Cabo Wobble

Our homie Billy Bob checks in with another of his special delights - Enjoy, my brothers and sisters. -Ed.

One of the best destinations of So Cal yachting is the out of control anything goes city of Cabo San Lucas. This '06 addition wasn't very well timed as far as racing schedules go but the finish being at the peak of spring break couldn't have been better. The clubs were pulsating with the under 25 crowd, Girls kitted up in their minis with no underwear dancing seductively with 2 or 3 other girls, all 10's, on table tops. WOW eye popping! Is this shit legal? Only in Mexico my friends! It really left nothing to the imagination for a kickin' it old school like myself. I am sure no one was on drugs down there and I don't mean weed. I mean hallucinogens. (Maybe a tequila worm?).

This year's race for the yachties was what can only be described as a "typical Mexican race". The promise a week before the race was to be windy but when the race got underway the wind turned to shit and we drifted towards Cabo painfully, if not frustratingly slow, as usual. I guess the Nurf guys didn't get my memo last year about having the race on a full moon. I can't remember the last time I drifted under a full moon but I do remember plenty of times that we drifted with no moon. I don't really know what that means since I am not a weather router guru but I do know that sailing with no moon while racing offshore isn't quite as pleasant as having a full moon. By the way, Puerto Vallarta organizers, you would be in the same boat. PV and Cabo just weeks apart; weak assed.

Let's just have so many races down the coast so close together; we only have three boats per class so we can all trophy... Thinking about it, that was good for us this time on the Peligroso. if we had more boats we would have been just deeper in the fleet as we were unfortunately positioned very well for a poor finish. Magnitude 80 first to finish, beating Windquest, got in about 11:00 in the morning. Then the wind really shut off for all the others. After six hours of drifting the wind came back up almost to nuking status as most of the fleet finished within hours of each other. At first we all thought that Mag 80 smoked all of us but not so; the corrected time winners were the slowest rated guys that blew in on a freshening breeze. After I got back from surfing the east cape I found out the fossils on Grand Illusion kicked all of the A boats asses. Good job boys It gives me hope for another 20 years in the sport. As usual I don't know how any of the other classes shook out, only that there were some. Most of the guys I sail with are pretty much gone in sixty seconds after hitting the dock for parts of the world where the yachting money tree grows.

I am no exception except after being on a roadie for 5 weeks I was in need of heading back home and reorganizing the duffel bag and spending some time with my understanding wife. Not to sound like I have a blessed life but going from finishing the Cabo race, surfing the same day in Cabo with my buddies, flying home to New Zealand via LA and going to the beach with the wife and surfing 24 hours later is way better than the promise of 72 virgins after blowing ones self up. Do people really do that? Far removed from my reality.

I really would like to tell everyone that is even mildly interested that "Peligroso", a Tim Kernan designed, Dennis Choate built, Mike Campbell/Dale Williams owned, Mark Callahan BN'ed and a host of professional sailors that rotate on and off the boat is one of the best programs on the west coast bar none. Even if we didn't win this one (gives others hope) we sailed a race that no one would be ashamed to have sailed as we hit every shift and sailed the way we hope and expect to sail every race. Others from the PV race and Cabo race that deserve a shout out in no particular order are people that I have a great deal of respect for: Kevin Miller, Pete Heck, Mark Mendelblatt, John Hayes, Scott Dickson, Les Walker, Ty Pryne. These guys are in another class from the rest of us and deserve the respect of all of us striving to be the best in our sport. Some are known names and some will be the names in our future but do not make any mistake; they are players and the reason why Peligroso is formidable in any race.
Packing my bags for the next one.

Over and out,
Billy Bob

04/03/06