Ed and Cindy have signed up for the Baja HaHa this year, along with Ashes the cat, grabbed two crew members for the trip to Cabo, and plan to spend 6 months exploring Mexico on our J40, returning to San Diego in May 2007. The Ha-Ha leaves San Diego on 30 October, and arrives in Cabo San Lucas on November 9, with intermediate stops at Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria. From there we plan to go to directly to the mainland for a few months, back to La Paz and the Sea of Cortez, and home to San Diego in May 2007.
Ashes the cat (shown) is a new crew member for us. We adopted her from the local shelter, and she seems to be turning into a good boat cat.
We lost our good friend and sailing companion, Fuzz, this March. Fuzz was a stray who wandered into our lives and stayed for over 12 years and 13000 miles; we miss her.
Fortunately a J40 is already a very seaworthy boat, and we had maintained Mal de Mer III for ocean cruising all along, including a trip to San Francisco and numerous trips to the California Channel Islands. The main change in the outward appearance was the addition of 10 fuel jugs to extend our range, and the associated boards and lashings to keep them safely on deck and out of the way. We already had and used 4 solar panels, but made more permanent mounts for the forward pair so we can leave them all out underway.
Besides all of the usual preventive maintenance items (new batteries, new
refrigeration, new cockpit cushions, haulout/bottom painting, engine service, a
million other items) and stocking up on spares, the main addition was a Katadyn
Power Survivor 160 watermaker (6.7gph).
It seemed to be the most compact and easy to install of the watermakers we looked at, and mounted conveniently in the sail locker, with other plumbing in the aft head. You can just see the intake filter (blue top) and the motor (black cylinder) against the bulkhead; the membrane is mounted under the shelf wth the lines on it. The intake water is a T from the head intake, and the waste outlet is shared with the refrigeration water cooling. There is a fresh water pickoff in the head for testing, filling jugs, etc. We run a separate line to the filler for the aft water tank, and keep the forward tank as an emergency backup. For 4 crew we expect to run it about 2 hours/day to keep up.
It does draw more power and require more manual operation than some of the more modern designs, but the solar panels are able to handle it, along with the refrigeration and other boat accessories. With reasonably good sun, we can generally stay at anchor without running the engine, and underway run the engine a few hours per day to make up for the autopilot and sailing accessories. In a light air region, like Southern California and Pacific Mexico, there are ample opportunities to run the engine.
We have been flying our Ha-Ha burgee for a couple of months, and went to a slide show in August at Catalina sponsored by Latitude 38.
We took a sail with our human crew on Saturday to iron out the rigging and exterior placement, and that was very successful. We are taking a full batten main, 135 Genoa, and a 1.5 oz Gennaker on the trip, and tried them all out. Main boat activity now is figuring out where to put everything that Cindy is planning for provisioning, along with all the spares and gear we are carrying. Plus dealing with the Mexican government for import permits, tourist cards, Mexican ham licenses, etc. And, of course, worrying about the house and garden, mail, bills and the rest of life that goes on while we are gone.
The Crew
On September 30 we took a daysail with our Ha-Ha crew outside of San Diego Bay, in the general area for the start of the actual Ha-Ha. Weather was good
and we were able to do all of our normal sailing functions, including setting and dousing the Gennaker, in spite of all of the clutter on deck.
The crew for the Ha-Ha consists of Ed Huckins, Cindy Sparks, Ashes the cat, Fred Ploetz, and Bob Macomber-all SWYC members. Ed (aka Attila the Skipper) and Cindy have been sailing together for over 30 years and are still married. After retiring early from jobs with Aerospace companies in 1999, they celebrated retirement by sailing Mal de Mer III to San Francisco for the summer, and have spent summers at Catalina and the Channel Islands for over 25 years. They have a mooring at the Isthmus and keep the boat at SWYC in San Diego when not out sailing. Ed has made the trip up and down Baja previously on other boats, but this is the first Baja trip with Mal de Mer III. Ashes the ships cat is on her first long trip and keeps the boat free of rats, birds and bugs.
Fred is of German descent (surprise) and grew up in Argentina, so he is our translator as well as sailing crew. He is also a new American citizen. He raced and crewed in his youth on the Rio de la Plata estuary in Argentina, sailed Long Island Sound from 1964-1996, including his own Maxi 95 and crewing in the Around Long Island and Marion-Bermuda races. Moved to San Diego in 1996 after retirement, sailed his own Sprindrift 46 cutter and crewed on a previous Baja Ha-Ha aboard Southern Run, other Baja runs up and down with friends, and through the Panama Canal.
Bob, a veteran of several crew list parties, two Ha-Ha attempts and one successful completion on "Marilee" in 05, was so in need of more continued and uninterupted fun, that he bought a 45 foot, 325 HP, Dredge this spring, in hopes of digging up enough money to retire on a boat that sleeps more than NONE. His new nicknames: "Gold Digger" and "Bob the Dredge". His motto, "We can dig it!"
Ed, Fred, & Bob, with Cindy behind the Camera
First set of pictures from Turtle Bay and Bahia Santa Maria have been uploaded from Cabo San Lucas at Baja Down. Great trip, great parties, fast sailing for first leg and a half (~500mi), then mostly motoring downwind in light air.
Banderas Bay to Barra de Navidad
Barra de Navidad back to Banderas Bay
And Banderas Bay to Carnaval at Mazatlan'
Fun in Mazatlan', Finally Back to Baja
Even More Horticulture Thoughts
And La Paz and the Islands were great fun
But finally we had to head home for the hurricane season
5/27/2007