Hurricane Paul

Hi everyone,  Well we cheated death again. This time it was Hurricane Paul.

The early models said it would bend out to the west and we thought we would have a bit of wind but that would be it. Had we known he was almost going to barrel  over us, perhaps we would have gone straight to La Paz to get out of his way. Instead we hunkered down in Puerto Escondido.

All turned out pretty well after all. High wind gusts measured in this inner harbor were from 36 to 56. The storm made land fall not 80 miles from here on the Pacific Ocean side near Magdelina Bay. We waited and waited for news of our impending doom or luck. Turns out we had luck as Paul went north but took a  heck of a long time. I guess a system that is hundreds if not a thousand miles across (this one I heard was smaller and compact) takes a while.

We had 10 inches of rain over the two days.  There were times we could not see the mountains that surround this harbor and make it such a good hurricane hole. Roads are washed out everywhere as you might imagine.

The winds came and went starting around 15 knots to 36 knots Tuesday and Tuesday night, after a lull from 9pm to midnight, started up again in earnest at 0:38 hours and continued until this morning. It was peaceful Wednesday around 8am. That morning I would still shudder a bit when I heard the roar of the coming wind and the whistling through the rigging. A bit of post traumatic stress I guess.

So Larry or I, and sometimes both of us, were up during the midnight to dawn wind lashing.  Wind was at first from the north, then east. But mostly from the Southeast or south so only three boats in front of us to cause us issue. Two were sailboats and they did not move. Our anchor held too. The third boat was an issue. A 70 foot luxury powerboat was kicked off a Marina mooring in favor of one of the big local sport fishing boats. They were told to anchor over by us. Larry had purposely anchored here as  we would swing into shallow water where others could not. The big boy, a boat called Esoteric from Salem OR anchored close to us. Well, once the swinging started we could see that Esoteric and Sun Baby were doing two different dances to the same beat. After a while they agreed they were a bit close and pulled in some of its 200 feet of chain. That is good and bad. So over the course of the night, with all the sailing they did on their anchor, they eventually dragged until they were between  us and our anchor buoy. Amazing they drug so far.




Their captain was very nice, made sure we knew he was watching the situation (all night) but by the time dawn came, they were 20 feet from us. This is a 70 foot, million dollar yacht that weights who knows how much and with 25 knots gusts....no wonder I was strung out.

They were waiting til light to see our anchor buoy and pull up anchor. Our anchor buoy was thrashed. It has bottom paint and gouge marks from being run over by their boat (this was after I fell asleep at 3:30 am in the salon).  Their anchor turns out to be 15 feet from ours when it had been 150 to 200 feet from ours the afternoon before. Yikes. So we did not sleep so well Tuesday night.

I have to say, of all boats to have 20 feet from our hulls, I would take Esoteric any day. They were on top of it and communicative. Good captain, poor choice of anchor location.

Overall Puerto Escondido did well. Only one boat broke free of its mooring due to chaffing of the line but was tended to right away. This is far from the stories you hear of a hurricane 10 years ago where 90 percent of the boats were damaged. I think a lot has happened...the marina maintains the moorings and tells you if one is in disrepair, people were conscientious about lines and chafe and it sounds like they have gotten rid of derelict boats. So good on all involved!

Not sure what we are doing from here. I am too tired to sleep let alone make a decision.  Nerves seem to take as much toll on one’s body as lack of sleep. Dinner at the marina will fix me right up!


Photos:

Here is Esoteric yesterday. Picture taken from my kitchen. They pulled in some chain and returned to a closer position by this morning. 

Waterfalls during rains.

Believe it or not, this shrimper came up between Esoteric and us and found......three feet of water!!!!!!! and PROMPTLY backed out. Larry's evil plan.....stay away!

Beautiful morning after!