November ‘94
*Additional notes may appear in italics after my mom’s initial journal entries.
A ladybug means you should check the comments at the bottom of the page to see what Mom has chimed in on after reading these!
November 1, Tuesday
More prep.
November 2, Wednesday
Along with Steve and Sherry we caught the noon bus to San Diego, checked into the Travel Lodge on N Harbor and Scott. Steve and Sherry hailed a taxi – New York style, and we went to Southwestern Yacht Club for the Baja HaHa meeting. Samie met a 9-year-old girl named Tameron on the boat True Blue – finally a friend for her.
We called Chelle, she’s due May 22nd, talked to Mom, Peg and Michael.
November 3, Thursday
Oh what a way to begin the day! Hot shower – LOTS of water – maybe we were even a little wasteful – what a joy! We ate breakfast at Denny’s – took a taxi back to the border and caught the 8:30am bus to Ensenada.
The Port Captain would not clear us until 3:00pm, so we will wait till morning to leave. Talked to Steve and Brenda for 20 minutes.
*We were lucky to have a shower on board, but we still had to be mindful of how much we used. There’d definitely be some hollerin’ from my parents if I ran the water too long. And the water wasn’t running the whole time - there was a nozzle for the sprayer so you sprayed down at intervals and to finish up. After the shower, you ran the sump pump, which would pump the collected shower water out into the ocean. That’s when you could really tell how much water you used. I remember getting some head shakes while I stood there, waiting to hear the change in tone which let me know all the water was out. I found this photo from a sister ship which is up for sale (I don’t know that we ever took a photo of ‘the head’ as sailors refer to the bathroom). Ours was a bit different in the details, but was absolutely this same size and shape. The door, which this boat may not actually have, would have swung inward toward the toilet. You would shimmy kind of along the wall here on the right/front and shut the door once you were in. We had a shower nozzle hung up where those hooks are, straight ahead and there was a drain in the floor. The toilet was operated with a hand pump for flushing.
Fun fact: in front of that little window (porthole) is a raised seat in the cockpit where Dad would often set his coffee mug in the morning while he read or reviewed charts of the area we were in. I occasionally delighted in the opportunity to scare the bejesus out of him by waiting 'till he went to grab his mug and I’d reach out of that porthole and grab his hand out of nowhere. 🤣 Even thinking about it now, I can’t stop laughing! What a little shit! 🤪
November 4, Friday!!
The day the adventure really begins! Up at 5:30 am, off the mooring and underway at 7:15 am. As we did our check-in with the net of the Baja Ha-Ha, we find Synergy is on the way to Ensenada for repairs with a collision in the night with Equity, who has to go back to San Diego for major repairs.
We traveled with Valiant Lady and Wind Gypsy, who, at one point headed out to some island. Not much wind, only 5 to 7 knots- motored all day and night.
The first night out in all this darkness went ok – thank god for radar.
John and I took turns sleeping, one or both of us always on watch. We had put the canvas covers all the way around the cockpit so we are closed in and a lot of warmer than otherwise. I’m still cold.
November 5, Saturday
Nice day – still only 2-5 knots of wind at 9 am. It was cold this morning, but at 1 pm I was laying in the warm sun. Samie and I both caught yellowtail tuna, mine 21” and Samie’s 22”, about 8-10 pounds. Good eating!
Let me say this much – I DO NOT LIKE WIND AT NIGHT!!
One more behind us.
November 6, Sunday
I got maybe 3.5-4 hours sleep, John 1 or 1.5, poor guy.
The dolphins were “dancing” this morning, everywhere swimming, jumping and playing – it is spectacular to watch. One whale was spotted by the Valiant Lady.
Talked to Steve in Lakeside on the ham radio.
Samie and I watched 2 dolphins “dancing” with us for about 15 minutes, but they disappeared when I got the camera, shy, I guess.
After 3 days and 2 nights, a total of 57 hours- we were anchored in Turtle Bay at 4:30 pm. The bed sure will feel good tonight.
November 7, Monday
Coming into the bay yesterday, one fishing line got tangled around the prop, so John will have to go for a swim and get it off. The potluck beach party was nice today, great people. Samie and Tameron are getting along great – it’s so nice for both the girls. Tameron spent a couple hours on our boat.
November 8, Tuesday
Samie spent an hour at True Blue with Tameron while John and I “went to town”.
