The FUBAR Adventure 

 Well, to start this new section off the first thing I must do is apologize to those of you that have been looking to this web page to follow along in our adventure.  It’s late February and I’m just now trying to get the FUBAR adventure and the last month and a half to my Dad for posting on the web site.  What Marian and I have learned is how hard it is to sit down and commit this stuff to words.  I’ve fallen in love with Clive Cussler books, in no small part thanks to Tom Brownley in Seattle.  What I found myself doing was picking up one of the dog gone books when I had free time.  I’ve vowed that I won’t pick up another book till this task is complete!  However I am now reading “The Path between the Seas”, the story of the building of the Panama Canal.  Stay on topic Scott!

When we last left you we had arrive in San Diego to complete our trip from Seattle.  To review our plan, we look at this voyage in segments.  Seattle to San Diego was a big step for us because it was our first time in the open ocean, traveling long distances.  The next phase, the FUBAR Adventure is a powerboat rally from San Diego CA to La Paz Mexico, covering some 900  miles.  It is an important phase for us, because we hope to learn more about long distance passages, including more overnight passages and to learn more about clearing into and out of countries.  The third phase is a voyage from La Paz to the Panama Canal, then the Canal to the East Coast of the U.S..  So, let’s get back to catching you up on the FUBAR adventure.

 The FUBAR departed on Nov 7 and we planned to spend the month beforehand working on the boat in San Diego.  I made arrangements for Marian to fly home, because the boat was going to be “on the hard”, meaning in a boat yard, up on blocks for a week or more.

Upon arriving in San Diego we tied up to the dock at Driscol’s Marine service center and hauled the boat out the next morning.

[ Alanui_haulout1]  sent


From a distance, she looked pretty good!

[Alanui_haulout2] sent

But, upon closer inspection you can see she was sporting a decidedly European look!

[Alanui_haulout3] sent

Well the workers got to it and before you knew it they had her bottom cleaned and were masking off the boot stripe in preparation for new bottom paint.  One of THE most important things to do during a haul out is replace all the zincs on the boat.  For those of you that don’t own a boat, I’ll describe what a zinc is and why they are so important.  Most of you may recall that if you place an electrode in an electrolyte (metal in saltwater) a current will flow.  This is the principle used in many batteries.  Well, when you drop a boat in saltwater any stray currents or electrical energy tries to move from the boat into the salt water.  It chooses a very specific path on its way to the water, that being through the least noble metal exposed to the sea.  In the case of a boat, it’s often the propeller or the various through hull fittings on the boat.  If you tie all the metal parts of the boat together with a “Bonding System” and then put zinc plates or parts in various locations, all the metal parts will be protected because the zinc is less noble than any other metal on the boat.  The result is you control where the electric current flows.  Oh, I didn’t make this point.  When the current flows, molecules of the metal involved are actually cast off into the sea.  The metal will disappear in front of your eyes!  So, now you know everything you need to know about zincs on a boat, here is a picture of many of the zincs they removed, and replacement parts:

[pic Alanui_haulout4] sent

Along with changing the zincs and painting the bottom there were a number of other things that needed to be done. 

Oops, one thing I forgot to mention was a funny part about being on the boat the night we hauled out.  Marian was due to fly home first thing in the morning.  I’d made arrangements to use the showers and restrooms at the yard, but at 11:00pm when we went to go use the shower, the key wouldn’t open the door.  So here it is, 11:00pm the night before Marian has to get on a plane, we’ve been working on the boat all day and we can’t get a shower!  Well I found a large garbage can, lined it with a trash bag and moved it over to the through hull fitting on the boat that the show water would come out.  They had told us we couldn’t use any thing on the boat that would pump fluids overboard, so I figured if I captured the shower water in a trash can it would be fine.  Well, sure enough it worked just great.  Marian got her shower and we were asleep by about midnight.  The next morning I took her to the airport and got back to working on Alanui.

Back on the boat I jumped into a bunch of projects with the yard guys.  I had a long list of things to do and the guys at Driscols were fantastic.  I quickly became friends with the lead yard guy, Jesus.  I also found that anything boat related and I mean anything, could be found on Shelter Island in San Diego.  It was as good as being in Seattle.  I visited San Diego Marine Exchange at least 4 times a day.  I won’t bore you with everything, but there were a few funny things that happened. 

