We have been in San Diego for about 3 weeks, enjoying the cooler weather and catching up with friends. We did have a scare with hurricane Nora in late August. It developed as a tropical storm and upgraded to a Category 1 Hurricane (sustained winds at 75 mph or more) and forecasts had it running right up the Sea of Cortez and smacking us in Puerto Escondido on Aug 24, still as a Cat 1 hurricane. Yikes! Even though Puerto Escondido is one of the best ‘hurricane holes’ for hundreds of miles, a direct hit like that would be sure to cause some damage to the marina and boats docked there.
As it turned out, Nora traveled more north and less west, hitting the mainland near Cabo Corrientes, just south of Banderas Bay / Puerto Vallarata / La Cruz. This is a big tourist area with many boats, and a place we spent several months earlier this year. It quickly degraded to a tropical storm but still caused a number of deaths and substantial damage as it ran up the coast. We know of two boats that were anchored very near us when we were in La Cruz that were washed ashore. One, with a fiberglass hull, washed onto a rocky breakwater and took a lot of damage. Luckily nobody was hurt.
There was flooding and some damage north of Banderas Bay but luckily the remnants did not turn back to the sea where it would have (probably) reformed and gained strength. Puerto Escondido saw winds in the 30 mph range (not a problem) and got some much needed rain. So we were lucky this time, but we are keeping an eye out for other storms forming off the Pacific coast of Mexico. Not that we can really do much from San Diego if one does hit…
We will be heading back to Puerto Escondido sometime around Sept 21, getting ready for more sailing adventures.