Our man James Kirby goes FUBAR

Contributing editor James Kirby is on his way to Mexico aboard the Nordhavn 55 Pacific Escort as part of FUBAR, the powerboat rally from San Diego to La Paz conceived and organized by circumnavigator Bruce Kessler. The fleet of 53 yachts departed San Diego this morning to start the 1,000-nautical-mile cruise which will take about 16 days and including refueling stops and partying along the way.

Jim is sailing with Jim Leishman aboard Pacific Escort owned by Pacific Asian Enterprises. Also on board are Jim's brother, Jeff, the chief designer at PAE, and Jim's sons, Eric and James, salesmen in PAE's southwest office in Dana Point, California. When we begin to receive progress reports from our man, they'll be posted here.

The last we heard from Jim, shown docking our current cover boat with PAE president Dan Streech, was several days ago when he emailed that he had been "side-tracked the other night at the dinner talking to Bob Senter from Alaska Diesel about the fine points of diesel combustion, flame propagation, piston design, etc." Knowing what a gearhead Jim is we fear that conversation may still be ongoing.

In all, there are nine Nordhavns in the rally, the most of any make. The LOA in the fleet ranges from 30 to 96 feet.

Ken Williams is participating in FUBAR with Sans Souci, the Nordhavn 68 featured in the latest edition of Circumnavigator. Subscribe to his blog for his take on the cruise to La Paz. Also check out the reports at nordhavn.com and trawlersandtrawlering.com.

FUBAR generally means Fouled Up Beyond All Recognition (Yes, we know there is a ruder version.) but in this case it stands for Fleet Underway to Baja Rally. Perhaps Bruce Kessler has a sense of humor?