Down the Coast of Baja California With The Baja Ha-Ha XVII
Bright Angel and her crew, Bob, Linda, and Linda's nephew John Pearsall, made the 755 nautical mile trip from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas with the Baja Ha-Ha XVII rally, October 25 - November 4, 2010. Below you will find the story of that incedible voyage. Enjoy!
BAJA HA-HA PREPARATIONS – San Diego, October 2010
When we arrived in San Diego on September 26, we stayed at the South Western Yacht Club on Shelter Island for three days and relaxed, before heading over to Harbor Island and the Sun Road Resort Marina, where we would stay and work on the boat until the start of the Baja Ha-Ha on October 25. As always, the list of projects was quite lengthy; and, as we are finding out from experience (and coming to accept as a fact of cruising life) when it comes time to leave, many of those projects will still be on the list! In fact, even the Ha-Ha organizers promote the event with the fact that it sets a date certain to leave the dock and get going – otherwise, if you wait until you are “ready” you may never leave!
In some respects, the weather was in part to blame for the lack of progress on “the list.” Many of the projects required at least dry weather, which seemed to “take a hike” when we moved over to Sun (?) Road from SWYC; other than the fact that it was much warmer, the almost constant clouds and drizzle made it seem like we were back home in the Pacific Northwest - which, ironically, was enjoying much sunnier weather on the whole than we were in San Diego! Linda and I joked about the fact that one of the reasons we chose to stay at Sun Road was because of the nice swimming pool and patio area they had for tenants – which we never once used!
We also rented a car for the month, and shortly after we did, we took off on a week-long road trip to southern Arizona and Palm Desert to visit family and friends. It was a great getaway – and a week in the sunshine! When we got back to San Diego (and the cloudy, drizzly weather again), we had less than two weeks until the start of the Ha-Ha. It was time to really turn-to!
But the project list soon took a backseat to another distraction – a long list of classes offered either through West Marine or Downwind Marine, two “superstore” chandleries near Shelter Island that are big supporters of the Ha-Ha and south-bound cruisers in general. Downwind offered a series of classes every night the week of October 18-22, and we attended several of them: one on downwind sailing techniques by a Forespar rep; one on the ins and outs of cruising Mexico by Dick Markie, an ex-pat and long-time cruiser who is now the Manager of Paradise Village Marina in Puerto Vallarta (who gave us a certificate for two nights free moorage, so I guess we’ll be visiting Paradise Village!); and one on cruising the Sea of Cortez by Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer, a young Bellingham couple who have authored one of the very best cruising guides to the Sea of Cortez, and who have recently released a new cruising guide to Pacific Mexico (the mainland coast).
At West Marine we attended a class by Shea Weston on offshore communications and another by Shea and Gordon West on getting the most out of your High Frequency (single side band) radio. Gordon is a recognized expert in Ham and SSB radio, and was tremendous speaker, too!
We also attended an all-day class on October 19 on using SailMail, presented by Shea Weston and Rick Corenman. Rick, who hails from Friday Harbor, is the brains behind SailMail – he conceived the idea, and he writes the computer programs for SailMail and the enabling software, AirMail. SailMail, for those unfamiliar with it, is a means by which you can transmit and receive data (such as e-mail, grib weather files, and weather fax transmissions) essentially worldwide, through a modem, i.e. a Pactor II, that connects your computer to your HF SSB radio. The modem compresses data, which is then sent out by the SSB as radio waves, which are in turn picked up by a shore-based radio with a modem that converts it back to data, connects to the internet, and sends it on its way; the process essentially works in reverse for receiving data on-board. SailMail, as a non-profit organization which users join for an annual fee, operates 21 shore-based radio sites worldwide, each with a radio or radios operating on a range of HF radio frequencies. The bottom line is that with the aid of a propagation prediction table that is part of the SailMail program, at anytime you can select a HF shore station somewhere in the world that will receive and transmit data for or to you no matter where you are – at anchor, tied up in a marina, or out in the middle of the ocean. Pretty amazing stuff!
Before we left Olympia, we installed a new ICOM 802 SSB radio, tuner, and PACTOR II-usb modem. We installed the new radio system on the “footprint” of an old ICOM 800 system that we removed, to include the insulated back-stay antenna and (original – from when the boat was built) copper foil ground plane. The antenna/ground plane set-up is a make-it or break-it component of any HF radio system, and we were a little concerned about the integrity of our 20 year-old ground plane (the insulated back-stay was replaced when we re-rigged the boat in 2007). After installing the new SSB system, and replacing the antenna lead wire, we knew we could receive HF radio transmissions (we could easily pick up WWV time signals from Boulder, CO and NOAA voice weather from Pt. Reyes, CA), but we were not sure of our transmit capabilities – the acid test of the antenna/ground plane set-up. From Olympia, we did not pick-up any of the cruisers’ nets in Mexico - or further south - to test our transmit capabilities, so that would have to wait. After the SailMail class, where they gave us the latest versions of AirMail and SailMail on a stick to download, we went back to the boat, loaded the programs, composed a test e-mail, found a station to connect to, and hit send, i.e., transmitted the data to a shore station (which happened to be one in Friday Harbor) – and, voila! – it went through! So – we checked those off the to-do list: √ SSB both receives and transmits just fine (and we have since participated in HF nets without any trouble), and √ SailMail is up and running!
The rental car turned out to be extremely useful for final provisioning and laying-in of spares, too – everything from food, to toilet paper, to Max-prop zincs and motor oil (hard to find or very expensive in Mexico, or so we were told). We also got our flu shots. We spent several weeks comparing rates and coverage for, and ultimately purchasing boat insurance to cover us south of the border (the coverage we had lined-up earlier turned out to be way too expensive by comparison). We also bought Mexican insurance to satisfy Mexican law, and we bought our Mexican fishing licenses. We ordered a pile of pesos through Bank America. And, at almost the last minute, we ended up measuring for and rush-ordering a shade awning from Shade Tree, a company in Alabama, when we were finally told that the Ronstan Boom Tent we had had on order from Defender Industries since July would not make it to us before we left. There were a number of other “last minute” items we had shipped to us – like a computer battery, spare wind vane for the Monitor self-steering device, and mounting brackets for dinghy wheels we picked up in Alameda – we got to be regulars at mail call at Sun Road! Finally, we changed the oil and every oil and fuel filter on both the engine and generator, and topped off the fuel and water tanks.
What we did not get done was for the most part the same list of projects that was left undone when we slipped the dock lines in Olympia: re-bed deck hardware and chain plates; re-caulk some of the deck seems; replace teak plugs on the deck as needed; Cetol the “eyebrow” and pedestal table; and wax the cabin and coach roof. Oh well, nothing on that list will keep us tied to the dock, and there is always Mexico, where time and weather will be on our side for a change!
OUR CREW – JOHN PEARSALL – ARRIVES IN SAN DIEGO, Friday, October 22
Linda’s nephew, John Pearsall, who lives in Tacoma, arrived on a late morning Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle on Friday, October 22, to join us as crew on the trip down the coast to Cabo San Lucas. John has been to Cabo before – but not by boat; he went by motorcycle down the Baja a year ago with several of his buddies. To say John is an adventurous sort would be an understatement; he flies airplanes, owns a sailboat, has chartered a sailboat in the Caribbean, has climbed Mount Rainier, and, two weeks after he flies home from Cabo after the Ha-Ha, he is slated to participate in the Arizona Ironman in Tempe - that is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run – all within a 17 hour time limit – GO JOHN!!
