It is Sunday October 5 and I am now in Puerto Don Juan where 20 boat crews are carefully watching Hurricane Nora which is about 700 miles south of us and moving NW. The latest forecast is for Nora to move NW parallel to the West coast of the Baja Peninsula. She will slowly diminish in the 77° Pacific water. However, if she shifts her track just 15 degrees more to the North she will come straight up the Sea of Cortez while staying in water that is about 88 degrees. When she is about 1/2 way up the West Coast she probably recurve NE, crossing the Baja Peninsula to enter the Sea of Cortez as a 30 knot Tropical Depression about 100 miles south of here. No one can even guess what Nora will do once she gets over the Sea of Cortez after crossing the Peninsula.
Hurricane Olaf is also churning away a hundred miles SE of Manzanillo and about 800 miles SE of here. Olaf is supposed to continue NW along the Mexican Riviera for several days and slowly intensify into a 90 knot hurricane. The projected track after next Thursday places Olaf somewhere between Los Frailes and La Paz on a NW path parallel to the East Coast of the Baja Peninsula.
That makes Olaf a real threat to us since he will be directly on a track to Puerto Don Juan and only 390 miles SE of us. The water between Olaf and us is all above 88 degrees, just perfect for deepening and intensifying a Hurricane. There are currently 21 boats in this anchorage and at least 10 more headed this way. Stay Tuned!
Hurricane Marty hit here about six hours before it hit us up in Puerto Refugio. There were 25 boats in here and they all sat quietly in the 55 knot winds with no boats dragging and no damage. Even the boats closest to the entrance that leads North out into the Sea of Cortez did not experience more than one foot wind chop. Everyone is now convinced that Puerto Don Juan is the place to be when Hurricanes are wandering around the Sea of Cortez or even meandering this general direction.
I'm feeling much better now that I am in a secure anchorage where waves and swells can't get in. However it is still 145 miles down and across the Sea to San Carlos and 360 miles to La Paz which are the only two places in the Sea where I can have Mirador hauled and repaired.
Spirit Healer, the Pacific Seacraft 37 from
Seattle owned by Leslie and Robert, was a total loss in Puerto
Refugio. The hole in her starboard 
hull grew to 5 feet by 3 feet after a couple of tide
cycles. She was completely underwater on each high tide. We
stripped all the salvageable gear off her and she will be taken
to Sea and sunk by the Mexican Navy. I will write an entire WEB
update about Spirit Healer and her crew.
The latest estimate of Marty's impact on the Sea of Cortez cruising community is that more than 100 boats (some estimates are in the 200 boat range) suffered damage exceeding $10,000, 34 were sunk or beached, at least 15 boats were blown over in dry storage, and two of the most popular marinas were destroyed.
And, because of all the standing water left by Ignacio and Marty, there is a Dengue Fever epidemic between La Paz and Mulege. Prior to Hurricane Marty there were 932 reported Dengue cases. All persons in the La Paz area are urged to wear mosquito repellant at all times.
Last Thursday Mirador pounded into 20 knot winds and 3' breaking seas during the 44 mile trip to Don Juan from Puerto Refugio. She then sailed on a broad reach in 20 knot westerlies. No water entered the boat thru any of the hull cracks and the rig stood up strong and straight. That is very reassuring to me.
We will careen Mirador while here and put a series of epoxy patches on the cracks. Don Juan has the best careening beach in Mexico. Careening is the process of putting Mirador on a gradually sloping beach at high tide, letting the tide fall, and allowing Mirador to lay over on her starboard side at low tide, hopefully to float off at the next high tide. The cracks in the port hull should be out of the water for seven hours so we will be able to do some major epoxie and fibverglass work during that time.
On the way down here I caught a 20" Dorado but threw it back because there were so many around andI knew I'd catch another. A while later something hit, bent the big pole at 45 degrees, then "pop" and all I could see was a big silver fish making a series of jumps with my bright orange squid hanging from it's mouth. It broke the 90 pound leader with no effort. I had a 2nd identical lure out with 200 pound wire leader but that is not the one that got hit. Oh Well!
Yesterday evening I shot a six pound Grouper so am well stocked with fish for a couple of days.
You
might remember from the previous update that Mirador's anchor
line parted during TS Marty. That meant that our 66 pound Spade
anchor with 135' of chain and 100' of rode was left on the bottom
when Mirador went ashore. The Spade anchor was easy to find since
the float line was still on it. The divers (Dennis and Lisa from
SV Lady Galadrial, Brennan from SV Tyee, Lance from SV Milagro,
and Mike from SV Content) brought the chain end to the surface
with a float bag and I hauled it and the anchor onto Mirador with
the windlass.
I then took the 44 pound Bruce anchor off the chain that was led thru the good roller and shackled the Spade chain to the Bruce chain. So now the Spade is in the starboard roller with 285' of chain behind it. That feels a lot more secure considering the bent port roller and jagged material up there. I am afraid to put out any nylon rode until the broken roller is removed which will have to be done with a cutting torch.
The Freedom 20 inverter is still not working because it thinks it is overheated, even when it hasn't run for 24 hours and the inverter case is 78 degrees. I don't know if this is a Marty related problem but it did start about three days after the storm hit. Mirador has a 300 watt backup inverter that runs everything except the microwave.
The new Gateway computer just won't start. The green activity light continues to blink which indicates Standby mode but I can't find any way to get the thing to run in normal mode. The old NEC computer works OK but the CD reader and the floppy drive are both inoperable on it. That means I can not watch DVD movies and I can't load any of the data backed up on CD from the Gateway computer.
The Portabote was never found after Marty hit. The 1984 Achilles 10' 6" dinghy I bought from SV Spirit Healer works well, after I patched 9 holes in the bottom and put new towing rings on it, but is missing one of the floorboards. The 2 HP Suzuki makes it move along at 7 knots but when I put the 9.8 Nissan on it things get squirrelly. It planes in flat water but the smallest wave causes the bow to fold up and the transom to bend forward at the top which pulls the prop out of the water. I have a piece of plywood to make a new floor board out of and will try to do that sometime soon.
I am still trying to decide what to do about the haul out and repair. Getting the boat work done will be a mess. The problem is that there are over 200 boats (some folks are talking about 400) between La Paz and here that suffered major damage and all the yards in the sea don't have enough workers to handle 20 boats at a time. San Carlos (143 miles SE of here) is the largest yard for getting the work done but is the least attractive and most expensive area for staying in during the month or so it will take to repair Mirador. A cheap motel will run $35 to $55 per night and meals will be expensive. I really want to get to La Paz (360 miles South of here) for repair but fear that the yards will be very busy and it may take a month or more of waiting to get hauled out.
Jim from SV Kula who owned a boat repair business in Seattle for years and is very good with fiberglass estimates 60 to 80 hours labor to do all the structural repairs. Then the cosmetic repair will require either a new paint job or new gel coat. The bottom also needs a new paint job.
I will be staying Puerto Don Juan until Hurricanes Marty and Olaf are dead and gone. There are dozens of islands and small anchorages within 10 miles of here. I can also take Mirador to the Puebla de Bahia de los Angeles to get groceries, use the internet, and eat a restaurant cooked meal. I won't start south from here until at least October 21. In 2001 Hurricane Juliet hit the La Paz area on about October 23 and I sure don't want to be far from Puerto Don Juan or Puerto Escondido until the end of October.
Visit the WWW.CLUBCRUCEROS.COM web site to see hundreds of pictures of Hurricane Marty and the aftermath. That site also has all the statistics on sunk and damaged boats.