The official hurricane season in Mexico doesn’t start until tomorrow,
but Adolph couldn’t wait. He started to develop on May 25, and
quickly built into a Category 4 hurricane with winds up to 125
knots. Fortunately, like most Eastern Pacific hurricanes, he
started way down by 15° and then headed well offshore. Adolph
is currently weakening in the cooler waters to the north.
“We – the Pordes Family aboard the Vallejo-based La Coste
42 Favonius – arrived in Turtle Bay, Baja, on May 27 along
with Tom on the DownEaster 32 Havru,” reports Michael
Pordes. “Both Tom and we were visited by Ernesto, the fuel
panga driver. After taking our garbage in return for a cold Pacifico,
Ernesto agreed to deliver fuel to us the next day. Ernesto is
part of the same family as the late Gordo, whose children run
the fuel concession in Turtle Bay as well as the Restaurant Maria
on the beach.
“Most Baja cruisers are familiar with
the Turtle Bay fuel drill. You give Ernesto the cash for the
amount of fuel you want at the rate of about 50 U.S. cents a
liter; he goes to the fuel pier and pumps it into 55 gallon drums;
then he comes alongside your boat (fully fendered); and using
a fuel transfer pump and a hose, fills your tanks or jerry cans
pretty quickly. The other option is to set a bow anchor and try
to connect a stern line to the fuel pier. If you can accomplish
this, the hose is lowered down and you take on fuel. It is a
few cents cheaper per gallon that way, and if you are a 50-foot
Hatteras sportfisher taking on 1,000 gallons of diesel, it is
the only way to go.
“When the Shannon 50 Heartstrings
from Newport Beach arrived on Monday morning, they declined Ernesto’s
services and decided they’d try to take on fuel directly from
the pier. It was blowing about 15 knots from the northwest, and
Mike the skipper had a difficult time getting his stern around.
A crewmember named Ian tossed a line to the pier, but it rose
up and got caught in the rapidly spinning Fourwinds wind generator,
causing a blade to fly off and hit the crewmember in the face,
slicing him longways, necessitating that he be med-evac’ed out
to Santa Ana. This morning Mike told us that Ian is doing fine
and will undergo surgery this afternoon to repair a long laceration
to his face.
“After the medical ordeal was handled, Heartstrings once again tried to come to the fuel pier.
This time they needed an assist from Ernesto’s powerful panga
to get the stern around and a line to the pier. Anyway, Ian survived,
and hopefully a plastic surgeon will be able to sew him so the
scar doesn’t show up too badly. The moral is, I suppose, don’t
be cheap about a few cents per gallon – take on fuel the easiest
way possible. And if you’re going to be heaving a line, turn
off the wind generator!”
Filling up at the Turtle Bay fuel dock
Panga driver Ernesto
Photos Latitude/Richard
Stumped No More
May 30 – Key West, FL
“Could the ‘racy photos’ [see yesterday’s
and Friday’s ‘Lectronic Latitude]
be of Fantasy Fest, held the last weekend of October in Key West?”
writes Jared DeWitt. “If so, saying those pictures are racy
– compared to what actually happens – is like saying a Watkins
27 is a racy little boat compared to PlayStation.”
“I think the mystery ‘racy photos’
are from Fantasy Fest in Key West,” writes Dave Gendell of Spin Sheet sailing magazine in Annapolis, and John Palmer
of the Bethel Island-based Centurian thinks so, also. And
they’re right. Erik Simonson thinks the photos were from “the
Captain Neptune Party at this year’s Big Daddy Regatta.”
He’s wrong.
A
Tale of Two Marinas
May 30 – St. Barts, French West Indies,
and Honolulu, Hawaii
See the cute little stone structures in
the shape of little Caribbean homes? They actually house the
water and electrical connections for the boats that tie stern-to
at the government quay at Gustavia, St. Barts. Classy, isn’t
it?
Now look at the other photo, which is of
one of the pilings at the state run Ala Wai Yacht Harbor in Honolulu.
Not very safe or classy.
Hawaii’s Governor Ben Cayetano has announced
that he plans to privatize the Ala Wai, which has really angered
some tenants who don’t want to see their berth fees raised over
$4 a foot. Unless Cayetano is willing to import some French bureaucrats
who love boats and know how to run a harbor, we think he indeed
ought to privatize the Ala Wai.
Photos Latitude/Richard
YOTREPS
May 30 – The Pacific Ocean and Cyberspace
Who is out making passages in the Pacific
and what kind of weather are they having? Check out YOTREPS –
‘yacht reports’ – at http://www.bitwrangler.com/yotreps/
Looking for current as well as recent wind
and sea readings from 17 buoys and stations between Pt. Arena
and the Mexican border? Here’s the place – which has further links
to weather buoys and stations all over the U.S.: www.ndbc.noaa.gov/stuff/southwest/swstmap.shtml.