But all of his other outstanding attributes notwithstanding, John has one other that stands out above all others – he brought his Skipper a case of Snow Cap (a favorite winter ale, at the time unavailable in San Diego) in his checked luggage – with only a one bottle casualty rate! Now, that is an accomplishment!! Not only is he our valued crew, and we are glad to have him aboard, but he is also my Hero!
When we arrived in San Diego on September 26, we stayed at the South Western Yacht Club on Shelter Island for three days and relaxed, before heading over to Harbor Island and the Sun Road Resort Marina, where we would stay and work on the boat until the start of the Baja Ha-Ha on October 25. As always, the list of projects was quite lengthy; and, as we are finding out from experience (and coming to accept as a fact of cruising life) when it comes time to leave, many of those projects will still be on the list! In fact, even the Ha-Ha organizers promote the event with the fact that it sets a date certain to leave the dock and get going – otherwise, if you wait until you are “ready” you may never leave!
In some respects, the weather was in part to blame for the lack of progress on “the list.” Many of the projects required at least dry weather, which seemed to “take a hike” when we moved over to Sun (?) Road from SWYC; other than the fact that it was much warmer, the almost constant clouds and drizzle made it seem like we were back home in the Pacific Northwest - which, ironically, was enjoying much sunnier weather on the whole than we were in San Diego! Linda and I joked about the fact that one of the reasons we chose to stay at Sun Road was because of the nice swimming pool and patio area they had for tenants – which we never once used!
We also rented a car for the month, and shortly after we did, we took off on a week-long road trip to southern Arizona and Palm Desert to visit family and friends. It was a great getaway – and a week in the sunshine! When we got back to San Diego (and the cloudy, drizzly weather again), we had less than two weeks until the start of the Ha-Ha. It was time to really turn-to!
But the project list soon took a backseat to another distraction – a long list of classes offered either through West Marine or Downwind Marine, two “superstore” chandleries near Shelter Island that are big supporters of the Ha-Ha and south-bound cruisers in general. Downwind offered a series of classes every night the week of October 18-22, and we attended several of them: one on downwind sailing techniques by a Forespar rep; one on the ins and outs of cruising Mexico by Dick Markie, an ex-pat and long-time cruiser who is now the Manager of Paradise Village Marina in Puerto Vallarta (who gave us a certificate for two nights free moorage, so I guess we’ll be visiting Paradise Village!); and one on cruising the Sea of Cortez by Shawn Breeding and Heather Bansmer, a young Bellingham couple who have authored one of the very best cruising guides to the Sea of Cortez, and who have recently released a new cruising guide to Pacific Mexico (the mainland coast).
At West Marine we attended a class by Shea Weston on offshore communications and another by Shea and Gordon West on getting the most out of your High Frequency (single side band) radio. Gordon is a recognized expert in Ham and SSB radio, and was tremendous speaker, too!
We also attended an all-day class on October 19 on using SailMail, presented by Shea Weston and Rick Corenman. Rick, who hails from Friday Harbor, is the brains behind SailMail – he conceived the idea, and he writes the computer programs for SailMail and the enabling software, AirMail. SailMail, for those unfamiliar with it, is a means by which you can transmit and receive data (such as e-mail, grib weather files, and weather fax transmissions) essentially worldwide, through a modem, i.e. a Pactor II, that connects your computer to your HF SSB radio. The modem compresses data, which is then sent out by the SSB as radio waves, which are in turn picked up by a shore-based radio with a modem that converts it back to data, connects to the internet, and sends it on its way; the process essentially works in reverse for receiving data on-board. SailMail, as a non-profit organization which users join for an annual fee, operates 21 shore-based radio sites worldwide, each with a radio or radios operating on a range of HF radio frequencies. The bottom line is that with the aid of a propagation prediction table that is part of the SailMail program, at anytime you can select a HF shore station somewhere in the world that will receive and transmit data for or to you no matter where you are – at anchor, tied up in a marina, or out in the middle of the ocean. Pretty amazing stuff!
Before we left Olympia, we installed a new ICOM 802 SSB radio, tuner, and PACTOR II-usb modem. We installed the new radio system on the “footprint” of an old ICOM 800 system that we removed, to include the insulated back-stay antenna and (original – from when the boat was built) copper foil ground plane. The antenna/ground plane set-up is a make-it or break-it component of any HF radio system, and we were a little concerned about the integrity of our 20 year-old ground plane (the insulated back-stay was replaced when we re-rigged the boat in 2007). After installing the new SSB system, and replacing the antenna lead wire, we knew we could receive HF radio transmissions (we could easily pick up WWV time signals from Boulder, CO and NOAA voice weather from Pt. Reyes, CA), but we were not sure of our transmit capabilities – the acid test of the antenna/ground plane set-up. From Olympia, we did not pick-up any of the cruisers’ nets in Mexico - or further south - to test our transmit capabilities, so that would have to wait. After the SailMail class, where they gave us the latest versions of AirMail and SailMail on a stick to download, we went back to the boat, loaded the programs, composed a test e-mail, found a station to connect to, and hit send, i.e., transmitted the data to a shore station (which happened to be one in Friday Harbor) – and, voila! – it went through! So – we checked those off the to-do list: √ SSB both receives and transmits just fine (and we have since participated in HF nets without any trouble), and √ SailMail is up and running!
The rental car turned out to be extremely useful for final provisioning and laying-in of spares, too – everything from food, to toilet paper, to Max-prop zincs and motor oil (hard to find or very expensive in Mexico, or so we were told). We also got our flu shots. We spent several weeks comparing rates and coverage for, and ultimately purchasing boat insurance to cover us south of the border (the coverage we had lined-up earlier turned out to be way too expensive by comparison). We also bought Mexican insurance to satisfy Mexican law, and we bought our Mexican fishing licenses. We ordered a pile of pesos through Bank America. And, at almost the last minute, we ended up measuring for and rush-ordering a shade awning from Shade Tree, a company in Alabama, when we were finally told that the Ronstan Boom Tent we had had on order from Defender Industries since July would not make it to us before we left. There were a number of other “last minute” items we had shipped to us – like a computer battery, spare wind vane for the Monitor self-steering device, and mounting brackets for dinghy wheels we picked up in Alameda – we got to be regulars at mail call at Sun Road! Finally, we changed the oil and every oil and fuel filter on both the engine and generator, and topped off the fuel and water tanks.
What we did not get done was for the most part the same list of projects that was left undone when we slipped the dock lines in Olympia: re-bed deck hardware and chain plates; re-caulk some of the deck seems; replace teak plugs on the deck as needed; Cetol the “eyebrow” and pedestal table; and wax the cabin and coach roof. Oh well, nothing on that list will keep us tied to the dock, and there is always Mexico, where time and weather will be on our side for a change!
OUR CREW – JOHN PEARSALL – ARRIVES IN SAN DIEGO, Friday, October 22
Linda’s nephew, John Pearsall, who lives in Tacoma, arrived on a late morning Alaska Airlines flight from Seattle on Friday, October 22, to join us as crew on the trip down the coast to Cabo San Lucas. John has been to Cabo before – but not by boat; he went by motorcycle down the Baja a year ago with several of his buddies. To say John is an adventurous sort would be an understatement; he flies airplanes, owns a sailboat, has chartered a sailboat in the Caribbean, has climbed Mount Rainier, and, two weeks after he flies home from Cabo after the Ha-Ha, he is slated to participate in the Arizona Ironman in Tempe - that is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike ride, and a 26.2 mile run – all within a 17 hour time limit – GO JOHN!!
