It appears that I might be going to the Sea of Cortez later this
month.

Any suggestions
- provisioning
- anchorages
- places to go
- places to avoid
- any other helpful hints

Thanks

Jack

_________________________________________
Jack Dale
ISPA Yachtmaster Offshore Instructor
CYA Advanced Cruising Instructor
http://www.swiftsuresailing.com
_________________________________________

"Jack Dale" wrote in message
...
It appears that I might be going to the Sea of Cortez later this
month.

Any suggestions
- provisioning
- anchorages
- places to go
- places to avoid
- any other helpful hints

Thanks

Jack

_________________________________________
Jack Dale
ISPA Yachtmaster Offshore Instructor
CYA Advanced Cruising Instructor
http://www.swiftsuresailing.com
_________________________________________

None from me, but I'll be there in January, and I'd appreciate hearing about
your experience.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

- places to avoid
I would sail right on by Cabo San Lucas. In fact, the last time we were
down there, that's just what we did. Do stop at Bahia Frailes and
Ensenada de Los Muertos on your way to La Paz. Also, one of our
favorite places that's not in any of the guide books is right off the
southern end of Isla Ceralvo. The holding is not the best (thin sand
over rock), but the snorkeling is great and you'll be all by yourself.

- provisioning
This is no problem in La Paz. Stop in at Marina de La Paz and ask for
their info sheet for cruisers. This lists lots of good info including
how to get around and where to get stuff. You'll also find lots of
other cruisers already there that are always willing to answer questions.

On leaving California, there's no reason to fill your boat with month's
of provisions. People who do usually wind up bringing much of it back
with them when they return.

- anchorages
- places to go
Get either Charlie's Charts or the Jack Williams guide (we had both).
They are both good and will give you a start. Don't limit yourself to
just places in the books though. Some of the best places we anchored
were ones that we just stuck our noses into and decided they looked good.

- any other helpful hints
Go Slow. Don't be in a rush. Check out
http://triciajean192.home.comcast.net for some photos of what it's like
down there.

Above all, remember the first two rules of cruising:
#1 Don't sweat the small stuff.
#2 Just about everything is small stuff.

On Wed, 1 Nov 2006 10:32:40 -0800, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

"Jack Dale" wrote in message
.. .
It appears that I might be going to the Sea of Cortez later this
month.

Any suggestions
- provisioning
- anchorages
- places to go
- places to avoid
- any other helpful hints

Thanks

Jack

_________________________________________
Jack Dale
ISPA Yachtmaster Offshore Instructor
CYA Advanced Cruising Instructor
http://www.swiftsuresailing.com
_________________________________________

None from me, but I'll be there in January, and I'd appreciate hearing about
your experience.

Here's a great resource:
http://www.svmirador.net/
If I were flush and headed north I would do it the way they did.

Now, I know nothing bad could ever happen to you but I talked to
someone who goes every year and they said they were skipping this
season as people are shooting each other in various parts of the
country, including Baja N.
At first I was inclined to believe the reports of violence were being
exaggerated by the bush admin news corps to hurt the tourist trade as
Pemex had backed out of their price fixing deal with the us not long
ago. But,.. the Baja N. murder was a friend of a friends wife, both
Mex citizens. I know someone who knew these people. The motive was
apparently robbery. Their whole truck was shot up on the highway and
they couldn't get to a hospital in time. I haven't heard anything boat
related.
Provisions: water maker is a BIG plus if you're not into marina life.
Navigation: I used the Jack Williams book, a Mexican chart of the
whole Gulfo and the Cunningham foldout chart. Plenty of head
scratching here for sure as the whole place looks like a moonscape.
We ran aground lightly on hard sand more than 2 miles off the beach at
one point. The water just drained out from under us before our eyes
and in 20 minutes we could have walked to the beach. People rode
their ATV's out to laugh at us. A woman in her 70's came buzzing out
to bring us cupcakes and told the chilling tale of how she and her
husband had sold everything and bought a 40' yacht which was cut in
half by a shrimper while anchored at night. After 20 minutes the
fishermen came back and picked them both out of the water. They never
recovered a dime of insurance or the boat. Read your fine print. 20'+
tides in the N. end of the sea. We saw small sea turtles in this area.
The Cortes side of Baja S. coast was rearranged substantially by a
mighty storm 2 years ago so it doesn't always look like the pictures
now.
Anchorages: I liked the whole Bahia Concepcion Area best. Between
there and Los Cabos was the best for me. Puerto Escondido was
considered the best hurricane hole until the aforementioned storm sank
something like 11 boats. You can still see a small forest of masts
sticking up, at least one carcass on the breakwater and a couple of
barely submerged hulls that make for dreamy afternoon aquarium
watching. It's also like living next to a gocart track due to the
round the clock outboard engine racket but that's the price of
civilization as they do have laundry, food, email, ice cream, Good
Water etc. and plenty of cruisers. (repair advice, book swap,
ride2store, someone to bike with). If you camp ashore in some places
wild donkeys will eat your lunch. There's a bike repair place in
Loretto. Boy, those little thorns will really eat your tires.
Cabo San Lucas had a real gringo supermarket at astronomical prices
miles from the dock, $90 per night tie up, weatherfax and an unlimited
number of throbbing discos.
On the mainland side I stayed in San Carlos, a gringo enclave with
video rental, paved streets, boat haulout and transport, work yard.
Port clearance was easy and was good for a 50 mile radius of small
quiet anchorages, mostly rocky bottom. The man-made marina was a
little quieter at night but had construction noise all day and was a
long ways from town. $150 per month for tie-up with power. The main
harbor had better showers but the nightly disco drove me out pretty
fast. There was a restaurant and bar here or you could walk or ride to
town.
There's cheaper groceries in Guyamas as well as a Mexican boatyard.
Lot's of international boats here for long tern refits. I never got
any further south than this, maybe next time.
Several small boats said they only had their sails up 3 times all
season as there was either no wind at all or 30knts+ in vicious chop.
Our worst weather was on the pacific side of Cabo about 60 miles
offshore in the pitch black of night heading into about 45knts. of
wind with an insanely confused 8' jacuzzi chop riding 20' swells.
Can't wait to go again! That's all for now. Keep up the good work.

