It's That Time of Year Again

Black Magic Whacko?
Originally uploaded by toastfloats.

About this time every year, boats start flocking like migrating birds down the west coast of the United States towards the beautiful harbors and bays of San Diego. By early October, almost everyone has made it at least as far as San Francisco, most are past Long Beach perhaps detouring out to the islands or lingering on Catalina for a week. But ultimately, the siren call of San Diego and the Baja Ha-Ha pulls them all south to the border.

The Baja Ha Ha is a rally of cruising boats -- mostly sail -- that leave San Diego at the end of October for a ten day run down the coast of Baja California to Cabo San Lucas. It's part party, part support group, part race, part rally, part event. It is a way to meet the other boats with whom you are likely to cruise the winter months on coastal Mexico or jump across the Pacific in spring.

There are purists sailors who poo poo the ha ha. "Too many boats with too few real sailors." "Just a party." "Dangerous with all those newbies." "Who wants to sail with a crowd like that." DrC and I, however, are strong proponents of the Ha Ha with nothing but good to say. Sure, you have to be careful as a lot of the boats lack experience -- best to always anchor upwind of the Ha Ha fleet and run at least 60 miles off shore to avoid the madding crowd. Yet, we met many of our favorite people during Ha-Ha 2008. Victory Cat, Sea Level, Third Day, Bay Wolf... these are all people whose lives made our own so much better and so much richer. And naysayers be damned, our girls absolutely adore Richard (the Grand Pooh Bah) and his lovely wife, and one of our happiest memories was a day the girls spent cruising at 18 knots on Profiligate during the Sea of Cortez Sailing Week then coming into the harbor dancing on the bimini cover to the blasting notes of "Walk Like an Egyptian." Had we not Ha-Ha'd, we wouldn't have had that opportunity... we might have known that such an opportunity even existed.

But I do have a few recommendations for prospective Ha-Ha'ers or, in fact, any boat migrating south to Mexico this winter.

Do NOT pack large amounts of rice, beans, and canned goods. Mexicans eat well, and food prices are on the whole considerably cheaper. The produce is often outstanding, and meat and poultry are healthier albeit considerably leaner.

DO fill the lockers with your favorite sauces, spices, and exotica. Mexican supermercados are well stocked, but you often can't find specific brands or particular condiments you love. This is true of New Zealand as well... probably of any country. Your favorite curry mix or salad dressing may only be available in your homeland.

Do NOT buy out the West Marine across from the Ha Ha kick off party, getting every possible part, nautical trinket, boat jewelry, or electronic gadget.

DO buy out the West Marine across from the Ha Ha kick off party. What the hell. It's the last time you'll see any of this stuff, your last time to indulge in American-style consumerism. From now on, it'll take a trip to fifeteen separate ferrerterias to accomplish anything. Actually, buy out the Home Depot while you are at it.

Do NOT get a new dodger, steel frame for your solar panels, dinghy cover or any other canvass work. All this can be done cheaper and better in Mexico.

DO buy Sunbrella if you plan to have said covers made. The stuff costs twice as much in Mexico and that is assuming you can find it.

Do NOT pack fancy clothes, cutlery, or makeup. You will not actually go out to a fancy dinner. Anywhere. For years.

DO pick up some wine glasses (if available) embossed with the Ha Ha logo. We have reason to be thankful for these (Ha-Ha Solves Robbery in Auckland).

Do NOT spend oodles purchasing every chart and cruising guide you can find on Mexico. Charts south of the border are notoriously inaccurate and essentially a profound waste of space and money.

DO buy whatever electronic chip you need for your nav system and the oldest copy of Yachtsman's you can find on eBay, Craigslist or your used nautical shop. Also, you must buy a copy of Sea of Cortez -- and if it's for sale this season -- get Blue Latitude's sequel on Pacific Mexico. Shawn and Heather's book(s) are more accurate than Mexican charts and a complete replacement of Charlie's and Raines. Even their draft of Pacific Mexico was a better aid to navigation when we were down in Bahia Banderas than our "legal" charts.

