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Baja Ha-Ha XXIX Draws to a Close, and ‘Boat Bum Gal’ Has Her Say

As the 29th Baja Ha-Ha fleet made its way into port at Cabo San Lucas, those already at the dock headed to Squid Roe for the annual “Can’t Believe We Cheated Death Again” dance and party. Unfavorable weather conditions meant the start of Leg Three out of Bahia Santa Maria had been delayed a few hours, and the fleet was scattered in its arrival at Cabo. But that didn’t dampen the spirits of those taking to the dance floor.

“It seems as though we left San Diego two months ago, not just two weeks ago,” the Poobah wrote on his Facebook page.
© 2023 Richard Spindler

The Poobah has also shared some comments regarding last week’s incident in which one of the Baja Ha-Ha fleet, the Nicholson 38 Boat Bum Gal, sank after hitting rocks at the entrance to Turtle Bay. The boat’s owner, Sandra Barnes, has contacted the Poobah to let him know that she is safe, now with her family, and that she won’t be “publicly addressing” the incident.

The Poobah continued:

I understand that, as we all know how people who don’t know anything about any given incident say all kinds of ridiculous stuff about them. It’s a universal truth.

As the Poobah, I want to point out a few facts to give some clarification and context to the incident:

1) In order to encourage people to stay offshore following the “finish” of Leg One, I set the finish 15 miles north and 15 miles west of Turtle Bay. I didn’t want anybody “finding themselves” too close to shore.

2) In the Sailing Instructions I issued a specific warning with regard to the finish of Leg Two: “CAUTION: Entering unfamiliar anchorages at night can be extremely dangerous. Enter Turtle Bay at your own risk.”

3) I also made this same warning about Turtle Bay at the Skipper’s Meeting.

4) Despite these cautions, entering Turtle Bay, even at night, isn’t even as difficult [as] entering San Francisco Bay. The safe width of the entrance to San Francisco Bay is about seven tenths of a mile, or about 3,700 feet. The safe passage entrance to Turtle Bay is a full mile, or 5,280 feet. Given the navigation lights and today’s electronic navigation, it’s hard to have trouble. The thing that perplexes me is why Boat Bum Gal was hugging the coast on the approach to Turtle Bay.

Here is the written explanation given by Ray McCormack, who holds a 200-ton Coast Guard license, and who was the Person in Charge for the final three hours of Boat Bum Gal:

Around 10 p.m. on November 2nd I awoke to the boat heeling over from wind. Got up and found that we had an offshore breeze blowing about 22 knots. Eased the sails and made the decision to turn inland a bit to mitigate the wind conditions the boat was seeing. The sails and rigging on this boat were quite aged. The boom vang had already broken off the mast. Our route had us going into the center of the entrance of Turtle Bay as noted by cruising guides, and this is what I have done over my last four times into Turtle Bay.

The new plan was to run the 10-meter depth or 30 feet to get close to land, allowing us to take the sails down. Usually when I deviate from my planned route I will drag my waypoints over to the new intended route. I did not do this, which means I had no reference to the boat changing direction. Also, my Coastal Explorer stopped showing tracks for reference of the direction of the boat.”

What puzzles me is why, if you’re very close to an irregular coast in just 30 feet of water at night, you’d be planning to head almost straight toward land in order to drop your sails.

McCormack also reports that, “As we headed down the coast, we saw that the autopilot would make 30 degree turns without notification….”

Further, “… [w]e found that when putting the autopilot in Standby mode, the hydraulic pump would not release the helm for 20 seconds.’

That strikes me as double and triple reasons why you wouldn’t want to be anywhere near a rocky and irregular coast at night. If you were a mile or two or three offshore, the autopilot could go bonkers and you’d still have plenty of time to get it disconnected.

Our approach to sailing is the same as riding motorcycles — we like to leave a big margin of error for possible problems, except when racing. So we don’t tailgate on our bikes, and we don’t hug the shore when approaching harbor entrances at night.

We’re glad to report that Sandra was treated wonderfully by the Mexican navy and other officials. When we met with Sandra and Ray on Profligate the morning after the loss of Boat Bum Gal, we asked her if she needed any monetary or other assistance. She said she was fine.

