The HaHa Begins

On October 26 the 190 HaHa boats paraded out of San Diego bay, past television cameras, and headed for the starting line.




We managed to get off to a great start by heading far out to sea, where we found good wind. We beat many of the larger boats to the Coronados Islands, but after that they began slowly overtaking us. Even with our spinnaker flying, we can't keep pace with boats 10-15 feet longer than ours. But it was gorgeous watching boats come up behind us with full spinnakers on beautiful calm seas.

Here is Janet, trimming our spinnaker, and a shot of the spinnaker up and drawing in light air.





Here are a few shots of boats overtaking us. The sight was so stunning, we didn't mind at all.





At nightfall of the first day, the wind died and we motorsailed through the night. In the early morning hours we encountered heavy fog and I wished, for the first time, that we had a radar. But we made it through the soup, blowing our air horn every few minutes, and as far as I know we never came near another boat.

Here are shots of Janet and Paul getting ready for their night watch on the first night.