Baja Ha Ha XX came to a close Saturday night with an awards ceremony in the marina parking lot.  It’s this kind of venue that has me proud to be an alumni of the Ha Ha.  While sport fishing tourney’s were holding a sit-down surf and turf dinner just around the corner at a 5 star resort and handing out prize money near the hundreds of thousands, the Ha Ha participants were congregated in a freshly swept parking lot,  in a beer brigade to pass ice cold beer to the back row, and  celebrating the oldest and youngest participants.  The youngest being 3 years old and the oldest 86!  Woohoo!! 

Seamore Pacific’s umbilical cord has been officially cut.  We woke Sunday and realized there are no more beach parties, no pre-planned destination sailing points, no sailor nets to tune into….natta, natta, natta.  Baja Ha Ha XX is over.  We have friends in high places (fellow cruisers we have met) but no plans other than to sail to the Sea of Cortez.  Without direction, meaning, or real purpose in life, we did what one would expect.  Laundry.

Laundry in Cabo is not for sissies.  And if you have money, you won’t after you do laundry.  The norm here is to have laundry service at $8 per load.  Seamore Pacific had tallied 7 loads of squid smelling swamp.  Literally.  A squid hit me in the head one night when I was taking my helm position seriously.  I saw a flash of white out of the corner of my eye and the next moment, splat!  Into the side of my head.  At Bahia Santa Maria we found 18 dried up squid on the decks.  Today, we found the carcass of one, under a diesel geri-jug.  Yuck.  Back on track with laundry…it is not in our DNA to pay $56 dollars for laundry.  Instead, we paid $42.  A real savings considering the taxi fare was $15 to drop the laundry off 4 blocks from the marina.  A long story short, we hauled the laundry in the dinghy to the docks, then carried it to the curb, hailed a taxi, and visited three establishments before finding one that had a working washing machine.  After filling the machine with a garden hose and mopping up the floor after the basin leaked the water out, we walked back to the marina carrying our clean clothes slung over our backs (It would have pushed Captain Chameleon over the edge to have paid another dime in taxi fare).  Stuffed tight into a bright red sail bag, it looked like Captain Chameleon was carrying a body over his shoulder.  I thought for sure the Policia would make us out as criminals.

So today, my first real day as a solo cruiser, I did laundry the old fashion way.  Actually, it was quite easy, the whites came out brighter than if they had been in a machine; and still plenty of energy to take a dip off the back of the boat and make a pizza for dinner.  It was only a small load, but it was way easier than dealing with the hassle of schlepping it to the dinghy dock, then hauling it four blocks to the lavanderia, and building a reputation as the Americano who carries bodies on her shoulders. 

As I was hanging laundry to dry, a cruise ship pulled into port.  What a stark contrast from when visiting Cabo San Lucas aboard a cruise ship and then as a sailing cruiser.

Cruiser on a luxury ship or a 36 foot sailboat, it’s a grand time in Cabo San Lucas.