Thursday, November 4, at 0900 hours as we approached the finish line of the 2004 Baja Ha Ha at Cabo Falso, we noticed a disturbance in the water a mile ahead. A gray whale leaped straight up, his whole body, except his tail flukes, bursting out of the water and then flopping with a mighty splash on his side. That was the beginning of a series of gray whales repeatedly strutting their stuff, spy hopping, side rolling and tail slapping. At this point, the time required to auto focus for our new Canon Power shot with ten x optical zoom and image stabilization, became especially frustrating. Later, at Baja Cantina, the photo pros from Latitude 38 who crewed Profligate gave us tips for shortcutting this delay by prefocusing and setting manual focus to infinity. Like many of our new systems aboard Star Dancer, we had a lot to learn about how to best set them up and utilize them.
Our crew of five had just finished breakfast after sailing through the night of the last of the three legs of the Baja Ha Ha and came alive and excited as the whales frolicked and signaled the finish of the 750 mile cruisers rally from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas was about to end. Newlywed racers Ben and Lucy Mewes smooched and enjoyed the view and Dave’s old Marietta college buddy, Dr. Mark Burcaw sat on the port side sipping a morning beer and reminisced about his last trip to Cabo with his son Tomas twenty years before. He told us that ninety percent of the hotels, condos, restaurants, shops and bars we saw after we rounded the Cabo San Lucas and turned towards town had been built during the last twenty years. Richard Spindler, the Grand Poobah, publisher of Latitude 38 and organizer of the Ha Ha had cautioned us that Cabo San Lucas was not Mexico. We saw what he meant as jet skiers, cruise ships; sport fishing boats and Para sailors zoomed about. Picking up a mooring here felt as if you were mooring in a swimming pool. Both the color of the water and the number of water toys about gave it a contained feel. This was a considerable contrast to the fairly isolated coast line we had viewed along the way and to the stops we had made at Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria. Also, it really finally began to get warm about an hour out of Cabo.
This is the eleventh Baja Ha Ha Richard has organized. 169 boats signed up and paid the entry fee of $299. 145 boats actually started and 141 completed the rally. Boats are divided into divisions by size and type and awards were presented for boat divisions as well as for things like worst boat bite, biggest fish caught, best Samaritan and dingy motors sunk. Star Dancer took a third in the Guacamole division, which included about a dozen 43 and 44 foot boats. Of course, the rally emphasizes fun not competition, so first and second prizes were awarded and all other boats got thirds. Sailing all the way as well as well as time for type of boat were the main criteria for awards.
The first leg started at San Diego at 1100 and ended at Turtle bay 321 miles down the Baja peninsula. We finished at 0033 in the dark at Turtle bay having taken 2 days and 14 hours. We sailed most of the way but motor- sailed north of Cedros Island into 20-25 knots of wind on the nose and choppy seas. It then took another couple of hours to complete anchoring in the dark among many boats as crew shared opinions about best locations and safe distances from other boats. Our Spectra water maker was plumbed and wired but still not working so it became a fixit priority. We had only just completed the wiring with the help of Tim in San Diego. After consults with two knowledgeable Ha Ha ers and the tech guru, Glenn Bashford at Spectra, unit turned out the problem was that we had failed to remove a spit hose washer from the purge valve on the membrane of the reverse osmosis unit. It even had a sign saying to do so before starting but it had been hidden on the backside and it had been a month of chaos since we’d had seen it during the mounting of the unit.
Turtle Bay is a very nice small fishing town, isolated by about 200 miles of dirt road from Highway 1. Everyone was friendly and we had a great beach party. Mark and Dave played soccer with about a dozen kids there in the main dirt street. Chiropractor Mark also adjusted several local folk. It was their first time seeing a chiropractor and they were very grateful. They gave Mark three whale vertebrae that had washed up on the beach. (Storing those vertebrae on the boat was tricky!) He had always wanted some for his office. They also gave Mark a half dozen lobster which Irma, a local chef, prepared for us at the barbecue.
We departed Turtle Bay 10/25 with a 0830 start. Winds were 10 to 14 knots and most boats popped gennakers and spinnakers right after the start. We put up our purple and teal asymmetrical spinnaker as we had several other times this trip. We had also bought a used symmetrical spinnaker but had not used it because either the wind was too strong for its ¾ ounces or because the wind was too light.
During a watch with crew on deck of this leg, they decided to jibe the mainsail and to use the boom brake to control it. Unfortunately, we had failed to provide proper warning about the challenges f the boom brake and the boom slammed hard across the boat. Dave woke up with the slam and later with the sound of tinkling stainless steel bolts hitting the deck after having been sheared of by the force. Surveying the damage showed that the boom vang was completely torn away from the mast at its base. It had been held there by ten ¼ inch stainless machine screws threaded into the aluminum mast. We double reefed the main, moved the vang tackle to make a preventer and proceeded with caution. We arrived in Bahia Santa Maria a10/31 at 2156 after one day and 13 hours of sailing and motor sailing. Many boats converging on the last point in the very dark sky before the moon rose became quite a challenge to navigate.
We made it to the party on Profligate at Bahia Santa Maria but did not make it to the party ashore. We sent the crew, who brought back lobster, fish and abalone ceviche. The first day, Dave repaired the boom vang with his half inch drill, taps and 5/16ths inch and ¼ inch bolts.
The last leg from Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo took one day and three hours. The most notable problem occurred just outside Cabo as our autopilot gave a loud warning signal that it had “long term overheat”. In port later, it also showed current overload. It appears now that the drive unit may have had some internal magnets detach and cause problems.
From here we plan to hand steer, probably to Nuevo Vallarta near Puerto Vallarata and get the autopilot and other projects completed. We have a 24 year old Cal grad lined up as crew but have just heard he broke a finger and there is some question about his making the trip.
