Baja Ha-Ha - Our first leg out of San Diego to Turtle Bay, wow! - 2012

 The first leg was hard on us. We do not have an asymmetrical spinnaker and the winds were real light. There was a mixed 3-4 ft swell and so we were motoring. We tried to raise the main and the genoa with the whisker pole holding out the genoa.
The waves would role the wind out of the sails and they were flopping around. So we motored. The going was difficult. You needed five feet and six hands to get around the boat. We got bruised up and sleeping the first two nights at sea were very difficult. If you have an island queen in these conditions forget about sleeping. The waves would roll you right out of the bunk. What really was needed was an athwart ships bunk. We did make a lee cloth for the settee but t was not used by the crew. Debbie and I ended up sleeping in the Pullman berth the whole way. We would sleep across it and brace ourselves. We mostly sleep alone but for a few hours at night when we were off watch together.
  Pam had a not bad spot on the salon as she could sleep across the beam. Roger chose mostly the settee and struggled.,We do not know why he did not ever use the lee cloth.  Any way there is a lesson here. If you can afford it and can find a place to stow it an asymmetrical spinnaker is the sail to have for the Baja Ha-Ha at least in our conditions.

 When we got a half day out of Turtle Bay the temperature wormed up and the seas got kinder on us.
 That was to three nights at sea and a long time being bounced around.
 We stood three hour watches the whole way. From 6pm to 9am. The day was open as someone was always in the cockpit.
Pam -6-9pm
Debbi 9-12pm
Roger 12-3am
Chip 3am to 6am
Pam 6-9am
 This worked out good. We got plenty of time off.
 Roger made lunches a lot and Debbie did dinners and sometimes Pam helped out.
 Debbie stood here first night watch and did great. Pam was there with her and had stood a couple night watches before so had some limited experience.
 We it seems were too ambitious in making meals as Debbie made spaghetti when we were 35 miles out in rough conditions, the stove swing wildly on it’s gimbals.
 We should have made up meals that just needed worming up and it would have made life simpler and easier.
 The nonskid rubber kind of shelf liner worked great for keeping things like dishes etc from sliding around. Another use was to quiet items in the cabinets from banging around; we wish we had brought more of it.

The Asymmetrical spinnaker was a very valuable sail to have as it turned out.

 

Roger and Pam, our crew of two.

 

 

By Turtle Bay, almost always on Garmin auto pilot which worked flawlessly.

 

 

The Force10 stove at work. It was a good tip to put some swim noodle or other padding on the stove rod guard. It helped prevent bruising while cooking at sea:).



 We went to a seminar at Ullman Sails and the fellow said most people installed the propane stove with the hose too short for the stove to gimbal well. When we got back to the boat sure enough I did that. We had to snake some slack to the hose for a big gimbal and it was definitely used as the stove swung wildly from side to side as Debbie cooked.

 

We were out 35 miles following a rhumb line to Turtle Bay and Mike and Holly on Wanuskewin sailing came sailing along with the asymmetrical spinnaker up. Mike has said he then finished the water make installation as the boat steadied out.

 On and on the Beta 38hp motored and it never gave us a bit of trouble. On this leg we motored at 21-22000 rpms and did over 5 knots on the mostly following seas.

 There was never a good point of sail to be had on the leg and not much wind.

 We got used to the crew and they us and watches. We wore our fowls’ on watch and I wore UGG boots.

At Turtle Bay the fowls’ went into storage.
We spent a couple days or more without seeing land.

 A use full item it turns out are head lamps. The can be used in red or white light. We used mostly red. Great for getting around the boat at night and putting on watch clothes, making coffee at night etc.

 Our Island Freeport red curtsy lights were used every night and came in real handy, also in the cockpit we had installed them and they were nice to have.