Baja Ha-ha; Not so funny when it happens to you!

Samantha and I finally left for the Baja Ha-ha early Friday morning. I had been planning this trip for the last 3 months. I met this guy, Bob on the Latitude 38 website under Captains looking for crew, he has a 52 foot Amel Mango sailboat. Bob and I talked back and forth through email a dozen times and talked by phone twice. Bob was in the Navy for many years, he is a  48 year old retired contractor who worked in Iraq and is going through a divorce. There was another person, a 21 year old guy, Leo from France who would be joining the crew. Well, Leo went missing and that's when Samantha joined the crew, two weeks before the start.

Samantha and I started at 6:50 am, on the 14 hour Amtrak ride to Los Angeles. We waited an hour and a half to catch another train to San Diego. While on the train to San Diego had to stop in the middle of nowhere to do a safety check, we sat on the tracks for 30 minutes, we didn't get to the San Diego train station till 1:30am. We made the 5 block walk to the motel, finally arriving at 2:00 am.

We were woken up in the middle of the night by the phone ringing. It was a creepy guy asking for this woman. Sam told him he had the wrong number and hung up. He called right back, Sam told him again that he had the wrong number. The guy wanted to leave a number. I took the phone and said look, you have the wrong number. There's no one here that you are looking for. The guys voice sounded really strange, almost like he was hurt and confused. So I asked, are OK? Do you need some help? He said, yeah why don't you come on over here and take care of me. Oh my gawd.  Go fuck yourself, I replied, I hung up the phone. How did this guy know our motel room number? Needless to say we had a terrible rest of the night sleep.

We finally got up and made our way over to Shelter Island, to meet Bob. Sam and I walked up to Pearson's Fuel Dock and found Bob right away. We ordered sandwiches and sat down to talk and get to know each other. From the beginning there was some tension. Bob didn't like the fact that Samantha and I are vegetarians. He even went so far as to say, well you will eat the fish that I catch, right? I said, if it had eyes, I don't eat it. He laughed so you'll eat clams, right. I said, Bob I don't eat anything that use to be alive. Come to find out. He didn't have a fishing license nor the gear to fish. Samantha changed the subject, she pulled out her travel book that she had been working on. Things seemed like they would be OK.
We climbed in the dingy with all our stuff and made the 5 minute ride to C'est la Vie. We climbed aboard and got a tour of the boat. Later on we took the boat in to top off the tanks with diesel. Samantha helped set the anchor.


 Bob had a meeting to go to and asked if we wanted to go ashore or stay at the boat. We opted to stay on the boat, we both wanted a nap. We were still so exhausted from our journey.

When Bob got back, we made our way to shore, We were having dinner with Charles, a friend of his. He was the nicest guy, a huge gently giant. he had the funniest sense of humor and really made Samantha and I feel totally welcome and comfortable. Charles, Samantha and I had a really great conversation, Bob, just didn't say much.  At the end of our dinner, Charles told both Sam and I if you need anything just get a hold of me.  Back at the boat we made a shopping list for things we would need at the grocery store. I made a separate list for Samantha and I, to cover our "picky eating".



The next day we went to the Baja Ha-ha pre-sail party. The Ha-ha mixer was nice, I've found that Sailors are a very laid back crowd. I brought my camera and was off taking pictures. Samantha was sitting by the stage talking to other sailors. I grabbed a some beans and rice to eat and ran into Bob talking to our neighbor, Chris. This guy Chris was great, he's from San Francisco, he delivers boats. Chris saw what I was eating and asked, do you eat meat? I said, no, I'm a vegetarian. He said to Bob, well that makes it easy on you. Apparently Bob didn't share Chris's view. The subject of seasickness came up and Chris said, if you get sick it's best to stay up top or go below curl up in fetal position and close your eyes. Chris went onto say, I shouldn't say this in the company of an old Navy guy, but if  you smoke a little weed, that really helps. I said, I wish I had some, Bob, didn't look amused. Chris was telling me that at the first stop there are a lot of crew changes. Mostly it's because people can't stand the boat captains. That's funny because I was really beginning to wonder what I had gotten myself into, with this guy Bob. We somehow got the only uptight boat captain.
I told Bob that I need to go find a phone, it was my Mom's birthday and needed to give her a call. I took off to find Samantha.

Samantha and I went on quite the search for a public phone. We walked 6 blocks, we came across 4 phone booths the first 3 had no dial tone and finally found one that worked. Samantha said, everyone that I've talked to is so nice, why is it we are stuck with the only tool? I just don't know, I replied. Samantha said, I don't want to be here. I asked do you think you can stick it out? She said, yeah, for now.  When we got back Bob was waiting for us. I told him I found a grocery store down the street. So we all made our way to the store to grab last minute supplies. Bob grabbed a shopping cart and I grabbed a basket. I told him that I was going to get a few things for Samantha and I. Bob walks off to grab stuff,  leaving me with both the shopping cart and my basket.  We finish our shopping and I separate out my stuff from his. I tell him that I'm going to pay for the stuff that I got. He said, no I'll pay for it all and you can just chip in. I said, no, Bob I'm putting this on my credit card. He just wasn't taking no for an answer. Samantha told the cashier, we are paying for this, not him. He finally steps away so I can pay for my items.
We get back to the boat and Bob tells Samantha and I you girls can put away the groceries, I'm going to go take the trash to shore before I take the dingy apart. Off he goes and Samantha and I really start talking about being stuck on this boat for the next 12 days with this man.
Later on that night we were talking about the boat. I asked Bob how much sailing certification he has. He said he's never taken a sailing class. I was telling Samantha that the different corners of the sail had different names. I started to list the corners and Bob argued with the names. I didn't argue back with him, I knew I was right..
 
