The Skippers's Briefing and HaHa Pre-Party

The cruisers' race/rally known as the Baja HaHa is scheduled to begin at 11 am on October 26th, outside San Diego Bay. Today (October 25th) I attended a "skippers' briefing" run by the organizers, and met some of the skippers of the 190 participating boats. They range from grizzled old sailors who look like they've logged thousands of sea miles to novices wondering what they have gotten themselves into.

The meeting was run by Richard Spindler, the publisher of a sailing magazine known as Latitude 38, who likes to call himself "The Poobah." The tone of the meeting was festive until the Poobah warned that heavy weather is expected by the second or third day of the rally, and discussed various points on the Baja coast where a sailboat might find shelter from high winds and big waves. That got everyone's attention and called to mind the famous liability waiver, prepared by the legal staff of Latitude 38, that all participants have signed. It asks participants to acknowledge repeatedly their understanding that: "the HaHa is a high risk activity open only to those gladly willing to risk injury and death in the pursuit of adventure." This language seemed like a bit of a joke when we signed the waiver--the only injury sustained in the previous 15 HaHa's that was mentioned in the HaHa materials was suffered by a drunken cruiser who fell off a barstool in Cabo. But talk of winds in excess of 30 knots and waves of 15 feet and higher has us wondering about the risks. No boat has ever been lost during the HaHa--I'd hate for this year to be an exception.

I know three of the HaHa skippers already from my celestial navigation class--Tom Madden of St. Mary II, Rob Johnston of Blue Swan (a pretty ketch he just bought recently) and Jim Schmid of Formula Won.

After the briefing there was a big costume party for all the cruisers, where the mood became festive again. Our pirate do-rags were outclassed by a variety of more elaborate costumes.