THE POOBAH’S HA-HA XXVII REPORT
This is the Tolstoy-inspired version. The Reader’s Digest condensed version will appear in the December issue of Latitude
The Baja Ha-Ha cruisers rally returned to tropical Mexico for the 27th time with a vengeance of pleasure in early November after a year's absence because of Covid concerns. Over 525 sailors aboard 134 boats took part.
Participants came from all over and with all different sailing histories.
"Three years ago today we were staying ashore in Cabo and struck up a conversation with some people who had just finished the Ha-Ha," explain David and Melody Peery of the Marina del Rey based Lagoon 40 Land for Sail. "We'd never sailed before and naturally didn't have a boat, but we got so excited about the Ha-Ha that we learned to sail and bought a catamaran. Now we've sailed to Cabo with four of our dear friends. What an epic adventure."
This year's overall sailing conditions for the 750-mile course from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas were the best in recent memory. Pat Williams, crew on the Ericson 38 Peregrine Spirit, said this was the most he's flown a chute on the eight Ha-Ha's he's done. And if Myron Eisenzimmer of the San Geronimo-based Swan 44 Mykonos had known the wind was going to be this good for his and his wife Marina's 12th Ha-Ha, he might not have dropped a bundle on a new engine so soon.
Fifty-one boats sailed the entire first leg, nine sailed all the second leg, and 27 sailed the entire last leg.
The seven 'Soul Sailors' who sailed all of all three legs were: Elliot James with the Tiburon-based Mancebo 31 Bloom County; Robert Day of Newport Beach with the X Yachts AP44 Day Dreams on his fourth Ha-Ha; Andrew and Laura Park of Lake Oswego on the Jeanneau SO 440 Ever After; Scott Sibbald and Joanne Pilkington of Carson City on their Bavaria 46 Fundango; Sandra and Lawrence Blanchette of Walnut Creek on their Catalina 42 Lady Kate; Naomi Neville and Jeff Rothermel of Manhattan Beach, who did the Ha-Ha 17 years ago with their Aerodyne 38 Wilderness, and did it this year with their two daughters; and Assistant Poobah Patsy Verhoeven of La Paz on her Gulfstar 50 Talion, who has sailed every leg of all 15 Ha-Ha's she's done.
"We sailed every mile and loved every minute, so what a way to start a retirement," said Soul Sailor co-captains Scott Sibbald and Joanne Pilkington of Wilderness. In a common sentiment, their crew was said to be eager to get home to prepare their own boat for the 2022 Ha-Ha.
The R&R stops at Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria were excellent, highlighting what sometimes felt like a month's worth of social activities squeezed into two weeks.
A near-record 194 boats had actually signed up for the event. In relative and absolute terms, the 60 no-shows were also a record and represented double the normal DNS percentage.
There were many reasons. Powerful southerlies along the Oregon and Washington coasts blocked boats that didn't come south early enough. Supply chain issues prevented some boats from getting critical boat parts in time. The classic 56-ft Herreshoff wood schooner, Corahleen was badly damaged after encountering a wing dam trying to depart the Columbia River. There were also the traditional problems with last-minute crew cancellations, and most unfortunate, serious personal or family health issues.
Perhaps the most frustrated no-shows were Garry and Suesan Pawlitski, long-time Santa Barbara liveaboards with the mighty J/160 Sugar. With the kids off to college, the couple were going to use the Ha-Ha to kick off their long dreamed of cruising life. Alas, Garry tore his rotator cuff while using a boat hook to put the sail cover on during a stop in Marina del Rey on the way to the San Diego start.
There was tremendous diversity in the 134 boats that did start. At the smaller end of the fleet were the 60-year old Triton 29 Oscar that San Diego owner Ray Scott had purchased in the 1970s, and Eliot James' revived 30-ft custom Mancebo ultralight Bloom County. Boats as different as could be.
The mid-size boats were dominated by the likes of Catalinas, Hunters, Beneteaus and Jeanneaus, and there were no less than seven luxury Hylas models at the upper end of the scale.
