One of the things about living full time on a sailboat, especially one that is not tied to a dock, is a need to stay informed about the weather. The sea of Cortez has some of the most unique weather I have ever seen. The shape of the sea, and the different land shapes around it have so many different effects, that while predicting the weather can be an interesting challenge, there are some things that remain consistent. In the winter, we have mostly a series of northerlies that can blow up and down the sea to 40 knots, causing some pretty good wave action. As spring time rolls around, we are subject to some changes in weather here in the Sea of Cortez, many of which are localized, and also based on the shape of the land. In La Paz, where the low land funnels winds from the Pacific ocean we get the Coromuels. The warm air and waters of the Sea of Cortez, pull the cooler winds from the Pacific Ocean side primarily in the evenings. These winds are usually 15-20 knots but can, and usually do, occur almost every night in the La Paz area

As early summer rolls around, the dominate winds are now out of the south. This new direction now brings into play a few other phenomenons to consider. The first one, and a more common occurring event, are the Chubascos. These are convection based cells, that originate on the mainland, and migrate towards the west. They are very powerful, but short lived storms, lasting usually only 45 minutes, but sometimes as long as 4 hours of 50-70 knot winds. The next one is the Elephantes, a westerly based wind, that is much like a Coromuel, but are usually visible when their elephant trunk shaped cloud forms over the larger valleys or arroyos on the Baja.

And, last but surely not least, are the Pacific Hurricanes. The word Hurricanes brings to mind such violence and damage, and is with out doubt the biggest weather concern we have while here in the Sea of Cortez. Historically, there has never been a hurricane come up into the sea prior to August, and the higher you travel up into the sea, the lower your chances are of a direct hit by one. With that very thing in kind, we are heading north, and plan on being in the Bahia Los Angles area before the month of August gets here. The months of August, September, and October are three months that hold a threat for us to encounter a hurricane.

Now, with all that in mind, I am going to post a link for all of you back home, and around the world following along, to see what our weather is doing every day. Geary Ritchie, the host of the 4th of July party this week, is also our weather guru. He is a full time beach bum extraordinare, and the guy we rely on for daily weather. He does a live broadcast on the ham net at 7:45 AM local time (13:45 Zulu time - 3.968 mhz LSB ham), and then puts the daily weather on a podcast on the website that supports the ham net. If you go to the website. click on weather podcast and you can listen to exactly what we do every morning.

Sonrisa Net ham net

www.Sonrisanet.org

http://sonrisanet.org/podcasts/today.mp3

Hope you get a kick out of this!!