I was minding my own business, hanging out at the Coronado Yacht Club back in San Diego, just days before leaving for Mexico with the Baja Ha Ha, waiting for Peter to come pick me up. After he arrived, we decided to stay for a drink. An older gentleman with warm, kind eyes sauntered over to say hello. His name was Charlie. He was a long time member of the club and a sailor. He was curious, and asked lots of questions, so we stayed for another drink and told him all about our sailing adventure so far, and our plans to keep sailing until it wasn’t fun any more. His eyes twinkled with excitement. He shared how special it was in the Sea of Cortez, and when we mentioned we were headed to Loreto, he revealed that it was on his bucket list to sail down there one more time!
There was something familiar about Charlie. Was it his eyes? I couldn’t put a finger on it, but he was charming. Before I knew it, I was offering to take him sailing when we got down to the Sea of Cortez, and he was inviting us to join him for dinner the next evening to discuss details!
At dinner, Charlie shared the newsletter he wrote for the Yacht Club about his own sailing adventure to Mexico many years ago. We couldn’t wait to experience the beauty ourselves. After desert, we thanked Charlie for dinner and a lovely visit. As we were saying goodbye, to our surprise, the waitress brought over his walker, at which point we found out Charlie was ninety one!
Charlie kept in touch with us via phone messages. We were so busy sailing down to Cabo San Lucas, and all that we needed to do once we got there, that we didn’t have a chance to call him back until we finally arrived in La Paz. It was then that we learned that Charlie wasn’t doing so well.
It was his heart. He had to have a pacemaker installed, and once he did, he ended up doing much better, but it delayed his plans for coming down to Mexico. We continued our conversations about sailing and his dream about bringing his whole family together on a catamaran in Loreto, Mexico. He doesn’t have any experience sailing cats, but that wasn’t going to stop him! He said he would still like to meet up when they got there. We told him we still planned to do whatever we could to make it happen.
The catamaran dream didn’t work out, but Leslie, Charlie’s daughter, was now planning on taking him on a road trip through Baja. Charlie wanted to meet up on the water while they were there. So we told him we would do everything we could to make that happen.
Well it turned out that we were going to be in Bahía Concepción exactly when Charlie and Leslie planned to be there. Everything seemed to line up for Charlie to realize his dream.
The forecast called for fifteen to twenty knots of wind and since Charlie used to race sailboats, we decided to organize a regatta in his honor with our friends. Two boats joined us for what we started calling the “Charlie Allen Regatta" — Fundango and Triæna. Rochambeau would have joined too, but John crewed with us and Marcy crewed with Tom and Patty on Triæna, so Rochambeau stayed on the anchor. Scott and Joanne on Fundango invited another Ha Ha couple from Chaos to crew with them on Fundango. We had everything set!
The race got off to a spirited start sailing on a broad reach. Salacia was the last boat to leave the anchorage but ended up passing all the boats rather quickly - doing about 10 knots. It turns out Salacia is fast when she wants to be, and lives up to the Santa Cruz reputation!
Charlie suggested restarting the race so we can beat them again! So we headed up wind to give the other boats a chance to pass us.
We decided to chicken jibe since we had full sails up with over 20 knots of wind! Our mainsail is very large, so we have to be careful gybing in high wind, to prevent the boom from coming across too fast and damaging the rig.
So Peter called for a chicken gybe which is basically tacking the boat from a broad reach on one side to a broad reach on the other side, turning the boat around 360 degrees, which takes more time, and goes much more slowly, and gently.
But we waited for far too long, and left a very large gap, making it hard to catch up to the other boats, but it was all good, as it’s all about enjoying the ride!
As we were getting closer to the anchorage, the wind continued to pick up in speed, going from the high teens and low twenties to the mid twenties and gusting into the high twenties. The power exerted by the wind on the boat varies as the square of the windspeed, and as the day wore on, we found the boat was a bit overpowered, since we never bothered to reef. As a result, the boat was heeling just that little bit extra. Charlie had been biding his time though, and chose this moment to let slip one innocent little question: “So, if you don’t mind, I’d love to get on the helm.”
After a quick check-in with Leslie, Peter helped Charlie get across the tilted deck into a position where he could easily perch and steer the boat, as we sped towards the finish line. What a thrill it was to witness him holding the boat’s power in his hands with the wind in his hair. Charlie is sailing again on the Sea of Cortez!
Once we dropped the sails, pulled into the anchorage, and set the anchor, everyone came over to Salacia for a post race drink, including some of the other cruisers who couldn’t make the regatta itself. Afterwards we all headed into the restaurant in Posada de la Concepción, where we asked the chef to serve up the two kilos of scallops Charlie had brought along for the occasion!
We all toasted Charlie for being such an inspiration to us all living our lives passionately and to fulfilling our dreams no matter how old we are! And thank you Leslie for being instrumental in making Charlie’s adventure happen and for the amazing photos!
I love the first photo Sunrise Reflected on the Sea.
What a sweet story!