Worst Baja mishaps, yours?

I have had some doozys, luckily, they are hilarious now. I'm always impressed with the inginuity of the Baja traveler, what was YOUR biggest mess and solution? I LOVE these stories. M

What only my BIG messups

1. rubberboat escaped from La Gringa headed South in the wind.
1.a. swimming after it in Jan. ( I am so proud of it's ingenuity and unpowered speed)
Solution for 1. = dive buddy (him the one with brains) ran down the shore to some guys in a red HUMMER had a jet sky. NO PROBLEM
Solution for 1.a. = cold triggered common sense, and self-presevation at alittle past the 1/4 mile mark.
2. pronounced San Quintin like the JOINT in front of surfers.
Solution for 2 = (after they could catch their breath from laughting asked the rigth way to say it and LEARNED.
3. ripped bottom out of formentioned rubber boat.
Solution for 3 = two hours of pouting, realized HELL I'M IN B.C.S changed mind set and enjoyed!

I'll play, but have to be anon for this one.

We were going surfing a ways north from San Quentin, late 70s. Drinking beer, puffing a fat one; yeehah! Come around a corner and AAAHHH!!! Dope search.

Full chinese fire drill extinguishing the offending reefer, stashing the beers under the seat. We pull up and attempt a cheerful, yet innocent greeting. They go thru the routine until a grunt mentions to the subteniente "Beer bottles under the seat...".

He says "Big deal; you guys can go." Absolute miracle they didn't smell it on us!

After catching our breath a few cliks down the road, paranoia sets in and we decide "Better get rid of the evidence." So we relight the joint, take a few puffs, pull around another corner....!!!

You guessed it...the old double search trick!(fortunately the foolish kids lucked out again) Man; I put on about ten years in those few minutes.

Apologies to those who frown on that kind of thing.

I think I have told these before, but if you want reruns;
I was following a friend to LaPaz. He was driving a van and I was driving a truck towing a boat. If you are familiar with the road, you know the loong grade down into Santa Rosalia. Huge dropoffs into the canyon if you mess up. Hardly any place to pull off. All of a sudden, I saw the van weave a little bit, then pull into a tiny pullout against the mountain.
There was no place for me, so I just stopped, got out, and ran forward to see what what the matter.

My friend handed me his steering wheel as I got to his door. It had just come off in his hand. He was able to jam it on and pulled off in the only place available along that stretch. Talk about luck. He had his wife, his cousin and his grandmother in the van with him.

As it turned out, the nut loosened, then stripped out. I was able to secure it with washers and vice grips good enough to get down the hill.

The post above about losing an inflatable at LaGringa reminded me about the first time I went to Laguna Manuela in about 1980. I had borrowed a canoe from the preacher at our church. We carried that sucker down on top of my camper.

We had a good day fishing from it in the back bay, and I pulled it up safely above the tide line ( I thought). The next morning, it was gone. It didnt take me long to figure out that the tide came in considerably further the night before.

I didn't know what to do and when the fishermen came in later that morning, I told them what had happened. I figured that canoe was on it's way to Japan. They all laughed and told me to relax. One of them took his Panga back in the Laguna, and about 15 minutes later came back towing the canoe.

Other than sharing a beer with me, they refused any payment. They also showed me how to properly secure my boat. We were there about a week and those guys were always going over and checking my canoe to see if it was secure.

OK Michelle, I think you should tell us the story about the Portaboat incident again.

Yeah,

Cramps