We are now in La Paz at the Marina CostaBaja and will be here for at least another three weeks. I know Nancy on Cats Meow has done this twice in her C36, so I invite her to add any additional comments or remarks.

Baja Ha-Ha – Summary
& some lessons learned

The boat:
2003 Catalina 36 Mkll (2135)
Standard Rig with Wing Keel
In-mast furling and 135 Genoa
US Sails Asymmetric Cruising Spinnaker purchased through Catalina Direct
Raymarine C90, Analog Radar, the usual sailing instruments all at the helm with a Graphics unit at the Nav station. VHF Radio (No shortwave)

Getting Ready:
We had put considerable thought and planning into preparing for this event. We had the bottom painted during which time it was discovered we had some electrolysis issues with the Strut. This was replaced only to highlight other issues with the transmission and the propeller. Because of this we lost about six weeks use of the boat which put our preparations behind. In retrospect, this was a good thing as we corrected all of the drive issues before leaving, frustrating as it was. These could have cropped up in Mexico later.

After getting the boat back from the yard with the bottom painted, strut replaced and the engine re-aligned we had a loud noise only occurring at about 1000 RPM. The transmission which was beyond a rebuild so a new one was installed and the engine again realigned. The noise continued. We then took the three blade prop off and sent it for inspection. It was badly out-of-balance and two of the three blades were out of pitch by quite a large amount. This was all corrected and the noise at 1000 RPM was gone. We have had no further issues.

Preparation, Supplies and upgrades:
We had all standing rigging inspected and discovered that our Radar Reflector (a Tri-Lens) had split at the seams so it was replaced.

We also replaced the navigation lights with LED units. We ordered two festoon LED bulbs from Catalina Direct at their recommendation. One was for the Stern light and one for the anchor light. It turned out the anchor light uses a single contact bayonet bulb and not the Festoon light Catalina Direct had said. As it turned out, the stern light lasted a few hours and then stopped working so we at least had a spare.

We also replaced the Hella bow light with an Aqua Signal unit and purchased the special red/green LED for this unit. This turned out to be another issue as the Dr. Led bulb had a concave connector not convex as Aqua Signal had changed their design to use a festoon bulb. We fixed this by screwing two #4 bolts into the connectors which still allowed the slots on the bulb assembly to align with the electrical connectors which keep the bulb pointed in the correct direction. The bulb with four green and six red LED’s is very bright and reflects off the pulpit at night. The replacement was an easy fix as the mounting holes on the Aqua Signal unit aligned with the holes used by the Hella Unit. I did have to use some clear sealer to plug the hole in the pulpit where the electrical wires feed into the light as the new unit was a bit shorter than the original.

We installed two 135 Watt Kyocera Solar panels above the Bimini supported by a Blue Sky 2000 Solar Controller. We also replaced cabin lights and the navigation light above the chart table with LED bulbs. I added a Weems & Plath electronic Barometer.

We stocked spare halyards and sheets along with additional chain and rode. We also invested in a Gale Rider; just in case. We also stocked other spares; Engine Water pump, Fuel, Macerator, Fresh water and Bilge pumps. This was in addition to the extra fuel, oil filters and impellors we had stocked for the trip. We have a full set of engine hoses as well as other spare water/bilge hoses along with a head kit. We carry six, 5/6 gallon diesel fuel cans, two on deck and four in the stern lockers to keep the weight low. We also have two seven gallon water jugs for purified water which we use only for drinking. Cooking and coffee is made using the water from our tanks which we filter when filling the tanks and also use Chlorox. We have had no problems so far.

Baja Ha-Ha Organization:
We enrolled on-line at 6:00 pm on opening day and were already #38 on the entry list. In June we received a packet of materials in the mail along with the official Baja Ha-Ha 2011 flag. The remaining correspondence was through email. We submitted our final crew list in San Diego the day of the Send-off party. The first real communication is when you respond to the roster as your division and boat name are called over VHF at the assembly point off Shelter Island in San Diego. At 10 am you join the parade out of the harbor and out of the San Diego channel to a point just beyond the Zuniga Jetty where you then leave the channel and collect in the bay for the official start at 11:00.
VHF channel 69 was used for all communication until reaching Cabo when it changed to channel 22. Each morning there was a check-in on either VHF or Shortwave with the boats having shortwave doing relay duty to the “Mother Ship” Profligate (a 60 foot catamaran), for the boats only with VHF. This worked well.
The beach parties were a lot of fun and well planned even though it was obvious the Mexicans were making the most of so many Gringos being in town. At Bahia Santa Maria you had an opportunity to have your name placed on a list for a berth in Cabo San Lucas. The eventual assignments were relayed by radio on the last day of the event. As Cabo, like everywhere else is hurting due to the economy, it cost $180 for three nights in the Marina with Power and water. There was a beach party at Cabo and the awards ceremony. If you want a first or second place, be ready to sail all of the way, otherwise everyone gets third place.
Overall I found the planning to be good and also flexible, you are not herded around. What you do is really your choice and the organizers are very accommodating.

