We left for the Haha on the 29th of October, for a two day and a bit passage to Bahía de Tortugas – Turtle Bay in English. The Baja Haha is a big armada this year about 160 boats or rally of boats which go from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas through a series of legs and stops. We had our friend and fellow crew member Doug with us, so we could do overnight passages more comfortably without potentially getting exhausted.

Our first leg was to Turtle Bay and it was the longest, and it felt as though time was moving like molasses. Turtle Bay was an adorable rural fishing village on the pacific coast, the town has only one paved road, a couple stores and a baseball field which the Haha members helped fund.

Part of the Baja Haha tradition is playing a huge game of baseball against the locals, and they crushed us. I did manage to hit once, but it was lousy and I spent most of the game watching everyone play and cheering when I saw someone I knew. Along with the baseball game, there’s a huge beach party, but it’s mostly a drinking-centered party so neither my parents nor I were that into it. My family is pretty quiet, and we don’t really do parties and big events, so the Haha really wasn’t our thing, though it had some fun parts.

The next, slightly shorter leg took us to Bahía de Santa Maria. Somehow, because I’m obviously really good with where I put my feet (It typically stays in my mouth if you couldn’t already tell) I actually trod on a stingray and sliced my foot open. Yeah, that happened. It was a pretty deep cut, about 3 mm deep and an inch long and had I been in the states, I would have been given stitches. Yes, I cried.

After my dad rowed me back to the boat fueled by adrenaline, I ate chocolate and did some reading to try and keep my mind off the pain. Luckily there was no barb, and only a little poison that bruised my cut, nothing serious. Our wonderful friends Kenny and Donna – and of course Allegría! – swung by with the best medicine ever: M&Ms! And much needed puppy love from Allie. I thanked them heartily and gave Allie a bear hug and she licked me.

The next day there was another beach party and I just hung out on the beach (I stayed away from the deep water this time.) with some nice girls from another kid boat as my parents went to check out the party. They returned quickly, not quite happy that we had to pay to enter a party hosted for something we were part of.

The last and final leg of the Haha is the one in which we arrive in Cabo San Lucas, but I remember it as Spinnaker Hell. That morning, Dad and I hoisted the spin and had an awesome run, Aggie’s speed hitting an average of 8 knts. Then Doug came and we discussed gybing. Naturally, I’m always happy to sit back and let them decide, but gybing with the spinnaker is a totally different drift. We got about a quarter way through the process when something went wrong.

Now it’s been about half a year or a little over since this happened, so I’m a bit foggy as to the exact happenings or as to the chronological order, but basically: Dad got massive rope burn all along his right palm. So I ran down to get our ice pack, and it was missing. So I got the next best thing: a bag of frozen raspberries. Then of course a shackle for the clew blew, and our sail hourglassed and wrapped around the anchor about five times. So we had to douse it and repack it inside the boat. This is a 70ft+ sail with over 100ft of area inside our boat, being re-stuffed.

So what did we do when it was repacked? Hoist it again. Much to my misgivings. It was only just hoisted when…the halyard shackle blew and our sail plummeted to the deck from the top of our mast. We were speechless.

That’s when I said no. No, we aren’t fixing it today. No, we aren’t hoisting it again. No, no one is going up that mast. And up the mast Doug went. He volunteered to use our bosuns chair and grapple the halyard back down form the tippy top of our mast. I petitioned, and I’m sure my mom would’ve agreed ( she was having a much needed nap) that a stern “no!” should have been said.

It was fixed and I relaxed a little. Then dad and Doug tied a bowline there instead of a shackle and started to set it up for a third hoist. And I squawked a no. But I wasn’t listened to and the sail was up and flying fine. Or so we thought. It’s lines were all on the wrong side of the lines, and I’m just sitting there with my hands up in the air with a “DID YOU LISTEN? NO.” expression on my face.

Finally we arrived in Cabo San Lucas and it’s many more Haha Parties and beach socials ahead.