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A Ha-Ha Reprise Aboard the S&S 42 Yawl ‘Fairwyn’

The only thing more fun than doing a Baja Ha-Ha is doing it a second time. After enjoying my first Ha-Ha in 2021, and bashing back home, I was itching for another go. This time I had it all lined up: solid crew, my stupid freakin’ TIP, slip in San Diego, slip in Mazatlán, offshore connectivity (thank you, Starlink), weather forecasting, meal planning, Mexican insurance, warm clothes for night watches, fishing licenses — and new downwind sails ready for a workout.

The first of three crews joined me in Emeryville for a three-night run to San Diego in “delivery mode,” with no planned stops. Of course I had allowed time to make stops for weather or breakdowns, but everything ran smoothly and Fairwyn arrived in San Diego a week before the start of the Ha-Ha. San Diego marinas seem not to like wooden boats very much, so I was glad that C.F. at Koehler Kraft made room for Fairwyn.

Crew for the Ha-Ha itself was boat partner Sarah Dime and her friend Chelsea Greene. We were all pretty salty, but after some thought decided to use scopolamine patches anyway. Everyone gets seasick if the conditions are bad enough, or if you must change a fuel filter upside down in a seaway. With the patches we were bulletproof.

The trip down to Cabo was wonderful: calm seas, gentle winds, stunning sunsets and sunrises, and lots of fish on the line. In 2021, there were a few rough days out of San Diego, and the breakdown report during the first radio net in Turtle Bay went on for over an hour. This time there was very little damage other than one unfortunate boat that needed some help getting into Turtle Bay. Fairwyn suffered only a broken spinnaker halyard block from my misguided attempt to center the lifting point. Fortunately, I had a spare halyard rigged.

Rick and Gayle have owned Fairwyn since 2017. Prior to that, the boat had sailed for 15 years and 50,000 miles under Stephen and Nancy Carlman.
© 2025 Eric Mizrahi

The leg from Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria allowed for some beautiful photos of one another’s boats. We coordinated with Eric Mizrahi of Bibi to get a good photo of our new sails. (That great picture above — showing off our two new spinnakers — is one of his.)

Things got exciting in Cabo. When the fleet arrived on Wednesday, the Poobah passed along the weather forecast for a big blow on Sunday.

Continue reading.

 

Sailing

1 Comments

  1. Rich Brazil 3 weeks ago

    Great photo!! Wow. It’s so difficult to get a good shot of your boat. Score! Excellent story. It never gets old reading accounts of someone’s journey south.

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