S/V Mandolin

Sea of Cortez Race Week

4-18-99 to 4-26-99

Who says cruisers don't race? My husband Todd and I honed our sailing teeth on race boats in Santa Cruz. Several times on our cruise to Canada and Mexico, our racing/sailing experience proved invaluable during potentially scary situations. So imagine our delight to find racing venues down here in Mexico. Wow, no one ever told me you could be hot racing to windward. But I get ahead of myself. "Mandolin" is currently at anchor in Partidaville, otherwise known as the anchorage Caleta Partida, which lies between Islas Espiritu Santo and La Partida north of La Paz. In this fabulous anchorage, cruisers gather from all over Mexico for the world famous Sea of Cortez Race Week.

Now, Race Week is not simply white knuckling it around the buoys shouting at your crew and any other boats close enough to also yell at. No, no, no, no, no. Race Week could be more aptly named Cruisers Week because it embodies all that is wonderful about cruising: sailing your boat well, running your dinghy hard, potlucks aboard other boats and at the beach, getting to know new people and spending time with old friends. Race Week also incorporated practicing boating skills most people don't practice enough. Along with plain old sail racing, we also had a "man overboard" race and a "sail off and onto the anchor without using your motor" race.

The racing commenced on Sunday with a race from La Paz to just south of the San Lorenzo Channel. The highlight of the day was humpback whales slapping the water with their fins at the start of the race. "Zeus" got a terrific downwind start and sailed away from the fleet. "Rendezvous" and "Roller Coaster" popped their shoots and enjoyed a little cat and mouse game. "Zeus" then sailed into a hole, which developed to engulf "Rendezvous" and "Roller Coaster" as they approached. The wind finally filled in and they were able to finish the race and sail the rest of the way to Partidaville. That evening was the King and Queen contest. Out of five or six boat couples nominated, Keith and Leslie McKenzie were voted in as King and Queen of Race Week '99. Their boat "Roller Coaster" was declared the Royal Barge and Kat of "Rendezvous" was declared the Royal Fairy. When Leslie was asked how it felt to be Queen: "I'm going to be really disappointed next week when nobody's genuflecting to me."

Monday morning was the beginning of the Over The Line (OTL) tournament, and children's events on the beach. The OTL tournament continued each afternoon with the batter on shore and the field in the water. "Rendezvous" was the 3-0 winner of the event. The kids had fun with treasure hunts and sing alongs. One very popular activity was the knighting of princes and princesses by the King and Queen. All the boys and girls were proclaimed royalty by their Royal Highnesses and each created their own special crown out of construction paper, glitter, sand and anything else they got creative with.

The anchorage became terrorized Monday afternoon with the inauguration of the dinghy races hosted at "Scallywag" by Padre Timo. Much technical skill was exhibited. The course: start, buoy, bottle, buoy, bucket. Once the dinghy left the start line, a water bottle was thrown in the water at the start line, which the dinghy was then required to pick up after rounding the buoy once. Then it was one more time around the buoy and then slam-dunking the bottle into a bucket hanging from "Scallywag's" spinnaker pole. This took much coordination between driver and pick-up/slam-dunk crew. When the bottle didn't get picked-up or properly delivered into the bucket, marital bliss did not ensue. There were different divisions for different size outboards, but technical skill was more important than horsepower. Some of the dinghies with 8hp engines turned in better times than dinghies with 15hp or more. Technique was all- important.

Monday night saw the ever-popular dinghy-in movie hosted at "Love Song". Thirty-six dinghies with their favorite snacks and beverages rafted to Love Song and each other for a viewing of Captain Ron. I think Captain Ron must the cruisers" Rocky Horror picture show, funny how everyone seemed to know the words" Later in the week, "Love Song" hosted a showing of The Princess Bride and even more movie lines were known by those attending!

Tuesday, Kat on "Rendezvous" held a stretching class on the beach and helped us boat potatoes limber up. That afternoon was the second big boat race. But simply going around the buoys was too mundane for this crowd. This race was the "man overboard" race. At their discretion, race committee told each boat they were about to have a man overboard emergency. The boat in question was to throw over two buoys tied together and then retrieve them. The wind was so light that many boats had difficulty tacking around to retrieve their "man overboard". The more nimble boats retrieved their fenders quickly and headed for the finish line. The winds were so light that had an actual person jumped in, they could have swam back to the boat as it tried to sail away.

