• October 25 - 29, 2004: San Diego to Bahia Tortugas, 27°41'N, 114°52' W
• October 29, 2004: Tiene Gasolina?
• October 30 - November 2, 2004: Bahia Tortugas to Bahia Santa Maria, 24°46' N, 112°13' W
• November 1, 2004: R. I. P.
• November 3 - 4, 2004: Pulling into Cabo San Lucas, 22°53' N, 109°53' W
• November 5, 2004: Clearing into Cabo San Lucas

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October 25 - 29, 2004: San Diego to Bahia Tortugas, 27°41'N, 114°52' W

Abe here. I kicked Amy off journal duty for a bit. We left from San Diego on at 1404 hours (land lubber time is 2:04 PM). The Baja Ha Ha Cruiser's Rally is something that we joined so that we could meet folks headed to Mx and beyond. There were 150 boats leaving from San Diego headed from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, with stops along the way at Turtle Bay and Santa Maria (part of Magdalena Bay). We were supposed to start from Coronado Roads at 1100 hours, but we really didn't know where the spot was, we had to get fuel, and we were still putting things away. We checked in with the committee boat right on time. So, as far as the Baja Ha Ha group was concerned, we left with the fleet. At least we did in spirit.

We sailed some, but either the wind was on our face as we tried to get away from the coast, or there was no wind. So we motored longer than we would have liked.

Part of the rally has a check in each morning. This gives everyone time to report major medical issues, major mechanical issues, and to make sure everyone's okay. On Tuesday morning's HF (ham radio) radio check-in was going to be such a piece-of-cake. Except that when our turn came up, the radio shut off right in the middle of my transmission. The circuit breaker had tripped. So I reset it and tried to talk faster. It tripped again. When I had installed the Link 10 battery monitor in San Diego I had moved some wires from the battery terminal to the circuit breaker panel. I had connected the HAM radio to a 5 amp breaker. Not enough juice for transmitting. I quickly changed the cable to a 20 amp circuit breaker, and voila, it worked. I had to admit to the fleet on the radio net what I had done. Surprisingly, I never got harassed about it from anybody. One of those"Doh!" moments!

Amy's take on Turtle Bay: It's a rugged, fishing village, not much in the way of any of what we would consider modern day conveniences. Many of the locals came out to watch 140 boats and all their crew (over 500 people) get together on the beach for a party. I felt like animals at the zoo. But I imagine that we were quite amusing. There were pangas (small fishing boats - literally just a hull and engine, and a couple of bench seats) taking cruisers from their boats to shore. Abe asked what they normally did. They're all fishermen, going out to the ocean for long days of work. But for the two days that the Baja Ha Ha Rally folks are here, they make more money, by far, then they can by fishing. They charged $1 USD for a one-way ride per person. And the money that was spent in this village will keep the local shopkeepers in profit for awhile. It's hard to imagine that $1 USD can make that much difference, but these folks probably make about $10 USD a month is what we estimate. All the roads were dirt roads. What was kind of odd was the number of very nice cars that were in the village, though. One wouldn't expect to see relatively new model SUVs in such a financially poor place These folks may not have had much in terms of monetary things, and you could tell that they worked very long, hard hours, but they had a quiet peace about them. They certainly do with much less than most of us would ever imagine doing without. We have so many comforts of home on our boat that no one in that village has ever seen. Back to the top.

October 29, 2004: Tiene Gasolina?

We had a wonderful beach party in Turtle Bay for all the Baja Ha Ha'ers on October 29th. People dinghied in to shore or took a water taxi. Some of the locals bring out beer to sell and cruisers all bring pot luck. Quite tasty. Abe and I took a walk to the top of the hill and got some great pictures. There were over 60 dinghies beached. Funny sight.

It was a chance to meet a lot of new folks that had plans similar to ours. And all this time we thought we were odd! There were over 150 boats leaving San Diego for the migration south. Most boats were going to stay in Mexico or beyond for quite a while. And there were a good number that had circumnavigations as their ultimate goal.

