Monday, August 31, 2009

Hurricane Jimena Update #4

After whitecaps earlier in the day, some rain and a little wind, things are currently dead calm in Cabo at 6.27 pm mountain time. I am at Cabo Falso, the Old Lighthouse, which according to the predictions will be the closest point to the hurricane. There is a barely a puff of wind, no rain and waves are a little bigger and coming in diagonally to the shore. The sun just broke through the clouds. It seems way too quiet for a major hurricane. I just looked at the 6.00 pm advisory from the National Hurricane Center and they have Cabo outlined in red for a hurricane warning, but our tip of the penninsula is shown outside of their cone. What does that mean? From what I understand we will be spared the brunt of the hurricane but will probably get tropical storm force winds and rain. We continue to monitor the hurricane closely, but right now everything is fine. I just helped my son catch over 100 birds in his outdoor aviary, to shut them up in the barn...just in case. We will keep you posted.
Tracy Ehrenberg

Hurricane Jimena Update #3

This is the latest from the National Hurricane Center in Miami

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 45 MILES...75 KM...FROM
THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 140
MILES...220 KM.

THE MINIMUM CENTRAL PRESSURE REPORTED BY THE AIR FORCE RESERVE
HURRICANE HUNTER PLANE IS 931 MB...27.49 INCHES.

JIMENA IS EXPECTED TO PRODUCE TOTAL RAIN ACCUMULATIONS OF 5 TO 10
INCHES OVER THE SOUTHERN HALF OF THE BAJA CALIFORNIA PENINSULA AND
PORTIONS OF WESTERN MEXICO DURING THE NEXT 2 DAYS...WITH POSSIBLE
ISOLATED MAXIMUM AMOUNTS OF 15 INCHES.

So what does this mean? Well the stronger winds will extend over a larger area than originally estimated. This is looking more serious. Preparations continue and we will keep you updated.

Tracy Ehrenberg

Hurricane Jimena Update #2

It's starting.....take a look at the webcam and you will see whitecaps starting to appear, the wind is just beginning to pick up and it is raining slightly. This is almost a category 5 storm at this stage.
Tracy Ehrenberg

Hurricane Jimena

From all the hype on T.V you would think we were about to get swept of the face of the earth, not to be flippant, but getting overly anxious about tropical weather at this time of year is pointless. Yes, Jimena is a powerful hurricane, but what you need to keep in mind is that the really strong category four winds are only in the very center, in a diameter of 30 miles. After the eye, tropical storm force winds, which means up to 70 mph, extend outward 80 miles. The track is still quite uncertain, but most predicitions have Jimena passing to the west of Cabo by about 60 miles. We have been monitering this storm since it initiated but most people in Cabo didn't even know about it. To be on the safe side, yesterday, Sunday, our team went into action hauling out our smaller, 28 and 31 ft vessels. We have trailers for each of these boats and a yard a block off the marina. It was a bit tricky with all the streets up(in the process of being re-done to beautify Cabo) but seeing as it was a Sunday there was little traffic and we were the first of the fleets to start. We also stocked up on fuel as this is the first thing to go into short supply. The crews know the boats are their livelihoods, so despite being a day off for many, they were happy to come in to help. This may end up being totally unecessary and it is hard to haul boats about weighing several tons, but we are of the opinion that crews should be with their families during storms and not have to be contstantly checking boats in inclement weather, which is dangerous. This way everybody can sleep peacefully. Right now we have no ill effects of the storm, no rain, no wind, seas are calm and we sent a few boats out today to fish. Andrea is back and caught two dorado and Adriana caught four dorado and released a striped marlin,we are just waiting for Valerie and Cabolero to come in to finish the day. Trailers are waiting at the ramp to take Andrea and Adriana out of the water and Valerie, who is too big to trailer out, will spend the storm in a new slip, further into the marina, in a more protected area. The port is now closed as a precaution. We expect it will re-open September 3rd. You can see what is happening in real time by checking out our webcam here http://pisces.linksysremoteview.com/img/main.cgi?next_file=main.htm -just copy and paste into your browser. So when you hear something on the news, verify it by going to the webcam. This is working for the time being but we may board up the windows later, which will cover the camera. You can check the progress of the storm by going here: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/ We have a generator so should be able to stay connected even if power goes out. So remember us in your prayers and hope to be back fishing in a couple of days.
Tracy Ehrenberg, general manager