October 2009 eBook all pages (free PDF, 36.6 - Latitude 38

SIGHTINGS
Page 80 • Latitude 38 • October, 2009
jimena — cont’d cruisers psych up
because forecasts called for it to double back on them. Fortunately, it
fizzled out in the Sea first. While all the Santa Rosalia boats survived
in good shape, the small, old marina was destroyed, and the town
suffered extensive damage from flash flooding. Cars were overturned,
homes and stores destroyed, and one on-duty policeman was carried
to his death by a wall of water and mud. For mariners, the big problem
became the five cars, various household appliances and other debris
that blocked the entrance of the marina.
Puerto Don Juan, Bahia de Los Angeles — Jake and Sharon Howard
of the Seattle-based Hunter Legend 45 Jake report that theirs was
one of 21 boats that took shelter at nearly-enclosed Puerto Don Juan
in Bahia de Los Angeles. The storm was supposed to come within 50
miles of them, then head due west. But it “faked left and went right.”
After a five-minute cloudburst in the middle of the night, they awoke
to sunny skies. “To us,” the couple wrote, “it proved once again that
this is the best place to be during the height of the Mexican hurricane
season. Not only is it the safest, but it has great cruising, too.”
San Carlos/Guaymas — Although not originally predicted to get
so close, the eye, depending to whom you talk, either came within 40
miles or passed right over the two towns. In any event, the boating
center was hit by 40-50 knots of wind for 20 hours. No boats in the
water at Marina San Carlos or Marina Real were damaged, but 20 boats
on private moorings went up on the beach. These were mostly goodquality
cruising boats, all of which had been unattended when they
went ashore. All but three were pulled off in relatively short order.
San Carlos is the center of sailboat dry storage in Mexico, with close
to 500 boats on the hard between Marina Seca and Marina Real. The
big threat to them was not the wind, but the rain that fell in biblical
amounts. More than 27 inches fell in 24 hours, supposedly twice as
much as has ever fallen in a 24-hour period in Mexico. Marina Seca,
the bigger of the storage yards, became a massive flood plain. Nonetheless,
only two boats went over: the DownEast 38 Barnacle and the
Passport 45 Plumas. Thanks to the thick cushion of mud, neither boat
was damaged. All boats on the hard in Guaymas stayed up.
The flood damage that hit the city, roads and homes of the area was
worse, yet cruisers had nothing but raves about the response on the
part of the government, utilities, businesses and individuals. By all
accounts, Kiki Grossman and her staff did a miraculous job clearing
mud from Marina Seca, refencing the yard and getting it back on its
feet. And Grossman raved about the utility providers and the hard
work of her employees. She even put the workers’ wives on the payroll
so their husbands could work as many hours a day as possible.
Remember the looting hordes in the wake of Katrina in New Orleans?
“There are marauding bands of Mexicans everywhere,” blogged one
cruiser in San Carlos, “and they are helping everyone who needs it!”
We think the lessons of Jimena are as follows:
• You can’t trust hurricane forecasts. Don Anderson was singled
out as having better forecasts than others, but people complained
that even his projections were way off.
• Unattended boats have a much greater chance to go ashore.
Everyone must remember, however, that Jimena had lost a lot of her
punch by the time she reached boating interests. It’s one thing to
stay on your boat in 60 knots of wind, it’s another if it’s blowing 120
knots and the force of the wind is four times greater.
• The farther north you are in the Sea, the less likely it is that you’ll
get hit; and if you do get hit, chances are you won’t get hit as hard.
• Flash floods and flooding can be killers in Baja.
And lastly, in this time of danger, everyone banded together to
prepare, endure and recover from the storm. It was humanity at its
best. Nearly every cruiser who wrote to us struggled to find words
to sufficiently express their praise for the Mexican government, the
businesses, and the private citizens of Mexico for all their help.
— rs
PHOTOS COURTESY GEMINI
Ahhh, Polynesia . . . Just saying that
word, we can practically feel the warm
caress of the trade winds.
Although the prime weather window
for jumping off from the Americas to the
South Pacific is still five months away,
there's already a lot of buzz within the
cruising community about this year's
Pacific Puddle Jump. For the uninitiated,
that's the name we coined long ago for the
annual migration of westbound cruisers.
As most readers know, Latitude ex-