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Baja Ha-Ha Deadline Extended

It’s less than two months to the big Baja Ha-Ha Beach Party at Turtle Bay. If you like making new cruising friends, you won’t want to miss it. And there is still time to sign up. 

© 2017 Kurt Roll

"I’ve been so busy working on my boat that I forgot September 15 was the deadline for signing up for this year’s Ha-Ha," a caller said yesterday, and wondered if the deadline could be extended.

The Grand Poobah is here not only for the 146 folks who have already paid up for the Ha-Ha, but for those who haven’t gotten around to it. So he’s moved the deadline back to September 30.

But even that’s a soft deadline, just for those who want to be in the Ha-Ha bio book and get their boat name on the official Ha-Ha T-shirt. The hard-hard deadline for signing up is at the Ha-Ha Halloween Costume Kick-Off Party at the West Marine Superstore in San Diego on October 29. That’s how much the Poobah loves you.

Ha-Ha Communications
As all Ha-Ha entrants know, this year’s event requires some method of long distance two-way communication. This means either the traditional SSB, or something like the Garmin InReach, the Iridium Go! or similar. Instructions on how non-SSB reporting will be done shall be emailed to each entrant by October 15.

Warning! You cannot buy something like an InReach the day before the start of the Ha-Ha and expect to use it immediately. You’ll need to sign up on the Internet, and depending on your tech skills, may need a 12 year old to explain how to use it. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll love it. Maybe not as much as if you had an SSB and could be listening to daily nets as sea, but you’ll love it a lot.

Emergency Diesel Engine Repairs
A new feature of this year’s Ha-Ha will be a seminar/workshop on how to make diesel engine repairs in an emergency. It will be given by Jim Drake, who up until retiring this month was a Yanmar dealer in South San Francisco who had been responsible for keeping all of Oracle’s powerboats going during the 34th America’s Cup. We’re working on the details, but expect to have the seminar at Driscoll Boat Works on Shelter Island in San Diego on either the Saturday or Sunday — the 21st or 22nd — before the start of the Ha-Ha.

Jim did the very first Ha-Ha on the Wanderer’s Ocean 71 Big O, then continued on with the boat to Panama, the Caribbean, and the Med all the way to Turkey, then back to the States. He also did Profligate’s first Ha-Ha and last year’s Ha-Ha on his own boat, and will be doing this year’s Ha-Ha on his boat with his wife Jeanette. As soon as we know the exact time and location of the seminar, we’ll let you know.

Who is doing the Ha-Ha?
Having already written about half of the Ha-Ha entry bios, the Grand Poobah has a pretty good idea of who will be sailing south this year. When it comes to guys, there are lots of IT folks, engineers, contractors, business owners and administrators. When it comes to the women, there are nurses, nurses, and more nurses. But if you’re a woman, you do not need to be a nurse to do the Ha-Ha.

As you might expect, entries are coming from the West Coast of the United States and Canada, but also a few from the Midwest and East Coast. The most surprising are an entry from Switzerland and another from Germany. For a number of Ha-Ha entries, the rally to Cabo will be their first long sail. But many others are vets of more than one Ha-Ha, and have a tremendous amount of international offshore experience, if not a circumnavigation, to their credit.

The 25th Annual Ha-Ha Will Be Next Year
The Poobah has already given the honorary #1 slot to John and Debbie Rogers of the San Diego-based Deerfoot 62 Moonshadow, because they’ll be coming the greatest distance. Their email will explain: "Thinking about The Wanderer, de Mallorca and other friends doing the Ta-Ta, and the Ha-Ha just around the corner, we’ve realizied how much we miss home, friends, family and Mexico. So come January, Moonshadow will be heading back to Ensenada — aboard a ship. We plan to return to winters in Mexico based out of La Cruz, and summers at the San Diego Yacht Club. So look for us in the 2018 Ha-Ha, and if there’s room, the Ta-Ta, too."

By the way, if anyone has any experience with having a boat shipped from Australia to Ensenada, John and Debbie would appreciate hearing from you. You can contact them at [email protected].

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