Chubasco 101

There is a weather event that happens in the Sea of Cortez known as a Chubasco. As the mainland side (Normally from around San Carlos which is about the middle of the Sea on the mainland side) starts to cool after sunset, the warm and humid air starts to move West towards the sea. This generates thunderstorms and as they continue moving West they normally dissipate over the sea. Normally being the key word here, sometimes the warmth of the sea and local conditions add energy to the system and the storm increases in intensity and velocity and races across the sea to crash into the Baja coast, delivering rain, lightning and lots of wind. They are hard to predict with any accuracy and can be a rude surprise to mariners.

Why am I sharing this and more importantly why do we care?

We departed Bahia de Los Angeles to visit the Northern anchorage on Isla la Guardia aptly named Refugio. Isla la Guardia is an island that shelters the BLA area from storms and is therefore named the guardian angel island. One of our favorite places in the Northern sea is the Refugio area (Refuge in English) as it has much less traffic and fishing pressure that more populated parts of the Sea of Cortez. Fishing, snorkeling, diving, hiking etc. are all relatively pristine and it’s great to get out and live with nature.

We arrived, spent some quality time with Sydney on the beach, had a celebratory cocktail We checked the weather and there was a possibility of a Chubasco, but it looked remote, so we settled in for an early night.

At approximately 9pm(yes, we were in bed by 9pm), the wind started building. We got up, took down our shade cloth and various laundry still hanging on the rails and watched the wind build. We started the motor to enable us to control the boat should the anchor start to drag. We hunkered down and watched the wind build to a peak gust of 44 knots. For non-mariners, this is 50mph, and a gale is 34kts. The wind was rapidly changing direction, causing the boat to dramatically heel over as it was broadsided by the wind, incredibly loud and the boat was pitching in the waves. We prepared all we could and it was time to hunker down and weather the storm.

After abut an hour, the wind subsided and all was well and other than some frayed nerves, Perspective and Crew were fine through the wind, waves and rain. It was the highest wind we had experienced since leaving San Diego 4 years ago and it was a nice milestone. Chubasco=”no big deal”

We are glad to be safe and sound. Thanks for following!