We Can Rest When We’re Dead

If your answer to "What have you been doing for the last 10 days?" is a lifeless "Ah, nuthin" or "Same old, same old," perhaps you should have been one of the 601 people on 150 boats who participated in the now nearly concluded Baja Ha-Ha 14 from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas. Their lives have been anything but dull, as they’ve:

• sailed more than 750 miles, in everything from chilly afternoon temps to a tropical 79 degrees at 3 a.m.

• enjoyed — or at least endured — sailing conditions that varied from flat calm to 30 knots and sloppy eight-foot seas

• been up at all hours of the day and night, driving, trimming sails, gybing the chute and setting the hook
• dropped anchor in three of the most diverse imaginable spots in Mexico, from the spectacular natural environment at Bahia Santa Maria to totally synthetic ‘Cabo and Gormorrah’

• met many great Mexican folks, from friendly shopkeepers in little Turtle Bay to ballsy pangañeros in Bahia Santa Maria to surprisingly talented strolling musicians in Cabo restaurants
• seen a billion stars undefiled by ambient light
• seen many whales and dolphin
• enjoyed the taste of the freshest possible tuna, dorado, and wahoo sashimi

• got caught on the beach by huge swells generated from deep in the southern hemisphere

• been prohibited from anchoring in the main Cabo anchorage because some film company needed the beach to be the Dead Sea for their movie

• and perhaps most important, made dozens of new sailing friends.

Talk to anyone who did this year’s Ha-Ha, and they’ll tell you that the above doesn’t even begin to scratch the surface of what the participants have been up to for the last 10 days, because it’s been living life full tilt and to the hilt. So if "nuthin’" or "same old, same old" is what you’re looking for in life, make sure there’s no Ha-Ha in your future.