Feeling particularly masochistic, I recently signed up to cook aboard a sail training vessel headed up the coast of Baja. Partly a delivery after the Newport-to-Cabo race and partly a lesson in upwind sailing, this was a trip up the notorious 850-mile stretch of coastline known as the Baja Bash – a sometimes daunting West Coast phenomenon usually left to paid delivery captains.

It might not be going to school barefoot and uphill, but the Bash is definitely not for those who avoid going to weather.

As the cook, I completed the crew with skipper Brian Kfoury, and first mate Karen Prioleau aboard Alaska Eagle, the flagship of the Orange Coast College School of Sailing & Seamanship. In mid-March, the boat welcomed six students aboard for what was expected to be a spirited ride. After a two-hour walk through of the vessel, we headed out under sail into the bay of Cabo San Lucas for crew orientation and drills including man-overboard, abandon ship and fire stations.

ZUZANA PROCHAZKAEarly morning watches aboard Alaska Eagle get the benefit of seeing the Baja coastline in the light of a new day.THE CLASSROOM

The boat was designed by Sparkman and Stevens for Cornelius van Rietschoten (with a name like Cornelius, he had to be a yachtsman) and built by the Dutch shipyard Royal Huisman to compete in the Whitbread Round the World Race. Originally named Flyer, the then-new aluminum boat started life as a ketch and won the race in 1978. She was converted to a sloop and renamed Alaska Eagle by new owner Neil Bergt, who campaigned her in the next Whitbread and eventually donated her to the OCC program for which she has sailed more than 200,000 miles with student crews onboard.

Sailing with six to 10 students, Alaska Eagle provides a tough 65-foot classroom. The hanked on sails are large and heavy and there is no roller furling. It takes at least six people to raise the main. None of the 14 winches are electric. Even the bilge is pumped manually with the strokes counted at the end of each watch. Nothing is automated and everything is supersized.

To some, the word student is synonymous with newbie, and although it is true that Alaska Eagle is crewed by a variety of sailors with different experience levels, these are not landlubbers out for a daysail. Mostly, crew members are looking to build their skills, see new coastlines or just have an adventure that they wouldn't dare undertake on their own boats.

Our group came from all walks of life – a CFO, ex-border patrolman, university administrator, private investigator, airline navigator and civil engineer – but they shared duties equally on board. A rotation of cleaning tasks served as a humbling equalizer, and a roster was posted with colorful designations such as Galley Slave, Deck Patrol, Secretary of the Interior and Head Honcho.

Watches were conducted in two-person teams working four hours during the day and three at night. Everyone alternated at the wheel, with 30 minutes of steering at a clip. No autopilot here. And with Alaska Eagle's barn door of a rudder, depending on the conditions, a half hour of steering could be a tiring workout.

ZUZANA PROCHAZKATeamwork is key when securing the supersized main aboard Alaska Eagle. THE CURRICULUM

Traditional wisdom dictates that boats headed north hug the coast to avoid a thrashing. Two boats that left the previous day had returned – one with a leaking rudderpost and one that had been pounded so hard that the captain decided to trailer the boat back up Baja coast. Looking at chart 502, which shows the run in its entirety, I wondered if these boats were harbingers of things to come. Ho

However, an enormous high-pressure system was settling over Baja and by the time we poked our nose around the cape, we found calm conditions. We ran the rhumb line, anywhere from four to 40 miles off the coast with easy motorsailing except around the capes, where strong currents of 2 to 3 knots slowed our progress. As we moved through the 10 charts, we ticked off the major landmarks: Punta Tosca, Bahia Santa Maria, Cabo San Lazaro, Punta Abreojos, Bahia Asuncion. The weather was good and we made haste.

Every afternoon, there was a new lesson. Subjects included an overview of weather and passage planning, celestial navigation, knot tying and even a hands-on sail trim class with notes written on what is arguably the world's most unusual whiteboard – Eagle's boom. We had impromptu extra credit lessons that generally occurred at 4 a.m., like generator maintenance or bleeding the engine because the fuel tanks were not switched in time.

ZUZANA PROCHAZKASailtrim class notes on the world's most expensive dryboard.