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Baja Haha Leg II

Writer's picture: jeannebjeanneb

For the first leg of the Baja Haha cruisers rally from San Diego to Cabo, we ended up motoring 60% of the time and sailing 30%. Better than Alaska! But the winds were still really light. This week we completed

the second leg of the Baja Haha rally. Leaving Turtle Bay was again a parade of boats with spinnakers up. Within 1 hour of the start we had a good building breeze that through the course of the day increased to 20 knots. Seas were a bit confused but nothing bigger than 2 meters. Kitty was tucked away in her hidey-hole probably wishing that she had been adopted by some other crazy family.



Yellowtail for dinner

We put the fishing lines out as soon as we had a bit of clearance from the other boats. Within a few minutes we had our first bite. We were using a cedar plug. The reel started spinning and Dan started to reel it in (mind you we were clipping along with the drifter up of course--which is our big pretty sail that requires much more work to manage)! After a few minutes of pulling in the fish -- the 120# line broke and the lure was gone. It was a big one. About a 15 minutes later the other line started spinning. This time, it was a bit more manageable. It took Dan about 20-30 minutes to pull it in. But when he did it was a beauty! A lovely yellow fin, measured in at 32". We didn't have a good way to measure the weight, all I know is that it has been 3 days now and we've had Tuna for lunch and dinner every day and we still have 2 large freezer bags full. Spicy tuna rolls are amazing!

Amazing spicy tuna rolls for an at sea dinner!



The excitement did not stop on this leg. After the tuna catch we had some sporty sailing for another 12 or so hours, finally losing the wind at 1 am. We don't usually fly with the light air sails up at night as it requires us to go forward on the bow and requires both of us to be up. Which is not a great situation if you want to sleep for your full 3 hours of off-watch. After bringing the sails down we motored through the remaining day.


It was hot and as we neared Cabo San Lazora we saw some big thunderstorm clouds forming. Within a few hours these had fully developed and as the sun set, we were in for a fabulous thunderstorm 10-20 miles off our bow. Directly blocking our access to Bahai Santa Maria our next port of call.


We started hearing from multiple boats that they were attempting to enter the harbor, but the lighting strikes were too close and boats were turning around. As the fleet of boats enroute to the "finish line" for Leg 2 were retreating, they were stacking up about 20-30 miles out from port. By the time we closed in on 25 0 N/112 33 W (around 6 pm), there were a good 20 boats waiting to find a way into the harbor through the stacked up storm cells. Everyone turned on their starlink to get the latest weather (through windy.com, predictwind.com, and other lighting map sites) we were able to ascertain the direction of the intensity. So for awhile, all the boats headed AWAY as fast as they could. By 9 PM we'd retraced our steps several miles in retreat from the moving system. Our previously planned ETA of Midnight -- was now 5 AM. We hadn't planned for a regular watch scheduled so ended up doing 1-2 hour shifts just to get a little rest of the eyes. The navigation required some level of vigilance because there were so many boats all hovering within a 5 mile range. The radio had constant chatter. From people lightening the mood with "dad jokes" while we waited for others to provide coordinates for breaks in the clouds andor relay of reports from offshore weather advisors and observations. Around 11 pm, the thunderstorms started to die down. A few intrepid boats cautiously entered the storm cloud area and made their way through to the anchorage dodging lighting, they gave updates to the 'waiting' fleet on conditions and storm intensity. By 2 am, the clouds had cleared enough that we too were able to make our way in. We crossed the finish line and followed a line of ~15 boats into the harbor, with another ~15 or so behind. And then we slept. The cat was SO happy to be at anchor and came back to life. The next day she slept most of the day as well.


We were excited that even with all the lightening "drama" we had motored 30% and sailed 60%.


View of the estuary (which is a national park)

Bahai Santa Maria is an isolated bay with mangroves and backed by a large estuary of Magdalena Bay. When we came into the bay I told Dan that it smelled like dirt. Dusty dirt. With a little mud from the recent rain bursts with the passing storm clouds.

Pangas make their way through the surf to Beach Party

When you've been in the ocean for a few days -- the smell of land is remarkable. Bahai Santa Marina did not have as much wildlife as the last port -- but the water was 78 degrees and clear enough for us to see the anchor in the sand when the wind was not blowing (I imagine, as its been blowing since we arrived).

Dan for a swim in Bahai Santa Maria

The next day in Bahai Santa Maria (BSM for short) we had a great locally catered fish taco dinner on the beach and live music.

Jeanne at the 'Epic' Bahai Santa Maria Beach Party

We ended the evening with a cruise in a local panga on the mangrove estuary as the sun was setting. It was early to bed for us as the next morning we were planning to leave at 7am for the final leg.

Bahai Santa Maria in the evening





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3件のコメント


ゲスト
2023年11月13日

Lobsters looked GREAT! May you have wind to your back and following sea's. Hows that for knowing nothing?

いいね!

Joseph Catalano
Joseph Catalano
2023年11月13日

I’ve been following your journey. Congratulations. Fiesta Mexico. joe

いいね!

ゲスト
2023年11月13日

Fantastic! Thanks for the posts. Keeping dreams alive. (AB)

いいね!

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