10/31/2009, Leg 1 - Rough Seas & Broken Boom
The first leg of the HaHa was extreme to say the least. 193 vessels left San Diego heading south with the knowledge that a big wind event was coming down from the north bringing with it 16-18 ft seas and gusts over 30 knots. Well, we got it and more. The sea state built to over 15 ft by Thursday and the wind to over 30 knots sustained. the challenge was the period of the seas and the overall confused condition. Most of the fleet didn't make it to Turtle bay till last night. We made it Thursday afternoon with a broken boom that resulted from an accidental jib coming down the face of a 20ft swell. The main came across and blew the goose neck to pieces. We were able to keep the main flying, however we were not able to reef if needed which was hugely stressful through the long dark night with giant waves overtaking us and cause bursts of wind to 40 knots that would knock us nearly on our side as the wave passed under us.
Making things worse, the autopilot could not handle the conditions and we had to hand steer for nearly 20 hours. When the moon set at around 3:00am, things seemed to get worse as we couldnt see the monsters coming from behind anymore and they would simply roll under us like steam engines.
At approximately 4:00am, we had a really close encounter with a 60 ft power boat with nobody at the helm driving. The boat came within 30 feet of t-boning us off Cedros and sending us to the bottom of 11,000 feet. I'm telling ya, it was so close we could see the instruments of their helm as we rammed our helm hard port when Dave yelled at the top of his lungs that it was going to hit us as it crested over the swell in front of us.
We eventually made it to turtle bay and got the boom fixed, ate some wonderful tuna sushi from the two big eye tuna that we caught, and we partied with all the boats and told stories of the Epic adventure getting to Turtle bay.
Right now we are motor sailing to Bahia Santa Maria after 4 hours of hull speed sailing this morning. The gennaker is out but is luffing.
Cheers for now! We will update with pictures when we get internet.
Posted from Ham Radio
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Comments [2]
10/20/2009, San Diego Yacht Club
• Hurricane Rick " Naturally, we're hoping that this mischievous storm continues to diminish in strength or die out completely before making landfall. But if it, or any other weather system, threatens the Ha-Ha fleet, the Rally Committee may choose to delay the start. We'll just have to wait and see what develops.
• Departure Parade " For the first time ever, the Port of San Diego, Harbor Police, and a variety of Port Tenants are working with us to raise the profile of the Ha-Ha in San Diego Bay. The main focus of these efforts is to facilitate a Departure Parade along the San Diego Cityfront. Whether you will be setting out from Chula Vista, the Glorietta Bay anchorage, or elsewhere, we'd like you to time your departure so that you arrive at the WEST END OF HARBOR ISLAND at 10:00 a.m. You'll pass between the island and a San Diego fire boat which will be on station, saluting you with a fan of spray. Who knows, if you're lucky, you might make the evening news, as a wide variety of journalists have been invited to attend. (See the harbor map for the route.) To maximize the fun, wear your Halloween costume for the parade and start (as long as you can perform sailing tasks safely).
After passing Shelter Island, you'll proceed to the starting area outside the harbor (as explained at the Skipper's Meeting, 11 a.m., Sunday, October 25.)
Leg One starts at 11:a.m. Monday, October 26.
• Ha-Ha Forum & Photo Sharing Site " Two more new Ha-Ha features are the Online Ha-Ha Forum and the Ha-Ha Photo Sharing site. The Forum has been set up so current and future Ha-Ha'ers can share info and tips on various aspects of the event, as well as pre-rally prep and post-rally cruising. Sign up for free at: http://www.baja-haha.com/forum/
The Photo Sharing Site has been set up so participants can both post and retrieve photos from this year's cruise. It's easy and free! If you already have a Flickr account, go to:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/baja-haha/. Click on 'Join This Group', read our rules and click 'I Agree'. To keep spam to a minimum, we have to approve your membership. You'll be requested to send a note to moderators, so be sure to include your name, boat name and which Ha-Ha you participated in (or will participate in). We'll approve your membership and then you're free to share your pix with other Ha-Ha'ers!
If you don't have a Flickr account already, you have to sign up with a Yahoo user ID (as Yahoo owns Flickr, you will have to sign up for a Yahoo account if you don't already have one - a little cumbersome but worth it). Then just follow the instructions above.
• Each boat will be given one event program at the kickoff party. If you'd like additional copies, the document can be downloaded for free in PDF format at http://www.baja-haha.com/.
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10/18/2009, San Diego/San Diego Yacht Club
Picture is La Playa anchorage in front of the San Diego Yacht Club.
Waiting....more waiting and boat projects.
The boats are starting to arrive this weekend. Somehow San Diego is going to host nearly 200 fully loaded cruising vessels and their crew. There are several parties sheduled and lots of entertainment.
Last night we had cocktails on a CT-54 with several other cruisers going South with the Ha Ha. One young couple had 100's of stories of cruising Mexican waters and surfing. I would guess they were in there late 20s early 30s and have been doing Mexico for over a decade on several boats and have crewed on many more. Their names were Rob and Cat and Rob works at the West Marine right here at Shelter Island...I could talk about these two for hours...really really interesting and fun couple.
All of us later headed over to Humphery's on Dighies at around 8:30PM in pea-soup fog to watch Carlos Mancia comedy show for free while sitting in the dinghy drinking wine and pass around cheese and crackers. What a great time!
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Biggest Ha-Ha Entry List Ever
September 11, 2009 - Ha-Ha Land
As of today, the Baja Ha-Ha has received 193 paid entries, and several more are expected. This means the old entry record of 183 has been eclipsed. This comes as a pleasant surprise to the Grand 'worst case scenario' Poobah who, back in May, feared the entry list might be as low as 100 boats because of the poor economy. If the big new number is an indication that the economy is rebounding, we couldn't be happier for everyone.
Note to procrastinators: The entry deadline for what one wag is calling "The Exodus" has been extended to midnight Monday, September 14.
Picture of Lori Sailing...
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I suspect she will thaw by Cabo.
I sent the blog to jui as well.
Have fun
Dan
10/07/2009, Police Dock
Day 29, 126 miles
Picture is San Diego Skyline as we pulled in at sunset.
We finally put Catalina in on our aft quarter. The shakedown went well as we were able to fix several issues with the genset and determine that we needed a higher output alternator since the Balmar that we have can't keep up with demand that the watermaker puts on it while motoring. Overall, things are working onboard. The freezer is able to stay at around -5 degrees, the batteries stay charged with approximately 150 amp/hours per day either supplied by solar, wind, genset or alternator. If we make water, that figure increases by 56 amp/hours per 25 gallons of water...when we fill the tanks, we require 896 amp/hours (ouch!)
Now that we are here in San Diego, we are having a blast here at Shelter Island. I can't believe how many boating related businesses there are in a two block radius. We love this place!
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