First was my watermaker experience.  The boat came with a 160 gallon per day, 12 volt watermaker.  This is considered an adequate watermaker for a sailboat, but way under capacity for a powerboat like a Nordhavn.  I’d been given the advice to avoid “discussions” with the Admiral about the use of water on the boat.  This meant I had to upgrade the watermaker.  Well I hymned and hawed for months and finally got to the point where I HAD to do something.  Since the boat was on the hard it made sense to get it done now.  I’d just about made up my mind to install a locally made system when Patrick suggested I give Greg at Village Marine in San Diego a call.  Well I called his office and left a message.  If you have any experience in the marine business as a customer, you know that leaving a message for someone usually means you going to get a call back in a few weeks, if at all.  With the Baja Ha Ha starting soon I figured I’d never get a call.  Well sure enough, about an hour later Greg called.  After I recovered from the shock of actually having a vendor call me back, I told him about my situation.  He suggested I come by his office and look at his systems, guess what, his office was 2 blocks away.  So, at about 5pm I arrive, and he spends the next hour running me through the various decisions to make.  I’d been given the advice to avoid the complex, fully automatic systems that are popular on many large Nordhavns.  I was interested in reliability and capacity.  This led me to choosing a custom fabricated 600gpd “No Frills” unit.  They were able to install in the next day.  So, now my watermaking issues are behind me!  Oh, what about the old watermaker?  Well there was a swap meet about a mile from the boat, so on a rainy Sunday morning I loaded it into a cart and pushed it to the parking lot where the meet was held.  There were maybe 15 guys selling stuff and 2 or 3 “customers” walking around.  Just as I figured I’d really blown the morning a guy comes up and starts to ask me about the watermaker.  He offered me about half of what I wanted and after an hour or so I finally decided to let him have it.  I figured I could use the time to get other stuff done and the prospect of getting other customers was dim to say the least. 

So for the rest of the week it was a blur of buying parts, installing and fixing things and getting ready to put the boat back in the water.  Of note was the application of PropSpeed to the main prop and the wing prop.  PropSpeed is a two part application of material that will stop marine growth.  It actually feels like rubber.  It cost about $400 so it will be interesting to see how it works.  Also below is a picture of the previously hairy stern thruster that’s now clean as a whistle!

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Oh, I mentioned the rain.  What I didn’t mention is what happened because of it.  Apparently in never rains in San Diego, because a very bad thing happens if you sand the bottom paint on a boat, it goes up in the air, settles on your fiberglass.  If gets wet it actually goes INTO your gelcoat and stains your finish terribly.  On Monday morning I thought I’d do a quick wash in the cockpit of the boat.  I mixed up some soap and started to wipe away what I thought was surface dirt.  To my horror I found the black stain was IN the gelcoat.  When Jesus arrived I showed him the staining and he said, “No problem, we will fix it”.  Knowing I’d just spent an hour trying to clean a single square inch I doubted him.  So I grabbed the Service Manager and showed him and he said “No problem, we will fix it when we drop you back in the water.  So, when the dropped the boat in the water a team of 12 workmen descended on the boat with a special mixture of cleaning product that Jesus had concocted.  

[inshegoes.jpg] sent

They scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed and sure enough, 99% of it was gone.  When I went up to the yard to settle my bill I told them the only dissatisfaction I had with the work was the fact my $1,600 wax job that I had put on the boat just a few weeks ago was gone (because of the scrubbing).  We agreed to split the cost of the wax and they gave me an $800 credit against my yard charges.  In summary, I couldn’t be happier with the work they did in that yard.  They provide me a week of storage on the boat (critical since every slip for 100 miles was full) and did outstanding work. 

So, the boat is put back in the water, I’m all alone, it’s 4:00pm and I need to be at the Chula Vista Marina in about an hour.  As I left the dock I entered a waterway that must be the sailboat capital of the US.  There were hundreds of sailboats of every size and description milling about.  And every single one of them was steering a course designed to cause me to alter course.  For the next 30 minutes I must have turned a thousand times.  After running the sailboat gauntlet I called Marian to tell her how much I missed her and how stressful it was to operate the boat alone.  I told her I’d be in Chula Vista marina that night.  I then called Chula Vista and said “don’t leave till I get there!”.  To which they said, we leave at 5, if you’re here at 5 we will be here.  To make a long story short, I got there and two guys were waiting to catch me at my slip.  When I’d made the reservation to stay there they had asked me “exactly how wide is your boat 16” above the water?  Well that was a strange question, but all of a sudden I realized why they were asking.  My boat is 14’ 3” a foot and a half above the water.  The slip I was looking at was 14’ 6”.  What this meant was I couldn’t have any fenders hanging on the boat.  As a matter of fact, as I entered the slip the fenders actually stopped the boat from moving forward and I had to back out and remove them, then go in again.  Anyway, I got help tying up and looked around to find that the Chula Vista marina was wonderful. 

