Back in late August when Brett and Kay were in Idaho taking a break from sailing, I met up with Brett for a beer. We talked about their recent passage from BC to San Fran and the upcoming plans. I knew they were going to do something called the Baja Ha-Ha at some point because I had some other friends doing it as well, but I did not know a lot of details about it. I mentioned that I would love to join them at some point for a stint, but it was difficult finding a time that would work for me with my daughter Amaya being in high school and having sports activities. When we talked about the timing of the Ha-Ha, I realized that it could work for me if they had the space and needed a hand. Brett said they did and provided some links for me to research the event and get back to him. After thinking about it for a few days, I let Brett know that I was “In”.
Fast forward a couple of months and a few Zoom call sessions to discuss the trip and I arrived in San Diego to join Brett and Kay on the Beagle Spirit a couple days before the Ha-Ha was set to begin. The day before the rally started, Kay and I did a provisioning trip on their folding bikes while Brett tended to some of the captain’s meetings with the event organizers. There was also an initial pre-departure party that day where we were able to mingle with some of the other Ha-Ha’ers. In all there were 130 boats registered for the rally although a few were not able to join. After staying a couple of nights on the boat anchored in San Diego Harbor, the Baja Ha-Ha officially got underway on November 4th.
While I had been on a few sailing trips before, I hadn’t been on a trip where you sailed through the night and had to set up “watch” schedules 24/7. I had also not been very far offshore or away from islands on previous outings and had not experienced major sea-sickness issues on those trips. This one was different. Despite taking some sea-sickness meds, the nausea hit me pretty quickly once we got out to sea. After throwing up a few times that day, I was worried that the nausea would not go away and would make for a bad experience. I saw the same look of concern on Brett and Kay’s faces as well. Fortunately after about 10-12 hours things settled and my sea-sickness never came back. Brett and Kay also set up the watch schedules so that I got eased in gradually on day one without much solo time for me. Despite that nausea that day, I helped out a bit and learned a lot about putting the different sails out, trimming them, and using the navigation system. We even were able to put up the spinnaker sail for a good amount of time during the day. This pattern, minus the sea-sickness, continued for days two and three and we settled into full three hour rotating watch schedules. My favorite watch periods were the ones occurring during sunrise and sunset. They are amazing when you are out at sea. In the evening on day three we arrived at our first stop … Bahia Tortugas (aka Turtle Bay).
We anchored in Bahia Tortugas in the dark, celebrated completing leg one of our journey and all got a good night's sleep … a luxury after the broken up sleep patterns of the first few days. The next day we flagged one of the local pangas (small fishing boats being used as water taxis by the locals to make some money from the big annual influx of sailboats from the Ha-Ha) and went into the village to explore and grab a bite. Later that day there was the annual baseball game with people from the Ha-Ha boats and local kids. Anyone who wanted to play was allowed to be a batter and there were no outs called on anyone … a guaranteed hit, RBI and run for all including Kay from the Beagle Spirit. Brett and I spectated and had a few beers. The second full day in Tortugas included a beach party. Early in the day while Brett was working on a minor boat issue, Kay and I went into town to do some shopping. As we made our way to the market we had scoped out the day prior, I heard a “splat” of someone falling behind me on the sidewalk, which was terrifying because I knew Kay was the only person behind me. I turned around to see Kay splayed out on the sidewalk. She had tripped on a very uneven section of sidewalk that stuck up about two inches. I feared I would see a lot of blood and scrapes based on how she fell, but Kay brushed herself off and no blood was drawn so we continued to the store. Once in the store Kay really started to feel pain in her left wrist and thumb, which she had put out to break her fall. After shopping and returning to the boat it only got worse so she iced it and took some ibuprofin. We joined the beach party that afternoon, which was a good time. We ate some fish tacos made by locals, and also some made by the Ha-Ha folks who had managed to catch some large yellowfin tuna on leg one of the trip. Those were amazing. The climax was a male vs female tug-o-war contest. Kay had to sit that one out due to her wrist injury, but Brett joined. I was kicked out due to my superior strength (that’s my story and I’m sticking with it), and the ladies won handily as a result 🙂. The next morning we departed for leg two of the rally.
