08/11/2009, Cabo San Lucas
The 16th edition of the Baja Haha was the biggest, and possibly one of the more eventful in the cruising rally's history. Gale warnings on the first day came with recommendations to seek shelter, a J120 was sunk by a whale attack (but don't know all the details - will need to read the next edition of Latitude 38), and the wind was anything but consistent (as were the professional weather guesses).
The boys adapted well to being under sail after several weeks at a dock. Max and Sam barely emerged topsides for the first few days, and when they did it was to marvel at the height of the waves. They were quite happy entertaining themselves below with their guys and lego. Jack stayed topsides nearly all the time as he took somewhat longer to adapt to the open sea. Our friend, Cyrus, enjoyed the challenge of stepping up from Wednesday night racing (in the "social division") to full-on off shore cruising.
Mulan enjoyed the conditions, and Susan and I have become more comfortable in handling her in many different sail configurations and conditions. We had everything from the gale warning to flat calm iron genny weather, but the biggest challenge was the day that the forecast called for 10 knots, and we found ourselves double reefed with no head sail surfing at 10 knots in 12 foot seas. In their defence, maybe the forecasters were talking about boat speed.
We didn't adhere too closely to the scheduled stops, instead detouring from 50 miles offshore to seek shelter from the expected gale. That night saw us out of the wind, but in a very rolly anchorage at Punta Colonet. The next day, our intention was to head to Turtle Bay, but the 20 knots and swells were a tad disconcerting, so we stopped at San Quitin, where many other Haha boats had been the previous night. This "shelter" was a gem. The wind actually increased in velocity as we entered the bay, and found ourselves dropping the hook in 25 knots. Not sure I've ever been in an anchorage subject to a small craft advisory! In the end we didn't even stop in Turtle Bay - rather than do a night entry into a crowded anchorage, we kept sailing through the night, enjoying perhaps the best sailing of the whole Haha.
Eventually we rejoined the fleet at Bahia Santa Maria - a massive bay that could likely accommodate 190 warships, rather than 190 sailboats. Actually we counted 148 on a morning hike up the adjacent mountain. Having missed the Turtle Bay stop, we made the most of this one, with surfing, boogie boarding, and attending the evening event put on by the local fishermen. They even brought in a band - no mean feat as there are no roads on the island. Access is to San Carlos, then by barge onto the island.
The final leg to Cabo was suitably uneventful - the lack of wind saw us motoring around Cabo Falso in a beautiful sunset, with a night entry into the busy bay at Cabo San Lucas. We are definitely looking forward to some normalized anchoring at future stops.
We did suffer a couple of casualties enroute. We lost a mainsail batten in the big seas - or we assume this is when we lost it, as no-one saw it go. We also blew out our masthead spinnaker block, necessitating a trip up the mast to replace it in Bahia Santa Maria. More interesting, however, was a routing check of our masthead lights while I was aloft. While staring at our tri-colour from the side, I was somewhat alarmed to be looking at red and green, with white on the far side. Having been at sea for many nights already, I wonder how many ships have been confused about our actual direction. To avoid any further situations, I removed the bulbs until I can figure out the issue. My best guess is that the fixture has been put on incorrectly, and has only become an issue since I installed an LED light fixture, which only go in one way, and are less forgiving than the plain white bulbs.
We plan to split from Cabo tomorrow, and head for somewhere less noisy and bumpy. Many Haha boats have already gone - either north towards La Paz, or across to mainland Mexico. The Haha was fun, even if we did miss one of the formal stops. The daily 'net' was helpful and informative, but some of the questions were so inane that you wonder how the boats made it this far. There were several boats that would not normally be considered offshore boats (a Catalina 27, or a sistership to our previous Islander Bahama 30 for example). Not sure how nice the ride would have been in "Tahi Too" in 25 knots and 10 foot swells. Few boats had wind vanes, and about the same number had radar reflectors. Even less appeared to be carrying spare fuel, although there was plenty of motoring happening. Not sure if it is naivety, or faith in the safety of numbers.
We are looking forward to a tiki tour of some hopefully less crowded anchorages between Cabo and La Paz. There won't even be internet, so our blog will be rant free for another 10 days.
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25/10/2009, San Diego
We have found it rather challenging uploading photos to the sailblogs site, therefore we have created a site on Google's Picassa web service. Try this link. If it doesn't work, let us know via a posted comment! I'm not sure how the link will appear once I post it.
http://picasaweb.google.com/svmulan
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25/10/2009, San Diego
It's probably about time I contributed to the blog again. Like Mulan, I feel that I've almost grown attachment to San Diego. Where the past few weeks have gone is something of a mystery, but the days have been busy with learning how to become school teachers, checking off the numerous projects that weren't completed before leaving Blaine, and checking off projects (& repairs) that emerged as a result of leaving Blaine. The book shelf remains largely undisturbed, including (sadly) the books on celestial navigation, weather, and apart from the first few lessons, the learn Spanish books.