But all of his other outstanding attributes notwithstanding, John has one other that stands out above all others – he brought his Skipper a case of Snow Cap (a favorite winter ale, at the time unavailable in San Diego) in his checked luggage – with only a one bottle casualty rate! Now, that is an accomplishment!! Not only is he our valued crew, and we are glad to have him aboard, but he is also my Hero!
John Pearsall Arrives For The Start Of The Baja Ha-Ha With Precious Cargo!
Out of 24 bottles, only one Snow-Cap failed to survive the trip from Seattle intact in John's checked luggae! Man, that was a heavy duffle bag!
HA-HA KICK-OFF PARTY – Sunday, October 24
The Sunday before the start of the Ha-Ha was a busy day! We needed to turn-in the rental car by 1:00 pm, there was a Skippers’ meeting at West Marine at 11:00, and a Ha-Ha Kick-Off party (with Halloween costumes recommended) in the West Marine parking lot at 1:30. We started off the morning with an 8:30 am trip to a Harbor Island restaurant for breakfast, but the restaurant didn’t open until 9 – we waited; but then, despite the fact we were the only ones in the place, our orders did not arrive until almost 9:45. (We think our waitress was also the cook – she had food stains on her blouse when she brought us our breakfast that weren’t there when she took our order!) After breakfast we dashed off to an Ace Hardware store to get some stainless nuts and bolts to use later on down-the-road when re-bedding stanchion bases, and then we stopped by a local grocery store pharmacy to get our flu shots (while John hid out nearby in the liquor department!). John & Linda dropped me off at the skipper’s meeting, and then took the rental car to turn it in – about two miles from the airport and maybe 10 miles from West Marine. They took the rental car shuttle back to the airport, and caught a cab to West Marine – just in time for John to change into his costume for the party (which he brought from home). He was dressed as a hot dog with mustard - what a sport! And, he placed third in the “most bizarre” costume category – behind “Cereal Killer” (a woman dressed as a Special K box) and “Twister” – a girl in a print dress like an old Twister board. (The MC delighted in saying “Right Hand on Green; Left Hand on Yellow” – of course, you can guess where the green and yellow dots were!) After the party, we took a West Marine shuttle back to Harbor Island, started dosing on Meclizine (to ward off being seasick on the ocean the next day), took care of a few more boat tasks, and turned-in early. Tomorrow will be a big day – the start of the Baja Ha-Ha and heading out to sea!
The Sunday before the start of the Ha-Ha was a busy day! We needed to turn-in the rental car by 1:00 pm, there was a Skippers’ meeting at West Marine at 11:00, and a Ha-Ha Kick-Off party (with Halloween costumes recommended) in the West Marine parking lot at 1:30. We started off the morning with an 8:30 am trip to a Harbor Island restaurant for breakfast, but the restaurant didn’t open until 9 – we waited; but then, despite the fact we were the only ones in the place, our orders did not arrive until almost 9:45. (We think our waitress was also the cook – she had food stains on her blouse when she brought us our breakfast that weren’t there when she took our order!) After breakfast we dashed off to an Ace Hardware store to get some stainless nuts and bolts to use later on down-the-road when re-bedding stanchion bases, and then we stopped by a local grocery store pharmacy to get our flu shots (while John hid out nearby in the liquor department!). John & Linda dropped me off at the skipper’s meeting, and then took the rental car to turn it in – about two miles from the airport and maybe 10 miles from West Marine. They took the rental car shuttle back to the airport, and caught a cab to West Marine – just in time for John to change into his costume for the party (which he brought from home). He was dressed as a hot dog with mustard - what a sport! And, he placed third in the “most bizarre” costume category – behind “Cereal Killer” (a woman dressed as a Special K box) and “Twister” – a girl in a print dress like an old Twister board. (The MC delighted in saying “Right Hand on Green; Left Hand on Yellow” – of course, you can guess where the green and yellow dots were!) After the party, we took a West Marine shuttle back to Harbor Island, started dosing on Meclizine (to ward off being seasick on the ocean the next day), took care of a few more boat tasks, and turned-in early. Tomorrow will be a big day – the start of the Baja Ha-Ha and heading out to sea!
The crew of S/V Bright Angel arrives at the Baja Ha-Ha Kick-Off Party
For more photos of the Kick-Off party, as well as the rest of the Ha-Ha, check out the Photo Gallery page!
BAJA HA-HA PARADE TO THE START – Monday, October 25, 10-11 am
The Baja Ha-Ha starting line is off Point Loma, at the entrance to San Diego Bay, but getting there involved a Parade of all participating boats past Shelter Island. There was a power boat anchored off Shelter Island with a compliment of local U.S. and Mexican officials aboard, as well as local media. We were all supposed to wave and smile as we went by - which we did – but most of our attention was directed at watching where we were going; with well over 160 boats converging and making their way through a quarter mile wide channel – some sailing, some motoring, some motor sailing – it was an interesting exercise in patience and seamanship! To make matters even more interesting, as the parade fleet neared Point Loma and the official start of the Rally at 11:00 am, we encountered not one, but two Navy vessels entering San Diego Bay – a large surface vessel (sorry, I am an old Army guy and don’t know what kind it was) and a submarine, with surface escort boats. The Ha-Ha Fleet had no exception for the “keep clear 100 yards of any U.S. naval vessel” rule, so the jockeying to stay clear added yet another interesting challenge to the morning!
On board, as we neared the starting line, we were dealing with our first “equipment malfunction” of the trip: we had hoisted a large, colorful fish windsock under the port spreader to add some “pizzaz” to our parade presentation, but when it came time to haul it down and roll out the jib, the windsock wouldn’t budge – it had spun around so many times and wound itself so tightly around the flag halyard that it would not come down! Linda spent 20 minutes unraveling it before we could finally get going with a full suit of sails! But down it finally came, out went the jib, and under mostly cloudy skies, with about 10-12 knots of breeze and John at the helm, and about 2/3 of the way back in the fleet, we were headed out to sea and sailing to Mexico! It was exciting to say the least!
The Baja Ha-Ha starting line is off Point Loma, at the entrance to San Diego Bay, but getting there involved a Parade of all participating boats past Shelter Island. There was a power boat anchored off Shelter Island with a compliment of local U.S. and Mexican officials aboard, as well as local media. We were all supposed to wave and smile as we went by - which we did – but most of our attention was directed at watching where we were going; with well over 160 boats converging and making their way through a quarter mile wide channel – some sailing, some motoring, some motor sailing – it was an interesting exercise in patience and seamanship! To make matters even more interesting, as the parade fleet neared Point Loma and the official start of the Rally at 11:00 am, we encountered not one, but two Navy vessels entering San Diego Bay – a large surface vessel (sorry, I am an old Army guy and don’t know what kind it was) and a submarine, with surface escort boats. The Ha-Ha Fleet had no exception for the “keep clear 100 yards of any U.S. naval vessel” rule, so the jockeying to stay clear added yet another interesting challenge to the morning!
On board, as we neared the starting line, we were dealing with our first “equipment malfunction” of the trip: we had hoisted a large, colorful fish windsock under the port spreader to add some “pizzaz” to our parade presentation, but when it came time to haul it down and roll out the jib, the windsock wouldn’t budge – it had spun around so many times and wound itself so tightly around the flag halyard that it would not come down! Linda spent 20 minutes unraveling it before we could finally get going with a full suit of sails! But down it finally came, out went the jib, and under mostly cloudy skies, with about 10-12 knots of breeze and John at the helm, and about 2/3 of the way back in the fleet, we were headed out to sea and sailing to Mexico! It was exciting to say the least!
