threw a blow out Halloween party. Boaters from all over the country that are participating in this event, scrounged up the most clever costumes out of items from aboard their boats. As we converged on the party we were cracking up at the ingenuity of our fellow boaters. I dressed as the statue of liberty using one of our bed sheets, a white cardboard crown, carrying our U.S. flag and what the British call a torch and we call a flashlight. Garth dressed as a monster, with fake blood oozing down his face mask. Following the organized party and then smaller party aboard one of the boats and again another in the nearby hot tub, Garth and I were a sight to see, walking down Harbor Drive in the pouring rain back to where we had left the dinghy. The San Diego police took particular interest in us, saying they'd had a report of a half naked woman walking down the street. We explained that we were coming from a Halloween party and that I was wearing my bathing suit beneath the sheet, and they let us continue our walk in the pouring rain. I think they figured we were of little harm to anyone but possibly ourselves at that point, considering we had no car, or even a motor on our dinghy!
Our first stop, Bahia des Tortugas (Turtle Bay), is 360 miles south of San Diego. Winds were light to moderate as we started upwind under clear skies off the Hotel del Coronado and continued to remain between 5 and 12 knots. The wind clocked around and we were able to hoist the asymmetrical spinnaker in the late afternoon. For us, with the asymmetrical spinnaker flying nearly the entire time, there was plenty of wind. We were surprised at morning radio check in to hear we were ahead of most of 40 and 50 foot boats that had motored! The wind held until we were 5 miles from the finish line. That last 5 miles took us 3 hours, but we were determined. On this trip down I think we saw stars for the first time since we left Seattle. The sleepy little town in Turtle Bay was suddenly overrun by 110 boats - an instant Manhattan skyline in the bay. We felt completely overwhelmed when, after such a quiet few days under sail, we were inundated by Mexican children offering to watch our dinghy for $1, and by the mayhem at the early arrivers yachtie party uptown. Apparently some of the boats with full crews didn't feel as tired and sleep deprived as we felt! Rowing back out to the boat later, we were relieved that our anchor light has a bluish tint (because it is an LED bulb); Finding the boat again would have been more of a challenge otherwise. The next day we had a great casual beach party with volleyball, fresh sashimi (shared by a boat that caught a 50 lb tuna - My God!) and entertainment provided by many landing their dinghies, featuring spectacular tumbles in the surf.
The next leg to Bahia Santa Maria was 240 miles. Our start was at 7am since as we were heading east the sun rose earlier each day. We were still tired from the prior leg and could have slept for hours more. The second leg began with no wind at the start, so we did a restart after a motor out to higher winds. Starting near a 60 foot schooner wasn't pretty, but we recovered and again hoisted our asymmetrical spinnaker. As the wind continued to build, we were putting some serious strain on our spinnaker pole, but needed to sail as fast as we could, since this was turning into a waterline race fast and that was something we didn't have much of with our 31 feet. Eventually we had to take it down. We caught a 10 lb Yellowfin Tuna and, while Garth was up to his elbows in blood and guts, the spinnaker wrapped around the forestay. He was cleaning the fish between the tiller and the winch. Since the wind was still building and the windvane wasn't steering well with that sail plan, we left it down once we straightened things out. (And stopped to enjoy some Sashimi.) We maintained great speed though the night under a poled jib until the wind dropped again; We again hoisted the asymmetrical spinnaker and left it up all day until gusts convinced us we'd lose the pole if we didn't take it down. (We had rigged the spinnaker pole as a bowsprit to use with the asymmetrical spinnaker and it was bending around the forestay.) The wind continued to build until the finish. After the finish, we were sailing 7 knots into the bay under the main alone! We received a warm welcome by some of the race organizers on the tender from Profligate with tips on the best place to anchor. Once we anchored, it began to pour. We were glad we weren't still out there as many were. We slept for the next 12 hours.
Bahia Santa Maria had a pristine sandy beach and an inner lagoon with less than a handful of inhabitants. We, along with most of the fleet took a Panga (water taxi) into shore and were really glad we did, since the surf was pretty strong and in our own dinghy we'd have been soaked for sure. A very entrepreneurial group of Mexicans drove in from several hundred miles south with all the supplies to turn this desolate beach into a complete party. They served lobster and fish dinners, beers and sodas and set up a complete rock band and sound system (running on generators) to entertain us long into the night. The fleet danced on the beach until late. The 6am start came too early for nearly everyone.
The third leg of our journey to Cabo San Lucas was 180 miles. The wind was quite light at the start and most of us longed to stay in the beautiful Bahia Santa Maria another day. As we slowly ghosted by Bahia Magdalena (Mag Bay), we were so tempted to turn on the engine and head in this place that looked so ideal on the chart. Many succumbed to the lure of rest in a beautiful bay, but we were in contention and determined to finish under sail, tempted as we were. The wind was very up and down during this leg. We went from going 1.4 knots to 6.2 and back within seconds or minutes. This made selecting a sail combination a challenge. We noticed the deck pad eye that anchors the pole when we are using the asymmetrical spinnaker was separating from the deck, so we moved the pole onto the mast, to drive further downwind and ease some of the pressure off of the pole when the wind was up. We finished off Cabo Falso in the dark under light air and made our way into the crowded bay, wondering where we were going to anchor. There is a deep canyon off of Cabo San Lucas, and anchoring close enough to find depth under 60 feet, yet far enough from the hundreds of other boats was tough to do in the dark.
Since we arrived in Cabo, we've been relaxing, glad not to be on such a tight schedule. We have had dinner parties and cocktail parties with many boats in the fleet and wandered all over town looking for cheap margaritas and tacos, nice hotel pools, and, of course, handling the Mexican paperwork for entering the country. We had a Ha Ha beach party and then an awards party. We were very excited to win our class, since we worked so hard to beat several die-hard racers in our fleet carrying full crews. We won a bottle of Kahlua for first prize as well as many other great goodies for everyone, including a CD of guitar music from one of the talented participants, hats, t-shirts, croakies, a nice bag, a barometer, and more. As the fleet begins to scatter, we've also enjoyed a delightful surprise of meeting several friends from Seattle who are here on vacation! We enjoyed a delicious breakfast with Don Wills and Peg Pritchard, after they tracked us down at the awards party. We went out for a fabulous lobster dinner with Stuart and Pam Burnell (who had emailed us their plans) and enjoyed the showers, beach and pool at their condo.
We plan to leave tomorrow for La Paz, inside the Sea of Cortes, where there a numerous islands and anchorages to explore until probably early December. The Baja Ha Ha fleet is splitting into groups, with few returning to San Diego or further north, and most heading either across to Mazatlan or to La Paz. Mexico would be a great place to escape the winter cold and we'd love to see folks. Although the boat is too small to have visitors stay aboard, we'd love to have visitors. We'll spend a bit of time in Puerto Vallarta and Zihuatenejo, as well as some in Acapulco, Mazatlan and Manzanillo. Our plans are pretty fluid at this point. Let us know via email if you're interested in meeting up with us or if you have plans to be somewhere. We'd love to see you!