Once a year a zany group of sailors and fun seekers departs San Diego harbor and heads 750 miles south to Cabo San Lucas, Baja California Sur, Mexico. Two fun stops at Bahia Tortugas and at Santa Maria Bay are regular events on the way south, but the fun gets into full swing at the Cape. For many of these adventurers Cabo is the final destination, and they stay put for a few days or weeks. For others Cabo is just the first main port before slipping around the Cape into the Sea of Cortez, or to points further south along mainland Mexico.
This is no small collection of boaters. In 2005 over 140 oceangoing boats of all shapes and sizes (over 27 feet in length) ventured south on the annual pilgrimage for Baja Ha-Ha XII. The vast majority of the craft joining the fun were sailboats, but motor boats are never excluded.
BAJA HA-HA CRUISER'S RALLY
The Baja Ha-Ha Cruiser's Rally is as much fun as you can have with your clothes on
(or off)!
So who is the organizer behind all this fun? Baja Ha-Ha, Inc. is a separate organization set up Richard Spindler, the publisher of Latitude 38 Magazine. He puts in his share of energy and efforts to spearhead the annual dip into Mexico, but he has lots of help from many other dedicated volunteers as well. Like a ranch dog corraling sheep, Ricardo can be seen at various pionts along the trip herding pieces of the group into some form of organization, at least until the end of the Cabo leg.
Sailors in the group come from a wide variety of backgrounds, both men and women, and not all of the 'hook-ups' that take place on the trip involve fish. Sailors looking for a new mate are sometimes successful, and other times 'catch and release' is the order of the day.
While in Cabo about half of the boats are able to find slips inside the marina, and about half end up dropping the hook in good holding sand in about 30 to 50 feet of water along Cabo's Medano Beach, just outside the harbor.
During their stay in Cabo Baja Ha-Ha participants can be sighted strolling the streets downtown, dining in small groups in the local restaurants, and hitting Cabo's best nightspots with a vengeance. The Baja Ha-Ha T-shirts are proudly worn by many members of this sea-cult and make it hard to miss them as they make the rounds about town.
In the late afternoons these fun-loving human beings tend to gather on Cabo's main beach hangouts like Mango Deck, The Office and Billygan's Island. The afternoon of the beach party and awards ceremony are particularly fun.
Carlos Fiesta ran into the Baja Ha-Ha group at Mango Deck just prior to the awards ceremony in 2005 and was extrememly impressed with the attitudes of these wonderful water warriors. If you happen to run into one of these amazing people on your next trip to Cabo, it might be best to keep your distance. More than one life has been significantly altered by starting up an innocent conversation with one of these 'live for today' characters.