A Light Air Bash and a Black Bird

With the onset of hurricane season in Mexico, this is the time of year when boats that went south for the winter have either done or are doing the Baja Bash. Based on the reports we’ve gotten, most of April and May were awful months for doing the Bash, with lots of boats having to battle rough weather and/or wait out bad weather in anchorages.

Fortunately for Doña de Mallorca and her merry crew of Ray Catlette, Patrick Ralph and Chuck Hooper on Latitude‘s 63-ft cat Profligate, they, and everybody else who left in early June, booked into a nice weather window. The result for Profligate was a 5.75-day passage from La Paz to San Diego. While the seas were a little sloppy the first couple of nights out of Cabo, it wasn’t too bad because they never saw more than seven knots of wind. Most Bashers would have killed for conditions like that.

Indeed, the only problem Profligate had was with a little black bird with a bad wing that landed on the boat. A compassionate Patrick Ralph — who claims to have done 20 sailing trips as a result of rides he’s found via the Latitude Crew List — insisted that he be allowed to intervene rather than let the bird die. "All right," said Doña, a captain with something of a reputation for being a hard-ass, "but if there’s a problem, you’re responsible."

The problem showed up when Profligate checked in with Customs in San Diego. After waiting more than two hours for an agent to show up, the formalities went well — although the agent advised them and everyone else to throw their fresh food overboard before pulling in, and not to bring their garbage to San Diego — until the crew was asked if there were any animals onboard.

"Just this wounded bird that landed on the boat," said Ralph.

Oops.

The Customs man wasn’t happy about that, because it meant someone from Quarantine and a vet would have to be called. "There could be some expense involved," he said.

At that point Ralph’s compassion faded. "Let’s just let the bird go overboard, and nature will take it’s course."

"It’s too late for that," said the Customs official. "I’m coming back later with a vet, and when I do, this bird had still better be on the boat."

Capt. Doña wasn’t at all happy with this turn of events. "I knew something like this would happen. If there is a bill for this bird," she told Ralph, "you’re paying for it!"

A couple of hours later, the Customs guy and someone from Quarantine showed up at the boat. "My bird was handcuffed, put into a big cage, and taken away," says Ralph. He was kidding about the handcuffing. But papers were signed, and the bird was indeed surrendered to the custody of the USDA or some other government agency. God knows what they are going to do with it.

"It’s unclear if there is going to be a fine or some other charge," says Capt. Doña, "but I want to emphasize how nice these government officials were. This was a pain for them, but they were very, very nice about it."

We all hope the bird recovers. If Ralph is incarcerated as a result of bringing the bird into the country, maybe it will visit him in Santa Rita or wherever he might be confined.

Got a Bash story? We’re all ears.