Cloudy Skies For the Ha-Ha Parade to the Start
For more pictures of the starting parade, and others from along the Ha-Ha route, visit the Photo Gallery page.
The Navy Joins the Parade - Going the Wrong Way!
In addition to this ship, there was a Navy submarine entering San Diego Bay at the same time - on the other side of the fleet. For a picture of the sub, and other Ha-Ha photos, visit the Photo Gallery page.
BAJA HA-HA LEG 1 – San Diego to Bahia Tortugas, October 25 – 28
The passage from San Diego to Turtle Bay covered 347 nautical miles in just less than 69 hours; the start of Leg 1 was at 11:00 am on Monday, October 25, and the hook was down and set in Turtle Bay at 7:15 am on Thursday, October 28. We actually arrived just off the entrance to the bay shortly after 5:00 am, but we slowed way down a few miles out, and made a wide 360° turn, so as to postpone entering the harbor until first light at around 6:30. (The 360° turn was not such a great move for the off watch – John and Linda – who got rolled around in their bunks as the boat went beam-on to the moderate swell at two points thru the turn, but it was great fun at the helm!) Our first Mexican port of call! But there is no clearing-in here, or at the next anchorage, Bahia Santa Maria, as neither is a port of entry. All of the paper work to check-in to Mexico will be done in Cabo.
It would be nice to say we had clear sailing all the way to Turtle Bay, but alas . . . . At least by the time we got into Mexico, at Islas de Coronados, just a scant 15 miles from the start, the sun had managed to break through! We did manage to sail throughout the day, and into the early evening. However, by the time we were off Ensenada, around 7:30 that evening, the winds had died off considerably, and in the swell the sails were slating noisily, and the speed through the water was down to just over 2 knots. We decided it was time to roll up the sails and fire up the “iron jenny.” (Using the engine is perfectly permissible on the Ha-Ha – as long as you keep track of the time you motor – they do want you get to the next destination in time to enjoy all of the scheduled events!) About an hour later, we experienced a significant “aw shit!”
When motoring on Bright Angel, it is SOP (standard operating procedure) to scan the engine instruments (oil pressure, water temperature, and tachometer) on the cockpit panel every 10 minutes or so. Sometimes the oil pressure reading on the cockpit gauge would fluctuate (usually on the low side) and necessitate a trip below to pull up a floor board in the cabin sole and check the back-up oil pressure gauge mounted in the engine compartment.
(As an aside: We installed the back-up gauge in the engine compartment shortly before leaving Olympia, because of inexplicable drops in oil pressure readings we had been experiencing occasionally with the cockpit gauge for over a year; this was all very worrisome, but there never really was a problem with the oil or oil pressure, despite what the gauge was reading! Before installing the back-up gauge - on a different baffle on the engine block than that used for the sending unit for the cockpit gauge - we read several engine repair books, talked with several mechanics, and cleaned and tightened all electrical connections. We even bought a new sending unit – but had not installed it yet – in case it ever appeared to come down to that. However, there was one thing we did not check – the terminal connector itself at the end of the wire from the sending unit; when it simply fell off later in the trip, and we tightly crimped on a new connector, the erratic oil pressure readings went away! Talk about learning the easy lessons the hard way!)
About an hour after we started motoring that first night out of San Diego, a routine check of the cockpit gauges showed “zero” for oil pressure – much lower than the usual dips in pressure readings for that gauge. We watched the gauge for about thirty seconds to see if it would come back up, and when it did not we quickly went below to check the back-up gauge. When the floor board was lifted there was horrible sight to behold – the back-up gauge read “zero” and there was oil all over the back of the engine, and the 3” deep drip pan under the engine was full of oil. We shut the engine down as quickly as possible, and tried to come to grips with the situation. We checked the dip stick – if there was any oil in the engine, it did not register. A quick look at the engine did not reveal the source of all that oil. This was looking potentially very grim!
We rolled out the headsail so Linda could keep the boat moving while John and I tried to determine the source of the leak. We talked briefly about worst case scenarios, which included having to sail back to San Diego - or perhaps into Ensenada - for major engine work – neither one a very pleasant prospect. But it was still too early to tell. John and I rolled up our sleeves, got out the flashlights, and got down on our bellies on the floor (the engine is under the cabin sole) to try to sort this all out.
After a short while and before our diagnosis of the oil problem was complete (which we will get back to in a minute) Linda called us up on deck to help her deal with a developing situation on the water. By now it was after 9:00 pm, and pitch black, except for the stars and ship lights on the water just ahead – lots of them! It did not look or behave like the cruise ships we had seen before. At first, Linda thought the lights were from one or more large fishing vessels, as we had seen numerous times before – after all, were off a major port – Ensenada – and about 20 miles out, where fishing fleets often operate. There were also a number of small red and green lights that appeared to be moving around the larger vessel(s) that from a distance looked as if they could have been net tenders. Linda had been trying to sail away from the vessel(s), but they seemed to be coming in our direction faster than she could maneuver away. There was something else very strange about all of this – none of it showed up as either an AIS target or on radar, and it was only a couple of miles off, at best!
Not long after John and I came up on deck the VHF radio crackled to life, with “US Navy Warship 68” contacting another of the Ha-Ha sailboats that was a lot closer to it than we were. Then it all started to make sense – for the past month Linda and I had seen Warship 68 - an aircraft carrier - berthed at the North Island Naval Station in San Diego; Navy ships do not advertise their location with AIS, they do not show up on radar, and the little red and green lights we were seeing were jets landing and taking off from the carrier deck! This was quite a show! But before Warship 68 could call us, we got on the radio and called them – we told them who we were and where we were (now about 1 ¼ mile off their starboard quarter), confirmed that they were steaming westerly at 10 knots, and told them we would tack back onto an easterly heading and keep well clear. “Thank you Bright Angel. Warship 68 standing by on 16 and 10.” Right about that time a very bright and steady red light started heading straight for us from the carrier. Soon the helicopter, which we could certainly hear but could not see very well in the dark, especially with its blinding red light, was flying circles not far above us. After a couple of passes, the chopper flew off. In a few more minutes, the whole show was fading away to the west, so John and I headed back down below to continue trying to figure out what had happened to the engine oil.
John’s knowledge of engines and analytical skills were a big help in finally figuring out what happened. While sliding around on the cabin floor, taking turns holding a flashlight and tracing the spray pattern of the oil on the back of the engine (at times it seemed like an episode of CSI!) we finally determined that the leak had occurred somewhere in the maze of oil lines on the right side and toward the back of the engine. This was good news, as it meant it was not some catastrophic oil seal or bearing failure; perhaps we could fix it after all. We refilled the engine with oil, and with flashlights aimed at our prime suspect locations, we had Linda start the engine (which thankfully ran fine, without any knocking or other unusual noises – which meant we had shut it down before any major damage due to lack of oil). We could see oil leaking on one of the banjo bolts that connects to one of the main oil pipes. We had Linda shut the engine off, and we set about replacing the copper crush washers (gaskets) on the banjo bolt - which in itself was quite an operation with the boat rolling in the waves and swell! We had Linda start the engine again – still leaking (ugh!). We now traced the source to a smaller oil pipe (one that feeds oil from the oil cooler to the turbo charger) directly above the larger pipe we had just worked on. Again, while sliding around on the cabin floor, taking turns holding the flashlight and meticulously trying not to drop the copper washers as we tried to finesse them into position in some very tight quarters, we replaced the gaskets on the banjo bolt on the smaller pipe. “Linda, please start it up” . . . Linda, shut it down.” Damn, still leaking! But this time, we conclusively determined that it was the small oil pipe itself that was leaking, not the gasket.
