
Hurricane Beatriz Fizzles
About to board our Alaskan Airlines flight yesterday morning from San Francisco to Puerto Vallarta, where we would pick up Profligate for a Baja Bash, we got the news the flight was postponed indefinitely. The reason given was thunderstorms at the extreme exterior of Hurricane Beatriz.
Although NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center has forecast a below-normal hurricane season — five to eight hurricanes — in the Eastern Pacific (mostly Mexico) there have already been two in the first three weeks of the season. The first was Adrian, which built to a powerful Category 4 hurricane, but fortunately started well out to sea and continued further out before dying in the cooler waters to the northwest.

Beatriz started well offshore also, but then took a northeast turn for the coast, coming ashore near Acapulco, Zihua and the Gold Coast, and laying a path for Cabo Corrientes, which is at the south end of Banderas Bay, the bay where Puerto Vallarta is located. Fortunately, Beatriz only reached Category 1 status, although four people were killed ashore. One boy was swept into a river, and three others died when rain from the storm caused a floor to fail, resulting in a woman falling into a septic tank. Tragically, her husband and son both perished in a failed attempt to rescue her.
Beatriz‘s collision with land sapped her of nearly all her strength and, well south of Corrientes, she limped west away from shore. Having gotten a weather update, the folks at Alaska decided to take off on time after all. We landed in a humid Puerto Vallarta that was under cloudy skies for the first time in many days. So we’re now off to the boat, the boatyard, and hopefully to start a Bash within two weeks.
By the way, it’s our understanding that this has been one of the most difficuilt Bash seasons in years. Anybody have any war stories to share?