We pulled anchor and the race was on at noon. I think there are 39 boats in the Baja Ha-Ha.
The autopilot was acting up again – but we think we have the rudder response adjusted now – let’s hope!! The night held with 10-knot winds, we reefed the main and dropped the mizzen and scooted on through the night. 10 hours of darkness is too much!
Talked to Steve P. on the ham radio at his dad’s in Tempe.
🐞
November 9, Wednesday
John caught a dolphin fish, good size, maybe 15-20 pounds, but it slipped from the hook just as he was bringing it aboard.
Made water today.
Well – I caught a 35” dolphin fish, 10-15 pounds. It was a long night.
*As Mom noted in the comments for this month, dolphin fish is another name for Dorado or Mahi-Mahi. They are a fish of many names; of which, I’m not sure why one of them is ‘dolphin fish’ because nothing about them resembles a dolphin in any way. lol 🐞
November 10, Thursday
Two days with no sleep is too much. For some reason I can’t sleep out here. We motored all last night so we could get into the anchorage earlier today. It was 12-12:30 when we were anchored. John lost 3 squid lures today. Once we hooked a small marlin, but it broke the line. Don’t know what the other two were that took the hooks.
We were all in bed and out of it by 7:00-8:00.
That dolphin fish was so good.
November 11, Friday
Cloudy and cool today, rained lightly off and on so we never did go ashore in Bahia Santa Maria. About 1 am I woke up to 15-20 knots of wind whistling in the rigging and pouring down rain, which passed by dawn. We had seen this storm on the weather fax with another one building below Cabo.
November 12, Saturday
Happy Birthday Faron.
The rest of the Baja Ha-Ha’s left at 9 am – there was I think 6 of us that chose to wait for the storms to clear out: ourselves and Valiant Lady included. At noon, us, Cascade and Candide went around the “corner” (4 hours) from Santa Maria to Mag Bay; we anchored here at Punta Belcher for the night.
November 13, Sunday
We raised anchor at 8 am and headed inside the bay more, to San Carlos. This is a narrow passage with shoals on either side which is marked with buoys. It took 3 hours to make 20 miles, we anchored AGAIN. John made 7 trips in the dink with three 5-gallon jugs. Luckily on the dock he found a guy who spoke English. He drove him to the fuel, they charged $2.06 per gallon (U.S. - $1.03 pesos/liter). We anchored in Man-o-War cove for tonight. Heard on the ham that the Baja Ha-Haers did get into some wind and rain – glad we waited!
November 14, Monday
3:30 am, brought up the anchor and were out of the mouth of the bay at 6:15 am. 8:30 am we have 15-20 knots, gusts to 25 knots out of the NE; we are scooting along at 4.5, 5 knots, which only lasted about 1 hour, then maybe 5 knots from directly behind until sunset – then 20-25 knots out of the east – all the way into Cabo.
We kept the motor on at 1200 RPM and kept it at 5.5 to 6 knots speed. The sea was confused and swells would put the rail in the water once in a while.
The moon was full and pretty – it was great.
November 15, Tuesday
We made it to Cabo and were on a mooring (yay, no anchor) at 10am.
It is beautiful here.
We did over 700 miles.
Finally, the fun – beautiful part begins.
*I still remember rounding that corner and seeing that infamous arch for the first time.
November 16, Wednesday
We found a supermercado, expensive.
The beach party was fun, Samie won a fish trophy for the kid’s group that caught the biggest fish! Cool!
*The Haha'ers threw a great party on the beach to celebrate our successful group trip to Cabo San Lucas. I definitely still have this award, it' is a green, wooden carved fish on a purple string to hang around the neck. I’ll definitely take a photo when I find it.
November 17, Thursday
I borrowed Sherry’s key and did laundry, the marina and facilities are very nice.
Happy B-day Grandpa Jones, 83. Called Peg, Faron, others not home.
*The use of actual washing machines and dryers was always a treat on the boat. Otherwise things were washed in buckets and scrubbed by hand, then hung over the railing along the outside of the boat to dry. It was definitely a process! Kudos to all the boat moms washing laundry for 3+!!