The hospitality extended to us by the San Diego Yacht Club has been fantastic, and even if the price is a tad steeper than we are used to, the location within a few minutes walk of all the marine services has been worth the extra expense, I'm told that one can even carry a mainsail on their shoulder from the club to a sail loft without developing a hernia. A slip neighbor offered us use of a motor vehicle, and generously provided guest passes for both the Maritime Museum and the U.S.S. Midway - both of which we all thoroughly enjoyed.
Boating in San Diego is a curious activity. There are thousands of boats - big and small (but big dominate!) - but there are few destinations. San Diego bay makes for a fine day sail, and is excellent for dinghy sailing, which along with the weather, probably accounts for the legions of fine sailboat racers produced locally. After the bay, there is Santa Catalina, the one Channel Island with decent anchorages, but it is a 12 hour sail away, and serves both L.A. and San Diego. A common boating activity, therefore, is to leave the dock and anchor in a designated anchorage (permit required). For SDYC members, the most popular one is right next to the Club, meaning you can row ashore for brunch - although I believe the Club does provide a shuttle service.
We have also been fortunate to have friends like Sheila & David, Canadians who have been living in the San Diego area for a couple of years. Their hospitality and generosity gave us the opportunity to enjoy real beds, to do Costco runs, and to track down surf boards, snorkel equipment, and visit various beaches in the SD area. Their view that the weather is too boring is one that we wouldn't agree with in the near term (not with pineapple expresses bearing down of Vancouver), but maybe desert living may become a tad wearisome after 2 years!
The references to San Diego revisited refer to my first visit - a few years ago, when I saw The Who in concert (their farewell tour!). This time, our dock space was within earshot of a local music venue, so I got to enjoy Roger Daltrey in concert, still cranking out the same tunes, although with a touch less energy than 1983, I'm sure!
Tomorrow, Monday October 26, is the start of the Baja Haha, and we are as ready as we'll ever be for the next leg of the journey. All crew are a touch anxious, but the weather for the first couple of days is agreeable, so it will give us a chance to settle into an onboard routine. Apparently channel 72 has been designated the kids channel for Turtle Bay, so I'll need to show the communications officer the nuances of the radio.
Adios amigos. Hasta luego.
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23/10/2009, San Diego
Today we went to the U.S.S. Midway. It was our third field trip; we took the bus then the trolley to it. If you don't know what it is, it's an aircraft carrier that served in the Korean and Vietnam War. It was huge - it is 1001 feet long and 258 feet wide. It had 4500 people on it when at sea. Our next field trip is going to be to the San Diego Zoo tomorrow.
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05/10/2009, San Diego
With only 22 more days to go until we leave the port of San Diego, we are again busy with preparing the boat. Leftover (and a few new) repair and maintenance projects still linger on the never ending to-do list, enough to keep Andrew preoccupied into the wee hours of the night, or morning. I am beginning to think of what's needed for provisioning and creating an interesting 12 day meal plan for six of us, again. The galley is always open it seems with little hungry faces asking "what's to eat?", merely seconds after I have cleaned up the breakfast or lunch or dinner dishes. Note to self - have lots of easy to grab snacks!
We have a friend joining us for this next leg to acquire more sailing experience. Cyrus flies into SoCal on Oct 24th, just in time to do some last minute running around, and then we are off to Mexico. And Cyrus, no, there are no showers or laundry facilities aboard...or should I say none that are readily recognizable to landlubbers!
We are half way through the first term of school and everyone is on track. We had hoped that the boys would be further along, but they are insistent that "no one does two lessons of math or language arts in one day in REAL school..." big sigh.
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04/10/2009, San Diego Maritime Museum
On Friday we went to the Maritime Museum. We got free passes because our neighbour gave them to us. We took the bus to the trolley and then went to the Museum. The first ship we went on was the Star of India. It was built in 1863 and was a merchant sailing ship. It was 212 feet long. We also went on the Berkeley built in 1898 it was a steam ferry. Inside was a gift shop and lots of cool old models. We also went on the H.M.S. Surprise, Medea, Californian and the U.S.S Dolphin. But my favorite was the B-39, a Soviet Attack Sub. It spent part of its career stalking many of the U.S. Navy's ships that now are her neighbors on San Diego Bay. It's 299 feet and has 22 type 53 torpedoes and 36 mines. I can't wait till we go to the U.S.S. Midway the one the sub stalked.
If you click on the map feature using Google Earth and zoom in, the blog entry is very close to the actual location of the Maritime Museum. Scroll along the waterfront and you can see the subs and other ships at the museum.
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