The party was also a chance to catch up to Pam and Scott of Tournesol. Abe had met both of them while working at West Marine while they were stocking their boat for their circumnavigation. I met them in San Diego at the crew party and again at the fuel dock the day of the start since we were both late in leaving. They'd had some engine and steering issues coming down from San Diego, so were a bit late coming into Turtle Bay. They have quite an amazing story, and you can read all about their adventures on their site. They may have to get a restraining order against Abe because he's stalking them trying to get their autograph before they get too famous.

Close to sunset it was time to head back to the boat. We had an early morning the next day for the start of leg two, and wanted to get a good night's sleep. Since our dinghy was still on our deck (too much trouble to put it together and in the water since the pangas were so accessible) we got in a long line of sailors waiting for their taxis home. We happened upon the best driver imaginable. We loaded 15 people in the panga, and had quite a time launching from the beach. These panga drivers are so considerate of their fares that they back into the beach so that we barely get wet feet getting into the boat. Then they heave and ho with each incoming wave to launch all this weight back into the water. They normally get soaked up to waist level in the process. Once launched, the driver has to take each group back to their respective boats or to the town dock for those folks looking for more action.

We started out okay, but then our driver slowed to idle. This was odd as you understand that normally they drive like Jeff Gordon at the Indy 500. Abe was able to get from the driver (who spoke no English) that he was almost out of gas. We all said it would be okay to go to the town dock as the first stop for him to refuel. The driver said it wouldn't matter because even then he couldn't get fuel. He'd have to walk over a mile to the gas station, and it wasn't open this late (5 PM). He hoped he could make it to everyone's boat and the town dock before running out of fuel. It was not to be. The engine coughed and sputtered about 1,000 yards from shore. No problemo. We're in no hurry. But he has no oars.

We hailed a fellow cruiser who was in his own dinghy with his own supply of gas. The panga driver had a siphon hose ready in the blink of an eye. It was as if this hose appeared from nowhere. We all thanked the fellow cruiser, and headed off. While driving the panga, this old salty Mexican starts jabbering. Since no one except Abe speaks Spanish we all look to him for translation. And learn it's absolute nonsense. Our driver is lit, drunk, sloshed, three sheets to the wind. Thank goodness we're in fairly wide open waters. We made enough noise laughing at our predicament that anyone could hear us well before they saw us and make way! Abe and I were the first stop since most of the rest were going to town. As we closed in on our boat, the panga ran out of gas, again. Instead of paying in dollars, Abe paid the man in gasoline. One taxi-ride for two, two gallons of gas. Again, out comes that magic siphon hose, and we pay the man from our dinghy gas tank. Not a bad deal. And at least we knew it would get the rest of the crew to town. Back to the top.

October 30 - November 2, 2004 Bahia Tortugas to Bahia Santa Maria, 24°46' N, 112°13' W

Abe again. We started out from Bahia de Tortugas on the 30th. The winds were so nice for flying our spinnaker. Most of the 140 plus boats exited the bay flying their spinnakers. What an awesome sight. As the evening arrived, the winds and seas were thrashing around so we decided to bring down the spinnaker. As the evening wore on, the conditions didn't improve. The cautious (you might call it wimps) in us decided to reduce our sails further and start the engine to get a bit more control. As we started to roll the main into the mast, the main suddenly unrolled completely out of the mast. "Our first thought was what the heck happened?" When we tried to roll it in, the circuit breaker for the furler kept tripping. This had been one of the few things that we did not like about the boat when we first bought it. We were fearful that something like this would happen just in the conditions we were in. I should first explain that our main sail furls into the mast and the rod inside the mast is held on by a bolt on the top and one on the bottom. When I went to check to see what tool I would need to furl it manually, I discovered the bottom bolt had worked loose. Our main sail was only supported by the top bolt. We could easily loose the main and possibly the mast with it. I barked out orders for Amy to get me a couple of tools, and a true trooper she reacted instantly. She had understood the urgency in my voice. I quickly attached the bolt back on. Now we had to get the sail down in case the bolt came loose again.