The 13 multihulls ranged in size from two Gemini 34 cats to speedsters such as Jason and Candice Deal's San Anselmo-based Crowther 47 Deguello, multihull legend Lock Crowther's last boat, and Kevin and Katie Millet's Kauai-based custom 50-ft cat Kalewa, on her fourth Ha-Ha.
Twenty-six of the boats sailed in the four 'white sails' divisions, while the other 105 sailboats sailed with spinnakers. Some of the latter group, such as Elliot Schlegelmilch and Margot McKirdy’s Bavaria 38 Favignana, flew a spinnaker for the first time ever on the first leg, then again on the last two legs. Thanks to the spinnaker, they ended up sailing the entire way.
"Motoring makes us grumpy," they explained.
Twenty-seven-year-old Zak Crawford of the Marina del Rey-based Newport 41 Bambu was the youngest owner/skipper, and there were several others under 35.
When the crowd at the award's party was queried about the oldest Ha-Ha’er, Chris Chase-Dunn, 77, of the San Pedro-based Jeanneau 49 Dream Catcher, was the oldest. It was later learned that there had been an older Ha-Ha’er in the fleet, but he was napping and missed the ceremony.
Boat size had only a loose correlation to the number of crew. Some boats in the 30-ft range had as many as five crew, including children, while the 62-ft Typhoon was sailed by just Troy Curran and always smiling Birdie Patterson of Bellingham.
There were 17 'kids' under the age of 16, including two who were just 18 months old, one with a three-year-old brother.
The Ha-Ha is about much more than sailing, of course, as there were eight major social events that Ha-Ha’ers could participate in as little or as much as they wanted.
These started on Halloween with the traditional Last Cheeseburger in Paradise Kick-Off and Costume Party in the semi-bucolic parking lot of the West Marine Super Store in San Diego. Over 700 people showed up, be they participants past, current or future, sponsors, or just lovers of a good sailing scene. Even Bruce Nelson, co-designer of some of the most popular, biggest, and fastest yachts in the world, was spotted in the burger line. Cool.
How members of the fleet found places to stay in jam-packed San Diego area is a mystery, but they did, thanks in no small part to the Port of San Diego setting aside a special anchorage for Ha-Ha boats. How tight is berthing in San Diego? The owner of one 71-footer with no intention of doing the Ha-Ha paid the $495 entry fee just to have the right to use the Ha-Ha anchorage for a month.
The one Covid victim of the all-outdoor Ha-Ha was the cancellation of the official start boat with officials and dignitaries from Mexico and the U.S., the America's Cup cannon, and the traditional twin fireboat spray salute on the Monday start. Fortunately, West Coast Multihulls showed up with a Bali 41 starting boat, and the parade wasn't much different than normal. A photo of it even made the front page of the San Diego Union.
The 360-mile first leg to Turtle Bay, the 240-mile second leg to Bahia Santa Maria, and the 175-mile third leg to Cabo San Lucas have distinct personalities.
The first leg is typically a spinnaker reach the first afternoon in a moderate southeasterly, with the wind fizzling at night. Not this year, as the wind blew out of the northwest in the high teens and low 20s all afternoon and through the night. One boat recorded a gust of 34 knots.
The northwesterly swell was sloppy and grew to as much as 10 feet, making the first night unpleasant for less experienced sailors and or those who hadn't been at sea in a while.
The conditions were just as hard on some boats. Bryan Martin's Santa Cruz-based Corsair 36 tri, K2 which he'd just bought and had shipped out from the East Coast, suffered a rudder case failure.
But Martin, a two-time Ha-Ha vet, is a clever guy and was able to jury rig a steering system that involved running a line from the tiller to an ama to the rudder. It meant sloppy steering, but it worked well enough for them to hit the low teens and make it to Cabo without assistance.
