Turtle Bay

We have arrived in Turtle bay in good shape. Everybody is ok. Clark and Uncle Mike have been seasick for the last 4 days.

The steering broke on day 2, but we repaired it and it worked fine all day yesterday in 8ft. seas. We stopped with a bunch of boats in Bahia San Quintin to repair the steering and the VHF radio. There was 8-10ft seas outside so the anchorage was very rolly.
We cooked the Lasagna and chicken dishes and Dave made bratwurst. We have been munching on the Nutragrain bars and eating yogurt and raisin bran for breakfast.

We caught a small bonito on the squid lour and ate sashimi for appetizers on two nights. It was great!

We have had a string of bad luck with the boat gear, but we have been able to work through most of the issues.

I’m here in town at Turtle bay at an internet café. There is no AC on the boat so I’m here charging the computers and sending email.

The Spot unit ran out of batteries and I tried to put in new ones. The package you got was AA and the unit requires AAA. Go figure. We put AAA alkaline batteries in but they only last one night. We were sending our position about every hour manually to conserve batteries last night and that seemed to work.

We will go to the Bar-B-Que on the beach today then start leg 2 tomorrow at 12:30PM.

Local Sailors Rescued After Ocean Encounter With Whales

This was NOT our boat - it was the SV Crosswave from Marina Village
Local Sailors Rescued After Ocean Encounter With Whales
5 Rescued After Sailboat Capsizes, Sinks
POSTED: 3:46 pm PDT October 28, 2009
UPDATED: 7:22 pm PDT October 28, 2009

SAN DIEGO -- U.S. Coast Guard air crews came to the rescue Wednesday of five people drifting in a lifeboat in Mexican waters after the sailboat they had been in capsized and sank several hundred miles south of Point Loma, authorities reported.
The federal maritime agency received an emergency notification about the accident about 10 a.m., USCG Petty Officer Henry Dunphy said.
The Coast Guard sent out a helicopter from its San Diego station and a C-130 plane from Sacramento, and the chopper crew spotted the lifeboat drifting about 50 miles off the coast of Mexico, Dunphy said.
The helicopter personnel picked up the group -- who had been taking part in a nearly 800-mile mass ocean voyage involving hundreds of sailboats -- and headed back to San Diego.
"It was a miracle. It was like angels were coming to rescue us because we had resigned ourselves to the fact that we were going to be there up to three days to make it to the coast," said Judy Land, who was part of the group at sea.
Crew members said it was a whale ramming the boat's rudder -- and not the high winds at sea -- that caused the boat to capsize.
The captain of the boat, Eugenie Russell, said, "They were big ... I would say a good 50 feet ... I remember seeing 7 or 8 of them."
One of the rescued boaters had a minor hand injury. The other four apparently were unscathed by the mishap, according to Dunphy.
The sailboat trip from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, dubbed the Baja Ha Ha Rally, began Monday and was supposed to end in Cabo San Lucas on Nov. 7.

Baja Ha Ha crew to Cabo San Lucas
Clark Hemphill, Gerry T., Uncle Mike!, Dave Calhoun and Salty Doug. I have the SPOT back on and following them. SVAQUADESIAC

Baha Ha Ha Begins

The morning begin with coffee and donuts. Left the dock this morning at 9:51 a.m., returned a short time latter for one more trip to the yanmar dealer. Hmm, seems like someone did not open a through hole fitting for the engine. It was a quick fix thanks to all the land support in San Diego. We were as quick as any indy crew with 2 trips to the store! Thanks to "Jim" and Jamie for the technical advice.

Working in San Diego

Dave Calhoun and I (Salty Doug) are here in San Diego docked at the Silver Gate Yacht Club.The club house is in front of the boat under the palm trees.

We have been working on the boat, fixing leaks, fixing the voltage regulator that broke on the way south, and finishing tasks that weren't completed in Alameda.

Here is Dave working on the hatch with the fine adjustment tool.

The cockpit floor had been leaking since the re-power so we removed the two outer strips of teak and re-bedded them.

We also mounted the launching wheels on the dingy, Dave mounted the stern anchor roller, and I put a second light in the fwd head.

San Francisco to San Diego Trip Pictures

We used Luc Poppe's camera as the main camera for the trip since he was kind enough to leave it in the cockpit for all 4 days.

Here is a Photo of the successful crew in San Diego.

L to R: Uncle Mike, Dennis Zvalo, Aaron Robinson (in back), Dave Calhoun, Luc Poppe, and Myself, Salty Doug.

Luc Poppe posted his pictures on line at Shutterfly.

Also, here is a video of the porpoises playing in the bow wave. There was no wind that morning so the ocean was like a mirror which allowed the fantastic pictures and this move. In all my other pictures of Porpoises all you see is maybe a fin and the waves on the surface.

Arrived safe and sound in San Diego on Wednesday as scheduled. Staying at the Cabrillo Isle for a short time. Doug is heading back up to the Bay Area for a few days next week. Uncle Mike is going home to Oklahoma to spend some time with his horses. Mainly fix the gate so they don't escape!

Heading towards the Channel Islands

Still heading South. Not too far from the Channel Islands today

This is what Grand Marina looked like this morning at about 6:45 am. Note the full moon in the background. It was very calm and still. Clear skies

Left San Francisco at 8:45 AM

Doug and his crew left San Francisco today at the crack of 8:45 am (sharp!). Just a few last minute things as always. They left a day late because the weather outside the Golden Gate was a bit rough on Saturday. I am following them on www.findmespot.com and right now they are off the coast of Halfmoon Bay. It looks like they are making pretty good time. They are a ways offshore to avoid the swells.
You can check them out yourself at
http://share.findmespot.com/shared/faces/viewspots.jsp?glId=0JV2lyo4Rqi7SR2HPZBHszkdQ8qUioXhl