Leg one; San Diego to Turtle Bay

October 23:  The day before the start was the traditional costume party at the West Marine parking lot.  Another great opportunity for skippers and crews to meet and greet.  Rich and Paddy had gone early to the skippers meeting there, then Diane and I rode our bikes to meet them for the party.  They had some good Mexican street tacos, beer and wine and music.  This is the time everyone got their swag bags and the last bit of shopping for boat items.  We had ordered some parts that were delivered down from Newport Beach store by one of the store folks who was doing this for the fleet.  I can see why West Marine is a big sponser of this event, they make some significant money from all of these cruisers.

Cathy, not in costume

Captain and crew of Red Witch II

After the party, everyone went back to their boats to do any final work before the morning start.

October 24:  The start of the Baja Haha was officially at 1100, but there was a boat parade scheduled in San Diego Bay for the fleet and attended by onlookers, some media and the fireboat.  We were late to this because we were a bit hesitant to get in the middle of the nearly 160 boats leaving the bay.  It seems much smaller when you are a less manuverable boat.

Fireboat in the distance

 

It was a grey morning, glassy seas

Our first site of Mexico,the Coronado Islands

The Poobah called a rolling start, which means that all boats are allowed to motor at maximum of 6 knots in order to keep us moving.  This does not count as part of the "race".  We kept this pace up until 7 am the next morning when further down the coast of Mexico the wind picked up a bit.  At that point we tried to sail, but not  having a spinnaker made for very slow sailing.  After about 1 hour of slogging, Rich gave up and on went the D-sail.

Sunrise at sea, new experience for us

After 2 nights at sea, the wind came up and we launched our genoa, but it was still a bit light so we decided to get the whisker pole out and in very rolly seas, we got it up for the first time!  We sailed with this until the finish of leg one at about 2100.  It was still another 20 miles or so to Turtle Bay and suddenly the wind and waves came up and we decided to take everything down for the night approach to the anchorage.  Challenging, but we did not want to spend another night at sea, this 3 hour watch thing between the 2 of us is very exhausting.  So, using our chartplotter, the I Pad Navionics program and our radar, we entered the bay and found space to set the anchor at 3 am and crash until morning.

Turtle Bay Anchorage, all you see are Baja Haha boats

After some rest, and refueling from the diesel panga, we called a panga "taxi" to take us to the pier for a visit to town.  The Poobah had organized a baseball game with some of the local kids and the cruisers.  It was a fun contest of hitting, running and socializing. 

The line up, what a motley crew

The next day was the beach party, everyone grabs a panga or their dinghy, a dish for the potluck, and goes to the beach for games, food, beer and socializing again.  Another fun time, and the weather is finally warm, sunny and we have recovered some from our first leg.  Tomorrow starts the beginning of leg 2, 0800 start to Bahia Santa Maria.

Man vs. Woman tug-of-war