Do NOT take the Ha Ha lightly. It is not a downwind pleasure cruise comparable to taking a day sail in San Francisco Bay. Just look at the stories from last year -- even though you are leaving in late October, the weather can be awful and disaster can and will strike even highly prepared boats.


DO be prepared. I love the West Coast of the United States as a way of easing into the cruising life. First, you can learn the intracies of intercoastal travel and anchoring. Then you can dip your toe in short hop ocean cruising. The trip from San Diego to Cabo is your next big welcome-to-the-next-level moment where the smart bet is to take the boat completely off shore. You'll be doing round the clock watches for two to four days, sailing at night, and playing footsie with commercial, cruise boats out on the rhumb line. Head Latitude 38's warning that the Ha Ha is not a trip for beginner sailors -- beginner cruisers maybe but not beginner sailors. It is definitely not a trip for unprepared boats.

Do NOT overload your boat with stuff. Mexico is not a third country. It is a wonderful place with plenty of shopping opportunities. You can find pretty much anything you need -- clothes, household goods, food stuffs, tools, and most parts -- in the big cities.

DO contact Club Cruceros and see if anyone needs something brought south. It will usually be small and either hard to find boat parts or gifts from family. In fact, if you're willing to pick up a wind generator for me in San Diego...

Do NOT be afraid. You are considerably more likely to get hit by lightening than you are to be attacked by Mexican drug runners during your trip south.

DO leave American news-media induced fear, uncertainty and dread (FUD) behind. You are stepping into a whole new world now, and I don't mean Mexico. You are launching your career as a cruising sailor. This new life will be slower, quieter, and full of small wonderous moments. YOu may work harder physically than you have since high school sports, but the work is rewarding, satisyfing in ways that our daily works lives often are not.

And do look out for Don Quixote as you pass through La Paz. She's hard to miss as she's on an inner dock, right in front of the restaurant. She's dirty, lonely, and neglected. We've treated her badly. Give her a pat for me, and let her know we're coming home. We miss you all so much, cruising family. See you in February.

Morning Fleet
Originally uploaded by toastfloats.

The Kid Party

Kid Party
Originally uploaded by toastfloats.

It’s fair to say that we planned this party for nearly two years. My earliest recollections of family conversations about cruising in Mexico involved staging a party for the kids on the Baja Ha Ha. The Ha Ha promised many boats, many crews, many kids. The Ha Ha was in Mexico where the water would be warm, the air soft, and the sun strong and dangerous. As a family, we developed a vision of Don Quixote as a gathering place for Ha Ha families.

And the boat was loaded with this party in mind. We arrived in Bahia Santa Maria -- the anchorage between Leg 2 and Leg 3 of the Baja Ha Ha -- with everything a boat needs to throw a really good kid party. For Solstice last year, DrC made a slide out of plywood. The slide is rough on one side to serve as a gangplank and smooth with beer labels and hard varnish on the other. Strapped to the starboard transom, it serves as a chute. Pour a bucket of sea water and ZOOM down the side of the boat. In Emeryville, Aeron worked with Jason to figure out way to use the spinnaker halyard as a swing. They worked out a system to drop the lazy jacks and jib lines, and leap off into the air to swing around the front half of the boat. Nearly two winters ago, we purchased a floating island at Costco. In San Diego, we stocked up on munchies, chips, trail mix, and cheap red wine. We packed kid movies, popcorn, and spare towels.

So we were ready our first morning in Bahia Santa Maria to get on the VHF during announcements.