I won’t bore you with all the details of life at Chula Vista, but a few things are worth mentioning.  First was the fact that I was still working on the boat and needing to get parts on occasion.  I was in money saving mode, so I didn’t want to rent a car till Marian came back to the boat, so I got my folding bicycle down and rode it everywhere I needed to go, including a 4 mile trip to Radio Shack.  As I was peddling my bike down the street (remember, I’m a big fat 48 year old guy) I couldn’t help but think the girls would either be proud of me, or think “God, what a dork”.  Anyway, I was pretty happy with myself!  By far the biggest event in the area while I was there was the fire storm that ragged for several weeks.  At one point the fires were only 6 miles from the marina.  There was never talk of an evacuation of the marina but several boat owners came down and prepped their boats for a quick departure.  At night the sunsets were blood red and ash collected on every nook and cranny on the boat.

[pic chulavista_fire_1, 2, 3 & 4] sent

So the rest of the time at Chula Vista was spent missing Marian (who had flown home for a fix of family time) and working on the boat.  I’d get up around sunrise and work till sunset.  When Marian returned from Seattle I did have a chance to meet up with my Mom’s brother, Uncle Ronnie.  Ron Mayo is a retired San Diego judge.  He’s an amazing man and as funny a person as you’ll ever meet.  He took Marian, his wife Leslie and I to Mt. Soledad where we were having a plaque placed in honor of my Dad.  I’d never seen the memorial and it was breathtaking.  If you’ve never seen it I strongly suggest you visit the web site at http://www.soledadmemorial.com/.  Uncle Ron also gave me a copy of the book “The Path Between the Seas”, which I will discuss later.

 I was finally connecting all the various systems that had been only partially installed in Seattle.  This included the navigation computer, weather station, AIS and many other things.  Upon leaving for the FUBAR rally about the only significant thing that wasn’t complete was running the dockside test and doing the sea trial for the redundant autopilot.  I can do this just about any time, so it’s no big deal. 

So, it’s time to get focused on the FUBAR event.  Marian had returned to the boat and we had completed our preparations for departure.  We made arrangements to pick up our guests; Captain Mike Maurice and his wife Pam were joining us as guests for the trip.  I think I’ve mentioned Mike previously, he had become a good friend and I asked him if he would enjoy coming along, I was delighted when he said he would!  We picked them up at the airport and showed them their tiny bunks in the guest stateroom on Alanui, their accommodations for the next two weeks.

The last day or so before departure was filled with last minute errands to run and details to tend to.  I knew we were making good use of the time as we were unloading provisions for the boat in the dark and getting to bed well after midnight! 

On Nov 5th the first FUBAR captains’ meeting was conducted.  Having never done anything like this before I had a lot of questions running around in my head.  Would there be scheduled departures?  Would we travel in groups, would there be a roll call at night and in the morning?  Well the simple answer to this can be summed up by something Bruce Kessler said early in the meeting.  I don’t remember it exactly, but when asked something about departure time and a roll call his answer when something like this:

“Look, it’s your job to get your boat to Ensenada, if you can’t do that without me telling you how, you shouldn’t be here”.  All the pre-rally perceptions about an orderly, tight nit group of power yachts heading as a flotilla to Mexico were dashed in one sentence.  Honestly I think Bruce did exactly the right thing.  By positioning the Rally as a more loosely organized affair he was squarely placing the responsibility on each skipper for a successful voyage.  While the committee boats would be there, they were simply along for the trip like everyone else.  Perhaps with the exception of the Nordhavn escort boat and the Leishman family, they did appear to be there primarily for support of the fleet.  There was a dinner and another pre-departure meeting, but honestly it was pretty much, see you in Ensenada!

Departure Day!   San Diego to Ensenada, 60 miles, 9 hours 
[screenshot SD2Ensenada.doc] sent
Leg 1,   


I mentioned we had moored Alanui in Chula Vista Marina.  It turns out this was about 12 miles down the harbor from San Diego, meaning we had more than an hour to get to the place where most of the other boats would be departing from.  In talking to other skippers I found most were planning a sunrise departure.  This meant that Marian and I needed to leave Chula Vista about 5:00am, well before sunrise.  We had the boat ready to go and departed right on time.  Negotiating the channel was stressful in the dark, but having three tracks on our chartplotter from our previous trips helped greatly.  We met Paloma and began our journey south.  We observed a few other FUBAR boats, but honestly to the outsider it would have looked like any other day, a smattering of boats heading south for the season.  Illusions of a grand FUBAR fleet departure were not to be fulfilled.

