11/13/2008, San Jose Del Cabo
After a wonderful couple of days kicking around San Jose Del Cabo, Rina and I are headed out this morning to Los Frailes, a small anchorage up the east coast of Baja. The next week we will gunkhole up the coast until we arrive in La Paz for Thanksgiving, where we have been invited aboard Carinthia, friends Dietmar and Suzanne's Lagoon 440 to celebrate.
Over the last couple of days we have had a little bit of everything. Boat talk with the many sailboats coming in and out at our dock, impromptu parties, stunning sunsets, played tourist in old town San Jose Del Cabo, a high end dinner at www.donemiliano.com.mex where the executive chef is now cooking aboard Maltese Falcon in the Sea of Cortez. We also got our laundry done, the boat re-organized post Haha, hit the local "mega" superstore for groceries, took long naps, read and got oxidation off half of our boot stripe on the hull. All told a nice combination of nothing and "stuff"
Rina and I had one moment yesterday, as we were motoring out in deep water making water (the water is too silty in the marina for watermakers) and we both realized that for the first time in a LONG time, we did not have to be ANYWHERE or do ANYTHING. For perspective, we've been planning this journey for 2 years, with a series of self imposed deadlines, moved aboard in August, moved briskly down the coast of California, coordinating schedules with family to enjoy time together, did the Baja Haha rally, with it's tight schedule, dealt with the hustle and bustle of Cabo San Lucas, got our friends and family off on their flights, and then... ... ... staring at the wide open mountains of Baja, out in the middle of warm seas and warmer breezes, we realize we don't have an obligation for weeks. For this reforming "A" type, it bent the mind a little, but in a good way. Sweet.
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Comments [1]
Corey.
11/12/2008, San Jose Del Cabo
When in Cabo, try not to get taken!!! This picture cost me a bundle of pesos!! Having a great time, now we are in San Jose Del Cabo, leaving for Los Frailles tomorrow morning. Hoping for a great anchorage and some swimming and snorkeling. More boats keep showing up here in Puerto Los Cabos Marina.....it's really busy with Ha Ha people. Many taxi rides to town, shopping, food and laundry (of course!)....Miss my crew already! Big hugs to everyone at home, miss you all the most!
love
rina
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11/11/2008, San Jose Del Cabo
The day we dread and desire has arrived. We're anxious to get back to our girls, Lucy the Papillion and Cessna the coyote, as well as our own bed. At the same time we wish we could be with Allan & Rina to witness the adventure that has just begun.
We are going ashore at San Jose Del Cabo just at the time we actually feel more at home on the water than on land. Everyone we've met both on the Baja Ha Ha and elsewhere have been wonderful and a joy to spend time with. We've also learned so much about the cruising world.
We thank my brother and his wife for including us on the start of there journey and look forward to catching up with them at some point later during their cruising adventure.
Sincerely,
Phillip & Josie Faillers
phillip@suttercreek.com
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11/10/2008, San Jose Del Cabo
An impromptu party formed this evening between 4-5 boats, with tours of Taboo, Rich and Sheri Crowe's Farr 440 custom built boat. A stunning boat, (pics to follow) Jason and Colleen on a Tayana 58, sitting across from me at sunset.... He's the CEO of a project management firm in LA and doing concall's at 730am on his headset in the cockpit. Gave me the shivers.... sorry Encover crew, I don't miss that part AT ALL....
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11/10/2008, 23 03.752'N:109 40.492'W, San Jose Del Cabo
Just down the road from Cabo San Lucas is a new partially built Marina. We arrived yesterday after short 3 hour sail where Phil was within inches of hauling in a 20 pound tuna. It got right to the edge of the boat and just as I was about to gaff the sucker, it looked up at us and literally jumped off the hook. It's our closest yet in a long and un-distinguished fishing career so far.
The marina is very quiet compared to the hustle and bustle of Cabo San Lucas, even if we are still at the dock with about 10 other HaHa boats. We're heading out one more time this afternoon to try to catch some fish, charge our batteries and make some water. At least that's what Phil and I will do while Rina and Josie take a nap...
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11/09/2008, Cabo San Lucas
A great picture of the Follow You crew enjoying the awards party. Even though 600 boaters have been together for 2 weeks and we're all itching for a little space, nobody wanted to leave at the end.... of course we will see many of the same faces over the coming months in La Paz, Mazatlan and further south.
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11/09/2008, Cabo San Lucas
The Baja HaHa rally is divided into divisions, with between 8-12 boats in each, based on size, speed and sailing ability. Follow You was in the Iguana division with several Kelly Peteron 44's, a bunch of Hunter 45's and 46's, 2 Hallberg-Rassy 46's and a couple of 46 ft Jeanneau's. Everyone places no worse than 3rd. Placement is based on total time between start and finish for each of the 3 legs, with special considerations for sailing legs all the way rather than motoring. Based on good overall times and the fact that we sailed all of leg 2, we placed a sole 2nd place, Litha, a HR46 placed first, sailing 2 of 3 legs, and the remaining boats placed 3rd. All pretty meaningless but fun none-the-less. Overall we were in the top 25% of finishers, although the top 20 boats, with either lots of waterline (65 footers) or light weight (Sheri and Rich Crowe's Farr 44) or multi-hulls, and superior sailing skills resulted in these boats getting into the anchorage 6-10 hours ahead of the rest of the fleet. Our decent placement was the result of a disciplined crew that sailed well, putting up with crashing preventer blocks and cars in the middle of the night as we ghosted along at 4 knots and the jib constantly collapsed and refilled. We learned much about sailing comfortably watching others and through our own trial and error. It's fantastic having the time to begin to learn nuances of sailing this big boat.
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11/09/2008, Cabo San Lucas
One week into the trip and look at the condition of the boat. Apparently the captain has been going easy on the crew. On the other hand, the sailing lifestyle seems to be doing wonders to the crews youth and looks. The deckhands are far better looking than when we started.
Sitting here in Cabo reflecting on the past 2 weeks it's hard to absorb the full wonder of the trip. The sites, wildlife (both nature and man misbehaving) and great people all conspired to create a fabulous experience. I can't imagine a better 2 weeks.
A special thanks to Allan and Rina for sharing their home and making this trip a reality. Warm hugs for Phill and Josie for sharing the adventure and the laughs. And finally a sweet embrace for Mary Anne (AKA Bernice) for being a first rate mate on board and in life. She never flinched during the entire trip and was on duty for all watches as well as below decks work during the rougher passages. What a woman!!!
When does the 2009 Ha Ha begin? Sign me up!
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11/07/2008, Somewhere between Mag Bay and Cabo
So this is what happens when you don't pay attention to the wind.... J/World got so interested in hitting us with a water balloon that they neglected their spinnaker, resulting in an ugly wrap that took 5 minutes to fix. Eug, the sailing instructor/skipper said it was all training for her crew.... yea right.
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11/07/2008, Cabo San Lucas
Banjo Andy from Latitude 38 caught this great shot of our spinnaker on the 3rd leg of the Haha. What he didnt know was that J World, the J/boat coming up on us was firing water balloons at us from a big sling shot. On the 3rd try they nailed us as they passed us. Unfortunately they were not paying attention to the disruption in their wind coming off us and the result was a wrap of their spinnaker (See picture in entry above) Fun stuff!
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