November 18, Friday
About midnight I got really sick – come to find out half or ¾ of the Baja Ha-Ha fleet got it from the party food, we guess. Severe diarrhea, vomiting, headache and 103.6 fever. So I laid in bed wanting to die for 2 days. John got it a little on Saturday, but not bad. We are taking ampicillin, 500mg, 4 times a day.
*My poor Mom got this the worst of my parents because she not only ate her own helping of ceviche, she also had all of mine and some of my Dad’s, as I remember hearing it. Ooof! Her and I have definitely kept our distance since! Ha, I almost forgot about the day Dad made me Mac n’ Cheese while Mom was sick, and skimped out on either the milk or butter and it was the weirdest serving of cheesy pasta I ever had. lol 🐞
I would also like to note that, while I may have missed on some/a lot of bemoaning from the adults, I don’t remember any mass finger-pointing or huge ruckus after so many people got sick. My only reason for pointing this out, is that the energy I remember about the situation was more like, “oof - let’s be A LOT more careful with the ceviche next time, guys!” rather than trying to take down the entirety something while throwing out intense accusations of carelessness and ill-will like you see these days. My point being, people weren’t such assholes. Yes, it’s serious business - but it obviously wasn’t intentional and no one would have been better off for having barked their balls off at whoever helped with the food, you know?
November 19, Saturday
No one felt too good – not much got done.
November 20, Sunday
Wow, I am gonna live!
There is such a south swell coming in to the bay that the surf is even breaking on the beach, it’s never done that before. Some tropical storm is supposed to be headed this way and this mooring may not be safe, so we moved in to the dock: F14. The mooring was $8 per day and the slip is half price this week, so it’s $18.
It's been since August 14th that we’ve been at a dock. Really, I like the mooring on the beach better, but it’s better to be safe.
Samie went swimming with Tameron from True Blue and the folks from Cascade took all the kids out to eat dinner. I feel really good tonight, like normal again.
Tameron spent the night.
November 19, Saturday
Well, that didn’t last. I’m sick again with diarrhea and Samie has 102 fever, diarrhea and the pukes. I don’t know what it is, but I’m tired of it.
John worked on reinforcing the autopilot and the SSB.
November 20, Sunday
More work on the SSB – Samie and I still sick. Where are the days going, I’m missing all the fun.
*Neither Mom or I even noticed this little glitch in dates, lol. We figure she was sick and overlooked her previous entries and thought she was catching up. I’ll tell you I thought I was glitching out when I noticed it. Too funny.
November 21, Monday
Mom and Daddy had thought some of flying out here this week, but are not since they just saw us not too long ago.
Samie and I still have The Crud.
November 22, Tuesday
I managed to do some laundry, we moved out of the harbor and out on anchor. Samie is some better, not me.
November 23, Wednesday
I have such a rash from the ampicillin, I look awful; they are little blisters. I slept most of the day; John worked on this and that.
November 24, Thursday
Happy Thanksgiving.
We talked to Steve and Brenda on the cell phone – still trying to fix the SSB. Talked to Peggy and Michael, they are driving to Mesa to have Thanksgiving with my Mom and Dad and then back home.
Samie went swimming and to a big Thanksgiving dinner with Tameron on True Blue.
November 25, Friday
I’m feeling much better, just really weak. John put 55 or 60 gallons of fuel in the tanks.
We cooked ham, potatoes and yams for our Thanksgiving dinner tonight.
November 26, Saturday
Making water. I’m feeling better still. We went snorkeling and out for pizza.
November 27, Sunday
John made a 20-meter dipole for the SSB and we did make good contact with Steve in Lakeside, but it will only work while we are in port or anchored. He thinks there is a tuner problem.
Did laundry. Steve and Sherry had us over for fresh Dorado.
November 28, Monday
John put in the second reef in the main sail and one reef in the mizzen.
November 29, Monday
Did the food shopping – Steve and Sherry, Valiant Lady, moved from the marina to the anchorage, next to us. They came over to the boat for burgers.
I called Peggy, she got the post card today (5 days) and she says all her friends are lying to her – so she’s ready to come for the summer and stay a year. Yeah! – But I’ll bet she doesn’t.
November 30, Wednesday
We checked out in all the proper little offices. When we got back to our boat -the generator will not start; it keeps blowing fuses. So we ran the gas generator a couple hours to chill down the fridge. We pulled anchors at 3:30 pm and were underway at 4 pm. We had a peaceful night with 10-15 knots out of the NE.
