THE SINKING OF BOAT BUM GAL Icebergs
Page 62 • Latitude 38 • December, 2023
SANDRA BARNES / FACEBOOK
"I
f we hit an iceberg," joked Sandra Barnes when referring to her Nicholson 38 sailboat, Boat Bum Gal, "it's the iceberg that is going down!" Seemingly indestructible, the NIC 38 is a heavy masthead sloop designed by John Alden with a two-inch-thick fiberglass hull that boasts an excellent righting capability if capsized. But when the fateful day came to put her iceberg theory to the test, it was Boat Bum Gal that lost, and Barnes had no choice but to watch her slip under the surface of the sea. It was November 3, and Barnes and her crew of three were nearing the end of Leg 1 of the Baja Ha-Ha cruiser's rally from San Diego to Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. Boat Bum Gal was Sandra's home. She was using the popular cruising rally as a gateway to her move to La Paz, Mexico, where she planned to live after the Ha-Ha, which takes around two weeks to complete. It was around 1 a.m., and Ray McCormack, a USCG-certified 200-ton captain from Vancouver, Washington, was at the helm. Despite warnings, McCormack approached Turtle Bay near the rocky coastline, and it came as no surprise to many that Boat Bum Gal ended up on the rocks. According to Barnes, she hit the rocks four times before coming to a dead stop. The sound of her impact was excruciatingly loud from inside the cabin, where Barnes was just coming out of the head. Chaos ensued on board as McCormack reportedly shouted profanities and yelled orders at the third crew member, Bryan Hall. Just minutes following the fourth impact, the cupboards in the galley imploded, and the water started pouring in. Barnes, who was barefoot at the time, remembers frantically looking for her shoes while she watched in horror as gear, food, and galley supplies began floating all around her as the cabin took on water. Due to her back and neck injuries that required surgery a few years back, Barnes suffers with severe joint issues, and knew that if she was going to be doing any walking on the rocks, or anywhere for that matter, she needed to be wearing shoes. Things got real as Barnes overheard Hall make a mayday call on the radio. She remembered thinking how surprising it was that her crew wasn't giving her any instructions at all. Despite having a six-person survival raft on board, McCormack asked Hall to lower the dinghy, which required a 4-hp motor stored in
'Boat Bum Gal' was in Avalon, Catalina, on October 17 before her trip down to San Diego, and a fateful Leg 1 of the Baja Ha-Ha to Turtle Bay, Baja California, in early November.
the aft cabin. It was clear that time was of the essence, and they eventually got the dinghy free and the motor attached, and both crew got on board while Barnes continued her search. She remembers the water felt warm as she took in the scary, surreal scene that unfolded around her. But soon it became clear that she had run out of time and needed to get out. Boat Bum Gal was going under, it had been less than five minutes from the last impact, and there was nothing to do to save her now. With bare feet and a heavy heart, Barnes made her way onto the dinghy, where her crew were waiting. Holding the only item she grabbed — a small fanny pack — she took her place in the dinghy and just watched in disbelief as her boat, her home, her baby, sank. Oh Captain, My Captain
T
his was Sandra Barnes' first Baja Ha-Ha, and though she had done some
cruising, she describes herself as a "Newbie Sailor." Sailing, and particularly Boat Bum Gal, was her happy place. She was ecstatic when McCormack reached out to her on Facebook after seeing her post that she was participating in the event. McCormack has over 5,000 Facebook followers and oftentimes picks up jobs by searching his newsfeed. Reaching her through Facebook Messenger, he told her he had experience with the event, and he'd like to join Barnes' crew and help take her boat safely to Mexico, and he'd do this if she agreed to cover all of his expenses. Not knowing who McCormack was, Barnes did her due diligence and ran a background check, looked at his posts, read comments from his fans from previous deliveries and work, and recognized that he had a lot of ocean, navigation, and cruising experience. Another big bonus: McCormack carried his own charts on his personal laptop. Barnes used Navionics on her iPad, but defaulted