Toast: Don Quixote.
Poohbah: Don Quixote go ahead.
Toast: Don Quixote would like to invite all kids of the Ha Ha fleet to our boat for the evening. The Don Quixote Water Park will open at four PM. Parents can either drop their offspring or relax with us in the cockpit while the kids swim and then watch movies.
Poohbah: Don Quixote, are you saying you want all the kids? That’s great! Where’s your boat?
Toast: We’re at the back of the fleet. We crept in last night at about 3 am.
Poohbah: How about you move your boat over near us. There’s plenty of room for another catamaran.
Toast: Will do.
Poohbah: Okay, that’s Don Quixote for the Kid Party, Corenthia for Texas Hold ‘Em at 7:00pm, and Amani for the musicians in the fleet. All three catamarans will be over near Profligate tonight. Any questions?
Third Day: Don Quixote, should we bring anything to the party?
Toast: Third Day, I think the kids should start learning the cruising rule of bringing something to any gathering. We welcome shnick shnacks and finger foods, but no worries. We have plenty!

The kids actually started arriving about two in the afternoon. We had everything set up and the girls were already jumping off the bow. Parents dropped the kids off early and went back to their boats for a few hours of rest and clean up. They rejoined Don Quixote and their off spring at dusk. We had children everywhere. They were jumping off the bows, swimming between the hulls, sliding down the tramps, screaming in the island. The adults used the salon until the sun disappeared and the temperature dropped. We then moved children on to every flat surface in the salon and turned on a movie. Parents retreated to the cockpit for wine and the exchange of shared experiences. At one point, I counted 32 people tucked into various nooks and corners on our boat. We were probably well below our water line, but it felt wonderful.

Third Day and Calou. Bay Wolf, Leo Scotia, Odessa Mama and Sirius Star. These boats, their crews, their profile are now so familiar to me that I can spot one from three miles away as we approach an anchorage. I know their voices on the VHF, the personalities of their children, and their politics. But on that first night in Bahia Santa Maria, it was all very new. The families we met that night are the beginning of a small core of boats with whom we will spend many hours and share many experiences over the coming winter.

Trevor and Our Youngest Fleet Member
Originally uploaded by toastfloats.

And we are so lucky. These are wonderful, fascinating people. Possibly, the reason it is so easy to spend time with them is that what we share is so much greater than our differences in background, economics, and education. We are all here; We have brought our children to a life that is so different from the norm for almost identical reasons. We all share a goal to make this experience a defining one for our kids and ourselves. We have sacrificed our careers, alienated family members, and fully intend to go stone cold broke in the coming months and years. We could literally be from anywhere, and I believe we would still enjoy each other’s company.

Everyone wound down after the movie ended, the dinghies disappearing into the background twinkle of the fleet anchorage. The party was everything we had ever hoped it would be. Two years of planning and six hours of perfect realization of our cruising dream.

Baja Ha Ha - Third Movement

More Profligate
Originally uploaded by toastfloats.

Wind, wind and more wind for our third leg of the Ha Ha leaving Bahia Santa Maria on November 5 and finishing up in Cabo the next afternoon. The Poohbah says this was about the fastest leg 3 he’s ever seen, and a sizable fraction of the fleet sailed the entire way. We certainly did, though I’ll admit we were tempted to motor the last hour just to be done. I know that the Ha Ha isn’t really race, but there was something tremendously satisfying and thrilling about crossing the finish line. It was especially nice to complete a leg without motoring even a bit.

The Ha Ha is exhausting. You travel about 750 miles in ten days. Even with the stops in Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria, it’s a long trip with many overnight passages. The trip took it’s toll on the family. As we completed this third leg, I looked around the boat in a bit of despair. The cockpit is disgustingly dirty. The boat looks like a child’s toy box, picked up, shaken, and upended on the couch in a vain attempt to find a favorite sparkly. Our sleep patterns are totally destroyed. School has pretty much ground to a halt, and DrC and I have trouble mustering the energy to care.

I’ve been maintaining a running calculation of our fuel consumption throughout the trip. Our hope was to avoid fueling until we got to Cabo. The wind was so fantastic on the trip, we changed our objective to La Paz. After completing the Ha Ha in Cabo with nearly full tanks, we’re now eying Mazatlan on the fuel we took on in San Diego. The really annoying bit is that fuel down here costs about half what it cost us in San Diego, so all this frugal sailing is financially not all that helpful. I’m not sure if fuel costs are so much less because world oil prices are dropping or because Mexico is net exporter of gas and oil. In any case, the low cost of fuel should be factored in to any cruisers’ Mexico bound cruising budget.

