Jeff and Sans Souci had a rough 24 hours. Norbert, the tropical storm which has been following Sans Souci up the Mexican coast, has now been officially declared a hurricane.
Our weather router’s recommendation was to keep running and try to get north of the hurricane. I usually would never recommend to anyone that they ignore a weather router, but I could hear in Jeff’s voice that the crew was tired of being beat up by the storm, and that it was time to get into port. The boat has run 1,600 miles over the last week, all in bumpy conditions.
Yesterday evening, Sans Souci pulled into Barra Navidad. I had been nervous about the boat entering Barra in the dark. It’s a narrow entrance channel, but one of the crew, Jonas, said he had been in and out many times. Jeff said getting in was “interesting”.
This morning, the weather router once again encouraged the crew to get moving.
“…we suggest departing Barra today (this morning) and track directly toward Cabo San Lucas across the Sea of Cortez. You can also track midway between Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas if conditions warrant. However, making an arrival/departure in Cabo San Lucas as early as possible will be to your advantage…”
The crew is feeling much better after a good night’s sleep, and is ready to go. The plan this morning is to change the oil in the generator and main engines, then get moving within a couple hours. To minimize the impact of the hurricane, they will follow the coast north another 100 miles or so to Mazatlan, then turn west crossing from mainland Mexico to Baja where the distance is shortest. This will add 50 to 100 miles to their trip, but keep them as far as possible from the storm.
I live in Cabo about half the year, and have a boat slip there. If all goes according to plan Sans Souci will be in its’ own slip in San Jose Del Cabo within two days! Once there, we can take a new look at the weather and decide what comes next…
-Ken W