-Jimi Hendrix
Mexico! Where to begin? I had never been before, but had frequently entertained ideas of cruising there. I thought that at some point I would sail down around the keys and across the Gulf to Isla Mujeres, which is only about 400nm from Key West. Little did I know that I would be in Mexico sooner than I thought, or that I would be on the Pacific coast of Baja California instead of the Yucatan Peninsula.
It all started about a year ago, when a friend of a friend bought a 46' Hallberg-Rassy up in Seattle. The new boat owner, Steve, decided to take his boat, "Liberation II," down the Pacific coast this winter, going through the Panama Canal and into the Caribbean. This intrigued me, and I suggested to our mutual friend John that I would love to help Steve move the boat down on any leg of that cruise. Turns out that Steve did indeed need some crew, so we formulated a plan that would see me joining the captain and crew of Liberation II in San Diego, and sailing her in the Baja Ha Ha cruisers' rally down to Cabo San Lucas over the course of two weeks.
The Baja Ha Ha is a good-natured, liesurely milk-run of about 750 miles down the coast of Baja California. This year's rally was the 18th such race, and saw a fleet of 172 boats register to participate. Although a number of vessels that registered did not end up sailing in the race, there were still about 140 boats that put to sea and turned left, headed for warmer latitudes. I flew out to San Diego on October 22, and took a comfortable bunk in Liberation II's roomy aft cabin. The crew consisted of the boat's owner, Steve, our mutual friend John, and one of Steve's friends from San Francisco named Mike. The chemistry was good from the get-go, with lots of joking and laughing.
Monday the 24th saw us starting the rally under full sail, but with little wind. The organizer of the race determined that a rolling start was in order, so it was decided that all boats would motorsail at speeds not surpassing 6kts in order to make some headway towards our first stop. We motorsailed through the first day and night. At 6am the next morning, the wind had built to the point that we turned off the motor and began sailing. Over the next 48 hours, we had winds anywhere from 5kts to22kts. There were times that Liberation II cracked 9kts of boatspeed. The sailing during this time was absolutely fabulous, and would be the best sailing of the entire trip. We ran a 110% jib with full main, sometimes on the same side together, other times we were wing-and-wing with the jib poled out. Sometimes we struck the jib and ran with the beautiful blue asymmetrical spinnaker and main. Sometimes we were 10 miles off of the Baja's rugged coastline, other times we were 30, 40, 50 miles out. Liberation II is a fast boat, and we were among the first 20 boats to reach the first planned anchorage at Bahia de Tortugas, pulling in and dropping anchor at about 10:00 at night. I was at the helm at that time, and believe me when I tell you that it was nerve-wracking entering a foreign port I had never seen before at night with zero navigational lights/buoys to guide us in.
The next two days saw us participating in activities shore-side. We ate authentic Mexican food and drank many beers in seaside bars. We roamed the dusty, unpaved streets of the town. We took some cuts at softballs with local kids at the baseball diamond. We also dinghy'ed ashore to a deserted beach with the rest of the Ha Ha fleet for the annual cruisers' beach party. This party was a blast! While there, I had the best carne asada tacos I have ever had. I bought them from a little old lady who was preparing them on a beat up charcoal grill, right there on the beach. I also witnessed a 42' Lagoon catamaran get beached by the outgoing tide, with her beam to the incoming waves. Everyone tried to help her get free, including three or four pangas that hooked up to the cat with tow lines. The rescue attempt was unsuccessful, however, and the skipper of that boat had to finally kedge off when the tide came back in, many hours later. This was the one day that I had forgotten to bring my camera, so I don't have pictures of any of this!
The next morning at sunrise, we put out to sea again with the rest of the fleet. The sailing on this leg was not good, and we were motorsailing most of the time. We would be two days and nights offshore, before dropping anchor in Bahia Santa Maria. Bahia Santa Maria was essentially uninhabited. There were two or three shacks on the beach that were occupied by fishermen, and that was it. We were also here for two days. The first day we mainly relaxed and did a bit of exploring. The second day saw another beach party/cook-out, featuring a live band that had driven 12 hours across the desert to come play for tips (or so went the story, anyway). These guys were good, and played music ranging from Otis Redding to Jimi Hendrix, with lots of different stuff in between. I had some fabulous tamales at this party that I bought out of a kettle down under a rocky cliff on the beach. We ended the day back on the boat playing poker and hitting the sack early.
Sunrise the next morning saw us raising anchor and putting to sea for the final leg down to Cabo San Lucas. Winds were light again, and the majority of the fleet motorsailed the entire distance. The last several hours of this leg, we were in close to the shore and were able to enjoy the beautiful scenery of the coastline. We steamed into the cape at about noon and dropped anchor in 30' of clear water, not 100 yards off the beach. It was glorious! From the deck of Liberation II, you could see the white sandy bottom of the bay. The air temperature was 95 degrees, and the water was a fabulous 85 degrees. I spent two days roaming the town, eating, drinking, and lounging on the beach and in the sea. It was sad for me to have to pack it up and fly home, but real life was calling and I had to go. I spent a wonderful two weeks sailing and partying with LibII's owner and crew. The Baja Ha Ha was a great rally, despite the light winds.
The time I spent on this trip really helped to scratch my cruising itch. Sure, it was different to be on someone else's boat, and to only be at it for two weeks, but it was more than worth it to go. The boat was great, the people were even better, and the food and scenery were nearly impossible to beat. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Special thanks to Steve, John, Mike and Liberation II for showing me such a great time.
Stay tuned in 2012, as I plan to sail back down to the Bahamas with an all-new cast of characters! More posts to follow.