Tuesday night heralded the first ever Poker Run and Progressive Dinner held at Race Week. There were four categories: appetizers, salads, entrees and desserts. Each participating boat selected a category and received a partial deck of cards. The idea was to visit one boat in each category, make new friends, eat food and receive a card. Four courses, four cards, get it" Once you are truly stuffed on good food, the plan was to then descend upon the Race Week Chairman's boat, Flying Cloud, for Mexican Coffee and your fifth card to complete your poker hand. We"re not quite sure why, but Flying Cloud developed a twenty degree list during the night. Gene and Pat estimate that they broke their record of 75 people on the boat that night. One of the highlights of the evening was the pre-dinner advertising of restaurants and food to be served. Among the selling points for various boats, uh restaurants, were "valet parking available", "both smoking and non-smoking sections", "regular and vegetarian lasagna", "cockpit seating available", and much chocolate advertised for dessert. If you went hungry, didn't have a good time, or didn't meet any new folks, it was your own darn fault.

Wednesday afternoon were more dinghy races. Several people in the kayak division went swimming when attempting to put the bottle in the bucket. It was a hot day, so maybe they meant to do that. We also had our sailing dinghy from "Mandolin" out for the races, but unfortunately the wind was very light, so only three runs were taken on the sailing course.

Wednesday evening was the chili cookoff and general potluck followed by an awesome musical jam session. Winner of the Best Taste was "Cheval" and winner of Best Presentation was "Rendezvous". The Best Chili Name was something Hawaiian like "Heyiwannaleiya". Contributing musicians for the post dinner jam session were: Sue and Pepe of "Melissa", Dave and Linda of "Irish Melody", Gary and Terry of "Ishi", Mitch and Vicki of "Cruising Time", and Carlos and Patti of "Last Mango". And on "Casual Water", Kip flew in that day from the states to play in the jam session that night. Now that's Race Week spirit!

Wednesday night saw the wind pipe up and anchors drag. Tense times and anchor watches in Partidaville. Just like cruising, it was not all fun and games at Race Week. But making light of a bad situation, race chairmen Gene and Pat from "Flying Cloud" were granted the Drag Queen award for bumping along the bottom before resetting their anchor.

Thursday afternoon was time to practice another excellent sailing skill: sail off your anchor then reanchor under sail. Whereas the wind for the first two races had been rather light, the wind for this race was perfect. By using GPS, the boats sailed beautifully off their anchors, tacked out of the bay, reached out until they were three miles from their start, reached back and then sailed downwind through the bay and anchored boats to set anchor again. One or two boats were unable to anchor in their spot due to other boats getting in the way, but otherwise, everyone anchored within GPS error from where they started. It was pretty awesome to watch such sailing skill. Thus, the racing ended on a beautiful note.

Thursday evening was another potluck on the beach and a dessert contest at which everyone pigged out. The awesome post dinner music was unfortunately cut short by high winds and big swell, which swamped several dinghies on the beach. People arrived home to corkscrew pitching sailboats and a bumpy night. It's during situations like these that I like to think of all the times I heard, "Oh, how romantic!" when telling someone about sailing to Mexico with my husband. It is romantic, but not all the time!

Friday morning dawned gray and cool. The "Mandolin" crew invited three other boats for French toast and cappuccinos as the best way to deal with the morning. There had been much talk about the bikini contest and beer belly contest scheduled for that afternoon. By Queenly Royal Decree and much cajoling by the Queen, the bikini contest was shaping up to be a drag queen contest. The King protested that he wanted to see women, not men, scantily clad. As it was determined that there weren't many respectable beer bellies and the Queen didn't want to see any anyway, the women's bikini contest was declared for that afternoon, the drag queen contest was to be that evening after dinner and the beer belly contest was thereby cancelled.

These contests were wonderful! They were both parodies of flesh contests and more make-up was worn in the drag queen contest than the bikini contest. In the women's contest, conducted and judged by the King, contestants were asked two questions. The prepared question was, "If our Royal Fairy could grant you one wish what would that wish be"" Winner of the Most Intellectual contestant was Rangin" Lil from "Moon Hunter".