Nashun Robinson and Jennifer Kobow's Oceanis 41 Sirena had bolts on the mast-mounted worm drive reefing system come out and had to anchor the first night. "It wasn't fun," said Nashun, "but it was good to test ourselves, ourselves being just we parents, 10-year-old daughter Amari, and our dog and cat." Spoken like a true former Marine.
Even some of the most experienced sailors on boats with the finest pedigree had issues on the first leg. Steve Stroub of the Tiburon-based Morris 486 Christina has done countless offshore races on his various high-performance boats, but while double handing with his wife Stephanie suffered a "slam gybe" in 27 knots in the middle of the first night. It blew out the main traveler and destroyed two stanchions.
"It was fun getting the Leisure Furl boom tied down," he joked, "but we still had a great time on the Ha-Ha."
Wear and tear had the gooseneck "hanging by a thread" on Scott Culver and Suzie Edward's Jeanneau 46 Landfall. Scott, who drives tugs out of Hawaii for a living, fashioned a "soft gooseneck" with Spectra that allowed them to keep sailing. He later contacted Steve Brown at Finco in Costa Mesa with photos, a drawing, and measurements. Brown made the replacement part — and hand-delivered it to Landfall in Cabo! No supply chain problems there.
Potentially the most serious problem was an alternator that burst into flames on one of the engines on Matt and Tricia Daniel's Seattle-based Outremer 42 Tumbleweed. Fire is among the greatest dangers at sea, and while Matt was able to extinguish it with a couple of extinguishers and buckets of seawater, he apparently fell onto the engine in the process, and smashed his nose and bloodied his face. The transom steps reportedly looked as though they'd just killed a tuna, but it was better than the steps and the boat being engulfed in flames. They were able to continue on to Cabo.
There hasn't been a collision in the Ha-Ha since the first one in 1994 when there were only 37 entries. There wasn't a collision this year either, but there was a close call. Experienced skippers Kevin Millet of the 50-ft cat Kalewa and Peter Molettiere of the Santa Cruz 53 Salacia were so engrossed in taking photos of each other's boats that they came within what Kevin estimates was 15 feet of slamming into each other.
Sean Kolk and Kate Schnippering of the Benicia-based Catalina 36 Petrichor had their autopilot fail on the first leg and had to hand-steer the entire 750 miles. That's no fun. Then their electric windlass failed. When their windex failed, they sent a brave crew member aloft to fix it. While under sail.
"We learned so much from being tested on the first two nights," reported Rick Alvarez of the Los Alamitos-based Hylas 42 Cloudbreak. He wasn't alone in that sentiment.
How do you learn to cruise? You can read all the books and watch all the videos you want, but the best way to learn is to do it.
The second day and night of the first leg were more pleasant, as even though the wind continued to blow in the mid-teens and even the low 20s, the longer period swell dropped a bit and cleaned itself up. And most people got their sea legs.
As in every Ha-Ha, the challenge is sailing southeast in what's almost always a northwesterly. That means trying to sail as deep as possible with decent speed, be it by sailing wing-on-wing, doing a lot of gybing, or sailing long offshore boards followed by long inshore boards. It's not always easy for each boat to find what works best for them.
One of the better solutions was inherent in the Amel Maramu 53s such as Steve and Liz Davis' Honolulu-based Aloha. They have twin headsails that simultaneously wing out on poles. The couple reports that it was a fast, comfortable and effective sail plan. No risk of a spinnaker wrap either.
The crew of the 63-ft Hughes catamaran mothership Profligate found lovely second-afternoon conditions abeam of Cedros Island on the second morning. A combination of a good breeze and cleaner waves had the loaded down 45,000-pound cat overtaking waves at up to 19.6 knots. That was a top Ha-Ha speed matched only by the much shorter but much lighter 47-footer Deguello.
It's always good to finish a leg strong, but that wasn't possible for James and Sandra Hirsch's Oceanis 38 Verano from Santa Barbara. They snagged one of the countless double lobster traps just to the south of Cedros Island, so they had to sail the last 45 miles to make sure they didn't get the lines fouled in their prop. Dragging a double lobster trap is not a go-fast configuration.
