Making the Sails Work — From the Baja Ha-Ha to SoCal
We always encourage sailors to head south in the fall, to join the Baja Ha-Ha fleet as it cruises its way to Mexico. We hear less about sailors making the return passage north, and when we do, their stories often focus on the “bash.” Joseph Harvard from Ventura, CA, and also Birmingham, UK, sent us his story on sailing northward from his completion of the 2025 Baja Ha-Ha in Cabo to SoCal, aboard his Beneteau First 36.7 Comedy Act. We think his boat is aptly named: His sense of humor seems to have stayed with him throughout the passage.
Mazatlán to San Diego, slip to slip, 11 days 10 hours, with a splash and dash in Bahia Tortugas for fuel that lasted 2.5 hours. It would have been shorter, but Ernesto and Maria were having lunch.
Along the way the furler drum parted intimate contact with the furler, and the halyard swivel shackle bail failed. Sail changes from this point involved stopping the boat, changing headsails and then getting going again.
But wait; there’s more: Our 20+-year-old Raymarine autopilot failed (encouraged by turning it on with the helm lock on, doh!). Then, surely in sympathy, the rest of the suite of Raymarine instruments failed except the speed and depth head.
On the plus side we had cold-cold Pacificos, Topo Chico Agua Minerale, and Josh Chardonnay. Superb meals by Roger (I’ll crew at the drop of a hat) Casas. Called on Thursday, flew in on Saturday, left Mazatlán on Sunday [the] 31st at 10:30 p.m., a half-hour late, for crying out loud.
Paperwork clearance in Mazatlán by the incomparable Guille Hernandez, email [email protected]. The way this woman handles those pesky government officials is poetry in motion. Guille will turn you on to a rental car as well, awesome woman and resource in Mazatlán.
This was definitely not a Jim Elfers Baja Bash — thrash-the-auxiliary-and-trash-the-main style of return to CA along the West Coast of Baja California. We sailed home, took advantage of the lifts, took our headers in stride, and changed sails when the wind-pressure changes demanded. Yes, we used the engine to assist with an additional knot or two when wind pressure subsided, applied at low rpm to conserve the 110 gallons we had on board.
My biggest failing was not having my coveted #4 jib on board. It is so essential for offshore when working your way to weather. I contemplated using the storm jib for our first encounter with higher wind pressure off Cabo Falso, but went with a heavily reefed furler jib, about a #2 in size. It was so inefficient and encouraged the furler to fail, no doubt. After that we had no choice but to shorten sail; it was the storm jib, and it was a revelation. We immediately had a more manageable boat in the true wind ranges above 15 knots, plus it would point so much higher than the furler, just not comparable in performance. If you have one use it. Besides, the orange color is so cool.
We downloaded fresh weather and current GRIBs every day and updated our route with our current position. We utilized LuckGrib for our weather and route analysis, then ported our .gpx routes to qtVlm, our chartplotter software. Our route was updated every day with fresh weather data. It was fascinating to watch LuckGrib navigate between higher-wind-pressure areas and thread the needle through all the current variables to give us an edge as we beat to weather.
The decision to run for it when we did was predicated on mostly forecast medium winds with some light and some higher intensity for the probable number of days the transit would likely take. We went for it, we sailed it, and limited the motor-dominant aspect to a minimum. It was definitely a philosophical choice. It’s a sailboat; sail it, make it work, was our goal.
If you’re holding off doing the Ha-Ha because you’re worried about the bash back, don’t let that stop you. Joseph and Roger had fun. Besides, there are other options: Get a delivery crew together, or better yet, keep cruising, and don’t come back!
You can sign up for this year’s Ha-Ha here.