We turned the boat into the wind (which was in the opposite direction of where we were headed) and tried to steer by the electric autopilot. This would allow both us us to work on the problem at the mast. But because of the heavy seas, the autopilot was working too hard to keep us on heading, so I asked Amy to steer. With Amy at the helm, I lowered the main on top of the dodger (covers and protects the cockpit). We had to get the sail wrapped quickly before wind would make it unmanageable. I grabbed an old sheet line and started to wrap the sail from the front. I didn't do a great job, just good enough to keep it semi in control. I went to the back to do a more secure job of wrapping, but in order to do so, I tethered myself to the boom and climbed the dodger to start wrapping. After a couple of wraps I realized that the the boat would calm down severely if we turned back on our heading with the wind at our back. The sail was secure enough to do so and the boat would not bounce and shake on that heading. I shouted at Amy to take us back into our proper heading (I was shouting at here because the wind noise was quite loud and she couldn't hear me at normal volume). As I screamed this I gave the boom a death hug and spread my legs as wide as I could to provide a better stance on the boom. I knew that if we took a swell on the side we would really be rocking and rolling and I didn't want to make Amy turn around to look for me in the water.

I suddenly realized that I was very secure in that position and started to hoop and holler. Amy had no idea what was going on and she had not heard me telling her to turn around. So I screamed at her again to turn to our correct heading. She did hear my bull-ridding-scream, though. She took a very serious tone as she told me that I better be tethered to something secure. I think there were a couple of curse words in her demand to show how serious she was. (She later told me that she knew that I must be tethered - she knows that I'm not that foolish, but that she wanted to make sure that I was hooked onto the boat.) I told her I was and told her again to turn. As she started the turn, I put my head down on the boom and hollered. I had not had this much fun since the last time we had gone skydiving, or perhaps since I had gotten thrown off a mechanical bull back in 1989. I am not sure, but so far that has been the most exciting thing in our trip, at least for me.

We motored the rest of the way to Bahia Santa Maria since our main was doused and wrapped on top of our mast. To everyone else we were just another boat on the fleet that motored to Santa Maria, but to Amy and I, we had conquered one of our biggest fears of our main furler and gained tremendous confidence in how cool we kept our heads in the face of an emergency.

We went ashore on our dinghy on Monday. There is a sand barge just before getting to the beach and we had a fairly easy time in getting through it. Amy and I enjoyed some great lobster tail with fish, salad, salsa, and beans (Amy decided to let me have all the beans and tortillas). On the way back across the sand barge, we thought we had timed the waves properly up to the point when we saw this ten foot (really a three foot or so) wave. It came right over the nose of the dinghy. We were wet ducks. I thought that we might have the whole dinghy roll on top of us, but fortunately, we only got soaked. I think Amy said she had a two inch square section dry on her back. We laughed so hard all the way back to the boat. We just opened up the throttle all the way. Any spray or splashes were moot at this point.

Amy here. I just have to pipe in. Santa Maria Bay was even more remote than Turtle Bay, although Magdalena Bay was just a short jaunt away. We took our dinghy inland, following a narrow canal (no idea what the correct term is). Past the sandbar, the water was quite deep down this canal. The pangas tore through there with engine full throttle. There were fishing shacks in several groups were men were repairing fishing net or preparing lobster tail for market (or wherever they sell them). The shacks were nothing more than 4 wooden walls and a rook. We did see a couple of satellite dishes, however. Looked very out of place. We saw loads of pelicans (does anyone know how fast they get going when they diving for the water for food - we'd love to know), a coyote (yes, I know!), and bunches of other birds that we're not yet versed on. Beautiful mangroves. Back to the top.

