Prevailing North Wind Hampers Sportfishing in Loreto, Mexico Area

Except for early morning hours, the wind has been blowing at least 30 knots from the north for the past 10 days in Loreto, Mexico.

None of the outboard-powered, heavy fiberglass skiffs of the sportfishing fleet ventured off the beach, where they had been hauled up by towlines from pickup trucks.

I arrived in this old Mexican town, the first European settlement on the Baja California peninsula and the capital of the entire Californias in the late 17th century and most of the 18th, during the last four days of the wind.

During those days, I didn’t see any vessels attempting to beat northward up the coast against the white-capped Sea of Cortez. All boating had come to a standstill, which is not uncommon when the northerlies blow.

The northerly is the prevailing wind of autumn and winter. The prevailing wind is southerly during the hot months of summer.

Many boats, most of them sailing yachts, had taken refuge in Puerto Escondido, an almost landlocked harbor about 20 miles south of Loreto.

Puerto Escondido is quiet, rural and beautiful, though a 500-room hotel, three to five years away from completion, will change the face of this natural harbor.

Sailing Notes Recently elected officers of the Navy Yacht Club, Long Beach, are: John Ide, commodore; Herb Turner, vice commodore; Alita Marks, rear commodore; Bill Lewis, fleet captain; John Monkvic, junior staff commodore.

The Black Skimmer, a black and white bird with a long orange and black bill, is one of the new residents of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve, the 500-acre wildlife haven on Coast Highway east of Huntington Harbour. Department of Fish and Game biologist Dan Yparraguirre says about 30 black skimmers appeared in the reserve last year for the first time and remained to build 10 nests on islands especially constructed for endangered least tern nesting. Seven young have hatched and lived through the fledgling stage, establishing a state record. The best times to view the newcomers on Amigo de Bolsa Chica tour days are 10 a.m. on Jan. 11 and following the 2 p.m. tours on March 11.

Tours of Upper Newport Ecological Reserve are scheduled for Jan. 11, Feb. 8 and March 8. Wildlife specialists will conduct the tours from 9 until 10:30 a.m. Tours start every l5 minutes from the corner of East Bluff Drive and Back Bay Road, Newport Beach.

Don Smith of Santa Ana sends in this definition of sailing: “The fine art of getting wet and becoming ill while slowly going nowhere at great expense.”

Dennis Conner’s Sail America group, an America’s Cup challenger through the San Diego Yacht Club, is still in Hawaii training with three 12-Meters. Wind and waves there are believed to be similar to those off Fremantle, Australia.

Harbor Notes: Mola Development is currently constructing 14 boat slips in Huntington Harbour’s main channel and three slips on Trinidad Channel. Completion is expected Jan. 15. . . . Santa Barbara’s breakwater has been extended 80 yards. The extension is not yet equipped with navigation or warning lights. . . . The Orange County Marine Institute of Dana Point has raised $100,000 of the $450,000 needed to buy Pilgrim II, the 98-foot, square-rigged replica of the vessel that Richard Henry Dana sailed to the area. This means that the Pilgrim’s home port will continue to be Dana Point Marina.

The Marine Institute plans to acquire the additional $350,000 through private donations and fund-raising events.