Most of the longer and spinnaker boats arrived at Turtle Bay the afternoon or evening of the second day, with the smaller and white sails boats the next morning.
The fishing was decent right from the start, as one boat reported landing a tuna just miles across the starting line. Then there was Steve Skolnick and his two crew on his new Sonoma-based Leopard 58 cat Wine N Down. They landed 65 fish on the first leg. Unfortunately, 64 were skipjack, generally considered inedible, and thus thrown back. They would get a lot of keepers on the second and third legs.
The fleet experienced the normal abrupt change of weather at the south tip of Cedros Island, which is about 50 miles north of Turtle Bay. The southern tip of Cedros is sort of what Point Conception is to California. The swell usually drops in the lee of the 4,000-ft tall island, but even more importantly, the sun usually comes out to stay so the mercury rises.
The temps came up and the humidity fell so much that setting the hook in Turtle Bay the Grand Poobah collapsed with a face plant thud on the cockpit sole of Profligate. Fortunately several of the 10 Profligate crew are EMTs, and he checked out fine. The cause of the collapse was actually probably a trifecta of dehydration, getting up too quickly while under the influence of blood pressure medicine, and a Chris Hunt cocktail that was probably about 110 percent vodka and minus 10% ice and mixer.
Dusty Turtle Bay hasn't changed much since the first Ha-Ha in '94. A flat water anchorage with room for 1,000 boats, a pier with the sketchiest ladder in the world of cruising, super friendly people, and water, ice, fuel and garbage services being offered by young men that the Poobah and Doña de Mallorca have known since they were in diapers.
It was wonderful to be back in funky Turtle Bay and mix with such friendly locals — all of whom were wearing masks, even when outdoors or operating pangas. Some restaurants and snack stands, such as they are in this small fishing village, were set up near the foot of the pier, giving Ha-Ha'ers a place to put up their feet and catch their breath — and engage in the most popular Ha-Ha activity, making new cruising friends by the dozen.
The beach was also the site of Paul Kamen's popular basic class in celestial navigation.
There was a very busy VHF net the next morning for roll call, info, and repairs. No matter if it was a problem with an engine, generator, sail, electronics, windlasses, outboard, SSB or other boat part or system, someone almost always had a part or advice, and in many cases came over to help with a hands-on fix. Ullman Sails set up a loft on the bow of Profligate to repair sails.
On Profligate alone, we got a Honda portable genset repaired, our windlass going again thanks to a loaned replacement circuit breaker from a member of the fleet, and a new dinghy fuel tank and hose from yet another member of the fleet. Sailors helping other sailors is what the Ha-Ha is all about, as even the most reliable gear sometimes fails.
The one significant change in Turtle Bay in the last 10 years has been the addition of Astroturf at the baseball stadium, making it the greenest place in town.
Once again the Cruiser versus Kids Baseball game was a blast, with batters from 18 months to close to 80 years stepping up to the plate. Women and children were always 'safe', of course, there were no strikeouts, and the pitches came every 15 seconds. It was nothing like the snooze fest that is Major League Baseball.
The game was blessed by the arrival of Maribel Colins, the Director of Tourism and Development for all of Baja California Sur. She, along with a contingent of other officials from the state, had traveled many hours to remote Turtle Bay for the sole reason of warmly welcoming the Ha-Ha fleet.
Gregarious as befits a Secretary of Tourism, Maribel took her turn at-bat. Without spikes, she slid out rounding the bases. Ten lesser officials and others rushed to pick her up, but she had a big smile on her face.
When she asked the Poobah some question, he inexplicably answered in butchered French. It was soon revealed that Maribel had studied at the Sorbonne and likes to visit France. In order to further bond and discuss ways to improve the next Ha-Ha, Maribel and the Poobah hope to cruise the Seine through Paris next summer aboard Majestic Dalat. (You, of course, are invited, too.)
After each year's game the cruiser baseball equipment is donated to the baseball mad kids of the town of less than 2,000. Talk about an embarrassment of baseball equipment riches! There was surely $15,000 worth of equipment for the local kids, some as young as three, to choose from.