Now, before we bring this part of the story to a close, another brief aside, if I may. In preparing to go off shore, one of the things I tried my best to do was make sure we would be self-sufficient and stocked with enough spare parts and rebuild kits to deal with almost any foreseeable problem, within reason, of course. The “within reason” part was subject to a fair amount of debate; however, these were debates I usually won, at the expense of taking a fair amount of kidding from Linda (and others!). We have rebuild kits for every pump on the boat, and in some cases even spare pumps themselves. We have fuel filters, oil filters, and water filters galore. We have a small hardware store’s worth of nuts, bolts and screws. And the good folks at Inlet Diesel told me when I picked up the spare parts I ordered for the engine that it was the largest Yanmar parts order they had ever placed! (Linda’s son Matt has even asked if I have started selling engine parts yet to help finance the trip!) But the kidding is over (at least for now) because – you guessed it – I had a spare oil pipe for the turbocharger!
The passage from San Diego to Turtle Bay covered 347 nautical miles in just less than 69 hours; the start of Leg 1 was at 11:00 am on Monday, October 25, and the hook was down and set in Turtle Bay at 7:15 am on Thursday, October 28. We actually arrived just off the entrance to the bay shortly after 5:00 am, but we slowed way down a few miles out, and made a wide 360° turn, so as to postpone entering the harbor until first light at around 6:30. (The 360° turn was not such a great move for the off watch – John and Linda – who got rolled around in their bunks as the boat went beam-on to the moderate swell at two points thru the turn, but it was great fun at the helm!) Our first Mexican port of call! But there is no clearing-in here, or at the next anchorage, Bahia Santa Maria, as neither is a port of entry. All of the paper work to check-in to Mexico will be done in Cabo.
It would be nice to say we had clear sailing all the way to Turtle Bay, but alas . . . . At least by the time we got into Mexico, at Islas de Coronados, just a scant 15 miles from the start, the sun had managed to break through! We did manage to sail throughout the day, and into the early evening. However, by the time we were off Ensenada, around 7:30 that evening, the winds had died off considerably, and in the swell the sails were slating noisily, and the speed through the water was down to just over 2 knots. We decided it was time to roll up the sails and fire up the “iron jenny.” (Using the engine is perfectly permissible on the Ha-Ha – as long as you keep track of the time you motor – they do want you get to the next destination in time to enjoy all of the scheduled events!) About an hour later, we experienced a significant “aw shit!”
When motoring on Bright Angel, it is SOP (standard operating procedure) to scan the engine instruments (oil pressure, water temperature, and tachometer) on the cockpit panel every 10 minutes or so. Sometimes the oil pressure reading on the cockpit gauge would fluctuate (usually on the low side) and necessitate a trip below to pull up a floor board in the cabin sole and check the back-up oil pressure gauge mounted in the engine compartment.
(As an aside: We installed the back-up gauge in the engine compartment shortly before leaving Olympia, because of inexplicable drops in oil pressure readings we had been experiencing occasionally with the cockpit gauge for over a year; this was all very worrisome, but there never really was a problem with the oil or oil pressure, despite what the gauge was reading! Before installing the back-up gauge - on a different baffle on the engine block than that used for the sending unit for the cockpit gauge - we read several engine repair books, talked with several mechanics, and cleaned and tightened all electrical connections. We even bought a new sending unit – but had not installed it yet – in case it ever appeared to come down to that. However, there was one thing we did not check – the terminal connector itself at the end of the wire from the sending unit; when it simply fell off later in the trip, and we tightly crimped on a new connector, the erratic oil pressure readings went away! Talk about learning the easy lessons the hard way!)
About an hour after we started motoring that first night out of San Diego, a routine check of the cockpit gauges showed “zero” for oil pressure – much lower than the usual dips in pressure readings for that gauge. We watched the gauge for about thirty seconds to see if it would come back up, and when it did not we quickly went below to check the back-up gauge. When the floor board was lifted there was horrible sight to behold – the back-up gauge read “zero” and there was oil all over the back of the engine, and the 3” deep drip pan under the engine was full of oil. We shut the engine down as quickly as possible, and tried to come to grips with the situation. We checked the dip stick – if there was any oil in the engine, it did not register. A quick look at the engine did not reveal the source of all that oil. This was looking potentially very grim!
We rolled out the headsail so Linda could keep the boat moving while John and I tried to determine the source of the leak. We talked briefly about worst case scenarios, which included having to sail back to San Diego - or perhaps into Ensenada - for major engine work – neither one a very pleasant prospect. But it was still too early to tell. John and I rolled up our sleeves, got out the flashlights, and got down on our bellies on the floor (the engine is under the cabin sole) to try to sort this all out.
After a short while and before our diagnosis of the oil problem was complete (which we will get back to in a minute) Linda called us up on deck to help her deal with a developing situation on the water. By now it was after 9:00 pm, and pitch black, except for the stars and ship lights on the water just ahead – lots of them! It did not look or behave like the cruise ships we had seen before. At first, Linda thought the lights were from one or more large fishing vessels, as we had seen numerous times before – after all, were off a major port – Ensenada – and about 20 miles out, where fishing fleets often operate. There were also a number of small red and green lights that appeared to be moving around the larger vessel(s) that from a distance looked as if they could have been net tenders. Linda had been trying to sail away from the vessel(s), but they seemed to be coming in our direction faster than she could maneuver away. There was something else very strange about all of this – none of it showed up as either an AIS target or on radar, and it was only a couple of miles off, at best!
Not long after John and I came up on deck the VHF radio crackled to life, with “US Navy Warship 68” contacting another of the Ha-Ha sailboats that was a lot closer to it than we were. Then it all started to make sense – for the past month Linda and I had seen Warship 68 - an aircraft carrier - berthed at the North Island Naval Station in San Diego; Navy ships do not advertise their location with AIS, they do not show up on radar, and the little red and green lights we were seeing were jets landing and taking off from the carrier deck! This was quite a show! But before Warship 68 could call us, we got on the radio and called them – we told them who we were and where we were (now about 1 ¼ mile off their starboard quarter), confirmed that they were steaming westerly at 10 knots, and told them we would tack back onto an easterly heading and keep well clear. “Thank you Bright Angel. Warship 68 standing by on 16 and 10.” Right about that time a very bright and steady red light started heading straight for us from the carrier. Soon the helicopter, which we could certainly hear but could not see very well in the dark, especially with its blinding red light, was flying circles not far above us. After a couple of passes, the chopper flew off. In a few more minutes, the whole show was fading away to the west, so John and I headed back down below to continue trying to figure out what had happened to the engine oil.