Leg two of the rally went from Bahia Tortugas to Bahia Santa Maria (BSM). We immediately started on our three hour watch rotations and started sailing once the wind picked up enough. Brett also tried more fishing after hearing of (and eating) the success others were having. We didn’t have any luck on leg one other than some hits that we didn’t come close to landing. This time Brett landed a tuna … a skipjack tuna that was about 15 lbs. Skipjack is not as tasty as other types of tuna, but we processed it and ate it both as tuna steaks and as fish tacos over a few meals. This is where the Zhoug Sauce I had thrown in our cart back in San Diego really came in handy. It goes great with fish. Also during this leg, Kay’s wrist/thumb injury did not improve and we wrapped it with an ace bandage to stabilize it better. As on leg one, we sailed a little over half the time and resorted to motoring the rest of the time when the wind didn’t cooperate. There were some great spinnaker runs though when the wind was up. One highlight from this section was joining another boat for an impromptu swimming party 50 miles offshore, while ensuring we stayed in contact with the boat by holding onto a rope. It wasn’t long after that when we heard about another boat having their tuna taken by a shark while trying to land it. Ignorance is bliss! We arrived in BSM after nearly two days of sailing, having another celebration and great night's sleep once anchored.
BSM wasn’t really a village per se. There were a few buildings and a big beach in what was a massive bay. It was a beautiful spot though. And being the Ha-Ha, there was another party with support of some locals selling beer and food … and a great band that traveled in to play for the dance party. Since this was a large group rally, one feature was a daily check-in on the radios to make sure everyone was safe, report issues, report fishing successes and ask questions about a myriad of topics. During the session on the second morning in BSM, Kay jumped on to ask if anyone had recommendations for getting medical attention for her wrist/thumb once we get to Cabo San Lucas (CSL). As with many other issues and questions brought up during the daily calls, the group knowledge of the many folks in the rally was amazing. In this case, there was an orthopedic surgeon on one of the boats who happened to bring along casting materials, so he invited Kay over to their boat to have it looked at and he ended up putting a cast on her wrist to really stabilize it. This was prior to the dance party, so Kay brought sharpies for folks to sign her cast. The party was indeed surreal, as the Poobah (Richard the Ha-Ha lead organizer) had foretold us it would be. The next morning we began the third and final leg of the Ha-Ha to CSL.
We departed BSM for Cabo on Nov 13th and this is the shortest of the three legs of the rally. It was also the least windy I believe but we managed to sail a decent amount. We saw a lot of dolphins on this segment and a few sea turtles as well. Other than sea life, this leg was pretty uneventful. Great sunset and sunrise and a nearly full moon. We reached the end of the Baja peninsula around midday on the 14th and anchored in the Cabo Bay. CSL has beautiful scenery and some impressive looking resorts along the shoreline, but it is very touristy in a Vegas kind of way. We quickly learned to avoid the areas closest to the marina and beaches to escape that scene. We had some great meals a few blocks away from all that, although we did briefly venture into the infamous Squid Roe bar. Not our kind of place. Although the Baja Ha-Ha was now officially over, we stayed in CSL for three days and then moved over to a slip at the marina in San Jose del Cabo about 20 miles to the east. This was much more our scene and it was fun to venture into the gallery district in the old section of town. We also enjoyed several great restaurants there and met up with our friends Scott and Marney who were in the area to work on plans for their property down there. My childhood friend and neighbor Chris (Hatton) Schulz and her husband Jim were part of the Ha-Ha as well on their sailboat Quincy and it was great meeting up and hanging out with them on multiple occasions along the way. They are good people! I flew out on Nov 19th, leaving Brett and Kay to continue their journey. The entire trip was an amazing experience and if you ever get a chance to join Brett and Kay during their travels you absolutely should.
Epilogue … On my flight home I had a window seat facing the western side of the Baja Peninsula and was able to capture shots of our two stops along the way to Cabo. It was cool to see them from 30,000 feet.
Bahia Tortugas
Bahia Santa Maria
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