Baja Haha Photos

The 10 day trip from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas was awesome!  Here are a few photo highlights

"Mary Anne" with signage

Gilligan's Island crew, including a last minute addition of "Ginger"

Mary Anne and Simon, a fellow sailor from Austrailia

One of many caught fish that were too small to keep

Quintessential sailboat sihouetted by sunset

Pretty clouds and sea

Spinnaker flying

Rob and Catch of the Day

Dan smiling at Sunset

Shindig and Sweet Cherie (Julia and Josh) on the beach in Turtle Bay

A Bountiful Potluck at Bahia Santa Maria

Polling out the Asymmetrical spinnaker worked great

Dan, Bert and Nancy in cockpit - warm sailing and light winds

Pork chops, stuffing and green peas for dinner

Sunrise in Bahia Santa Maria

Fleet pictures at Bahia Santa Maria

Bahia Santa Maria - fish camp

Rob with homemade lure



Sunrise at Bahia Santa Maria (Taj and Vakasa)

Bahia Santa Maria

Great surfing at Bahia Santa Maria

Lazy afternoon sailing before the Night Watch

Cabo's Lover's Point

Bert at the slip in Cabo



Talent Show: The Sisu brothers perform their New Zealand haka chant

Winning couple from "here to eternity" contest

Aurora crew on swings at the palapa bar

Impressive Fireman acrobats in Cabo San Lucas

Rob recruits new crew in Cabo San Lucas

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CABO!!

Whale sighting, dolphins, seals and terns greeted us in the early morning as we arrived in Cabo Thursday? am after a long 24 hours of motoring.
We're at the Cabo Marina smack dab in the middle of big sportfisher boats, tourists, water taxis, glass bottom boats and music until 430am at Squid Roe and Cabo Wabo.  The Baja Ha Ha fleet is starting to disperse, as crew fly home, other boats anchor out and plans for "after Cabo" emerge.
As expected, the final celebrations are underway with the Awards Ceremony tonight.  We heard that everyone wins. 
Yesterday was a great beach party at the main Medano Beach, which included wristbands for entrance, a delicious buffet, cold beers and margaritas all around white tablecloths and chairs, and umbrellas.  Very civilized and an extreme difference from the temporary outhouse set up for all of us 2 days ago at Santa Maria.  Rob and I escaped for a bit to try out the swings at the neighboring open bar with friends.
Dan's wife, Betsy, is here from the Bay Area to soak up a little Mexican sun and visit.  We'll have a few days of exploring together before Bert heads off to home. 
Today we will be looking at Mexican phones today, going to the ATM and exploring the downtown area, with some target restaurants in mind for lunch.  After serving up many lunches and dinners en route, our  trusty refrigerator is being defrosted now.  I have proclaimed that the "galley is closed".

Dan and Rob go for a swim 15 miles from shore

The Arch at Cabo

Dancing at Squid Roe

Cabo Tomorrow

Shindig is motoring South with the rest of the Baja HaHa fleet and we expect the wind to cooperate later this afternoon.

We have been doing a lot of spinnaker work on this trip and I expect this afternoon and this evening we'll do some more.

Dan has been doing much of the foredeck work and has it wired now. Most of the sailing has been directly down wind so we have been polling out our asymmetrical spinnaker with great success. It allows us to sail much further down wind without interference from the main.

The water temperature is 78 degrees and it is 86 in the cabin right now. It is warm.

Bahia Santa Maria was a wonderful stop. Nancy and I got to do some surfing both days and the group party on the bluff was perfect. I'll post photos when we get to Cabo. It is a beautiful spot.

Current position 24 degrees 10 minutes North by 111 degrees 26 minutes West.

Bahia Santa Maria

We are at Bahia Santa Maria, an remote wide bay with several small structures on land representing fishing camps. Yesterday we went out in the dinghy to explore the beach landing area, and the upstream mangrove waters, which revealed more shacks and local fisherman working on their pots and boats. As there were no women or children, and the boats have large outboard engines, we think their catch is transported to larger fishing boats in the ocean, and then taken to market, likely Cabo San Lucas?
Rob went out on the stand up paddle board in the surf, Nancy invited a fellow musician over to play the keyboard and all four of us had a very nice potluck dinner aboard our friends' catamaran with 2 other couples and crew. Our supplies are getting low, but we were able to contribute Nancy's famous clam dip, chicken and pepper kebobs and a homemade meditteranean style fish stew with brown rice. A great day.
Today we will join the entire fleet of 300-350 people on the beach as this tiny locale turns into a temporary restaurant and live rock and roll band for the day. It'll be an afternoon of socializing with new friends, and exchanging more sailing stories before our departure tomorrow am at 7AM. The final leg towards Cabo is 180 miles, which will probably take 20-22 hours. Rob and Nancy are watch partners this time, heck, maybe Nancy will be able to get some shuteye in the cockpit on their 1-4AM watch. HeHeHe.

Day Two at Turtle Bay

Surprised to find Internet this am, our last day at Turtle Bay.   There is a big beach party bbq this afternoon that all will attend.  Sand castles, bocce ball, volleyball, fresh fish bbq, potluck, air jam and talent contests, etc.  It will be fun, but a low key night, as we all leave tomorrow at 7am on the next long leg, 240 miles.  I just finished a galley cooking spree to get ready for the next few days, made brown rice, chocolate cookies, and the salad for today.  We'll have our chicken enchiladas and rice bowls along the way.  After experiencing the last long leg, now I know a little more what to expect.  The four hour on, four hour off is a little bit like having a newborn baby, in a very small space.  Rob and I did not share the last watch schedule; we would wave at each other before jumping into our berths for a few hours of sleep at night.  Fortunately during the warm, sunny days, the four of us would find ourselves up above, enjoying a few hours of sun and talk, before getting ready for the night watches again.

Some of the highlights in the last few days are: kids trick or treating via dinghy last night, $1 Coronas, getting over "mic fright" to use the VHF radio well for communications, meeting in person many of the friends we've made on the radio at night, the locals in Turtle Bay and our limited Spanish/English exchange, finding a nice lavanderia to do 12 lbs of our laundry, the great camaraderie of our Shindig crew. 

Here is a link from the departure 'lectronic latitude online, which was from the departure parade in San Diego.

Also, Umberto, our San Francisco/Delta mascot pinata, has now found a new home.  He left our clutches filled with candy at the  San Diego costume party with a few stickers and instructions on where he needed to go.  Today one of the boats on the radio Net called us asking for "what this pinata was for?" and now the pinata is making his way, via dinghy, to S/V Fluenta, which young Jonathan and Victoria reside.  We know they will share the candy with their new friends. 

Here are a few photos from the San Diego to Turtle Bay leg.

Fleet of sailboats leaving San Diego

Sunset with sailboat on day one

Finally!  Our first yellowfin tuna!

Making ceviche and sashimi in the galley

Turtle Bay

Shindig and her intrepid crew made it to Turtle Bay last night with our anchor down at 21:42 last night. 360 miles from San Diego; 55 hours, 33 minutes. There were about a dozen boats ahead of us.

We were greeted by the dolphin welcome committee and a big Halloween Moon rising.

Last night we had celebratory beers and crashed out for a wonderful uninterrupted sleep.
The anchorage here is calm and this morning there are about 40 of the 115 starters are here. Later today we are going to play baseball with the locals and other fleet members. We'll be here until Saturday at 7am when we set sail again for another 240 miles.

All is well.