FLOTA BIBI FLEET FISHING BOATS UNHARMED BY STORM LANE

Sept. 17, 2006, Tadeo Hernandez, Flota Bibi Fleet, Mazatlan, Mexico:

At the Bibi Fleet, we're all safe after Hurricane Lane.

As with Hurricane John, on Friday afternoon, all our Mazatlan charter boats were kept deep inside the navigation canal in the surroundings of the power plant where lots of mangroves form a natural shelter against the winds.

Our fishing boat crews stayed there for two nights watching the boats and taking all necessary measures, pumping out, etc.

The Mazatlan harbour was closed for sportfishing boats from Friday afternoon to Sunday morning. During this time, all the boats at the Lighthouse Marina were saved.

At the Bibi Fleet dock, we took off all the boards and only left the main structure so the high tide would not to take them away. A sailboat that wasn't saved lost its mast.

I was a bit surprised by how many Mazatlan people with a job not related to boats were so unaware of the strength of the storm. On Friday, night people went out for Independence Day without any concerns and thinking it was another false alarm like Hurricane John. I think that was maybe because by early Friday morning, Lane was "only" a tropical storm. It only took 24 hours for it to become a Hurricane Category 3.

We were lucky it didn't hit Mazatlan directly, but there were 4 to 5 hours of very strong winds, 60 m.p.h., that caused a lot of trouble and damage such as fallen trees and billboards, flooded streets, etc. This was on Saturday from around 5.30 a.m. to 10.30 p.m. Lane touched ground 100 miles north of Mazatlan in a not densely populated area, but it still killed some people.

Earlier in the week, Flota Bibi Fleet had three Mazatlan boats out fishing that caught 1 Sailfish, 2 Dorados to 20 pounds, and 11 Skipjack Tuna.

(See "Mexico Fishing News" online for current fishing reports, photos, weather, and water temperatures from Mazatlan and other major Mexican sportfishing areas. Vacation travel articles, fishing maps and seasonal calendars, and fishing related information for Mazatlan may be found at Mexfish.com's main Mazatlan page.