Three boats of the more than 3,000 that have done a Ha-Ha have been lost. A J/120 was sunk by a whale. The six crew took to their life raft and were picked up by a Coast Guard helicopter in what the Coasties later described as a “textbook rescue.”

About five years ago a Newport 41 was driven ashore just north of Turtle Bay before dark in benign conditions. “We fucked up,” was the explanation by the crew, who mistook a “false bay” a few miles north of Turtle Bay for the real thing.

And finally, Boat Bum Gal. We wish all of you safe sailing.

Boat Bum Gal sailing track
The Poobah shared this graphic of Boat Bum Gal’s track as she entered Turtle Bay at around 2:00 a.m. At the time of impact, Sandra was belowdecks.
© 2023 Facebook/Richard Spindler
Sailing

9 Comments

  1. CW Garrison 1 year ago

    It appears to me, that, at the very least, the basic principles of good seamanship were completely ignored here. How many people were on the boat? Who was on watch? There’s an implication and some of the statements that the skipper and the owner were both below. Following a track that close to shore in the dark in rising conditions indicates to me that there was no one paying attention to the strictest aspects of seamanship. I’m glad that everyone was safe and sorry for the loss of the boat. This will be an object lesson to pick your crewmembers very carefully and understand what you’re getting into before you go on offshore passages.

  2. Jeff 1 year ago

    What about radar? I mean really.

  3. robert cleveland 1 year ago

    Richard pretty much says it as does CW Garrison
    I’ve had to twice sail in to Turtle Bay at night as no motor and although extremely nervous had no problem
    However I do know how to sail I also was not using an autopilot and part of the crew were on deck with me
    One Word SEAMANSHIP👍👍👍

  4. Skipper J 1 year ago

    Lack of preparation, skills and accountability, as always. These are the skippers I have to compete against for deliveries, and then clients tell me they found cheaper options *eye roll*

  5. Shawna Smith 1 year ago

    The overall tone of this article really gets under my skin. Sandra is a fellow sailor who has just lost her boat, somehow it seems even worse that she was off-watch when it happened. Maybe some empathy is in order here instead of a big fat “I told you so”. She is surely grieving.

    • Mac 1 year ago

      J/World was a J/120, not a J/42.

  6. Jim Cate 1 year ago

    Shawna, I too feel for Sandra, but if folks are to learn anything from her loss, a public discussion of w hat went wrong and why it did so are not just appropo but really needed. The blatant failures of seamanship that lead to the loss could have been easily avoided and with the above discussions, perhaps some future sailor will know how to avoid similar outcomes.

    Jim Cate

  7. Paul Hedberg 1 year ago

    First off, relief that Sandra, crew are alive and safe. Secondly, sadness for her loss of Boat Bum Gal. Food for thought: Once, when faced with a similar situation there at Bahia Tortuga on a delivery from PV to SD, we had lost auto pilot, GPS, radio and lights in stormy conditions. Our Skipper, a professional Boat Delivery Captain, opted to sail a course offshore and back until daylight returned and we could clearly see the landmarks into the bay. The other crewman and I both thought it was overly cautious at the time as it was going to cost us more time and effort and we both thought we could enter safely. In hindsight I can only say thanks to our Skipper for his caution and wisdom.

  8. Rick Jones 1 month ago

    This is a difficult story to read – very unfortunate. Terrible things can happen while sailing. Seven years ago on the HaHa, my Skipper had left off a turning point in our route for the final legs to Santa Maria. Ten miles out, if I hadn’t noticed it, we might have run aground. Everything worked out for our pitch-black entry to Santa Maria.
    That year, a woman almost drowned at Santa Maria from the riptide caused by the mangroves. The last time the woman went down before I fished her out, she’d been underwater for 3 minutes. It scared the hell out of me.
    The more positive story for Sandra would be what she and her crew did, after hitting the rocks, to save everyone on board. That’s the story that we need to hear about. God Bless Sandra for turning a tragic grounding around and everyone surviving.

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