Los Barriles B.C.S.

Hurricane Rick was still more than a day away from the resorts of Baja California on Monday but the 13-foot (4-meter) waves it kicked up already have killed one person in Los Cabos, which lies almost directly in the hurricane’s forecast path. Francisco Cota, the Los Cabos civil defense director, said a 38-year-old man was standing on a rocky point fishing when he was swept away by one of the big waves Sunday. Bystanders went to help the man, but by the time they got him out of the water he was dead. “We have established patrols on the beaches to keep people from going into the sea,” Cota said. Hurricane Rick’s maximum sustained winds decreased early Monday to near 115 mph (185 kph), making it a Category 3 hurricane, down from its peak of 180 mph (285 kph) as a Category 5 storm last week, the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami said.

                      

Rick was moving northwest at about 9 mph (15 kph). The hurricane was expected to continue weakening, but could hit or pass just offshore from Los Cabos, at the southernmost tip of the Baja California peninsula, as a Category 1 hurricane by Wednesday, forecasters said. Rick also threatened to disrupt a major sport-fishing tournament scheduled to start Wednesday. About 800 sports fishermen were scheduled to gather for the Bisbee’s Los Cabos tournament, with about 130 boats scheduled to set off into the Pacific on Wednesday — the day Rick is projected to hit. Tournament organizer Clicerio Mercado said the three-day event would not be postponed, though fishing in the first two days might be canceled because of Rick, possibly leaving it as a one-day event Friday. Rick was already whipping Socorro Island, about 300 miles (500 kilometers) southwest of Cabo San Lucas, where about 100 people from the Mexican Navy and other government agencies are based. The mainland base that commands the detachment said Navy personnel on the island reported heavy winds and waves on Monday, but no damage or injuries. Forecasters said a weakening Rick is likely to continue past the Baja peninsula and slam into Mexico’s mainland somewhere near the resort city of Mazatlan on Thursday.
Rick was the second-strongest hurricane in the eastern North Pacific since 1966, when experts began keeping reliable records, Hurricane Center meteorologist Hugh Cobb said. Content source: Associated Press

Hurricane Jimena approaching Baja; will it prove worthy of the hype? From all the hype on TV 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. However, it’s an unusually large storm for the Eastern Pacific, with maximum sustained winds of about 155 mph, and it has steadily intensified over the past 24 hours. (The National Hurricane Center’s 2 p.m. update listed Jimena as a Category 4 storm, but the Mexican Navy has since classified it as a Category 5 disturbance.)  Rainfall amounts in the southern half of Baja California Sur and in parts of western Mexico will range from 5-10 inches, possibly much more in some areas, according to the National Hurricane Center.

                      

Jimena, just short of Category 5 status — the top danger rating for a hurricane — could rake the harsh desert region fringed with picturesque beaches and fishing villages as a major storm by Tuesday evening, forecasters said. On Monday afternoon, workers at the Cabo San Lucas marina nailed sheets of plywood on storefront windows while fishermen secured their boats. Hotels and restaurants gathered up umbrellas, tables, chairs, and anything else that might be blown away. At least 10,000 families will be evacuated from potential flood zones, said local Civil Protection Director Francisco Cota. He said 60 shelters would be set up.

Los Barriles has the most amenities of the smaller cities on the East Cape, with Internet cafés, restaurants, gift shops, and plenty of eager realtors. Devoted windsurfers roost in here when the winter winds are high; anglers are happy year-round. Dirt roads angle off the highway to other settlements and remote hotels at intervals all the way to La Paz. You can rent water-sports equipment and organize boat trips through area hotels. If you’re staying here, note that hotel airport transfers typically cost about $90 each way in an eight-person van.