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 Travel & Outdoors | December 2007 
FUBAR Odyssey Makes Mexico Cruising Look Easy
 Capt. Patricia Miller Rains - The Log
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| | Ready for FUBAR Cruisers - While the Marina at Puerto Los Cabos wasn't yet fully open when FUBAR Odyssey boaters arrived, everyone found a safe place to dock and take on fuel. Restaurants not scheduled to open managed to provide a feast for the yatistas. (Pat Rains) |
San Diego - The inaugural FUBAR Odyssey powerboat rally from San Diego to La Paz came off with hardly a hitch - despite the fact that nobody had ever before organized a fleet of 47 powerboats to voyage 800 miles together into Mexican waters.
Opportunities for logistical foul-ups loomed large. For example, when the boats left Southern California Nov. 7, the skippers hoped the tanker trucks and fuel barges that had been hired to re-supply them with diesel in Turtle Bay would really show up. They knew for sure that one of the marinas down south hadn't yet opened for business and they believed it probably wouldn't have slips for everyone.
"Well, it took more than a year of planning, and a lot of help from our sponsors, event staffers and the Baja Tourism Department," said Bruce Kessler, chairman of the FUBAR and a member of Del Rey Yacht Club in Marina del Rey, which hosted the event.
Before departing the U.S., all participating vessels were inspected, and seminars brought the 299 skippers and crewmembers up to speed on medical issues, provisioning, weather conditions and route planning.
First Stop: Ensenada
Coming into Ensenada, the FUBAR looked almost like a Nordhavn rendezvous, because 13 participating boats were Nordhavns, and PAE vice-president Jim Leishman and his family helped staff the FUBAR rally. Eight boats were Selenes, but Mikelson, Offshore, Fleming and other well-known big-boat brands were also well represented.
However, the fleet ranged widely from the precocious 28-foot Skipjack Brown-Eyed Girl skippered by three retired firefighters to the glamorous 96-foot Bloemsma & Van Breem named Que Sera - which translates as "What Will Be."
After about half the boats were refueled by tanker trucks at Cruiseport Village Marina and Marina Coral, Felizardo Palacios and the Ensenada Tourism Bureau gave the "FUBARistas" a welcome dinner. The next morning, he gave the visiting cruisers a 50-passenger tour bus to use for going shopping and having lunch downtown, then organized a trip out to L.A. Cetto vineyards to sample wines.
Turtle Bay
This first overnight run would cover about 275 miles, our longest leg. Most skippers timed their departure from Ensenada to give them a daylight arrival in Turtle Bay. Even though many of us were familiar with Turtle Bay's entrance, we'd been warned by the long-range fishing fleet from San Diego to watch out for hundreds of lobster traps on this leg.
After running down the coast and passing well outside the Sacramento Reef, some skippers jumped off for the San Benito Islands, while the rest set a course for either the east or west side of Cedros Island. Lobster floats were everywhere, and everybody had to play "dodge 'em." One boat wrapped a prop in Dewey Channel and, for safety's sake, limped into Turtle Bay on one engine.
Fortunately, fuel was waiting for us. This remote bay lies at the end of a 100-mile gravel road from the two-lane blacktop of Highway 1. It's really the ends of the earth, so making arrangements for anything is a minor miracle. For many first-time cruisers, Turtle Bay is their first true anchorage - as opposed to a marina or dock.
During this two-day stop, FUBARistas took diesel by two methods: Med-moored off the old pier and via mini-fuel barges, which are 22-foot pangas fitted with fuel tanks and pumps. Some boats needed more fuel than others, and some of us needed none.
During fueling, nobody was interested in holding the dinghy poker run out in the bay, which was to have honed our rusty dinghy skills. But that night, American Bow Thruster sponsored Anabell's Cantina to put on a traditional Mexican fiesta with a local dance band.
Anabell's Cantina is rather new, located in a separate cove with no dock yet. FUBAR had thoughtfully hired five pangas to act as water taxis, so only a few of us took our own dinghies.
The only problem arose after dark. It gets very dark in Turtle Bay, thanks to no streetlights and very few house lights. Until six months ago, Turtle Bay was on a generator.
Unfortunately, when the first batch of about 50 party-goers were picked up from Anabell's beach, many of them couldn't find their own boats at anchor: It was too dark! Three pangas had to circle through the 1.25-mile anchorage for more than an hour, trying to drop off their passengers. That left two pangas to shuttle 150 people home.
If we had this to do over, we'd have asked participants to hone their No. 1 cruising skill - remember where you anchored your boat.
Santa Maria and Magdalena Bay
Fishing really picks up south of Turtle Bay, so skippers stopping over Thetis Banks at dawn took off first. On this 235-mile leg, one boat reported losing steering, but via radio the fleet's mechanical expert found a solution and the skipper fixed it. During this two-night stop, Naiad hosted a party at Baja on the Fly's fish camp overlooking the Santa Maria anchorage; and in Man of War Cove, the party was at tiny Mira Mar cantina.
Air and water temperatures warmed up radically, and it was time to dig out those shorts and flip-flops.
Los Cabosa
Because the Marina at Puerto Los Cabos in San Jose del Cabo wasn't fully open yet, some boats had made reservations in Cabo San Lucas and others split off toward Puerto Vallarta. Dockmaster Jim Elfers found dock space and fuel for everyone who went to Puerto Los Cabos.
Passagemaker, Selene Yachts and the owners of the Barefoot Cantina hosted dinner for about 200 FUBAR participants, even though the restaurant wasn't officially scheduled to open for two more days.
Muertos-Suenos
Rounding Los Frailes, we found our first head winds - a meager 12 to 15 knots from the north. When 40 powerboats crammed themselves carefully into the half-mile cove at Muertos Bay, the radar screen was a polka-dot pattern.
Casa de los Suenos provided water taxi service, a cocktail party and a buffet dinner in the Train Room.
La Paz Finale
CostaBaja Resort & Marina was our destination on the north side of La Paz, where dockmaster Gabriel Ley got every boat topped off with fuel and safely into slips. The marina's lavish Grande Finale fiesta on the powder-white beach included FUBAR awards and the movie "Ocean Oasis" under the stars.
The next day, CostaBaja hosted a breakfast for 150 of us in its Beach House (again, a facility that wasn't open until we got there), along with a seminar on cruising the Sea of Cortez and a bus tour of La Paz. The marina staff also provided a huge Thanksgiving feast for the cruisers.
"It's incredible how well the FUBAR went," said Luetta Spenser of Slo Flite Too, an Ocean Alexander 70. "What is FUBAR supposed to mean again?"
Maybe it's "Fun in Baja Rally." |
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