When we left Oxnard last October 1 to join the 2023 Baja Ha-Ha, it was the first time our family would be adventuring for an extended period on Grace, our 1988 Catalina 36 — but not our first time cruising. Jen and I and our son, Kekoa, had been sailing around the Channel Islands and figuring this cruising thing out over the past four years while preparing Grace for extended cruising south.

I had also crewed for a guy who moved his boat from Port Townsend to his new winter home in La Paz. So I had at least a general idea of what was in store.

We initially planned on making the sail down Baja and onward on our own. But with all the preparations and work we were doing, it was easy to push each fall departure back another year “until we were 100% ready.” (I hear you laughing out there!) It was easy to see how it could drag out forever.

Jen finally came to the rescue when she declared she wanted to do the Ha-Ha rally. I was not keen on being in a large group like that. I like my space, I like my plan, and I like not being on anyone else’s schedule. Fortunately, my wife doesn’t suffer from my hang-ups. She’s always ready to drag me to the party, and I’ve never been disappointed in following her lead. We’ve had many fun family adventures when she’s pushed me beyond my comfort zone, and this time wasn’t any different.

So after getting over myself, we registered for the Ha-Ha and began the process of getting our TIP and Mexico boat insurance, securing a slip somewhere in Mexico, tidying up last-minute projects, and now definitely feeling pinched for time.

The plan was to make a few stops along the way to San Diego: Santa Cruz Island, Catalina, Dana Point and Oceanside, where I grew up. We visited friends, did some surfing, did some provisioning, and, of course, did more boat projects. In fact, the list of to-do projects didn’t shrink — it grew! We lost the autopilot on the way to Catalina. I replaced the belt with a spare and we were good to go again. It was in Dana Point that we discovered leaks in our dinghy — which had never once leaked before. We tackled the repair in Oceanside, only to find that every time we fixed one leak, a new one would appear somewhere else! After chasing our tails for a week, we came to the grim conclusion that we were going to have to throw down for a new dink if we were going to enjoy our cruising.

Onward to San Diego. We arrived three days before the start of the rally, and joined in with the rest of the fleet going to the various meetings and parties. We also found our new dink, and $5,000 later loaded her on board. Combined with the new genoa we had to get before leaving Oxnard — almost $10K and we hadn’t even really started cruising yet — we were beginning to doubt if we had the resources to support this adventure if it was going to continue like this.

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