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The skies never cleared, so it was a fairly cool and cloudy day.  This began a continuous discussion with Mike about “finding the sun”!  I had promised him and Pam sunshine and warm temperatures, so I was anxious to deliver.  After 9 hours of cruising we arrived at Marina Coral in Ensenada.   We tied the boat up and gave her a quick spray to knock the salt off.  We started the check in process and tried to determine the logistics for getting fuel.  I had allowed the boat to get to almost empty and would not be departing unless we were able to take on at least 800 gallons of fuel.  The problem was there was only one pump working and many boats that needed fuel.  Fortunately some industrious skippers had come up with a scheme to stage the boats for fueling the following day.  They had determined that the key to success was to have each boat queued up and ready to go, so they decided to create a schedule based on the boats name, in alphabetical order.  Being Alanui, we were FIRST on the list (after 3 boats that were waiting in line when the gas pump ran out of fuel the previous day). 

Having gotten our fuel, we pretty much just hung around the boat until a party that was hosted by the Mexican Tourism board.  We took a cab and arrived at the party tent just prior to the skippers meeting getting started.  As Bruce described the next day departure it was again positioned as “Leave when you want, you need to be in Turtle Bay before 16:00.  We will not have a roll call, just get in touch with another boat if you need help”.  So again, the nature of this trip was very different than what I had expected.  Fortunately, prior to the meeting Patrick and I had been reviewing the time to make the next leg of the trip.  We realized that most of the fleet was planning on cruising at 8 knots, while we were 7 knot boats.  Over two days of travel a knot of difference in speed is significant.  We realized if we didn’t leave around 10:00pm that night, we would not arrive in Turtle Bay until after sunset.  Arriving in an anchorage at night is never a good thing.  So at the captains meeting I announced that Alanui, Paloma and Wandering Star ( a 50’ Selene) would be departing at 10:00pm.  Since there wasn’t any structure to the departure plan, this all worked great and we expected that the majority of the boats would pass us late in the day or at night the following evening.  So we departed the captains meeting and returned to Alanui, had a quick dinner and prepared to depart. 

Leg Two,             Ensenada to Turtle Bay, 280 miles, 40 hours 
[ens2turtlebay.doc] sent

Alanui, Paloma and Wondering Star slipped their lines and navigated out Coral Marina and settled in for the 40 hour journey.  The seas were calm, but there was little light to see, so we turned on the infrared camera and cruised into the night.  I relived Mike about 1:00am and Mike then relieved me about 6:00am.    Things were very quiet and the seas were very comfortable, about 4’ from astern. 

All was fine until about 1:00pm on the second day of the journey.  Patrick on Paloma made a radio call advising his stuffing box was up to 140 degrees, significantly higher than it should be.  Tension mounted as Mike Maurice advised a few courses of action to try to determine what might be the problem. 

For those of you that don’t know what a “stuffing box” is, I’ll explain.  You should realize the motor is inside the boat and the propeller is outside.  Obviously you need to get the power that the motor creates out to the propeller, yet not let water inside the boat.  This is the job of the stuffing box.  It’s an assembly of parts that squeezes a material called flax around the propeller shaft.  It’s tight enough that 99% of the water says out and 1% provides cooling to keep the shaft lubricated and cool.  If the stuffing box and shaft get too hot the flax can melt, ball up and score the shaft.  The end result is a lot of water entering the boat alongside the prop shaft, other than just a drip or two every few seconds.  Mike suggested Patrick rig a hose to drip water on the stuffing box to cool it down.  Fortunately Nordhavns have a hose bib in the engine room, so it was just a matter of attaching a hose and tie wrapping it above the stuffing box and then getting the drip rate correct.  As the stuffing box cooled down our tensions eased. 

