Baja Ha-Ha Wrap Up

Here’s your 2017 Baja Ha-Ha recap: the fleet did a roughly three-day leg from San Diego to Turtle Bay (about halfway down the Baja peninsula), then Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria, then on to Cabo San Lucas for the finish, which was officially last night at El Squid Roe, where the Poobah could be seen in all his fluorescent orange T-shirt glory. There is a beach party today, as the last remaining boats trickle into Cabo.

"Here’s a pic from the raging party," wrote Allison Stark, who’s doing the Ha-Ha with her husband Nick Edwards on their Beneteau 393 Salt. "We all got to witness the Poobah rocking out to Journey and breaking out some rad dance moves. Pretty epic — lots of dancing and fun; no one’s drink was empty."

A new game has been introduced in the Baja Ha-Ha, informally known as ‘Where’s Poobah’?

On board Salt, father-and-son duo Nick and Lee Edwards carried on their Ha-Ha tradition.

"This is Lee’s fourth trip sailing to Cabo, having first set sail in 1982 with then-infant Nick (now the captain of Salt). During the 1982 trip, Lee helped Bernard Moitessier dig out his beached sailboat after a storm — his tush was featured in an issue of Latitude," Allison wrote us.  

"Cabo has changed from a small, dusty Mexican fishing village with the occasional palapa on the beach to a tourist mecca, where that same beach is lined with luxury hotels cheek to jowl," Lee said. "The unpaved roads are a thing of the past." Lee and family sailed to Cabo and beyond again in 1992, and Lee participated in the 2012 Ha-Ha.

This weekend marks the official end of the Ha-Ha in Cabo San Lucas, but certainly not the end of the journey for many of the participants, many of whom will now figure out where to go next. Some people will continue to cruise around the Sea of Cortez, while others will use Mexico as a jumping-off point to cross the Pacific.