Herding Cats
Originally uploaded by toastfloats.

Our fishing woes continue. We caught a boat on the first day. It was of the species “monohull elegantistis”, commonly known as an Allegria. We also hooked something absolutely giganormous the second day. We saw it flashing silver right after the hook went whizzing out of the rod at high speed. I swear it was bigger than the Allegria we had hooked the previous day. The result, however, was the same. We lost our lure and a bunch of line. I have reached the point with fishing where I am resolved to catch all my future meals using a VHF line and fruit, coleslaw, and chilled beer lures. We caught ten pounds of prepped, deboned, and stunningly fresh ahi in Bahia Santa Maria using a Sierra Nevada six pack lure on a Walker Bay dinghy line. This method of fishing is highly effective and considerably less work.

We rounded the famous arch and spotted Neptune’s fingers early afternoon on November 6. Caba San Lucas anchorage and bay spread out in front of us, a beautiful resort on the south tip of Baja designed to entice gringos into spending all their money. Time to drop anchor and resist the lure of showers, provisions, and civilization. One night in the Cabo marina rafted three deep with other fleet members would have cost us $140. It is not going to happen. Civilization must wait until we get to La Paz.

Baja Ha Ha - First Movement

Better Sail Boat Picture
Originally uploaded by purpleteeleaf.

A quick, picture-less update from Turtle Bay. We completed the first leg of the Baja Ha Ha in a catamaran record low time of several days and many hours of motoring. The winds were beyond light. They were almost negatively light -- if you can imagine such a thing. We did have a really strong, fun sail the first day and a half. Then we motored. Then we sailed. Then we motored. Then we turned off the engines a drifted an entire day at .5 knots. It was great! We swam off the back of the boat. I swam faster than the boat was moving.

Casualties:
* My sinuses. Jaime picked up a head cold someplace in San Diego which she then passed on to the rest of us. My head felt like it was going to pop most of the trip. It made the entire thing quite challenging.
* On the last day, I did a credible job of ripping the GPS dome off the bimini. This somehow managed to short out the entire system which includes our radar, chart plotter and primary GPS. Urg. Thank you very much, we were smart enough to carry paper charts, another computer with charts, and a handheld GPS. We'll tailgate other boats all the way down to Cabo so radar shouldn't be a big issue either. And then when we get to Cabo, we'll mail the damn thing back to Seattle and tell them to fix it or else.
* Dinghy motor? Don't know about this. I think DrC and Jaime just flooded it past all hope of recall for this afternoon.

Highlights:
* More dolphins. Actually, it was the squeeling dolphins in the bow wave that distracted me sufficiently to rip the GPS dome. Not feeling great about dolphins.
* Absolutely spectacular lightening show. This is something you can enjoy at sea only if you can see the strike from top to bottom and can't hear the thunder indicating the storm is at least 30 miles off. It was amazing.
* Stars, shooting stars, planets, satellites, constellations, more shooting stars. Mera and I enjoyed several star gazing lessons on the bows during night watch.
* Sitting in the cockpit last night, listening to the music drift over the water and watching the masthead lights flicker on the bay like june bugs on a summer night in Philly. The air was sweet and warm with a nice off shore cooling breeze, the wine was chilled, and DrC was in an unusually happy, talkative mood.

The Ha Ha is not for everyone, but it is absolutely where the crew of Don Quixote needs to be. We are all enjoying ourselves immensely. The girls and I try to participate as much as possible in the morning roll call, doing the VHF to SSB relay. It provides a notoriety that the girls (and I) revel in. Just about everyone is getting to know our names and our boat. They love the attention, they like trying to hook up with the other kids, and they really really REALLY want to go ashore to play.

What they don't appreciate is Mexican pastry; It's not sweet enough. Pearls before swine.