Hurricane Odile

Originally posted on September 18, 2014, by cruisingrunner

Last year about this time we were cooking in the heat up in the northern Sea of Cortez. Backing up a bit, we left California end of February 2013 intending to rush down the coast and then do a relatively late Pacific crossing over to French Polynesia. When we got to La Paz, Mexico, however, we realized the infeasibility of those plans and we put on the brakes. Not crossing the Pacific was the easy part of the decision, the hard part was, OK, now what do we do for hurricane season? The options seemed to be Central America, way up in the northern Sea of Cortez, or back up to California. Central America had the advantage of being out of the hurricane belt, but we would have to cross the Tehuantepec at an unfavorable time of year and then would have to contend with the thunderstorms all summer. A lightning strike would have been the major concern.

The Sea of Cortez had issues too, including its own summertime convection (referred to as “Chubascos”) as well as the possibility of a hurricane, even if very, very remote. We never seriously considered heading back up to California, we had just left, after all. We considered all the pros and cons, and we settled on staying in The Sea of Cortez way up north in the vicinity of Bahia de Los Angeles (BLA). Hurricanes and Tropical Storms rarely go up The Sea and even if they do, they ALMOST never make it up that high. There is a natural “hurricane hole” nearby called Puerto Don Juan, so our plan in the event of something heading our way would be to retreat there, prep the boat, and hope for the best.

We had a phenomenal summer. There were beautiful anchorages up that way, and we had a lot of fun with the small group of cruisers who were up there with us. We had full moon parties, tons of potlucks, and even a “regatta” across BLA. We never got hit by a full blown Chubasco, and we never had the threat of a tropcial storm, so we never even had to hole up in Don Juan waiting for anything to pass. A phenomenal summer indeed.

Fast forward one year, and it’s unfortunately a totally different story. Not for us, we are safe and sound down in the southern hemisphere where the cyclone season doesn’t start for another couple months. But back in Mexico, the Baja Peninsula has been pummeled by Hurrican Odile. The news sources I read were focused on the cape area (i.e., Cabo San Lucas) which it seems has taken the worst of the destruction, but the entire peninsula has taken a beating. From a cruisers perspective, centers of activity on Baja during the summer include La Paz, Puerto Escondido, Santa Rosalia, and BLA/Don Juan. I don’t have any official information, but according to real time updates on various facebook pages and blogs, and a couple emails from friends, many vessels were damaged or lost in La Paz, Puerto Escondido, and Santa Rosalia and in La Paz there are even some people missing. As of yesterday, I still didn’t have any status of the fleet up in BLA, though. We checked out the storm track, and Odile went straight up the peninsula, right over BLA, up to Puerto Refugio, where we spent a fair amount of time last year, although the intensity lessened as it got further and further north.

It is hard to express the emotions at work in me right now. I cannot fathom what people went through, and what they may be going through right now. We can only hope that those who are missing are located soon and those we don’t know the status of are all safe and sound with a good story to tell. I know I’ve already written a blog post about luck playing a role out here, but holy crap are we ever lucky! We missed it by a year, a single season, a blink of an eye. And what a huge difference a year has made for me personally. We’ve been through enough and I’ve heard enough from others to know that stuff just happens sometimes. If something like this were to happen to us now, even if Exodus sank and we had to be rescued, AS LONG AS ALL FOUR OF US CAME THROUGH IT OK (huge caveat, of course), I think I could take it more or less in stride and move on. It would be tragic, yes, but it wouldn’t be end of the world earth shattering or anything. Last year would have been different story, and the more I think about it, the more I’m recognizing my growth in this respect. If this had happened to us last year I would have been scarred. My cruising life would be over, and I probably would have blamed Tim in one way or another, so who knows how it would have affected our marriage. I wouldn’t have been able to take it. I’m not saying it would easy now by a long shot, but I could take it, and move on. I wonder how many other newbie cruisers were out there this year, just like we were last year, and I wonder especially how they are doing. My heart goes out to them, and everyone affected by this devastation.

-D.