Hurricane watch

We are anchored in Puerto Don Juan in the Bahia de Los Angeles area. We are here with the 25 boats of our cruising friends, and preparing for possible high winds. This is the best Hurricane hole in the area so there are lots of boats here. The bay we are in is small and protected so that we will not get any strong storm swell. The wind is not what normally causes damage, it is the waves that can be dangerous.

We came in yesterday when we heard that the storm may get close. We have been spending our time preparing the boat. This means getting out our heavy anchors, and gear for a secondary anchor, and preparing chafe gear. We are also removed our furling headsail and are clearing the deck so that there is less windage. So the kayak is put away, as are the sunshades and other gear. We still have a little more work to do but still have a day or so before expecting high winds.

There is a lot of weather information for hurricanes. We get updates over the HAM/SSB radio usually twice a day. There are text files that we can download from NOAA that are updated 4 times a day. The hurricanes are unpredictable as far as the path that they take. Henriette was originally predicted to go along the coast, but that changed and now it is predicted to go over Cabo San Lucas then over the Sea of Cortez then on into the mainland near San Carlos. This puts the center 100 miles south of
us, which would be good. However with the changing paths we are still going to get ready just in case. All the excitement should be over by Thursday or so.