Baja Ha Ha Reprise

The only thing more fun than doing a Baja Ha Ha is doing it a second time.  After enjoying my first Baja Ha Ha in 2021 and the bash back home I was itchin for another go. This time I had it all lined up:  solid crew, my stupid freakin TIP, slip in San Diego,  slip in Mazatlán, offshore connectivity (thank you Starlink), weather forecasting, meal planning, Mexican insurance, warm clothes for night watches, fishing licenses, and new downwind sails ready for a work out.

Crew for the Ha Ha itself was boat partner Sarah Dime and her friend Chelsea Greene. 

The crew engineered a way to watch Netflix while on night watch.

After 1400 miles from Emeryville to Mazatlan we hit the beach for a rest.

The first of three crews joined me in Emeryville for a three-night run to San Diego on “delivery mode” with no stops.  I had allowed time to make stops for weather or breakdowns but everything ran smoothly and Fairwyn arrived in San Diego a week before the Ha Ha departure.  San Diego marinas have a strong dislike of wooden boats, so I was glad that C.F. at Koehler Kraft made room for Fairwyn. 

The leg from Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria allowed for some beautiful photos of each others’ boats. We coordinated with Eric Mizrahi of Bibi to get a good photo of Fairwyn’s new sails.

Fairwyn was once again the only wooden boat in the fleet.  I know friends don’t let friends buy wooden boats, and for most folks that is good advice, but when I was 12 I sailed as a guest on a wooden sloop built in the 1930s and that set my idea of what a boat should be. When I retired from abstract legal work in 2017 I wanted my first and only boat to wood, and a wood yawl at that.  What ‘s not to like? Wood is strong, relatively light weight, accepts fasteners, can be patched when you move hardware around, provides sound and temperature insulation, and looks good. 

Wooden boats are built a piece at a time which means they can be taken apart easily.  All the interior of Fairwyn and can be removed with a screwdriver.

We were all pretty salty but after some thought decided  to use Scopolamine patches anyway.  Everyone gets seasick if the conditions are bad enough or if you must change a fuel filter upside down in a seaway.  With the patches we were bullet proof.  The trip down to Cabo was wonderful; calm seas, gentle winds, stunning sunsets and sunrises and lots of fish on the line.  In 2021 there were a few rough days out of San Diego and the breakdown report during the first radio net in Turtle Bay went on for over an hour.  This time there was very little damage other than one unfortunate boat that needed some help getting into Turtle Bay.    

Things got exciting in Cabo.  When the fleet arrived in Cabo on Wednesday POOBAH passed along a weather forecast for a big blow for Sunday, recommended that all boats hightail it out of Cabo and cancelled all Ha Ha events to encourage the fleet to do so. My third crew (wife Gayle, sister Kathy and brother-in-law Chris) was flying in Saturday night to help take Fairwyn to Mazatlán and we did not want to risk getting stuck in Cabo for five days worrying about dragging.  So I took Fairwyn up to Frailes Saturday morning and my crew hired a driver to meet me at the anchorage.  It was exciting taking  them and their luggage in the dinghy through the surf in the dark.  We hunkered down in Frailes until Tuesday when things calmed down enough for a bumpy but fun overnight sail to Mazatlán.

This year I doubled down on wood and dumped my RIB in favor of a wood rowing dinghy.  The rigid inflatables are indestructible and extremely stable, but let’s not mince words -  they are squat, ugly and reliant on an outboard, which means your boat has to accommodate gasoline, oil, spare spark plugs and a crane to get the engine on board.  If that engine dies good luck trying to row back to the boat in any headwind.  When you have to land through the surf your dinghy wheels run aground or you have to pull up the outboard just where the waves begin to break.   With a light weight rowing dinghy you don’t need no stinkin outboard- you can gently row on the top of that last wave through 6” deep water till the hull kisses the sand.   And the exercise will delay the deterioration of your body from its usual buff condition on land to the dreaded  “boat bod” .

You too can get one of these.   Chesapeake Light Craft will send you a kit and you just glue the pieces together and cover each side with fiberglass. Three hundred hours of work and a year Bob’s your uncle.  It accommodates a sailing rig if you don’t want to row and an electric outboard if the wind fails.

All gratitude to POOBAH and his crew for putting on another great Ha Ha.  I hope everyone had as much fun as we did.