Later that evening we saw a very large radar return coming upon us from astern.  Patrick saw on AIS it was a Carnival cruise ship, I believe the Carnival Spirit.  It was obvious from AIS the ship was going to go right through our small collection of 8 or 9 boats, so I hailed the ship on VHF.  “Carnival Spirit, Carnival Spirit, Carnival Spirit, this is Alanui, Alanui, Alanui”.  A few seconds later (and much to my surprise) a reply with a thick Italian accent was heard:  Alanui, Alanui, Alanui, this is Carnival Spirit, please advise a working channel.  I suggested we move to 68 and we both switched our radios to 68.  I then hailed “Carnival Spirit, be advised we are a fleet of small power boats in route to Turtle Bay.   You are on a heading that will overtake us in 20 minutes and we would be happy to move out of your way, over.  He then replied, Alanui, this is Carnival Spirit, thank you for moving.  We would like to pass on your starboard side, can you alter course to the port, over?   I replied, Carnival Spirit, yes all boats in this group will alter course 15 degrees to port and continue on that heading until you pass.  The officer on the ship then replied, “Thank you very much we will advise when we have passed you”.  Looking down at the radar it was really cool to see 9 boats all initiate a 15 degree turn to port.  I can only imagine the expression on the bridge of the cruise ship as all those small returns turned at once.  About 20 minutes later the ship was abeam of us and I once again hailed them:  Carnival Spirit, this is Alanui, I can see you are serving desert on the Lido deck, would it be possible to get some treats from the chocolate fountain?  The Italian bridge officer replied “Alanui, we will drop some treats off in the water for you!”.  It was a pleasure to engage with the officer on the cruise ship, and to find that he was more than willing to engage in conversation with us.  We further advised him he would discover more boats to the south and gave him the call sign of the lead boat, Pacific Escort, so they could coordinate their passing through the rest of the FUBAR fleet.  I must admit, I felt pretty proud of our little Nordhavn making way for a cruise ship to pass!  What an adventure this was turning out to be!

As we settled into the second night of the crossing everything was tidy and in order.  We had dinner (not an easy task for Marian to cook underway).  We also made the decision to run the genset at night, because the guest stateroom was pretty hot.  Having the genset running enabled the use of Air Conditioning for all three cabins.  Oh, this was also my first real chance to use the new watermaker that was installed.  Everything worked out just great and Mike again relieved me about 2:00am.  The seas were calm and evening dark, but not cloudy.  I woke shortly befor sunrise to see we were approaching our first significant obstacle in the trip, Cedros Island.  The nice thing was by this time most of the rest of the FUBAR fleet had caught up to us and we were surrounded by boats.  We were all spaced out pretty well, some choosing to go to the west of Cedros and some to the east.  We decided to stay inside the island in the hope of getting some protection from the northwest swell.  As we proceeded down the east side of the island we began to get reports from boats ahead of us warning of crab pots.  It seemed funny to me that so much time was being expended on giving latitude and longitudes for crab pots, as there were surly hundreds, perhaps thousands of them down here.  What was important was keeping an eye out for them and not worrying about where individual pots were.  Several boats hung pots on their props (also called wheels) but none were disabled, requiring a tow.  It wasn’t long and we were turning the corner into Turtle Bay.  Since we were the slow boats, we got to see most of the fleet already at anchor as we came in.  It was quite a site, to imagine yesterday the bay was probably empty, save for one or two sailboats, and now there were 53 boats anchored, most hopping on pangas to go to shore. 

[fleetatturtlebay.jpg]

The panga ride ashore was quite a thrill.  There is a small river that empties into the bay and there is a shallow spot where it enters.  Many of the pangas couldn’t get over the shoal area, so we had to hop out and push the panga ashore.  We found out that just a week prior to FUBAR the Baha Ha Ha participants (a group of sailboats making the same trip as the FUBAR) found themselves stuck on the shore as a strong south wind developed and prevented them from returning to their boats.  Sixty people spent the night on the beach sleeping in the sand until the sun came up and they were able to return to their boats.  The FUBAR team had coordinated a dinner ashore and everyone was coming in to enjoy the free meal.

[turtlebaypanga.jpg] sent

The food was pretty meager, just some tortillas with chicken, a beer and some beans.  We were to later find out this is pretty much like a Big Mac and fries to the average Mexican, something they eat just about every day.  I was concerned about returning to the boat at night, so we left pretty early and turned in to get a good nights sleep. 

The following day we went ashore and had lunch at a small palapa on the beach.   Oh, a Palapa is a palm frond covered restaurant, usually family owned and on the beach.  While eating, a small troop of armed marines appeared along the shore and walked over to look at our tender. 

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I have to admit it was a bit intimidating to see a troop of heavily armed soldiers walking in public, but we were to find this is not at all unusual in Mexico and many other places in Central America.  After lunch we went into town and strolled around the dirt streets, stopping at a small tienda, a store, where we stocked up on some provisions. 

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We returned to the boat and got a great nights sleep, which was important, because the next morning we were departing on another long leg to Bahia Santa Maria!

