Neil Shroyer of Marina de La Paz reports that "we", by which we presume he means the Mexican Marina Owners’ Association, had a meeting with Immigration officials in Mexico City with regard to implementing the new immigration rules. Among the new rules are requirements that boats check in electronically with officials before arriving at their port of entry, that boats be inspected at their port of entry, and that no crew get off the boats anywhere in Mexico before the boats are inspected.

Shroyer reports that they have it in writing from Mexican officials that there will be no problem with this year’s Baja Ha-Ha being run as it’s always been run, and that they hope to set up an Immigration booth right on the docks in Cabo.

The officials also told Shroyer and others that they will "gradually" move toward implementation of the new rules. Stay tuned to ‘Lectronic for the latest on any changes. It should be remembered, however, that the whole federal government will change on December 1 with the new President, so it’s possible that the new rules won’t ever be implemented.

In Ha-Ha weather news, the Mexican government reports that Hurricane Paul came ashore earlier in the week at Mag Bay — 150 miles north of Cabo San Lucas — as a Category 2 hurricane, and then quickly lost strength as it moved up both sides of Baja as a tropical storm. The folks at Marina de La Paz, just on the other side of the mountains, reported lots of rain but no wind or damage. The Glesers on the Islander Freeport 41 Harmony in Concepcion Bay reported gusts in the 50s and lots of rain, but none of the seven boats at anchor there dragged or were damaged. David Eidell at Ascunsion Bay about 50 miles south of Turtle Bay on the Pacific Coast reported steady winds in the mid 40s, but no damage. The unusual thing about Paul is how far north the remnants came. Ha-Ha boats anchored in San Diego reported winds to 30 knots passed through quickly in the middle of the night.

With the waters off the Mexican mainland and southern Baja three to five degrees warmer than usual right now, and with the Ha-Ha due to start in 10 days, you can bet that we — as the Grand Poobah — are monitoring the weather situation very, very carefully. We had a long conversation this morning with Brynn Campbell of Commander’s Weather, and she confirmed that both water temperatures and upper level conditions remain such that they don’t yet preclude tropical storm formation. Indeed, there is some thunderstorm activity down around the Gulf of Tehuantepec right now that one computer model shows will result in a hurricane well to the south and west of Cabo by next Friday. Predictions are very speculative as to the strength and even where a storm might go. As Brynn tells us, her models show there is a less than a 50% chance that the thunderstorms will develop into a hurricane. 

The thing the Grand Poobah wants all Ha-Ha participants to know is that he respects and fears tropical storms and hurricanes, and safety is number one. The good thing is that with each passing day, the chance of tropical storms decreases, and the fleet isn’t slated to sail south of all-weather Turtle Bay — which the Poobah considers to be safe — for another two weeks. As mentioned before, the other good thing is that weather forecasting is so much better than it used to be, so the situation can be monitored from the existence of thunderstorms stage, which may or may not signal the development of hurricanes.

We’ll remind everyone that no tropical storm, let alone hurricane, has crossed the Ha-Ha track during the Ha-Ha dates. Of course, that’s no guarantee of what might happen in the future. As we’ll remind folks, there have been several December hurricanes along the coast of mainland Mexico, well after the hurricane season was supposed to have ended.

Alas, no matter if it’s about government regulations or the weather, there are few constants in life.