Hurricane Willa underwent an expected weakening as it approached the Pacific Coast of Mainland Mexico yesterday, but made landfall packing 120 mile-an-hour winds, and forcing the evacuation of approximately 4,000 people from coastal towns, according to CBS News. Now a “fierce” Category 3 hurricane, Willa is marching across interior Mexico and heading toward the US, “where it could spawn the first nor’easter of the year,” according to CNN.

Puerto Vallarta was spared a direct hit. We have friends visiting the restort town who said that businesses had been boarding up their windows for the last few days. But ultimately, there was “barely any wind and just a little rain.” Latitude editor-at-large Andy Turpin — whose Cross 42 MkII trimaran Little Wing is currently docked at Paradise Village (with Julie Turpin staying aboard) — said the storm was a “bit too close for comfort. But luckily, Cabo Corrientes, the headland at the south end of Banderas Bay, apparently deflected the storm’s trajectory just enough so that it didn’t swing east into the bay.”

In Mazatlan, the beach was said to have “almost disappeared, with waves slamming against the coastal boulevard,” according to CBS. The full extent of damage to this part of the coast is not yet clear. And don’t forget about Tropical Strom Vicente, which has reportedly claimed some 12 lives in southern and southwest Mexico with floods and mudslides.

As Willa continues to head northeast, Texas is now in its crosshairs, where the storm is “forecast to dump up to four inches, with more than 4.4 million facing flooding threats,” reported CNN, before the storm moves into the already-saturated Southeast. “In Willa’s dramatic finale, remnants of the former Category 5 hurricane will move into the Atlantic Ocean and get a startling makeover this weekend.”  Meteorologists said that if the low-pressure leftovers of Willa track up the East Coast, they could become the season’s first nor’easter, bringing rain and wind on Saturday and Sunday to Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York City and Boston.

What the heck is the Pacific Puddle Jump? It’s a long-established annual migration of cruising sailors from various ports along the West Coast of the Americas to French Polynesia — an ambitious bluewater crossing of 3,000 to 4,000 miles. Ever since we coined the phrase Pacific Puddle Jump more than 20 years ago, we’ve taken pride in organizing this loosely formed rally, and reporting on the colorful characters who register with the PPJ each year. Typically, more than 200 boats sign up from all over the world.

As we write this, a new batch of adventurers is preparing to make the ‘jump’ this spring. So we’re currently working to update the official website, www.pacificpuddlejump.com, where PPJ 2019 signups will begin November 1. (Click on “Sign Me Up.”)

We’ll co-host several PPJ Send-off Parties again this year: March 4 at the Vallarta YC in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico, plus two events in Panama in February (dates and details TBA). Then in late June, we’ll join these passagemakers in celebrating their successful arrival in the islands at the annual Tahiti-Moorea Sailing Rendez-vous (June 21-23).

Some have referred to doing the Puddle Jump as a must-do adventure for cruising sailors. Perhaps because it tends to combine challenges of self-reliance with glorious offshore sailing. What do you say? Will 2019 be your year to ‘jump the puddle’?