Blanca Appears Less Threatening

While Hurricane Blanca forecasts have her making a direct hit on southern Baja, boating interests in Cabo and La Paz have reason for optimism. Just a day ago, Blanca was forecast to be a mighty Category 5 storm, but she’s been weakening and has been downgraded to Category 2. As of this morning, she was about 575 miles SSE of Cabo San Lucas, traveling toward the northwest at 9 knots. She’s expected to come ashore north of Cabo as a tropical storm on Sunday afternoon, bringing heavy rain and 50-knot winds to the Cape, with the heaviest rain to the north. The storm’s effect on La Paz should be less intense.

But just for education’s sake, put yourselves in the Top-Siders of a boat owner in Cabo or La Paz. Given this morning’s 120-hour tropical storm force wind forecast, would you: 1) Prepare your boat, and neighbors’ boats, the best you can but stay put; 2) Make a dash up the west coast of Baja knowing the colder waters are tropical storm killers; or 3) Dash over to Mazatlan, which appears not to be threatened?

As is often the case in sailing, there are no right answers, just options.

Keep track of Hurricane Blanca at www.nhc.noaa.gov or weather.unisys.com/hurricane/e_pacific/2015/index.php.