After dropping hints of his divorce, Bob finally told me all about it. Neither Samantha or I had asked him about it.  He finally shared that his wife surprised him with divorce papers. He said I didn't even know my marriage was in trouble. He went on to tell me that his wife is a dumb blond and all she wants is more money. The night before, Bob told us that he when he was working in Iraq he was away for 4 months and back home for 2 weeks and then back to Iraq. I said that must have been really hard to be away from your family for so long. He said, no, I made $18000 a month it was worth it. That statement, said it all for me, this squid was more interested in money than having a relationship with his family.

Samantha and I laid in our bunks listening to the pistol shrimp http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKPrGxB1Kzc. We whispered to each other both of us having serious doubts about being on this boat with our Captain. We were rocked to sleep and awoke the next morning ready to set sail. We pulled up the anchor started to motor to the media send off. It was a grey misty morning.

 Samantha at the navigation station listening to all the boater checking in.

Motoring towards the starting line. 

 There was 195 boats circling the bay we got a little close at times.

 The minute the anchor was up Bob started showing his true colors. He told us, I'll take care of things till we get going. Seems to me, now would be the time he really could use some help, but he insisted on doing everything himself. I told him we were headed for a kelp bed, he said that's OK don't worry about it. Then he races back to the wheel to steer us away from the kelp. The sail is flapping in the wind and I go to trim the sail and he tells me to leave it alone. Seconds later he goes over to trim the sail. The realization has set in we're fucked.

We get out to the starting line and Bob raises the Genoa. There at the top of the sail is a rip. You would have thought Mr. Control Freak would've checked all the sails to make sure they were in good condition. The seas were rolling with 10 foot swells and we were going to have to do a sail change. Bob leaves the sail up and minutes later a second rip appears. He finally rolls the Genoa back up so it doesn't rip anymore. He still doesn't ask for help as he goes up to reef the mail sail, when he comes back he asks Samantha, how are you doing? Samantha says, I want to go back. Bob said, you'll feel better in a couple days. He goes below deck and Samantha tells me I don't want to be here, I don't want to be stuck on this boat with him. I said OK after this small display of Bob's new behavior, I wasn't interested  in being stuck with him either, I don't care how much I want to sail, this needs to be a good experience, not one I just tolerate. A few minutes later Samantha tells Bob, I want to go back. Bob looks at me and I said, I'm not going to force my daughter to be miserable. Bob turned the boat around and we start heading back to San Diego. All of a sudden I started to get seasick. I think the change in stress level momentarily did me in. Bob radios in that he is turning around to drop of one of his crew. I said, Bob, I'm getting off too. I'm not going to let my daughter fend for herself in a strange city. He looked at me in disbelief. I knew he was biting his tongue, so was I.
We pull up to the Police docks, Samantha and I ran below deck to quickly pack up our things. I knew Bob was going to be changing the sail so we would have a few minutes to get things done. We got our belonging packed up in  minutes. I tried to get as much of our food packed as possible, but we didn't have much extra room. I get our bags on the dock and Bob says guess what? I said, you got a new crew? Yeah, Bob replies. I said, I'm glad it all works out for you. Samantha and I get off the boat, she tells one of the new crew, good luck. The young, easy-going guy asked, what happened, too rough out there? Samantha says,No! He doesn't like women much, maybe he'll treat you better because you are a guy. We get off the dock and found a place to sit down and regroup.  We decide to head to the train station, we start walking towards downtown and within minutes a cab drives by and asks if we need a ride. Things were starting to look up already. Our cab driver was the nicest older man. We told him how we just escaped from being stuck on a boat with Captain Ahab for the next 12 days. We get to the train station and we figure out a plan. We will take the bus from San Diego at 10:00 pm to Bakersfield, arriving at 4:30 am where we catch a train 10 minutes later to Stockton arriving at 9:30 in the morning then we transfer to another bus that will take us to Davis finally arriving at 10:40 am. It was 2:00 pm and we had hours to wait. I checked our bags and Samantha take a walk along the Embarcadero to check out the art made by locals.
On our walk we met Joshua a 68 year old Veteran. We listened to Joshua tell us how, even though he's a Veteran, he isn't entitled to benefits. He can't get a job because he has no address, he can't get a PO box because he needs a job. To top it off this man has been grossly misinformed by political talk radio. He's afraid and under the impression that there are Death panels that they will see his life as unimportant and will want him dead. I have as serious problem with the way politics is going in America. There is no reason why things have gone this far. I told Joshua that I would try to do some thing to help him. I thanked him for the willing sacrifice that he made for me, for you, for our country and now when he needs help he is living on the streets. This isn't right and I'm sorry this has happened to you.

Uncaged

Family Portrait

Seagull takes flight.

Fused glass in log rounds

Samantha and I went out for a celebratory pizza dinner before finally going back to the train station to wait for our bus.After 12 hours of traveling, it feels good to be home.