"Jack Dale" wrote in message
...
It appears that I might be going to the Sea of Cortez later this
month.

Any suggestions
- provisioning
- anchorages
- places to go
- places to avoid
- any other helpful hints

Thanks
Snip:

See the December, 2006 issue of Power Cruising, page 36:
" A Guide to Cruising the Sea of Cortez"

Be sure to bring some fishing tackle; nothing like fresh Mahi mahi and
yellow fin tuna.

Yo,, Ray... you start off with blaming the Bush admisistration for the ills
of the world, go on about shootings, and how unsafe it is ..........

Then you launch into what a great place the Baja is to visit, how
inexpensive it is, go here, do this ............


Wake up man! You can get shot in most parts of the world, including the
USA. And G Bush isn't responsible.

I love Mexico.. it is sooo beautiful, and that weather ...

When you live where I call home, and the winter lasts for 6 months, getting
shot is a small price to pay for a day above 70* F


================================================== ================================
"ray lunder" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 1 Nov 2006 10:32:40 -0800, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

"Jack Dale" wrote in message
. ..
It appears that I might be going to the Sea of Cortez later this
month.

Any suggestions
- provisioning
- anchorages
- places to go
- places to avoid
- any other helpful hints

Thanks

Jack

_________________________________________
Jack Dale
ISPA Yachtmaster Offshore Instructor
CYA Advanced Cruising Instructor
http://www.swiftsuresailing.com
_________________________________________

None from me, but I'll be there in January, and I'd appreciate hearing
about
your experience.

Here's a great resource:
http://www.svmirador.net/
If I were flush and headed north I would do it the way they did.

