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2 tourists exploring a beach by the Los Cabos arch become trapped after high tides and large waves prevented them from taking their kayaks back out to sea. The Los Cabos arch is one of the most iconic sites in the entire region. This prompts certain tourists to want to get an up and close and personal look at the arch. In fact around every four years the tide rolls back, and there’s actually a small beach that forms under the arch. When there’s high tide around the area, though, it can become very dangerous. A couple of tourists found this out the hard way.
The two tourists decided to kayak out to the Los Cabos arch. The pair ended up on the other side of the arch itself. In a beach that is called “The Pirate’s Cave”. This is the beach that can be typically seen on many of the famous pictures of the arch. It’s usually pictured to the right of the arch itself. When they realized they were trapped, the tourists started calling for help from the beach area.
At this point in time it’s not clear whether the pair was eventually rescued or if they took the risk to paddle back out to sea. Luckily for them there are plenty of boats that take tourists to the area. It’s likely that the dui may have hitched a ride back to shore with one of the tour companies
Is It Risky To Paddle Out To The Arch Area?
For the most part this type of activity is not considered overly risky. There are plenty of beaches around the arch, and these don’t tend to get large waves. If you have the right equipment, and know how to swim the chances of something going wrong diminish. That’s actually one of the reasons why snorkeling is very popular in the area. There are plenty of boats with tourists arriving to the area at all times and there are also buoys forming a perimeter.
These are mostly meant to warn boats about a low tide. Sailors can use them as a measuring stick to see if precisely rough waves could push them into the rocks that make up the arch, and other structures in nearby beaches. Sailing on a boat to the arch is by no means considered a dangerous activity. However, high tides can really make things difficult for sailors. Particularly if you’re just riding around in a kayak. As was the case with these tourists.
Earthquakes May Have Been What Caused These High Tides
About 5 days ago a 4.4 magnitude earthquake was registered off the coast of Los Cabos. Since then, there have been multiple replicas in the region. Most of which have been fortunately imperceptible to people in the area. That doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t impact the ocean activity. The National Institute for Hurricane Prevention, warns that beaches in and around the Los Cabos area, as well as other spots in the Mexican pacific are going to see a phenomenon known as groundswell.
This situation is set to bring forth waves of up to 10 feet in some beaches. This may be positive news for extreme surfers. As it turns out though, kayakers don’t necessarily appreciate these types of conditions. For the time being the current conditions of the sea around Los Cabos are not severe enough to warrant a closure of the port.
Nautical activity for the remainder of the week, and even the weekend, is not expected to be put on hold. That being said, even without an official warning in place it may be a good idea to limit how far you go out to sea in the coming days. Particularly in smaller vessels like kayaks, or even jet skis. Since, the high waves could result in negative consequences in general.