November 1, 2004: R. I. P.
We have lost two very close members of our family - our cell phones. Their health began failing after we disconnected service the morning of October 25th. They held on, but in the end, they had to walk the plank. They were just dead weight, no longer pulling their own. Services were held in Bahia Santa Maria's beach at sunset on November 1st. It's Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration - how could the timing be more appropriate? They are survived by DC & AC chargers, instruction manuals, phone case and us. They were buried in the sand close to water's edge. May they rest in peace. The family requests that no flowers be sent. Contributions can be made to your local Sprint PCS or Verizon store. (No cell phones were harmed in the making of these pictures.)

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November 3 - 4, 2004: Pulling into Cabo San Lucas, 22°53' N, 109°53' W

Abe here. Our anticipation to get to Cabo has really overshadowed just about everything else. Since we have been there, we are looking forward to being able to check email, update the website and just other stuff you can only get in a decent size town. The winds were very light and the current was against us for the final twenty miles or so.

We arrived on Thursday and mostly cleaned a bit down below so we can sleep on our own bed. Amy is really looking forward to putting her head on her pillow and not have to worry about rocking and rolling (little did we now about the anchorage, more to follow later). We went into town and had a couple of drinks and dinner. The food was really good, but a bit on the expensive side.

Richard, the organizer for the Baja had told the fleet to expect the most surge in Cabo than anywhere else we will be in Mexico. It is! Between the water-ski boats, jet skis, pangas, water scooters and stuff, we keep on rolling fairly heavily. And there's usually a very large cruise ship sitting very close to our anchorage for a day before they move on. Those things are huge close up. Back to the top.

November 5, 2004 Clearing into Cabo San Lucas

Abe here. We spent all of the morning checking in with Immigration, Port Captain, and Customs. We walked all day and had to retrace our steps several times.

When we got to Immigration, some folks told us that since we had our visas stamped already we didn't have to do anything else there. WRONG! When we got to the Port Captain, he asked us for the crew manifest with Immigration's stamp. Here we go back to Immigration to get the stamp. We were hoping that our number 10 or 23 (someone had given us their 10) would not have been called. Wrong again! They were on number 27. Fortunately they had told everyone that was trying to check in to move to a single line. Then we realized we didn't have the copies of our visas, so here I go to a store at the corner to get copies. When I return, Amy looks at me and asks me where her visa copies were. The lady had made more copies of mine instead of Amy's. So I go back to the copy store. It took less than a minute for Immigration to stamp our manifests. Now we go back to the Port Captain. Less than a minute and we have our second set of stamps of our documents. The Port Captain is about 1 mile from immigration and at the end of a dirt road. And Customs is about 1/4 mile from Port Captain. Not efficient, and not quick, but that's okay.

Now for Customs. When we get there the official takes us into his office and asks a few questions. We set up an appointment to meet on Monday so he can inspect the boat and engine serial numbers. Two o'clock and we are finished with just about everything for checking in. Now it was time to play.

We found several Internet cafe's. But, we found the mother lode when one would provide free wireless with the purchase of a drink. What a deal! Two frappucinos, one water, one coke, one sandwich later we had checked our email, caught up with sports, checked Drudge Report and Limbaugh. Not that we expected it, but not much changes. But, we were happy campers. Connected back to the civilized world.

Amy: Thanks to Abe speaking Spanish fluently, the clearing in process and other chores are very easy. I have some Spanish CDs, I just haven't make time yet to start listening. Maybe I need to start on French so I can refresh and relearn in preparation for South Pacific. Not sure how long we'll stay here. The Baja Rally was great fun, but it's nice to not be on a schedule in terms of moving on. We're getting some projects finished, albeit at a very slow pace. It's been wonderful to simply dive off the boat in the early afternoon to cool off. We're close enough to shore that we swim in, lie in the sun for a short while, then swim back to the boat. We'll have to move the boat further from shore at each progressive anchorage to make sure that we're getting our exercise. Both of us are dropping the pounds. We'd both put on weight in the last year or so in SFO. Most of it was stress and not taking the time to exercise. For both of us that used to run 5 or 6 miles daily, that inactivity was the bane of keeping slim and fit. But between me not eating on passages, and eating lighter in the warmer climates, AND walking everywhere. Finally seeing some muscle tone again. Back to the top.

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