1997 was a different year for Baja. Corvina were conspicuously absent. Lots of gill netters may have had an influence. Hurricane Nora made a show at the start of the el niño season. It made some permanent changes in the landscape, particularly in the road between San Felipe and Puertecitos. Here are some of the goings-on and images of 1997:

March

This year, we moved up to the quarter tide in the middle of March. That turned-out to be a bad decision. We enjoyed, or I should say didn't enjoy, the worst fishing of all times. The fish just plain had lockjaw. Amigo Miguel was down again. We fished long and hard, to no avail. The water was a yukkie color color of green. I couldn't even get my rocket to work right. The liftoff sensor malfunctioned and blew the chute while the rocket was still on the pad.

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• The launch crew investigates the abort, while in the meantime
• Aliens had landed down at Punta Bufeo village
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May

Ol' bud Jerry Giardullo came down after a long absence. The tides were running high because of the new moon. The current out at the Seamount was treacherous. The outgoing tidal bore ripped 6 foot high waves to the south of the Seamount. We had no luck out at the Seamount, so we trolled down to the south end of Islote La Poma. The yellowtail action there was fast and furious. We each caught and released about 20. Chuck, Bruce, and Chris Hopkins were down too, along with regular Campo owners, Dean & Cathy and Ed & Donna.

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• Jerry fishes near South La Poma
• We made a call and the rest of the crew showed up fast
• The east side of San Luis from South La Poma
• He lost one, but proclaims that he'll get the next one
• Ed's boat hooks up a Yellowtail, and
• Eddie hauls 'er in
• We take a beach break on the west shore of Isla San Luis
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October

We were staging to go down the first week of October, but there was one big problem...Hurricane Nora. I stayed up until 11:00 PM that night watching the eye progress over Punta Eugenia near Guerrero Negro, up over the Sierra la Asamblea, right over our campos. Wind speeds were reported to be 80 mph sustained with gusts to 110. It wasn't exactly Andrew or Camille, but our trailers were just sitting on jacks. I fully expected them to be at least blown down, if not blown away. The worst damage turned out to be water erosion. The storm reportedly dumped 14 inches of rain in 24 hours. Anything near a wash was toast. I wasn't worried in that regard, because we were on high ground away from washes. Reports from the area were scarce and varied. One pilot reported there was no trace that a road was ever there.

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• Here's a satellite infrared image of Nora just before it made landfall at Punta Eugenia
• Here's its track from the University of Hawaii
• This is what the Glorietta in San Felipe looked like after the monsoon

Thanksgiving

No Thanksgiving trip this year. I went back to Ohio and no one else made it either.

Christmas/New Year's

Ramona came down with us this year. The road to Gonzaga was repaired and graded. The Puertecitos road was badly damaged and detours were plentiful. It was windy and kinda rough. Ramona and Cathy, being landlubbers, hung around on shore most of the time. I put some rocks in the bow and went fishing alone. The fishing was good at the Seamount, when you could get out there. Yellowtail and Black Skipjack Tuna were present. A nasty wind blew up from offshore one day when Eddie, Donna and I were out at the Seamount. After a rocky ride back, we made it to shore. Not a lot of off-shore pictures from this trip, too rough to get the camera out most days.

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• The first day was blown out bad
• Bruce made good use of the time by installing a new ham antenna
• Flowers were abundant after the rains, here are some Lupines
• Cathy laughs while the Brittlebush blooms yellow
• Another fine sunrise over Punta Bufeo
• Ramona gives high marks to the sunset over the Sierra la Asamblea
• The sun sets over the trailer
• In the other direction, the setting sun casts interesting hues over Isla San Luis
• I rode back with Bruce and took this picture of a washout on the Puertecitos road
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