Leg Three,           Turtle Bay to Bahia Santa Maria, 230 miles, 31 hours

[turtlebay2bahiasantamaria.doc] sent

Most of the fleet woke with the sun at 5:00am and prepared for a 6:00am departure.  It was quite a site to see the fleet leaving the desolate and remote anchorage on its way to an even more remote anchorage.  The weather was again picture perfect, with only modest winds from the NW.  A slow lazy swell was running from behind us, making the voyage very comfortable.  Patrick had had some help the day before with Mike Maurice and the Leishman boys taking a look at his stuffing box, but the efforts didn’t prove fruitful, as his temperature continued to be above what many to consider normal.  He resorted to the supplemental cooling provided by dripping fresh water on the stuffing box. 

Over the next day we collected a small fleet of boats that seemed to like the same 7 knot speed that Paloma, Alanui and Wandering Star cruised at.  As the sun set the small group of boats droned on into the evening.  It was some time during the night, pretty late as I recall that we came upon two radar targets about 10 miles ahead of us.  As we closed on the targets it became clear that they were exhibiting a very strange set of maneuvers.  They would hold a position, then run quickly to another spot, then return to their previous position.  We finally realized they were fishing a specific spot in the open ocean, so we communicated amongst our little fleet and turned to give them some room.  For some strange reason one of the fishing boats made a very aggressive move directly at Alanui, almost like he was trying to put his boat directly in our path.  At night, in the darkness and guided only by boat lights and radar returns this can be very stressful.  I changed course to avoid his bold moves and eventually we got past him.  Several of the other skippers in the fleet came on the radio to advise what a bonehead move the fishing boat had performed, but honestly I was just glad to be done with it.  The rest of the night went off without any worries and soon it was sunrise again as we closed on Bahia Santa Maria. 

Bahia Santa Maria, much like Turtle Bay, is a remote area infrequently visited by land or sea.  Some people live there, mostly fisherman eking out a living from the sea.  The shoreline is baron, desert with little foliage.  The sea is teaming with life, dolphins come into the bay to feed and the entire food chain makes its presence known from tiny krill shrimp to predator jacks and tarpon feeding on smaller fish.  With this in mind I had one last project I was determined to complete before departing on another long leg of the trip.  I had purchased some custom built rod holders from Riley Marine before leaving San Diego.  Carter Miller Jr. had fabricated them, along with a swim step ladder, and I was anxious to get them mounted so I could use my deep sea fishing gear.  I’d been struggling with removing the stainless steel engine room vent grates because they were tenaciously adhered to the fiberglass with silicon sealant.  After days and days of trying to cut them free with razor blades Mike made the suggestion to use a heat gun.  Well I had a heat gun aboard and we gave it a try.  Much to my surprise and delight, 5 minutes of using the heat gun had not just one, but both grates removed and the rod holders were quickly installed.  I’ll never go at the job of removing a fitting from the deck without a heat gun again!

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The next day most of the fleet departed and headed for Mag Bay, a huge bay just to the south of Santa Maria Bay.  We had made the decision that rather than pull anchor, move and drop it just a few miles later we would stay and relax.  It did feel kind of strange seeing most of the fleet leave, but several of us stayed behind to catch up on sleep and enjoy the day. 

Leg Three,           Bahia Santa Maria to San Jose Del Cabo, 194 miles, 28 hours

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The morning dawned as bright and clear and calm as all the others and the remaining boats in Bahia Santa Maria departed on a key leg of the adventure.  With this leg we would be rounding the famous end of the Baja Peninsula and Cabo San Lucas.  I’d been to Cabo a number of times fishing and really looked forward to seeing the arch from the Pacific, and rounding the corner into the Sea of Cortez! 

Mike also had something he wanted to accomplish with this leg of the journey.  He wanted to observe a site where a Nordhavn 62 ran aground several years ago.  The story was that a delivery skipper was brining the boat up the coast in harsh weather.  A tactic that has gained some popularity is to hug the coastline to minimize the effect of swells experienced farther offshore.  I’d heard that the delivery captain handed the boat off to one of the crewman and headed off to sleep.  It wasn’t long before he heard the unmistakable sound of the hull bouncing off the rocks of the shoreline.  The ship was subsequently driven ashore where the crewman at the helm at the time of the grounding insisted on getting off the boat to get a line ashore (perhaps to secure it from falling back into the sea?).  When he entered the water he realized the conditions were much worse than he could deal with so he swam to the back of the boat to attempt to re-board the boat.  This is where tragedy struck as he was unable to re-board the boat and eventually was struck by the swimstep and knocked unconscious.  Efforts to bring him in the boat were fruitless and he expired in the water at the back of the boat.  Mike was curious to observe the site of the grounding so he could gain some insight into some of the factors that may have contributed to the grounding. 

