The crew
Race start
Leg 1
Our spinnaker
Yellow Tail
Beach Party
Turtle Bay
Bahia Santa Maria
from the summit
Rum tasting
Bahia Santa Maria
Ashore for lunch
Bahia Santa Maria
Beginning of Leg 3
Linda on Leg 3
Land's End
Cabo San Lucas
Second Place
ATVs on the Baja
beaches |
Well, we had a
pretty uneventful October. We completed some more work on the boat to prepare
for the Baja Ha Ha. We also made a quick trip to Albuquerque and then went to
North Carolina to see Drue at the University of North Carolina. We took Brie and
her husband Tim out for a day sail in the bay, we got together with old friends
Marilyn and Bill Bateman, and we looked up Priscilla and John McKay whom we met
in Alaska this past summer.
On October 28
Dwight and Karen Dorsey flew in to be part of our crew, and on October 30 we
attended a costume party for the participants of the Baja Ha Ha. That evening we
hoisted the dinghy onto the deck and prepared the boat for off-shore sailing.
The morning of October 31 at 11 a.m. we crossed the start line just outside of
San Diego Bay. There was a brisk wind, and we had a great sail for the first 30
hours, but then wind died way down so we finally started our engine. We caught a
beautiful 40-pound yellow tail tuna and later saw a shark feeding near a patch
of kelp. We fixed some tuna for lunch, and it was amazingly good.
We arrived in
Turtle Bay (Bahia Tortuga) at 9:30 in morning on November 3. Turtle Bay is a
beautiful bay with a small town. We took our dinghy ashore to buy some diesel,
and this turned into an adventure. First, we had to get the dinghy to the pier,
then the boat boys helped us tie up. We then had to climb up a steel ladder to
the top of the pier and place our jerry jugs in line to be filled. We had some
time to kill so we went to the beach for a cerveza (beer) and talked with some
of the other crews. When our jugs were filled, we took them back to the boat,
and we picked up Dwight and Karen so that we could go ashore to have dinner in
town.
The next day we
went to the beach for a pot luck, games, and exploring. We played some volley
ball, ate some lunch, and went for a walk along the beautiful beach. It was a
gorgeous day, and we met some more of the people on other crews.
November 5 began
Leg 2. The winds were light so we had a rolling start. Boats were allowed to
motor up to 5 knots for the first hour, and then we were strictly under sail. Again we started off with pretty good wind, but the next day it died
out in the afternoon so we were back to motoring. We had encounters with
several cruise ships during the night toward the end of this leg, and Steve had
to call one on the radio to ask exactly what its intention was. The ship
responded so we had no problem. We have found the cruise ships to be very
friendly and accommodating. The good news is that at night you can see a cruise
ship coming for miles because they are lit up like a casino in Las Vegas.
We arrived at
Bahia Santa Maria at 5:30 a.m. on November 7. We were pretty tired from standing
watches, so we all slept for a few hours that morning. We just hung out on the
boat for the rest of the day cleaning up and washing down the decks. The next
morning we went to shore so that Steve and Dwight could hike to the top of the
hill, and Karen and I wanted to look for shells on the beach. When we were
coming in, the dinghy got pitched again so we all got wet. Once we were on
shore, a path through the surf became quite obvious, and we didn't have any more
trouble after that.
The guys made it
up and back in about an hour and a half so we headed back to the boat to get
ready for the afternoon lunch on the beach. Before that, however, there was a
rum tasting party at "Profligate," which is the boat for the organizers of the
race. Pussers Rum contributed the rum, and we had a choice of grog, a
painkiller, or a shot. Afterward they were giving away cups, and I wanted some
for the boat. When they threw some our way, I asked Steve to get them (meaning
bring the dinghy around); however, Steve simply dove in for the cups in order to
grab them before they sank. For that feat, Steve received an official Pussers
Rum flag. We were quite pleased about that.
Around 1 o'clock
in the afternoon we went ashore to have lunch. This is a very, very small place
with just a few families, but they were cooking lobster, shrimp, fish, pinto
beans, and rice. They had been working for about 12 hours preparing all the
food, and it was absolutely delicious. There was even a band. Afterward we returned to the boat to get
her ready to leave.
On November 9 we
got up at 5 a.m. and got ready to go. The last leg of the race began at 6 a.m.,
and we had nice winds. We began to put our spinnaker up (a light air sail) but
discovered a tear in it, so we sailed wing-on-wing with the jib poled out.
Steve and Dwight had the fishing line out and around 2 o'clock in the afternoon,
a large marlin took the lure and bit right through the 300 test line. Steve lost
the fish (we wouldn't have been able to get it aboard anyway) and his favorite
lure.
We sailed the
whole last leg of the race and crossed the finish line at 1:17 p.m. on November 10.
The last 5 miles were the worst as the wind died, and it was everything we could
do to keep the boat moving. After we crossed the finish line, we started
to motor in order to anchor by dark. We continued in to Cabo San Lucas and anchored
the boat off the beach at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.
Dwight and Karen
had a room at Bahia Condos so we all went there to shower (oh, the wonder of
unlimited water!) and dress for dinner.
After dinner we went to Squid Row for a cerveza, but we didn't last very long.
We were all pretty tired from the overnight sail.
The next day there
was a party on the beach at Mangoes. We had lunch and relaxed for the afternoon.
The weather was hot, but the water was the perfect temperature.
Saturday evening
the awards banquet was held down at the marina. The captain and first mate were
called up by divisions and the ribbons were handed out. We were surprised and
thrilled to learn that we took 2nd in
the Enchilada division. Karen and Dwight were great crew and made things aboard a whole
lot easier.
We spent 3
additional days in Cabo. Dwight and Karen rented ATVs before so we decided to do
that one afternoon. We rode in a bus to a place about 20 minutes outside of Cabo.
We then got our ATVs and the group took off. The ride to the beach was difficult
because of all the ruts in the paths. Once we got to the beach, however, it was
much more fun. We rode up and down the beach and up and over the sand dunes. It
was a hot day, but we all had a good time.
We left Cabo San
Lucas headed for Mazatlan on Tuesday, November 15 around 9:45 in the evening.
This trip will be covered in the next posting around December 1.
|
|