With a nod to the late great singer and songwriter Jimmy Buffett.
Every morning, I wake up and check www.eebmike.com and look at the tropical storm prediction and forecast maps. Most days, it’s good news. Some days, it isn’t.
We’ve been home in Northern California, waiting out Puerto Vallarta’s oppressive heat and humidity. Meanwhile, Roam sits patiently in Paradise Village Marina with the dehumidifier running to keep the mold and mildew at bay. She’s in good hands, though.
Captain Eugenie runs a yacht management business and checks on her daily. Once a week, she runs the engines, the freshwater system, the generator, and the other systems. Eugenie adjusts the lines and fenders. And when a storm threatens the area, she gets Roam ready by removing the canvas on the deck and adding extra lines. She can even move her upriver into the mangroves if the conditions require it.
One of the reasons we chose to spend hurricane season in Banderas Bay and, in particular, Paradise Village Marina was its reputation as a safe hurricane refuge. The local geography and Cabo Corrientes to the south alter the path of hurricanes and diminish their ferocity. And so far this season that is precisely what happened.
For several days, hurricane Lidia was forecast to make landfall right through the marina entrance. Within about a day of landfall, it slid a bit south as these storms often do, making landfall near Ipala south of Cabo Corrientes. That meant the weakest part of the storm passed through Banderas Bay and the marinas. Crisis averted.
When we met with harbor master Dick Markie last year, he explained this geographic advantage in detail. It was a big reason he chose the area for the marina when he conceived its development. And he’s done a great job convincing insurance underwriters of this as well. Our insurance company was okay with us spending hurricane season in this marina as long as we had a reasonable storm management plan (our plan relies heavily on Eugenie and her crew).
The temperatures are cooling off. The tropical storm activity is all well south of us now. Fingers crossed, we made it through the 2023 hurricane season unscathed.
A few weeks later, hurricane Norma plowed through Cabo San Lucas and La Paz in southern Baja. Most boats and marinas in La Paz fared well, but a few boats moored in the exposed Marina Cortez did not.
And then, a few days later, hurricane Otis rapidly intensified to a Category 5 hurricane just before making landfall and clobbering Acapulco.