While much of the stuff was used, there was also a large number of aluminum bats that retail for $200+, and professional-grade gloves, still in their wrappers, that retail for as much as $250.
There was so much donated gear there weren't enough kids to carry it all away. So officials agreed to deliver what was left to kids in Mulege, Santa Rosalia and La Paz on the Sea of Cortez side, and down at Bahia Santa Maria.
While a number of people donated equipment, the overwhelming amount of it came from the Solano Beach Little League, arranged by Richard and Gayle Leland of the Durham-based classic S&S 42 Fairwyn. The Solana Beach Little Leaguers have no idea how many smiles they brought to the young faces of Turtle Bay.
The action never stops for long in the Ha-Ha, as the Turtle Bay Beach Party was held the very next day in front of the badlands at the eastern shore of Turtle Bay. Weather conditions were ideal for hanging out, sharing BBQ'd fish, playing volleyball, kids swimming, beachcombing, and plain old kickback socializing.
As had been the case on the shore by the pier and at the baseball game, all the Mexicans wore face masks. To keep Turtle Bay citizens at a Covid safe distance, officials set up a yellow tape perimeter to keep the locals from mixing too closely with the Ha-Ha folks. The exception being those selling beer and food. This even though the event was outdoors and in a breeze, making it a very low-risk environment.
Officials also directed the Poobah to get Ha-Ha'ers to come down from the unstable hills behind the party site. Safety has never been such a big concern in Mexico. Once again, the officials were as friendly as can be.
Two of the Profligate crew set up the Baja Dogs for Students stand. Each year the Poobah buys 200 dogs and buns, and the Profligate crew sells them for a suggested $2 each. Two hundred dogs were sold, and all of the proceeds will be used to feed Mexican kids in elementary school who sometimes have to go hungry as they watch their classmates eat lunch.
Over $1,100 was raised, thanks in a large part to three women who passed on the dogs but donated $100 each, as did a gentleman later in the event. Everyone has the Poobah's pledge that every cent of the money will be carefully spent for its intended purpose. The great thing is that unlike the States, where up to $750,000 is sometimes spent housing a single homeless person, charity money can go a long, long, long way in Mexico.
For the 17th year in a row, the women's tug o' war team, 150 strong, defeated the men's team. The men put up a bigger struggle than in most years, but their resistance was futile.
It was late at the beach party that the Poobah noticed a most touching scene. Former volleyball enthusiast Patti Drinkwater, crew on Belinda Erdelt and David Herndon's Houston-based Watson 48 Seabiscuit, who is suffering from ALS, was wheeled into the small waves by her husband Al. She was reclining on a special floating wheelchair that had arrived just before the start of the Ha-Ha. Talk about a vision of love.
As the Turtle Bay water was still cool enough that only kids went swimming, the Poobah was a little surprised that Patti would want to go in. The always cheerful and upbeat Patti later shared a secret. "I had to pee," she laughed.
Usually, the 240-mile second leg has the most reliable sailing conditions of the three Ha-Ha legs. But not this year. The breeze was slow coming, mild, and not consistent. As a result, only nine boats persevered to sail the entire distance.
Fortunately, there were a number of compensations for the lack of wind. Among the biggest was fishing.
The fishing on the leg between Turtle Bay and BSM was unbelievable," reported Matthew and Merja Clegg of the San Diego-based Island Packet 42 Anna Maria. "Every time we put a line in we had a fish within five minutes."
Other boats reported having as many as four fish, usually dorado or tuna, on at one time.
Steve and Liz on Honolulu-based Amel Super Maramu 53 Aloha caught the biggest fish of all, a wahoo they estimated to be 100 pounds. We're not sure, but we wouldn't be surprised if it wasn't landed near Thetis Bank, which is right on the way between Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria. Aloha would later catch a 100-lb white marlin. They kept the delicious former and released the latter.