R. Lil: "I would wish for three more wishes."
King: (flustered) "Well, uh, and, uh, what would one of those
wishes be""
R. Lil: "That they all be answered."
King: "Hmm," (pause). "She's smarter than the king" What would
one of the other wishes be""
R. Lil: "That none of my four feminist sisters find out that I entered this contest."

Another winner was Sammy J of "Bruja del Mar". When Sammy's turn was announced, she stripped off her sweatshirt to reveal a turquoise string bikini and painted words adorning her knock-out body. "Buoy" was written on each breast, "fender" and "love" on each side of her derriere, "rhumb line" on her back with an arrow pointed down to her, uh, figure it out. "Piece" was written across her ribs. She wished for Peace on Earth, but pointed out that 'this is the only Piece my boyfriend can spell." "Port hole" circled her belly button, and thus she was awarded the winner of the Best Naval Port in Mexico where we understand bottom jobs are available.

Misty won the Winner of the Most Stimulating contestant by giving the King a foot massage during her question and answer period, which the King drew out as long as possible to savor the stimulation. By far the most popular winner was the Winner of the Smallest Bikini; the Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Bikini. This was Marina Partida of "Uhuru" who is all of two years old and wore the cutest little fish bikini you ever saw. Marina stumped the King by wishing for a goat and liking dogs because she likes dogs. Each contestant won a position on the Royal Court and a bottle of rum.

The Drag Queen contest found six lovely ladies up on stage. This contest was conducted by the Queen and decided by applause. In third place we had the most masculine Olive Oil you ever saw. She got a little friendly with the Queen's feet until the Queen declared, "No sucking on Royal Toes!" True to form, Olive was flat chested. In second place was Todd from "Mandolin" as Stella. Stella wore a lovely pareo from Tahiti wrapped around the chest and hips, Midnight Blue eyeshadow, Cherries Jubilee lipstick, a straw hat, polished stone necklace and faux pearl bracelet. The crowd did their best Street Car Named Desire "STELLA! STELLA!" yell for the lovely Stella. Stella did her best to leave kiss marks on Padre Timo and the King. In first place was a girl whose name escapes me, but whose pointed breasts under her black one-piece bathing suit caught the attention of the crowd. The breasts and her prancing complete with good bottom time won her first place and a bottle of rum. Honorable mention goes to Kip dressed as Olga from Russia who missed her strong Russian men and was tired of American wimps, Tim wore a lovely knit dress, while Jay wore a sexy bikini and flashed his pectoral muscles to the crowd.

There were two weddings during Race Week. The first one must have been an elopement. The only details we have are that a couple of 31 years renewed their vows on the beach after the sun went down. The other wedding took place on Saturday by Royal Queenly decree. Heather and Kyle on "Novia" are a sweet young couple who love each very much. The Queen decided that they needed a trial wedding as all weddings performed at Race Week are valid only for the duration of Race Week. Without asking if Heather and Kyle would like to be married, the Royal Court swung into planning gear. A sailboat print tie was found for the groom. A white nighty became the wedding gown; Faux pearls adorned the bride and a lovely bouquet completed the ensemble. Dave of "Irish Melody" provided wedding fiddler music and Linda provided the wedding cake. Parents giving away the bride were Kathy on "Joss" and John on "Love Song", Best Man was Carlos on "Last Mango", Matron of Honor was Queen Leslie, and Bridesmaid was Ellen of "Mandolin". Padre Timo of "Scallywag" officiated the nuptuals. Padre asked Keith and Heather if they had any special words for each other.

Keith: "Heather, without you I wouldn't be here right now."
Heather: "Keith, I love you, but this is only for two days."

Keith promised to enjoy, respect and love Heather and was looking forward to the honeymoon. Heather promised to respect Keith, was happy he didn't snore and would deal with his farts. A lovely ring ceremony was made possible with sail rings and "Novia" (sweetheart) was rechristened "Esposa" (wife/spouse). The planned afternoon potluck became the reception. "Cruising Time" made rum punch, "Joss" provided bridal champagne, and a good time was had by all.

As the cruisers departed the bay for various locations, it seems that so much has happened in this one week. While we have tried to describe Race Week, to get the full effect you must attend next year's event.

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