31 August 2006
Puerto Don Juan (28 57' N 113 27' W)
Yesterday we moved from the village of Bahia de los Angeles (BLA) to the local hurricane hole as we wait to see what hurricane John is going to do. This morning the forecasts were split, with one predicting that it will hit Cabo San Lucas and then make a left turn, and the other saying that it will hit Cabo and then come up the Sea of Cortez. We should have a better idea by tomorrow afternoon, after it reaches CSL. In the meantime the Mexican Riviera is getting pummeled by wind and rain, and probably huge swells. We heard this morning that John is finally starting to get some notice in the US press. This is typical since all the US focus is on Atlantic hurricanes (from their infancy), and no one pays any attention to the Eastern Pacific storms until they get cranked up and begin to threaten the Mexican resorts.
There are currently 17 boats anchored in PDJ with another five expected to come in if things start to look serious. We all have anchor buoys out so that the newcomers can see where each boat has its anchor, and several of us already have all our chain out to mark our territory. There's no point in keeping it in the anchor locker, and it would be a bummer if a boat anchored right behind you and you couldn't let anymore chain out if you had to. We won't begin to make serious hurricane preparations until we have a better idea of where John is headed after Cabo. We're keeping our fingers crossed for that left turn, especially since we have many friends with boats in La Paz.
And we're a little more concerned than usual with hurricane John since, as John Gratton says, "This one has my name on it!"
Linda and John