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The 2008 Baja Ha-Ha
The Captain's Log of our Journey, Interpreted by "The First Mate"
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October 27, 2008: Depart San Diego
It would be a long three days and three nights before we would arrive in Turtle Bay. CaST Away is not a fast boat so we were left behind at the starting line in San Diego and it didn't take long before just about every boat was out of sight.
| We didn't see many boats, but the sea life was awesome. The dolphins didn't take long to find us. They put on a pretty good show for us and had fun racing the bow of CaST Away. They go so fast, it's hard to get the picture, but after many tries, I finally got a good shot of one jumping out of the water. They didn't need any special training from Sea World. Sometimes two or three would jump out of the water together as if they were performing in front of an audience. |
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I captured the next picture using my new Nikon D-60 camera with zoom lens. This particular time the water was glassy smooth and the dolphins were swimming, not racing, alongside the boat and the camera went off at just the right moment to capture this beautiful picture.
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| Before leaving Coos Bay I
purchased a drag line and a lure called "Tuna Terminator". Just
before we got into San Diego, I decided to try my luck at catching a
fish and it wasn't long before a small barracuda took the bait. In
all the excitement, we forgot to take a picture before we threw him
back. After hearing other boats tell of their great tuna catches,
I decided to throw out my line to see if I could catch a tuna.
Before long we had good size tuna on our line. This time I didn't
forget to take a picture, and like the barracuda, we let him go too.
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The scenery was breathtaking. After a rough start, the seas stayed pretty calm most of the way down the coast. The sky was ever changing and I couldn't resist taking pictures. |
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October 30, 2008:
What a relief it was to finally reach Turtle Bay and see all
those boats that were ahead of us already anchored in the Bay. There were
hundreds of pelicans and the Bay had a peculiar odor. We arrived at 6 a.m.
and by 7 the panga boats were already out collecting our garbage and offering
services. Later that morning a panga boat delivered 50 gallons of diesel
to our boat. We used our generator to pump it into our tank, and of
course, the much needed Baja filter we purchased in San Diego. We removed
flying fish that had committed suicide on our boat. This one was about 10"
long but there were smaller ones also. We also removed squid that had
launched themselves onto the boat and were dried stiff.
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Before long we had our wind shoot set up over our forward hatch to capture some of the breeze to cool the inside of the boat and got our dinghy pumped up for the ride into town. We arrived at a dock that was at least one story off the water. Local kids were waving us to come in different directions, so we picked the section that offered a dock at sea level not realizing that we'd have to climb an inverted ladder up to the second level of the main dock. To make matters worse, the narrow dock was unstable and rocked back and forth. We never went back to this section and opted for jumping out of the dinghy onto a ladder that at least was suspended at the right angle. The kids collected 10 pesos ($1) both arriving and leaving and others sold meaningless maps of the town and worthless permits to go to some island. After two days in Turtle Bay, we weighed anchor on November 1 for the second leg of the Ha-Ha adventure.
November 3, 2008: Bahia Santa Maria This was a shorter trip taking just two days and two nights non-stop to go from Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria. Like Turtle Bay, we anchored out and the only thing here was a fishing camp with a few outbuildings. Some locals from a nearby town provided a Mexican lunch of rice, beans and fish stew for 120 pesos ($12) and a local band provided music. We opted to ride a panga boat to shore since the surf could make landing the dinghy a little difficult. We did take the kayak to shore and it rode the surf in like a surfboard. We collected a lot of nice shells here.
Just prior to getting into Santa Maria, we spotted the Maltese Falcon astern about 5 miles but it was too far away to get a decent picture. We did get a picture of it when it was anchored in Sausalito as we were leaving San Francisco, but again it was at a distance. It was on its way to the Sea of Cortez.
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Puggles and Pudge were happy to get to shore and romp in the coolness of the water at Bahia Santa Maria. |
November 6, 2008: Cabo San Lucas ----- This was a welcome sight!
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| By the time we rounded the
rock above, it was almost dark by the time we got to the other side
and into the harbor. |
After spending 2 days and 1 night at sea we were ready for a much needed rest. It was dusk when we rounded the corner to the entrance of the harbor. By the time we found a spot to anchor it was already dark so we chose a spot quite a ways out from the docks and away from all the other boats that got there way ahead of us. We woke up the next morning to see a large cruise ship anchored not to far away, and panga boats racing around everywhere offering services. Then the jet boats started whizzing by. We were in for a rock-and-roll time for the next five days. At night the music blasted from the night spots on shore 'till early hours in the morning and then by 7 a.m. the commotion outside would begin all over again and last 'till night.
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| High Rise Ships! | High Rise Condos! |
The next day being Friday, and Cabo being our port of entry, we went ashore early to begin the check-in process. It was already too hot for the pugs, so I found a grassy spot in some shade while Charlie and Steve forged ahead looking for the immigration office. After over 3 hours he finally had our papers and we started back to find the Port Captain's office. We got there at 2:15......they closed at 2, so that meant having to stick it out at Cabo until Monday so we could finish the check-in process. After 2 more hours waiting in line, it was noon before we had our permits and too late to leave, so we had to endure another night of commotion before finally weighing anchor on Tuesday morning. Yes, it was nice to get to Cabo, but it was nicer to leave.
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| Steve departs for home on a water taxi (panga) | Leaving Cabo San Lucas |
The next leg of our journey will include travelling up the east coast of Baja California into the Sea of Cortez.