I know other boats from Tahoe and other Windjammer members have sailed the HaHa, but I was still surprised to see the large Tahoe contingency this year. On our boat we had Mike Grimm and Joe Oden who are both former WYC members and Charlie Q from the Tahoe City Yacht Club. From our club there was also Steve and Pam Lannen on their new to them Beneteau, Full Quiver, with Roger Cistel as one member of their crew of six. There was James and Pam Mason with Steve Davis as crew on Avalon also from south shore. Other Tahoe people were Jeff (former part owner of Whiskey Dicks and Misty(former Steamers bartender) Sparrow and their 18 month old daughter Tobylee on their Morgan 38, Pepe.
Russ and I left Richmond on August 31st on the Windjammer race with mixed crew from Tahoe, Mark Glines and Diane Martin, and Alameda. We were at our most unorganized selves as we threw gear into Marks car to drive to Santa Cruz so we could fit the crew on the boat. The self-steering system and new instruments had arrived the week before and nothing was working or talking to each other. The crew hand steered most the night as we finally finished the race at 3:30am. Diane, Russ and I walked up to the clubhouse to turn in our race paperwork and the only one sitting there in the empty clubhouse was George O'neil from Sprindrift V. They had kept the clam chowder warm and Diane and I, who were too nauseous at dinnertime to eat, wolfed it down. Sometimes it's funny what taste good at 4am.
After the crew loaded all our junk back on Zephyra the next day and left for Richmond, Russ and I started a long slow trip down the coast. During this time we got the self steering and instruments working and even talking to each other. The boat slowly started to get together. We arrived In San Diego 2 ½ weeks before the HaHa and worked on boat projects and provisioning for Mexico (I went to Costco twice, Trader Joes, Vons, Walmart, etc). We have family in San Diego and enjoyed visiting them and some of the places we hung out in earlier lives. The only bad part was the terrible fires that broke out there in late October. My sister and her family got evacuated and we did not know for 2 days whether their house was okay. It was fine, but it was almost impossible to get information. We were in San Diego bay on Coronado Island and even that far away, we woke up the second morning with the boat covered in ash. I felt like I started and ended my summer with bad fire situations.
The weekend before the Monday start of the HaHa on October 29, the crew all flew in. After a fun kickoff party at West Marine Parking lot in Shelter Island on Sunday, we went back to the boat at deflated the dingy and stowed gear for the Morning start. The start is mostly relaxed (except for a few boats that act like it is a race) but chaotic since there were 170 boats in one small area of the bay. We sailed for a way with the white sails and decided it was time for the asymmetrical chute. Russ and Mike go to the foredeck to set up and when they raise the sock the blue line lands up getting away from them. It wraps around the spreader and manages to tie itself in a perfect hitch. Good thing we have a young guy on the boat. Charlie after managing to set off his new inflatable PFD borrows mine, and gets ready to be hoisted up the mast to untie the blue line (dowser) so we can get the chute down and try again. He gets up to about where he needs to be at the spreader and then get twisted around with his hand between the halyard and the shroud. Scared the hell out of us, but the mast guys managed to untwist him and he got the job accomplished. After that the chute went up no problem every time. It's a very big green thing and the boat just takes off with it.
The first leg of the HaHa is 240 miles (as a crow flies) and takes 3 full days. Our crew was smart and they all put on Scopolamine patches prior to leaving San Diego. The skipper and first mate thought they were beyond getting seasick, so much for thinking. Russ and I had a terrible couple of days, while the crew did great and were able to eat and read and enjoy the sail. I was down below not sleeping but not wanting to move and there was some talk on the radio about spotting a freighter. My thought was "if a freighter hits us, do I have to do anything or will it just me over quickly." Thankfully after about 36 hours I started to feel better and faithfully took seasickness pills the rest of the trip. Russ also recovered and got his sea legs.
The first stop of the HaHa is Turtle Bay, a beautiful bay and a small fishing village. After sleeping (we arrived at 4:30am) we blew up the kayak and the dingy. When we went to town to find a shower, we were adopted by Michael, who of course had a friend with a motel with a shower and of course had another friend with a restaurant that wasn't too busy and had decent food. The next day, there was an all day beach party in the bay (see photo of Pam and Debbie's tattoos). After 2 days we left Turtle Bay for the second leg to Bahia Santa Maria.
The second leg took us all night and until 12:30am the following morning. We were one of the only boats on the HaHa without radar but Russ lead a parade of six other boats into this little bay at midnight by doing fixes. None of them realized we didn't have radar. The swell was up in Bahia Santa Maria so we decided to use pangas (Mexician boats used for just about everything, in this case, carrying gringos back and forth to shore) since dingy landings were very dangerous, especially with five people aboard. We went to the big beach party they give where a group from La Paz brings in food and beer and a band shows up to play rock-n-roll. All this is in this little fishing village in the middle of nowhere where they don't even have the most basic services. Most of the other HaHa people also opted for the panga service rather than a dinky adventure so in the late afternoon the line for return trips started to form as the sun became lower in the sky and the swell started to increase. The 4 old folks from Zephyra decided to get on line and return to the boat to watch a movie. We looked around for our young guy, Charlie (28), but couldn't find him, so decided maybe he was getting lucky with a lady he whose attentions he had been after. We went to the boat and watched a DVD and hung out for a while and still no Charlie. Instead of being smart and putting on the radio, we all decided to crash. I kept waking up all night, worried about Charlie, and wondering how I could call his father and tell him we lost his son in Mexico. The next morning when he still isn't back, we finally turn on the radio for the morning net and find out that 72 people are still stranded on the beach. What happened was the surf got so bad, the panga drivers refused to make any more runs. The people left had to sleep on the beach and in this one room where they had done the cooking. It got very cold during the night. The group then became named as Survivor Baja. About 8am the next morning, the pangas started bringing the surveyors back to the boats so we could start the next leg to Cabo.
The final leg started out as a nice spinnaker run but the wind died in the middle of the night. About 5am we turned on the iron genny so we could make it to Cabo in daylight. We got in and anchored and went to shore for a shower in Mike's hotel room and dinner. We then went to the party at Squid Row for the HaHa group where everyone drank and danced. Charlie had a little Mexican girl talk (touchy-feely) him into 4 jello shooters. We spent the next few days exploring Cabo (which is a zoo) and eating great food. Joe was the only one in our group who sampled the Cabo Burger King.
The morning after the last of the crew flew home, Russ and I headed north to a much quieter place called Los Frailes and enjoyed some beach walking and snorkeling.