The VI Baja Ha Ha "race" began under sunny skies and a favorable 8 to 15 knot wind out of the northeast, making for a perfect sailing start of a three day, two night sail to Bahia Tortugas (Turtle Bay). The Nai'a, with her crew of four, was near the front of the fleet with an excellent view of the majority of the Baja fleet as it spread out over the ocean for the sail south.
The start of the 1999 Baha Ha-Ha. It's just you and 130 other boats.	Tom and Bob are more than happy to strut their stuff.
Crew getting ready to set the whisker pole. Michael say's "More sail. More sail!"	The Nai'a in all her glory
Captain Bob decided to set an initial south and slightly west course of 190 degrees to take advantage of the wind and to get away from the coastline and its light & variable wind conditions. After a quick lunch, the crew set about to raise a Reacher Drifter to catch another knot or so of speed. Unfortunately, the coarse taken was across swells of 8 to 10 feet which made setting the Spinnaker Pole from the bow of the ship a mighty bumpy ride. While Mike tried to video the first setting of the sail and Tom tried to lend assistance, they (novice sailors both) soon began to show signs of seasickness. After setting the sail, the crew returned to the cockpit to enjoy the fruits of their labor, which Tom enjoyed (?) in a way other than one might appreciate. As the day wound down into night, Mike slept off most of his problems and Tom kept his head in the wind watching the horizon (classic seasick aversion method) while Bob and Kristin managed to sail the rest of the day without them.   With a crew of four, Captain Bob decided that each crewman would take a 2 hour on (six off) solo shift each night while the rest of the crew grabbed some sleep. Captain Bob took the 10PM to Midnight shift, Kristin got the Midnight to 2AM Shift, night owl Mike took the 2AM to 4AM shift, and early bird Tom took the 4AM to 6AM shift (which usually stretched out to 7AM or later). By the dawn of the second day, we were about 80 miles offshore. Maintaining a 190+ degree course during the night had taken us slightly further out from the desired course. After breakfast, it was all hands on deck as we reset the sails to take a course more downwind which would also take as with the swells instead of across them for a much smoother ride. The wind gods were truly smiling down on us, as we maintained a good steady 6 to 7 knots all day and well into the second night. However, about 1 AM, on Kristin's evening shift, the wind changed and picked up speed, causing the spin halyard on the Reacher Drifter to break sending the sail into the water. All hands responded and retrieved the sail and restored order without too much problem.
The morning after. Tom got a bit sick on day one of sailing. At sunrise on day two he mostly stayed on deck with his face in the wind.	Day three. No one got much sleep. At 1:00am the halyard on the reacher/drifter sail broke, sending the sail into the water. It was all hands on deck to retrieve it.
About 90 miles north of Bahia Tortugas are the Big and Little Cedros islands, with a third island named ? about 30 miles north of Bahia Tortugas. Captain Bob plotted our course to keep us between the two main islands, then stay outside of ? with a final jibe past ? into Bahia Tortugas for a welcome 2 day rest and recuperation period. With dolphins swimming along in our bow wash and winds blowing strong from the northwest, we altered our course to cut inside of the third island which seemed a reasonable alternative to the original plan. Wrong! By 4:30PM the third day, we found ourselves in a cross swell with wind bursts of 25 to 30 knots with a sail configuration set for 12-15 knots. As Bob took over the helm to keep us from running too fast down the swells which were now in the 10 to 12 foot range, Mike and Kristin headed forward to reef the mainsail. After some anxious moments, and with Mike and Kristin hanging on for dear life a couple of times as water washed over the side, they lowered the sail enough to regain solid control of the ship. With about an hour of sunlight left, and a narrow channel of reefs and kelp to navigate, Bob agreed with the majority opinion (voiced by Tom who had to watch his kids nearly wash overboard) to motor the last 30 miles into Bahia Tortugas (read "mutiny" according to Captain Bob).
We saw quite a few dolphins on leg one. This pack contained about thirty dolphins. Their favorite passtime seems to be surfing the bow wake.	Tom is a bit nervous with the high winds and high cross cutting swells.
After arriving at Turtle	After yesterday's high sea's Kristin need to dry out her soaked socks.
Under the light of a sliver of a moon and with the aid of onboard radar and Interphase "Probe" sonar, Bob and Kristin smoothly maneuvered Nai'a into Bahia Tortugas about 10 PM for our first stop of the Baja Ha Ha!
Day three. Shortly after anchoring in Turtle Bay Tom took his first shower. The crew was very thankful.	Bob explains how the previous nights sail went. Warning - he's only gotten about three hours sleep! You'll need QuickTime 4.0 or later to view this movie file. If you don't have it go to the QuickTime web site to get your copy. Since version 4.0 came out over 25 million people have downloaded the most versatile media player around. Click here to download.