With this in mind we left Bahia Santa Maria and stayed a few hundred yards offshore while we looked for the boat.  Several miles later we noticed we had company in the form of Pacific Escort, a Nordhavn 55 crewed by the Leishman family.  Mike and I postulated that they too were looking for the remains of the 62?  They launched a tender and began a much closer study of the shoreline than we could observe from our distance.  Well, after an hour or so we finally came upon the remains of the boat.  It was miles further south than reported in what little trade press we had read, but more importantly was the wreck site.  The boat was literally dwarfed by the surrounding rocks and boulders.  Also the wreck was driven high up on the beach, perhaps by a dozen pacific storms that no doubt had passed through the area since the accident. 

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It was a somber moment as we gazed upon such a beautiful boat that had come to such a tragic end.  It’s unfortunate that more isn’t known about the factors that contributed to the accident.  In this day and age of litigation the reality is that no one is motivated to discuss it.  Different than the early days of civil aviation, where accidents were investigated fully and reported in great detail in the hope of saving lives, boating accidents are rarely discussed and lessons learned rarely shared with others. 

We took some photos and then set course for deeper water, trying to put the images out of our mind…

The day went on pretty quietly.  The weather had picked up just a bit, we probably had 6 to 8 foot seas from behind, but it was sunny and warm.  As the day slipped into night the seas built even more.  When dawn came we were about 20 miles from the cape, so I decided to put a few fishing lines in the water.  The water temps had finally risen into the 80’s so I had hope of catching some Mahi Mahi (also called Dorado or Dolphin, but not like Flipper, a porpoise).  Less than 10 minutes after dropping the lines in the water we had our fist hookup.  I let Mike take the line and he brought the fish to the boat in record time!  I gaffed him and within a few moments there was blood everywhere in the cockpit!

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Shortly after Mike got his we hooked up again and I landed one of similar (if not slightly larger) size.  I went to work filleting both of them and we had the meat in the freezer within a few moments of the fish being brought aboard!  Later Marian cooked them up and they were DELICIOUS!!!

The winds were blowing pretty good and with two fish in the boat I decided to put the rods away and focus on the voyage.  As we approached Cabo the famous arch came into view and we got a few great pictures.

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We rounded the end of the Baja Peninsula and the entered the Sea of Cortez.  I must admit I was feeling a bit proud as I took Alanui from her first ocean, into her first sea.  I was starting to feel like the Captain!  We still had a way to go to reach San Jose del Cabo, but the seas were calm, winds light and temperatures warm!!!  We arrived at the brand new marina in San Jose del Cabo at 11:00am, just as our Coastal Explorer software predicted we would.  We found our slip and tied up, everyone ready for a siesta and dinner ashore!  Unfortunately there was a slight problem that we were not prepared for.  As part of entering a foreign country it’s not uncommon to be inspected by the Agriculture department.  I thought we had cleared into the country in Ensenada, so I didn’t think we were going to have any trouble with the meat and produce we had on board.  Shortly after we arrived we were told the Agriculture Inspector would be at our boat in just a few moments.  He arrived and we told him honestly the meat we had on board was brought in from the U.S.. He informed us he was going to confiscate it and destroy it.  We lost about $400 in NY and Fillet steaks.  He did allow us to keep 4 NY’s which we cooked up for lunch.  While we were being inspected, everyone else was adopting differing strategies for hiding their meats.  Some people put it in out of the way locations, others moved their meats from one freezer to another and then only showed the inspector the freezer with nothing in it.  Some even shuffled their meats onto boats that had already been inspected.  It was all really unfortunate and preventable had the event organizers simply told us not to bring US beef into the country.  Oh well, live and learn!  We spent several days in San Jose del Cabo and really enjoyed it.  We went into town a few times and had breakfast and lunch ashore.  The FUBAR event committee put on a wonderful dinner in a cabana across from the marina entrance.  Wonderful food and beverage was served and we had a great time.  But in no time at all it was time to head off once more!