John’s knowledge of engines and analytical skills were a big help in finally figuring out what happened. While sliding around on the cabin floor, taking turns holding a flashlight and tracing the spray pattern of the oil on the back of the engine (at times it seemed like an episode of CSI!) we finally determined that the leak had occurred somewhere in the maze of oil lines on the right side and toward the back of the engine. This was good news, as it meant it was not some catastrophic oil seal or bearing failure; perhaps we could fix it after all. We refilled the engine with oil, and with flashlights aimed at our prime suspect locations, we had Linda start the engine (which thankfully ran fine, without any knocking or other unusual noises – which meant we had shut it down before any major damage due to lack of oil). We could see oil leaking on one of the banjo bolts that connects to one of the main oil pipes. We had Linda shut the engine off, and we set about replacing the copper crush washers (gaskets) on the banjo bolt - which in itself was quite an operation with the boat rolling in the waves and swell! We had Linda start the engine again – still leaking (ugh!). We now traced the source to a smaller oil pipe (one that feeds oil from the oil cooler to the turbo charger) directly above the larger pipe we had just worked on. Again, while sliding around on the cabin floor, taking turns holding the flashlight and meticulously trying not to drop the copper washers as we tried to finesse them into position in some very tight quarters, we replaced the gaskets on the banjo bolt on the smaller pipe. “Linda, please start it up” . . . Linda, shut it down.” Damn, still leaking! But this time, we conclusively determined that it was the small oil pipe itself that was leaking, not the gasket.
Now, before we bring this part of the story to a close, another brief aside, if I may. In preparing to go off shore, one of the things I tried my best to do was make sure we would be self-sufficient and stocked with enough spare parts and rebuild kits to deal with almost any foreseeable problem, within reason, of course. The “within reason” part was subject to a fair amount of debate; however, these were debates I usually won, at the expense of taking a fair amount of kidding from Linda (and others!). We have rebuild kits for every pump on the boat, and in some cases even spare pumps themselves. We have fuel filters, oil filters, and water filters galore. We have a small hardware store’s worth of nuts, bolts and screws. And the good folks at Inlet Diesel told me when I picked up the spare parts I ordered for the engine that it was the largest Yanmar parts order they had ever placed! (Linda’s son Matt has even asked if I have started selling engine parts yet to help finance the trip!) But the kidding is over (at least for now) because – you guessed it – I had a spare oil pipe for the turbocharger!
By the time we had everything figured out, and the replacement part in hand, it was 2:00 am, and we were all dog-tired. We decided to wait until morning to make the repairs. We divided up the watches for the rest of the night, and took turns getting some much needed rest. By noon the next day, we had the new oil pipe in and tested – no more oil leak! – and by 2:30 pm we had most of the mess cleaned up and stowed for proper disposal once we got into port. We were all still pretty tired, so we motored on through the afternoon and let the autopilot do the driving. By evening, as we approached the north end of Cedros Island, the wind was pretty much gone, so we motored on through the night, and entered Turtle Bay just as the sun was coming up. There was a two day lay-over scheduled in Turtle Bay, with a beach party and baseball exhibition on the agenda. After 347 miles, and the trying events of the last couple of days, we were all looking forward to relaxing and some “shore leave!”
John, Bob, and The Parrot (bottle opener) Celebrate Arriving In Turtle Bay
Beer is a great choice for breakfast, especially when it is a Snow Cap!
LAY OVER IN TURTLE BAY – October 28 & 29, 2010
Our first Mexican port-of-call, Turtle Bay (Bahia Tortugas), is a hardscrabble fishing town of about 1000 residents, located 135 miles by dirt road from the nearest paved highway. The population and prosperity of the town declined considerably years ago, when the fish cannery closed down, but the town still supports basic services such as a medical clinic, schools, police, a municipal government, and a small airport. There are several tiendas (markets), a few restaurants, beach bars, an hotel, a fuel dock for fishing boats and visiting yachts, and a brand new baseball stadium! Baseball is a really big pastime here; the town actually has four uniformed teams, including some mighty talented “little leaguers!”
The Ha-Ha fleet has called regularly on Turtle Bay for many years, and is undoubtedly one of the more significant economic events of the year for the people here, whom we found to be genuinely warm and friendly and good-natured. The Ha-Ha scheduled two main events for the fleet while we were there – a baseball exhibition at the new stadium, and a pot-luck beach party on a beautiful little cove just out of town, where local families and kids were welcome to join us.
The baseball exhibition was a truly fun event! The stands were packed with locals and Ha-Ha’ers who were welcomed by the Mayor of Turtle Bay and the “Grand Poobah” of the Ha-Ha, Richard Spindler (publisher and executive editor of Latitude 38). The concession stands were open, and the “beer man” brought his cervezas to the stands in a five gallon bucket with ice! After a couple innings of exhibition play by local “big leaguers” we were treated to a couple innings of play by the “little leaguers” – which was an absolute delight to see! The MVP of the day - hands-down - was a six year-old pitcher named Salgado. Check out the video clip of Salgado in action, on the Video Gallery page, and then look for him in the major leagues in about 15 years! After the exhibition innings, the “Ha-Ha Allstars” faced-off against the locals – or something like that. In an opportunity of a lifetime, Bright Angel's own John Pearsall took to right field for an error-free inning of play in the Turtle Bay outfield! The entire afternoon was a very successful, cross-cultural tour-de-force! Kudos to the Ha-Ha organizers for this sterling event!
Likewise, the Turtle Bay Beach Party the next day was also memorable. The pot-luck food was plentiful and delicious, the beer was cold and non-stop (as long as you had $2 in your pocket!), and the weather – as always – was spectacular! We took a panga water taxi from our boat to the event; it was about 2 miles from where we were anchored, and the surf made dinghy landings a bit challenging, if not wet! It was fun to ride in the pangas, and it took all of the worry out of arrivals and departures in the surf – the panga guys are real pros!
After two wonderful days on the hook in Turtle Bay, enjoying all of the shore-based activities, the dolphins who regularly visited the anchorage, and the antics of the pelicans diving for dinner, it was time to put the party hats away and prepare ourselves and the boat for the start of Ha-Ha Leg 2, a 233 nautical mile passage further down the Baja coast to Bahia Santa Maria.
Our first Mexican port-of-call, Turtle Bay (Bahia Tortugas), is a hardscrabble fishing town of about 1000 residents, located 135 miles by dirt road from the nearest paved highway. The population and prosperity of the town declined considerably years ago, when the fish cannery closed down, but the town still supports basic services such as a medical clinic, schools, police, a municipal government, and a small airport. There are several tiendas (markets), a few restaurants, beach bars, an hotel, a fuel dock for fishing boats and visiting yachts, and a brand new baseball stadium! Baseball is a really big pastime here; the town actually has four uniformed teams, including some mighty talented “little leaguers!”
The Ha-Ha fleet has called regularly on Turtle Bay for many years, and is undoubtedly one of the more significant economic events of the year for the people here, whom we found to be genuinely warm and friendly and good-natured. The Ha-Ha scheduled two main events for the fleet while we were there – a baseball exhibition at the new stadium, and a pot-luck beach party on a beautiful little cove just out of town, where local families and kids were welcome to join us.
The baseball exhibition was a truly fun event! The stands were packed with locals and Ha-Ha’ers who were welcomed by the Mayor of Turtle Bay and the “Grand Poobah” of the Ha-Ha, Richard Spindler (publisher and executive editor of Latitude 38). The concession stands were open, and the “beer man” brought his cervezas to the stands in a five gallon bucket with ice! After a couple innings of exhibition play by local “big leaguers” we were treated to a couple innings of play by the “little leaguers” – which was an absolute delight to see! The MVP of the day - hands-down - was a six year-old pitcher named Salgado. Check out the video clip of Salgado in action, on the Video Gallery page, and then look for him in the major leagues in about 15 years! After the exhibition innings, the “Ha-Ha Allstars” faced-off against the locals – or something like that. In an opportunity of a lifetime, Bright Angel's own John Pearsall took to right field for an error-free inning of play in the Turtle Bay outfield! The entire afternoon was a very successful, cross-cultural tour-de-force! Kudos to the Ha-Ha organizers for this sterling event!