Michael Lewis and Lois Mandel of the San Diego-based Jeanneau 53 Aurora probably caught more dorado, 21, than anyone. They also got two yellowfin, two bluefin, and six striped bonita.
Everybody caught a lot of skipjack, but only Bill Austin and crew of the F/P 38 The Cat thought they were good enough to eat.
Jeff and Marcia Parten of the Richmond-based Cape George 38 On3 reported: "filling our freezer with tuna and enjoying lots of sashimi and poke, although the sailing and making lots of new friends was the best part of the Ha-Ha."
But when it came to numbers, Wine N Down were the big fish killers, as they caught 131 useless jacks, eight dorado, six yellowfin, and two crab, for a total of 147.
By the middle of the second leg, members of the fleet were seeing all kinds of wildlife. Numerous birds, countless dolphins, blue and humpback whales, leaping rays, flying fish, and little squid. One crew fried the squid and reported that it was delicious.
But the crew of Scott Racette and Ashley Gremel's Oakland-based Pearson 365 Azimuth learned that nature can be as cruel as it is beautiful. "A small bird landed on our boat and stayed for a few hours. But when it spotted some oatmeal on the interior cabin sole, it flew inside to eat some. At which point our boat cat killed it."
Gary Lawrence on the Vallarta-based Sea Ray Sedan 400 My Carbon Footprint reported that the bioluminescence trailing the dolphins was so great on the second leg that it lit up the night.
One of the popular features of the Ha-Ha is that participants rarely feel alone. Usually, there are at least several boats in sight. And thanks to AIS, which most of the fleet had, and the 68-page “Meet the Fleet” program with short bios on all the boatowners, everyone can get to know who their sailing neighbors are. AIS is great because it also allows you to compare your course heading with that of other boats, as well as track the speed of other boats.
Taking kids away from their friends to go cruising is always traumatic, and Steve Cloney, who was sailing his Placerville-based Hunter 42CC Kastaway with his cousin Melissa and her four kids — Ella, 16, Mia, 14, Noah, 12, and Lana, 11 — reports there were tears of homesickness early on leg two. "But things changed as the conditions got calmer and the air got warmer."
Capt Steve was later singled out for having never once raised his voice or gotten upset with the young ones. He even noted they were good on night watches.
While Bahia Santa Maria offered great protection for the fleet on the hook in 20-knot northwesterly winds, there was a moderate swell rolling in from two depressions far to the southwest. As such, only a couple of people risked crossing the bar into the mangroves. A few people took dinghies to small beaches in the lee of the mountains for hiking. But it was mostly a hangout on the boat day.
In the case of the kids, traces of homesickness all but disappeared when 11 of them assembled for the Kid's Diving Olympics off the back beam of Profligate. What could have kids bonding more than battling for candy bars on the floating Candy Island? The next day's rock 'n roll party ashore saw all the kids building a sandcastle together and getting free rides on the tide going out toward the bar. Thoughts of home were quickly fading.
Once again Victor and his staff put together a fabulous party on the bluff overlooking Bahia Santa Maria, with countless ice cold beers and seafood lunches. And not to be forgotten, the rock 'n roll band from La Paz, some of whom have been playing the BSM Ha-Ha party for tips for 15 years.
As always, it was a surreal scene at Bahia Santa Maria: the pristine mountains, the rock 'n roll band, the bay, the mangroves, the sand dunes, the fleet, and in the distance Mag Bay. All but two days a year there are never more than a couple of boats, if that, at Bahia Santa Maria.
The 175-mile third and final segment of the Ha-Ha was literally a whale of a leg.
Just a few miles after the start a group of humpback whales started breeching right next to Issac Ohana's Palo Alto-based Caliber 40 Avocet. Despite them being so very close, Yogi, a crew from Israel, got some spectacular video.
Other boats had close encounters with whales, too. Colin Rogers and Christina Spring of the Alameda-based 45 Elixir had "whales playing 10 feet from us for 45 minutes. We finally had to slow down and let them pass as they were getting too curious." It had to have been a thrill for their son Westly, five.
