October 25, 2004
At Sea, N 32o 11' W 177o 12' (35 nm NW of Ensenada, Mexico)
We had a great time at the Baja Ha-Ha kick off party. Linda and I dressed in our old standby costumes, cave man and cave woman, while Phil dressed as a pirate and Joann as a little devil. Linda and I entered the 'scariest monster' group competition (mostly because the people assigning categories couldn't figure out where to put us) and I entered the 'most buff' competition by myself. Although I was never a threat to win, I did manage to get a consolation prize.
We left the party after all the prizes had been awarded and we'd had our fill of the atmosphere. We met up with Anita and Ron (http://libertycall2.blogspot.com) to return their car (thanks again for loaning it to us you guys!) and returned to the boat to get to bed early.
This morning, the day of our departure, dawned grey and drizzly. Not the best conditions for sailing to Mexico! We resigned ourselves to the situation though and set about taking care of last minute business. First I had to call my broker and sell some Cisco stock. Two weeks in San Diego and we were just about broke! Then we took NAKIA over to the San Diego Yacht Club and tied to the dinghy dock so we could walk over to Downwind Marine and wait for FedEx to deliver our absentee ballots. We only had to wait around for 45 minutes or so and hurriedly filled in the ballots and dropped them in the mail.
Then it was off to the starting line. Having been in such a hurry to get the ballots mailed we were surprised to make the starting area a little early. No problem however, the Baja Ha-Ha committee doesn't keep track if someone is over early. We did our best to stay behind the line until the appointed moment and had pretty good position when the gun went off.
Off like a herd of turtles, we sailed away from San Diego.
John, Linda, Phil, and Joann
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