We Took 3rd Place!!!!!

along with 120 other boats!  Everyone is a winner.  We did take 1st place coming into the dock in reverse as we were the only boat to do that.  More of that to follow, but first, let me get you caught up with us!

My minions (Bill and Doug) and I boarded the “Just Dandy” and joined the Baja Ha-ha parade at 9:30 a.m. on Monday, October 28. (Costumes were a must as it was almost Halloween)  This is the 20th anniversary of the Baja Ha-Ha and it is a well oiled machine!   Once the gun was fired about 160 boats took off across the starting line and we were off……

It is the custom to fly the skipper’s flag as well as were the boat is registered, thus the Canadian and US flags, but one should also fly the flag of the country they are sailing in.  By adding the Mexican flag, we now have North America covered.  We also are flying a Baja Ha-Ha flag so that we will recognize others as we go from marina to marina.

Our first leg to Cabo was 3 1/2 days and 3 nights.  This took us to Turtle Bay, what a beautiful site, many boats anchored but we are not the last to enter.  Dropped our own anchor, blew up the dinghy and we were off to town! Town consists of a pier with a fuel dock, 3 restaurants, and a church.  Went in search of lobster and beer.  The second day in Turtle Bay was a potluck beach party, with all kinds of activities to get to know each other.  Women won the tug of war and even the ice cream truck got into the action!

We left Turtle Bay early the next morning and it started out to be a beautiful day.

But it quickly turned windy and the seas were really choppy.  It was like being in a washing machine on the agitate cycle.  Thank goodness for the patch, seasickness never was an issue. But no one told me that sailing was a contact sport!  I stopped counting bruises once I reached seventy-nine!  My hip area, front, sides and back are a ring of bruises.  My body is the color of a mermaid, blue and green.  Both Bill and Doug, have shin bruises, too!  I guess this has been one of the more brutal sails, even for the bigger boats.  Everyone is beat up and sleep deprived.  When I say sleep deprived, it feels like being a new mother, but a whole lot older!  This section should be called Bad Hair and Bruises or it could be the name of a Nirvana or Country western song, but in reality, it is the crew of Just Dandy!  When you are sailing for 3 days and 3 nights, you literally put on a cap for daytime, a beanie (tuk in Canadian speak) for nighttime and crawl into a berth to sleep.  Never a comb through or wash!  Yikes, we are pretty scary site.

After 2 1/2 days and 2 nights of this, we pulled into Mag Bay.  Again, a very welcome site and we are very appreciative of these layovers.  The first night we are easily in bed at sundown, 6:30, and sleep 12 -13 hours!  Again, a beach party, with food supplied by the locals and a band that drove over from LaPaz.  Mag Bay has no facilities but if anyone needed any assistance with their boat, everyone in the fleet was there to lend a hand.  Incredible what a strong, generous community this is! Our last leg should have taken us 2 days and 1 night.  But the winds died and that really slowed everyone down.  Having a smaller boat, we are slower to begin with.  It is not uncommon to motor sail if the winds get below 2 knots so we started her up.  It wasn’t long, however, that we noticed she kept slipping out of gear if we tried increasing the speed.  Pretty soon we could only rev her to go about 2.5 – 3 knots.  Out forward transmission was shot. Bill had recently had her rebuilt and she only had about 200 hours on her, this should not have happened! Slowly, we fell way behind.  We checked in on the radio and let the fleet know and within a few minutes, a boat (Moondance) nearby radioed back that they would stay with us to make sure we made it to Cabo.  So what should have taken about 5 hours took us 10 hours.  As we rounded the cape into Cabo, we lost all forward movement.  Moondance tried towing us but wouldn’t you know, the wind picked up, and they weren’t strong enough to tow us.  We put up a sail and sailed in, following Moondance, who found us a place to anchor!  They are our heros!!  The next morning, we started her up again, she would only do reverse, so Bill motored her into the docks in reverse, thus…1st place for backwards sailing!

We are here, tired but happy!!!  We are going to be in Cabo longer than we had hoped as we need to get the transmission repaired, so we will keep you posted on our adventures here!!!!