Crew:
Beside my wife and me we had two additional crew, who we were familiar with and had sailed with before. It helps to have known individuals with skills and people you can get along for two weeks in tight quarters. This worked well for us but we did hear grumblings in Cabo about crew on some other boats and even about skippers with limited experience. A lot of boats had used family as crew and this appeared not to be too successful in some instances. Avoid making commitments to fly people out of places other than Cabo after the trip as where you go and when you get there is going to be driven by weather conditions. Four crew is a good balance as you stand short watches; as you keep up a good pace all the way to Cabo no one gets overly tired. The oldest person in the fleet this year was 84 and on one boat, which came from Alaska, everyone was in their 70’s. There were some boats that were double handed.

Provisions:
My wife had little experience in provisioning a boat for four people for two weeks. She managed very well stocking up on fresh provisions in San Diego. We carried some frozen meat, stewing steak, chicken ground beef and lots of canned goods including spam, corned beef and vegetables. We did not go hungry and had some fine but simple meals on board.

Fishing:
We trolled a hand line and also used a rod and reel. We started catching fish after Turtle Bay; mainly Dorado. As there was a plentiful supply, we finished up releasing most of the fish. We caught six fish in all. I lost one lure but made new ones out of used beer and soda cans, these seem to work just as well as ones costing $15 or more!

Sailing/Motoring:
I was disappointed with the cruising spinnaker even though we did use it frequently and it helped for some sections of the cruise. It was only good for at least 15 degrees off the stern and most of the wind all of the way to Cabo was within 10 degrees of the stern. To keep it full, we had to sail further off course and add miles to the trip. It also meant that we frequently encountered quartering seas and the rolling motion it can bring. I had considered buying a whisker pole for the trip but had spent so much already that I eventually decided not to do so; this was a mistake. It was frustrating watching other boats with their Symmetric spinnakers flying full and heading downwind.
Our mainsail was out for most of the trip with a preventer attached to the boom. At times it gave us some good speed, we used the Genoa infrequently. We finished up motoring or motor-sailing about 50% of the time. Diesel fuel was readily available at Turtle Bay but there was none at Bahia Santa Maria. We did refuel in Turtle bay and still had over 35 gallons when we reached Cabo.

Weather:
The weather was good for the entire trip however the wind was stronger at night than during the day. The three days to Turtle Bay were probably the hardest especially in the area of Cedros Island. Still it could have been worse. After Turtle Bay the winds were decidedly light and fickle. Most crews complained about the weather and sea/wave conditions up to Turtle Bay.

Power:
I put two new wet cell 135 Amp Hour batteries in the boat before leaving. We do have an emergency start battery. The solar panels worked very well delivering over 10 amps an hour during the day. Under normal circumstances this is more than adequate as we are fairly frugal and switching most lights to LED’s helped considerably. We do not have or use an inverter but do have a Honda 2000i portable generator which we did not need to use during the Baja Ha-Ha. What I did discover is that the downwind sailing put a heavy strain on the auto pilot (I have a linear unit) which was working overtime. Between this and the ice box, they consumed most of the Solar Panel output. We did hand steer for a number of hours during the day to help build up amps but in the end, as we sometimes had to motor, we had adequate resources to keep the batteries fully charged.

Nick:
We plan on cruising Mexico until May 2012 and then bash back to LA.

[QUOTE=montenido;10838]John,

Thanks for the update. I really want to do this next year with Wild Wind. It seems that I better start getting my spares together now! :D

Do any of the boats turn around and do the "Bash" back up to CA after the race? Or is it too much of the wrong season? Not sure how much time I can commit to staying around after the Haha.

Thanks for all your great information.

Cheers, Bill[/QUOTE]

Yes quite a few do. One 30' Catalina that was in the Ha-Ha and is here in La Paz is about to make the bash back to San Diego. Nancy on Cats Meow has had a delivery crew bring her 36 back to San Francisco both times she did the Ha-Ha. (she did it last year). When I look at the weather going south, it should not be an issue with a good weather window. Most people seem to do Cabo, Turtle Bay and then San Diego. Hope this helps.
John

Hello Spica, we had not heard from you since Cabo. We would love to get a report from you about the weather and your experience going down the mainland coast. We are currently in Santa Rosalia and will be doing an overnight to San Carlos next week to put the boat on the hard for the summer. Our plan is to do the mainland coast starting in early November. San Carlos is a favored spot for summer storage and has reasonable rates if you do not want to bash back to CA. If we make it to Avalon/Two Harbors during the summer, we will try and look you up. Where are you on fb?
Have a safe trip.
John Meyer