Likewise, the Turtle Bay Beach Party the next day was also memorable. The pot-luck food was plentiful and delicious, the beer was cold and non-stop (as long as you had $2 in your pocket!), and the weather – as always – was spectacular! We took a panga water taxi from our boat to the event; it was about 2 miles from where we were anchored, and the surf made dinghy landings a bit challenging, if not wet! It was fun to ride in the pangas, and it took all of the worry out of arrivals and departures in the surf – the panga guys are real pros!
After two wonderful days on the hook in Turtle Bay, enjoying all of the shore-based activities, the dolphins who regularly visited the anchorage, and the antics of the pelicans diving for dinner, it was time to put the party hats away and prepare ourselves and the boat for the start of Ha-Ha Leg 2, a 233 nautical mile passage further down the Baja coast to Bahia Santa Maria.
Ace Pitcher Salgado - Turtle Bay Little League Allstars!
For more phots of Salgado, see the Photo Gallery page; or, to see him in action, check out the Video Gallery page!
All-Star John Pearsall in Right Field, Turtle Bay Ballpark
(John is in the white "uniform.") For more pictures of the baseball exhibition event, as well as the beach party, check out the Photo Gallery page.
BAJA HA-HA LEG 2, TURTLE BAY TO BAHIA SANTA MARIA – October 30 - November 1
The passage to Bahia Santa Maria from Turtle Bay covered 233 nautical miles, and started out under very light air conditions – so light, in fact, that the Grand Poobah declared a “rolling start.” A rolling start means motoring that does not count against a participant’s sailing time. (Some Ha-Ha boats attempted to sail the entire way down the Baja or at least whole legs - for us this was never a big concern, although we did try to get as much sailing in as we could.) The rolling start of Leg 2 lasted from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm, when the winds finally filled in enough for boats to make reasonable way under sail. We hoisted our asymmetric spinnaker and had a great late afternoon and evening of sailing, often hitting boat speeds of 8.5 knots under the chute alone!
The passage to Bahia Santa Maria from Turtle Bay covered 233 nautical miles, and started out under very light air conditions – so light, in fact, that the Grand Poobah declared a “rolling start.” A rolling start means motoring that does not count against a participant’s sailing time. (Some Ha-Ha boats attempted to sail the entire way down the Baja or at least whole legs - for us this was never a big concern, although we did try to get as much sailing in as we could.) The rolling start of Leg 2 lasted from 8:00 am until 4:00 pm, when the winds finally filled in enough for boats to make reasonable way under sail. We hoisted our asymmetric spinnaker and had a great late afternoon and evening of sailing, often hitting boat speeds of 8.5 knots under the chute alone!
This leg of the trip involved one over-night, and an early morning arrival on the second night out. When the morning of the second day dawned, we discovered some “stow-aways” from the night before – a couple of hapless squid! Some boats reported finding flying fish on deck; we saw them skipping through the waves, but did not end up with any for breakfast. (We did not eat the squid, either, by the way – they were given a proper burial at sea!)
Each leg of the Ha-Ha Rally had a designated start and finish line; the finish was usually a 10 mile line off of some cape or other easily identifiable landmark about 5-10 miles from the destination bay or anchorage. On each of the first two legs, most boats “finished” at night. As many boats did, we chose to motor as we approached the finish line at night in order to improve our ability to maneuver in what invariably turned out to be fairly congested conditions in the dark. What made matters even trickier at times were local fishermen in the area. At Turtle Bay, that amounted to nothing more than a few pangas heading out in the pre-dawn hours. However, off Cabo San Lazaro, near the entrance to Bahia Santa Maria, there were a couple of larger fishing boats setting nets out within a mile or two of the finish line as the sailboats started to converge. We had plenty of advanced warning, because of reports from boats up ahead of us who gave coordinates of the fishing activity, so we were able to steer clear. But we had another concern as we neared the finish line of Leg 2 that kept us dodging a “phantom fishing boat” for several miles. On radar, we saw the boat about 4-5 miles off, and we could also see a green over white light (which should indicate ‘engaged in fishing – trawling’). As the boat kept coming toward us, we kept trying to steer a course to avoid it – but it kept closing on us, at a fairly good rate of speed. What was going on – were we being chased by a trawler? When the boat was about a mile off our port beam, we could see it was not a fishing boat at all – but a sailboat, motoring toward the finish line with only its masthead tricolor light (we were seeing the green segment on its starboard side) and steaming light (a white light on the front of and about 2/3 of the way up the mast). Aaarrrgh! Motoring with a tricolor light at night is a no-no (forbidden by international law) for just this very reason – you can’t tell what you are looking at because it is easily confused with other light configurations.
We crossed the finish line of Leg 2 at 55 minutes past midnight on November 1, and were off the entrance to Bahia Santa Maria by 2:30 am. Normally, we would not attempt to enter an unfamiliar harbor or anchorage at night; however, we made an exception in this case. We were well clear (by over a mile) of Punta Hughes at the north entrance to the bay, and the headland at the south entrance was seven miles away – plenty of room for error! And inside, there was literally miles of room to anchor; however, we did want to be near the fleet. So, we fell in line behind several other boats entering the bay at that time, and headed to the “city of anchor lights” at the north end of the bay. Since it was difficult to really see how close you could reasonably get to other anchored boats, we dropped our hook well clear of the other boats. In the morning, when the sun came up, we found we were definitely “on the outskirts of town.” We decided to stay put, even though many other boats that came in after us and anchored nearby chose to move closer in. This turned out to be a good decision, as the winds closer in were much stronger because of nearby hills.
We crossed the finish line of Leg 2 at 55 minutes past midnight on November 1, and were off the entrance to Bahia Santa Maria by 2:30 am. Normally, we would not attempt to enter an unfamiliar harbor or anchorage at night; however, we made an exception in this case. We were well clear (by over a mile) of Punta Hughes at the north entrance to the bay, and the headland at the south entrance was seven miles away – plenty of room for error! And inside, there was literally miles of room to anchor; however, we did want to be near the fleet. So, we fell in line behind several other boats entering the bay at that time, and headed to the “city of anchor lights” at the north end of the bay. Since it was difficult to really see how close you could reasonably get to other anchored boats, we dropped our hook well clear of the other boats. In the morning, when the sun came up, we found we were definitely “on the outskirts of town.” We decided to stay put, even though many other boats that came in after us and anchored nearby chose to move closer in. This turned out to be a good decision, as the winds closer in were much stronger because of nearby hills.
Bahia Santa Maria anchorage
There is a small, permanent “fish camp” at the north end of the bay, where the hills meet mangroves and the white sand dunes that line miles of pristine beach on the eastern shore of the bay. The population of the fish camp is probably no more than 100 at any given time; and, even though the conditions are rather Spartan – to say the least – they are fairly close to a major city, San Carlos, which is but a short panga or off-road truck ride away.
We launched the dinghy and headed in to shore in the early afternoon of our first day in Bahia Santa Maria. There is really only one safe place to put a dinghy ashore through the surf that breaks around the entire perimeter of the bay, and that was near the mouth of a small river that winds through the mangroves and enters the bay near the fish camp. Upon approaching the mouth of the river, you stand off and wait for the last of a series of breakers to roll under you, then make a run for the river’s mouth, then zig to the left and zag to the right to avoid the shoals at the mouth of the river. We watched others go in before we gave it a try – then we “went for it! Piece of cake – or, maybe we were just lucky, as there were those that got dumped in the process! (Click on the photo below, left, for a better view of the approach thru the surf.)