"We traveled with a pod of six whales for a long time off Mag Bay," reported Mike Whalen and Bill Nork of the Alameda-based Catalina 380 Esperanza. "They were breaching, lobtailing, and cavorting."
Forgetting the whales for a moment, the sailing for the last leg was the best in many years. The leg started with a nice easterly that transitioned unusually quickly to a 10-13 knot northwesterly. The seas were flat and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was idyllic sailing. Many boats sailed side by side with the same boats for hours.
And instead of dying shortly after sundown, the breeze held in at least the high single digits until nearly dawn.
The final night sail of the Ha-Ha is always magic, as it's tropically warm and the Milky Way and other celestial bodies are brilliant. If all sailing was like that, everybody would have a boat. Or two.
Despite mild conditions, it was 30 miles north of Cabo that Jim and Michelle Leonard's Seattle-based Farr 44 Tabu's rudder stuck in a hard-over position. When the problem couldn't be determined or repaired, Diane Berol's San Diego-based Pacific Seacraft 42 Celtic Song attempted a tow. After several attempts, Tabu called the Coast Guard in Alameda, which contacted the Mexican navy. The navy came out, and with their more powerful motors, were able to tow Tabu to Cabo. Gracias.
In years past, IGY Marina Cabo San Lucas was able to come up with a number of berths for Ha-Ha boats to raft up in. However, the insatiable demand that sportfishing boatowners have for Cabo slips may have put an end to that. The only way these massive sportfishing boats can be assured of a slip during the multimillion-dollar fishing tournaments is to rent the slip for the entire year, even if they'll only use the slip for a few months.
So the housing shortage in the United States is nothing compared to the berth shortage in Cabo San Lucas. It was thanks to the relentless efforts of the marina staff that at least 10 Ha-Ha boats were eventually accommodated. Despite making virtually no money from the Ha-Ha fleet, the marina generously provided a free dinghy dock, the award's party site, and 500 beers. They did what they could.
Fortunately, there is a huge anchorage in Bahia Cabo San Lucas, and conditions were pleasant.
Once in Cabo, the fleet enjoyed the traditional We Cheated Death Again dance party at Squid Roe, a 'beach party' on the new upper deck of Mango Deck, the Here to Eternity Kissing Contest, and the Award's Party.
Every Ha-Ha boat got a 'trophy' at the award's ceremony, but one of the highlights was when one was presented to Brits Allen and Maria Wadsworth of Portsmouth, England-based Amel Super Maramu Jamala. They'd had to start from San Diego a week late after waiting for a part lost by FedEx and were only able to catch up with the rest of the fleet at the awards ceremony.
But the emotional high of the ceremony came at the very end, when Patti Drinkwater, the ALS stricken crew on Seabiscuit, was awarded the Philo Hayward Spirit of the Ha-Ha honor. The Ha-Ha crowd of hundreds arose as one in loud and heartfelt applause.
"My trip is not a Pity Party," Patti told the audience, "it's a Patti Party."
There were lots of teary eyes.
This year's Ha-Ha got numerous excellent reviews. "I've traveled all over the world," said Troy of Typhoon, "and the Ha-Ha was my best trip ever."
Kyle Mackenzie of the Victoria-based Gulfstar 44CC Jubel became a convert, too.
"I was hesitant about joining the Ha-Ha, having heard all kinds of strong opinions about it. Although all of the negative ones came from people who have never done one. But Leah and I are so very glad that we joined this amazing group of sailors. We never felt like it was 'too many people', there was an 'obnoxious number of boats', or any of that. Everyone was really supportive and helpful, and we made some really awesome friends, so it was wonderful to be part of such a special community. The locals were extremely welcoming and seemed very happy to have us. I was so impressed with how much positivity and good that comes out of the rally. After dismissing the negativity toward the Ha-Ha and experiencing it for myself, I would 100% recommend it to anyone wanting to head south."
The Baja Ha-Ha XXVIII starts on October 31, 2022. We hope to see you there.
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