Leg Four,   San Jose Del Cabo to Muertos Bay, 74 miles, 10.5 hours

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After a few days of relaxing it was time for another early start.  We slipped the lines at 5:00am and headed out in the early morning light.  I had a very special spot I wanted to fish on the way to Los Muertos.  It was the area known as The East Cape, the location I’d been fishing 3 times in the last 5 or 6 years.  I’d fly into Cabo and drive to Punta Colorado for a few days of fishing with good friends.  It’s where I caught my first Rooster fish and my first Striped Marlin.  So about 30 miles into the trip I nudged the boat to the west and tucked behind a point of land I had fished many times before.  Sure enough we hooked into something really big, but it broke off before we could get a look at it.  Then, as we continued around the point the boat ran into something in the water, an old net or fishing line or something.  The boat vibrated for a moment, then continued on.  Both Mike and I looked at one another with that “what the heck was that” look.  We backed down the RPM’s and pulled the bilge boards to make sure everything was ok.  After an hour or so we powered back up and didn’t feel the vibration any more, chalk one up to the sea spirits!  We pulled into beautiful Muertos Bay, dropped the anchor and deployed the flopper stopper (which we were getting pretty good at by this time).  Muertos means “dead” in Spanish.  I’m not certain where the name comes from, but there is a family that has opened a resort here and almost everyone went ashore to participate in a sponsored dinner.  Marian wasn’t feeling well so she and I remained on the boat and had a light dinner.  When Mike and Pam returned they raved about the food and the accommodations saying they had never seen anything like it.  I think Marian felt bad about not making it ashore, but we would come to have another chance to see it later, so it was no big deal.  After a restful night sleep it was time to depart on the final leg of the FUBAR Odyssey!

Leg Five,   Muertos Bay to La Paz, 50 miles, 7 hours 
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The final leg of our FUBAR journey was upon us!  The day dawned beautiful, as shown in this picture of Pacific Escort departing the anchorage.

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The trip to La Paz was wonderful, save for one problem that had plagued me on several occasions.  I think I mentioned in our trip from Seattle to San Diego the autopilot would occasionally and unpredictable suddenly veer off course.  Not just a few degrees, but a major change in heading.  Well it had been fine most of the trip, but on this leg, and the one preceding it exhibited this unwelcome trait a number of times.  I got on the radio and advised boats around me not to pass closely, as I was really concerned about veering into one of them.  Anyway, it made for an attentive watch as you needed to react quickly if and when the auto pilot decided to take a break.  We motored along with the rest of the fleet and carried on casual chit chat as we approached La Paz.  There is a channel where it required some course changes to avoid other boats, but all in all it was a very pleasant way to wrap up the trip.  We arrived at Marina Costa Baja about 13:00 and found we were to moor in the inner harbor.  We found our slip and secured our moorings, attached shore power and quickly hosed the salt water off the boat!  At last we had completed the FUBAR Odyssey! 

We had a pleasant surprise as I looked out the back of the boat and noticed one of the nicest Willard Trawlers I’d ever seen.  I had been corresponding over the Internet with a fellow skipper in La Paz and I knew he had a Willard.  Unfortunately he had returned to the US and we missed meeting in person.  I did manage to get a wonderful picture of the boat, and a typical La Paz sunset!

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All in all we had traveled almost 900 miles averaging 7.2 knots and logged over 125 engine hours.  We made several night crossings, anchored and deployed our flopper stopper several times.  Landed our dingy ashore for the first time, caught our first fish and a number of other accomplishments.  The trip was a wonderful success for all the FUBAR participants.  I don’t remember exactly how many completed the entire trip, but I’m sure it was more than 45.  By all rights Bruce Kessler and the Marina Del Rey Yacht Club did an outstanding job.  If someone asked me if I’d do it again, I’d probably say “thanks but no thanks!”.  I’d like to have spent more time in Mag Bay and now that I’ve seen La Paz I don’t know that I’d feel the need to go back in that direction. 

I’d also like to thank some special people.  First, I can’t say enough about how much Mike and Pam helped on this trip.  Mike stood watch often in the wee hours of the morning or till midnight when I’d take over.  Pam was never far from any task that needed to be done, always willing to throw in a helping hand.  Patrick, Susan and Jonathan on Paloma continue to be our best boating pals, coordinating all our departures and night passages so we have the comfort and safety of another boat alongside at all times.  Thanks to the Leishman family for piloting Pacific Escort along and helping a number of people along the way.  Thanks to all the people that provided moral and technical support dealing with the agricultural inspections and troubleshooting the autopilot.  It’s really true that the best part of cruising is the people, if it was just boats it would be pretty boring after all.

We are now bound for the Panama Canal, but there is a lot of living to do between here and there!  So, thanks to those of you that have followed along, I’m sorry for the delay in putting this information on the web site, I hope you can forgive me!  God Bless and please follow along in our continuing adventures in the next section of the web site, “To the Canal!”

God Bless, Scott and Marian