WIND...Nature's way of saying, "UP YOURS!"

THAT DANG BAJA WIND!

WIND – COLD TEMPS


Present day Mulege and area.

The very high winds and cold temps around our area have got everybody in a funk. I’ve never seen so many people wearing panchos, hooded jackets, sweaters, & parkas.

The cold, fierce wind is..shall we say..bracing. The Bay of Conception is a white-capped sea of foam..not fit for man nor pelican.




Yesterday I looked up glanced skyward and noticed many thousands of snow geese flying south??? Now that’s strange..…..
...so got out the binocs and then realized it was just all the white plastic bags from the Mulege land-fill whizzing by. Why am I not surprised?


Weather is an interesting topic. Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while.


YES!..WE DO HAVE .......WIND - WIND - WIND!!



Driving over to the poker game the other day, I saw a wind victim on the beach...someone's nice little aluminum boat...a Lund..just like I used to have. Got me to thinking about all this wind lately …and how much it affected a lot of us oldtimers…so long ago.




Being a history buff since forever, I started a daily Baja journal at Coyote Bay, 1971..shortly after deciding to become a homeowner. I figured I'd best record this crazy endeavor/adventure of Baja.
And so, last night and into the wee hours of this morning, sifting through this collage of memories, I came across a couple notable 'wind and cold events' that I had jotted down.


This is one of the first notes I made about Baja wind… ‘February has always been known locally as the Loco month. If it's gonna be cold or windy, this is the month for it. The ‘wind’ is the key factor in deciding my day's activities on or off the water.’

Hmm...'factoring in the wind'--yup. God, how well do I remember those trips from Coyote Bay to San Marcos and Tortuga. 45 and 60 miles one-way in an open 16' Lund aluminum boat. Windy? You bet your life it was!








Almost every day in Jan-Feb-March it blew a little..but mostly in the afternoon. But I thought, "Hey, we are here...and this must be normal"..and I was a fisherman..so we went every day. Duh...

Calm running out in the mornings...and Crashing Waves coming back in the late afternoons. What rides we had! Boom..Boom..Boom thru the waves..then...Whoosh! ..spray covering us from head to toe. Crazy we were! Wet and chilled to the bone. But grinning like Cheshire cats, too!


That much fun would kill me today....

Some old accounts:

Coyote Bay, 1975 Feb.

‘Cool temps and the wind has blown huge whitecaps now for 15 days. Ricardo says it will last a few more days. Too rough to go outside the Bay let alone San Marcos or Tortuga. Sand and dirt everywhere…hazy horizons. New Zealander’s 32’ catamaran drug anchor and ran up on rocks in Pompano Cove.’


--My old amigo, Blackjack, was in charge of our social life on the beach and had made up a saying one night around a windy campfire. (It was quite a scene..sparks blowing everywhere...the whole bunch of us huddled close to the smoke and heat...too damn stubborn to go inside campers or houses.)

JW/Blackjack as usual had a bulging cheek full of Beechnut chewing tobacco..and as he spit a big brown glob onto my boot toe, sagely proclaimed to the huddled mob...

....”Don’t let the wind ruin your vacation.”






We stared blankly at him..waiting for the next brilliant jewel of knowledge that would take us out of this windy hell.

Well, he finally decided enough was enough with this crew... and proceeded to get us all revved up for a trip inland to see the Comundos and La Purisima. We would leave the windswept beaches and go exploring in the desert. The Longs, Doves, JW, Lois, Coyote beach crew, the English couple, and us packed the rigs with camping gear…drove south 11 miles to turnoff into the mountains. I had a pickup box full of firewood to warm us at our campsites. We were motivated wind-cheating campers, by God..and thanks to Blackjack.

Air temps must have been below 32 at times…cuz we had mucho ice in the wee hours of the morning! Brrrr…..Don’t you just hate getting out of that warm, cozy sleeping bag on cold mornings to go water a cactus?

That trip to see the twin villages of Comundo and some ranchero amigos of Blackjack’s took us a week…and much to our amazement, it was ‘still’ windy when we returned to Coyote Bay…but at least it was not the gale force that we had left.

Sheesh….wind, wind, wind. What can you do? Nada.

"The best thing one can do when it's blowing is to let it blow."

What insight! I think that quip might have been another of Blackjacks fireside gems...uttered just before he sent another stream of Beechnut tobaccy onto your boot or pantsleg.



(Blackjack"s real name was JW Black of Paradise, Ca. He was the ramrod for all of Earl Stanley Gardner.'s expeditions into Baja back in the 50's and 60's. Quite the Baja character..and a genuinel nice guy.)


some more weather memories:

1983 Feb. Pta. Chivato.

Windy and freezing! Today was the 5th day of ice in the wash basin at Casa Grande, Pta. Chivato. Campers are being sandblasted on the beach with heavy NNE winds..gusts to 60mph. Lost our solar hot water panels from Casa Grande roof. Ferry service out for a while due to high waves.

Saw snow on Three Virgins and talked to a store owner in Santa Rosalia who told me he had not seen snow up there since 1949.

Manuel’s farms and others in the Mulege valley suffered frozen crops.…losses are great.

--That was a very cold and windy time, especially at exposed Pta. Chivato..so mi amigo, Dusty, and I decided to fly the gals in the 180 taildragger to Cabo and warm up. My gal & I made a mad dash for the airplane out on the Chivato strip.




We ended up at a beach hotel/resort (Sol?)….and found the beach still too cold and gritty windy to sit out in swim trunks...so spent a few days INSIDE the hotel…which was fun, too. {Note: Met a guy at the bar one night who flew a Widgeon..one of my dream-about aircraft.}


Yes, indeedy…..the weather!


Wind, cold, floods.... over the years, one thing I've learned...

…Mother Nature may be forgiving this year, or next year, but eventually she's going to come around and whack you. You've got to be prepared.


Some great things other people have realized….about weather..and wind.


“In the depth of winter I finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.” (I think Baja helps to bring this out, right?)


“Should you shield the canyons from the windstorms you would never see the true beauty of their carvings.” ..now see? Wind is our friend. yeah, sure...


Now get out there and fly those kites!! Get the windsurfer waxed!



Hey..look! .I think the wind is dying down out there. Where’s my rod and reel..?




[Edited on 2-4-2011 by Pompano]

Roger,
Gracias for the pics, stories, and attitude.

You are living a good life

It is not that the wind is blowing it is what the wind is blowing

I am a kayaker and HATE the wind. I have spent many a "paddle or die" day because of it and I have sat for days waiting for it to stop and darn near going crazy because it didn't. But that's Baja. Thank god for that plastic bottle tequila! And a good book.

Bob H...actually I have only 4 photos of Baja. But I'm a whiz at Photo Shop.