Now, I know nothing bad could ever happen to you but I talked to
someone who goes every year and they said they were skipping this
season as people are shooting each other in various parts of the
country, including Baja N.
At first I was inclined to believe the reports of violence were being
exaggerated by the bush admin news corps to hurt the tourist trade as
Pemex had backed out of their price fixing deal with the us not long
ago. But,.. the Baja N. murder was a friend of a friends wife, both
Mex citizens. I know someone who knew these people. The motive was
apparently robbery. Their whole truck was shot up on the highway and
they couldn't get to a hospital in time. I haven't heard anything boat
related.
Provisions: water maker is a BIG plus if you're not into marina life.
Navigation: I used the Jack Williams book, a Mexican chart of the
whole Gulfo and the Cunningham foldout chart. Plenty of head
scratching here for sure as the whole place looks like a moonscape.
We ran aground lightly on hard sand more than 2 miles off the beach at
one point. The water just drained out from under us before our eyes
and in 20 minutes we could have walked to the beach. People rode
their ATV's out to laugh at us. A woman in her 70's came buzzing out
to bring us cupcakes and told the chilling tale of how she and her
husband had sold everything and bought a 40' yacht which was cut in
half by a shrimper while anchored at night. After 20 minutes the
fishermen came back and picked them both out of the water. They never
recovered a dime of insurance or the boat. Read your fine print. 20'+
tides in the N. end of the sea. We saw small sea turtles in this area.
The Cortes side of Baja S. coast was rearranged substantially by a
mighty storm 2 years ago so it doesn't always look like the pictures
now.
Anchorages: I liked the whole Bahia Concepcion Area best. Between
there and Los Cabos was the best for me. Puerto Escondido was
considered the best hurricane hole until the aforementioned storm sank
something like 11 boats. You can still see a small forest of masts
sticking up, at least one carcass on the breakwater and a couple of
barely submerged hulls that make for dreamy afternoon aquarium
watching. It's also like living next to a gocart track due to the
round the clock outboard engine racket but that's the price of
civilization as they do have laundry, food, email, ice cream, Good
Water etc. and plenty of cruisers. (repair advice, book swap,
ride2store, someone to bike with). If you camp ashore in some places
wild donkeys will eat your lunch. There's a bike repair place in
Loretto. Boy, those little thorns will really eat your tires.
Cabo San Lucas had a real gringo supermarket at astronomical prices
miles from the dock, $90 per night tie up, weatherfax and an unlimited
number of throbbing discos.
On the mainland side I stayed in San Carlos, a gringo enclave with
video rental, paved streets, boat haulout and transport, work yard.
Port clearance was easy and was good for a 50 mile radius of small
quiet anchorages, mostly rocky bottom. The man-made marina was a
little quieter at night but had construction noise all day and was a
long ways from town. $150 per month for tie-up with power. The main
harbor had better showers but the nightly disco drove me out pretty
fast. There was a restaurant and bar here or you could walk or ride to
town.
There's cheaper groceries in Guyamas as well as a Mexican boatyard.
Lot's of international boats here for long tern refits. I never got
any further south than this, maybe next time.
Several small boats said they only had their sails up 3 times all
season as there was either no wind at all or 30knts+ in vicious chop.
Our worst weather was on the pacific side of Cabo about 60 miles
offshore in the pitch black of night heading into about 45knts. of
wind with an insanely confused 8' jacuzzi chop riding 20' swells.
Can't wait to go again! That's all for now. Keep up the good work.

Suggested reading: http://www.baja-haha.com/Guide/index.html

What ever guide book you plan on using, take time to experiment with
Google Earth. This summer Google uploaded high res images for most of
the trip you are wanting to make.

Here is a link to our website on a trip we started last year, our boat
is currently in Mazatlan: http://www.goreads.com/Travel%20Log.htm

If you download the Google .KMZ file on our web page (after you have
installed Google Earth) it will show you several good anchorages. You
can then save the map images to your computer, or send the .jpg images
to a photo shop and then you will have 4x6 high res color images of all
the places you would like to possibly anchor. I have also included
info on a couple of places to get fuel and what to expect.

Take lots of single dollar bills, be prepaired to pay for your fuel in
cash in the smaller towns.
There are internet cafe's a plenty, even in the small dusty villages.
Cabo is like visiting Vegas. The plus is they have a Cosco. You can
anchor outside of the marina for free and then take your dingy into the
marina for only $2.
If you take a fishing pole, learn about the Mexico law/fees for fishing
equipment.

-Mark
http://www.goreads.com

Jack, We just returned from 6 weeks of cruising the Sea of Cortez. This
is the third winter we have spent on the west coast of Mexico and the
Sea. Our homeport is San Carlos, Sonora, Mx. You might want to look at
my blog, which gives a lot of information about anchorages, weather,
etc.:

cruisevagari.blogspot.com

La Paz or San Carlos are good provisioning points.

In December the Sea will experience strong northwest winds for three or
four days then light to moderate winds for perhaps a week before the
next northerly. Good weather forecasts are available on the SSB and
Ham.

I hope you go and enjoy your trip. As you can see from the pictures
the Sea is a great place to go cruising.

Please contact me if you need more information.

Stan Strebig
"Vagari" Morgan 41 Classic
Tucson, AZ

"Stan" wrote in message
oups.com...
Jack, We just returned from 6 weeks of cruising the Sea of Cortez. This
is the third winter we have spent on the west coast of Mexico and the
Sea. Our homeport is San Carlos, Sonora, Mx. You might want to look at
my blog, which gives a lot of information about anchorages, weather,
etc.:

cruisevagari.blogspot.com

La Paz or San Carlos are good provisioning points.

In December the Sea will experience strong northwest winds for three or
four days then light to moderate winds for perhaps a week before the
next northerly. Good weather forecasts are available on the SSB and
Ham.

I hope you go and enjoy your trip. As you can see from the pictures
the Sea is a great place to go cruising.

Please contact me if you need more information.

Stan Strebig
"Vagari" Morgan 41 Classic
Tucson, AZ

Stan, thanks for the link... can't wait until January!

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com