We launched the dinghy and headed in to shore in the early afternoon of our first day in Bahia Santa Maria. There is really only one safe place to put a dinghy ashore through the surf that breaks around the entire perimeter of the bay, and that was near the mouth of a small river that winds through the mangroves and enters the bay near the fish camp. Upon approaching the mouth of the river, you stand off and wait for the last of a series of breakers to roll under you, then make a run for the river’s mouth, then zig to the left and zag to the right to avoid the shoals at the mouth of the river. We watched others go in before we gave it a try – then we “went for it! Piece of cake – or, maybe we were just lucky, as there were those that got dumped in the process! (Click on the photo below, left, for a better view of the approach thru the surf.)
Once inside, we put the dinghy ashore just under a bluff, where several of the more substantial buildings of the fish camp were located. The residents, who host a Ha-Ha party every year, were setting up for this year’s party that was to take place the next day. But, not to miss a quick peso (or dollar in this case), the cerveza stand was already open for business – and we were all too happy to take advantage of the opportunity for a cold Pacifico!
We then took a dinghy ride back into the mangroves, where we saw lots of interesting birds and fish jumping everywhere, before we headed back out to beach the dinghy on the back of the sand dunes and go for walk along the shore. This was an interesting and beautiful walk; we saw lots of huge sand dollars on the beach, aggressive little blue crabs in the tide pools, and schools of small fish that were easy prey for the many pelicans that flew along the shore about 3 -4 feet off the water, and then basically cart wheeled in head-first to grab a bite! What a show – and did I mention? – it was November 1, sunny, and the temperature was in the 80’s!
The next day we took a panga water taxi ride in to the beach party at the fish camp – the tide was lower than the time we went in the day before, so the surf would be worse (and we did not care to be drenched upon arrival). As in Turtle Bay, the locals were extremely friendly, and were certainly glad for the prospect of a shot in the arm for their local economy. They put on a grand feast – shrimp, fresh fish tacos (and I do mean fresh – the fish were being filleted out behind the cook hall!), beans and rice, all for $15 a plate; and, of course, cold cervezas for $2.50 a bottle. Up on the bluff there was a live band (from La Paz) that was fun to listen and dance to, and down on the beach there was volley ball, bocce ball, and other games. The Grand Poobah even brought a bucket of water balloons for the kids to attack the grown-ups! It was a fun afternoon! We rode a panga back to Bright Angel well before sundown, so we could get ready for the start of Leg 3, and our final passage to Cabo, early the next morning.
The next day we took a panga water taxi ride in to the beach party at the fish camp – the tide was lower than the time we went in the day before, so the surf would be worse (and we did not care to be drenched upon arrival). As in Turtle Bay, the locals were extremely friendly, and were certainly glad for the prospect of a shot in the arm for their local economy. They put on a grand feast – shrimp, fresh fish tacos (and I do mean fresh – the fish were being filleted out behind the cook hall!), beans and rice, all for $15 a plate; and, of course, cold cervezas for $2.50 a bottle. Up on the bluff there was a live band (from La Paz) that was fun to listen and dance to, and down on the beach there was volley ball, bocce ball, and other games. The Grand Poobah even brought a bucket of water balloons for the kids to attack the grown-ups! It was a fun afternoon! We rode a panga back to Bright Angel well before sundown, so we could get ready for the start of Leg 3, and our final passage to Cabo, early the next morning.
BAHIA SANTA MARIA TO CABO – Leg 3, November 3-4, 2010
The final leg of the Ha-Ha, from Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo San Lucas, was a “short” 175 nautical miles. It was an early start – 7:00 am – in order to allow most of the fleet to make it to Cabo by mid-day of the second day out of Bahia Santa Maria. Many boats actually left much earlier than that; some even the night before! Bright Angel left with the fleet at 7 am.
There was enough wind at the start to set the sails, but the morning breeze quickly died – another “rolling start” was initiated that lasted until 1:30 pm. When the wind finally came back up. we set the spinnaker and had a great afternoon and early evening sail, until the wind went to zilch again just before dark. We motored through the night and into an absolutely clam Pacific Ocean morning. The morning SSB net then brought word of an unusual and strong easterly wind blowing across the Sea of Cortez right toward Cabo. By 10:30 or 11:00 am boats in the fleet that were already in Cabo were reporting winds up to 30 knots in the anchorage, and 20-25 knots in the harbor, which is exposed to the east. This all seemed rather surreal to those of us on glassy seas only 10-15 miles north of Cabo Falso! However, by the time we neared the Cape, the wind was wrapping around and started hitting us dead-on at 20+ knots – we were in for a wild bash into Cabo!
By the time we did get around the Cape, a little after 1:00 pm, the wind had started to die down a bit, and when we entered the harbor, and made the turn north to our slip, we were fully protected and did not have any trouble getting rafted up at the dock.
We made it! – a 755 mile passage from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, from cool and cloudy to warm and sunny! We really enjoyed participating in the Baja Ha-Ha, which was a great way to meet lots of other cruisers and to get a good introduction to cruising in Mexico. We highly recommend doing the Ha-Ha to anyone who follows in our wake! We will spend three days in Cabo (probably about all we can take!) before heading up into the Sea of Cortez for a month-long stay in La Paz. We will take time to explore La Paz and some of the local islands before heading over to the mainland and south for the winter. We plan to head back to further explore the Sea of Cortez next spring.
The final leg of the Ha-Ha, from Bahia Santa Maria to Cabo San Lucas, was a “short” 175 nautical miles. It was an early start – 7:00 am – in order to allow most of the fleet to make it to Cabo by mid-day of the second day out of Bahia Santa Maria. Many boats actually left much earlier than that; some even the night before! Bright Angel left with the fleet at 7 am.
There was enough wind at the start to set the sails, but the morning breeze quickly died – another “rolling start” was initiated that lasted until 1:30 pm. When the wind finally came back up. we set the spinnaker and had a great afternoon and early evening sail, until the wind went to zilch again just before dark. We motored through the night and into an absolutely clam Pacific Ocean morning. The morning SSB net then brought word of an unusual and strong easterly wind blowing across the Sea of Cortez right toward Cabo. By 10:30 or 11:00 am boats in the fleet that were already in Cabo were reporting winds up to 30 knots in the anchorage, and 20-25 knots in the harbor, which is exposed to the east. This all seemed rather surreal to those of us on glassy seas only 10-15 miles north of Cabo Falso! However, by the time we neared the Cape, the wind was wrapping around and started hitting us dead-on at 20+ knots – we were in for a wild bash into Cabo!
By the time we did get around the Cape, a little after 1:00 pm, the wind had started to die down a bit, and when we entered the harbor, and made the turn north to our slip, we were fully protected and did not have any trouble getting rafted up at the dock.
We made it! – a 755 mile passage from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, from cool and cloudy to warm and sunny! We really enjoyed participating in the Baja Ha-Ha, which was a great way to meet lots of other cruisers and to get a good introduction to cruising in Mexico. We highly recommend doing the Ha-Ha to anyone who follows in our wake! We will spend three days in Cabo (probably about all we can take!) before heading up into the Sea of Cortez for a month-long stay in La Paz. We will take time to explore La Paz and some of the local islands before heading over to the mainland and south for the winter. We plan to head back to further explore the Sea of Cortez next spring.
Thanks for joining us on the Ha-Ha through our Log! We hope you enjoyed it, and will check back for updates as we continue to cruise Mexico. ¡Hasta luego!
