Land Ho Ha!
After sailing sixty-six hours on some challenging seas, we were happy to see land again. We anchored in the afternoon and discovered we were one of the first 50 boats to arrive. There was plenty of room in the anchorage to find a spot in about 20 feet of water. One of the boats anchoring next to us asked how much rode we had out. Peter yelled back about 50 feet! We all felt buoyed by the sail we did together! We opened a bottle of wine as we watched the sun go down making the mountains of desert surrounding us glow pink.
The next morning we checked in with the rest of the fleet on the net and got to hear all the stories of boats that did not fare well. Some of them were in need of repair. The boat captains chimed in one after the other with requests for parts or help. The check-in lasted a couple of hours. There were still boats coming in that morning. All of us took a deep breath while we listened, feeling relieved that all was well with Salacia.
After our checkin, we were excited to explore the town and go to the baseball game. We tried for almost an hour to hail a panga. We waited and waited and we just couldn’t wait any longer to get on solid ground. We stored our dinghy in the lazarette for the passage and we really didn’t want to have to get it out as we would need to put her back before our next passage to Bahia Santa Maria. We finally pulled it out and brought it up on deck. We each took turns pumping the air into it. Once the dinghy was full, we attached the spinnaker halyard to hoist her over the lifelines and into the water. Then we used the main halyard to hoist the outboard out of the lazarette (access to our storage) so we could attach it onto the dinghy.
We finally got into the dinghy and motored our way towards the pier. As we approached the pier, two young boys hailed us down so they could take our trash and helped us land our dinghy onto the beach. We gave them a few dollars and were off to explore the town.
The Ha Ha organizes a baseball game each year with the locals of the town. The fleet was asked to donate baseball gear to the kids of the community. Sue had a brand new mitt and baseball with her to donate. We hitched a ride with a small family to the baseball field. Sue gave the mitt and ball to their little girl which fit her perfectly. I loved watching her eyes and smile light up.
The next day was the beach party. I stayed on the boat in the morning while Peter, Sue and Lynn went into town to get sim cards for their phones. We were unplugged for a while and needed to let family know we were safe. I took advantage of having some time alone on the boat. I was able to do yoga on the deck. I stretched my body and created some space within as well.
When it was time to leave for the party, we decided to get a panga because we didn’t know how big the waves were hitting the shore and we didn’t want to risk capsizing our dinghy, especially with an outboard. There were only a few pangas running. We were reminded that we were now in Mexico and we were learning to exercise patience.
Patti and Tom from Triæna were anchored next to us and between us, we were able to hail down a panga. We all shared food together on the beach while Patti whipped up smoothies with her battery-powered blender!
A lot of the boats from the fleet ended up moving closer to this part of the anchorage. There were a number of people who sailed on the Ha Ha before. We were one of the newbies that had to wait for a panga at the end of the day.
It was starting to get cold. Peter got a ride on a paddle board with Francoise to go get our dinghy. Of course, as soon as he left, the panga came. In the shuffle to get into it, I dropped my parasol. I didn’t know until I was in the panga, which was now moving over the waves out into the deeper water. I bought my parasol in San Francisco for Burning Man many years ago and felt sad to lose it. Someone on the panga I just met said I could make an announcement the next morning on the Net. I then was able to let it go. As soon as I was about to get out of the panga, a man in the back said, “Is this yours? I found it floating in the water” Oh the magic of letting go with the flow….
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so great following your adventure!
Nice!!!!!’ Sounds great you two!!! Go get some street fish tacos from the Hermanos stands in La Paz!!💜