In February, we chose to travel no further south than Banderas Bay and the greater Puerto Vallarta area – mainly because we’d intended to return north to explore the Sea of Cortez as spring began and we didn’t want to have to tax our poor selves overmuch beating back to weather for hundreds of miles. Many cruisers do, sailing back north from points as far south as Manzanillo. We are not those people.
After having a good time with cruising friends in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, we retraced our path back north around Punta de Mita to Chacala for an overnight anchorage, then north to Bahia de Matanchen where we anchored for 2 nights, 
followed by a quick morning fuel-up at the dock in the San Blas estuary, and a close-hauled overnight sail in progressively-dwindling light air back to Mazatlan. Total distance for this portion of the trip back north: about 205 miles.
We wanted to keep moving toward the eastern side of Baja so we anchored in Mazatlan’s old harbor for only two nights,
waiting for a weather window to make the crossing of the southern Sea of Cortez from Mazatlan to one of our favorite Baja anchorages, Bahia de los Frailes. We entertained ourselves by watching the commercial and military vessels enter and leave the narrow jetty to the harbor. Like this Mexican Navy vessel shown on the right over here, that Mexico may have bought used from another country – not that there’s anything wrong with that:
Due to the inoperative status of our Black Hole of Suck Si-Tex HF/SSB receiver, we relied on the kindness of our good friends, Linda and Geoff on Curare, to give us a weather relay from Don Anderson and the cruisers’ nets. Curare came through and the forecast winds of generally 15-20 from the NW agreed with the point forecast we retrieved from our Skymate account. I was a little concerned about the point forecast’s predicted seas of 4′ to 5′ at intervals of 4 to 5 seconds, coming mainly from the north but reversing to the south for part of a day (which for all you lubbers out there equals a rolly, generally uncomfortable chop given the direction we’d be traveling). Although it seemed a little sooner than customary to start cruising the Sea of Cortez, for early March the forecast looked as good as it was going to get for a while so GB and I thought what the hey.
The chilly overnight trip (160 miles as the crow flies, about 176 miles for us given our point of sail) started out as expected: close-hauled under increasing breezes as we neared the center of the crossing. However, we were pushing through that chop the point forecast had described, and it does not take much water coming at you in the wrong direction to slow your boat down. (The first wave doesn’t have much effect – it’s the second wave…and the third…and the thousandth…) Plus, the one aspect that both Don Anderson and the point forecast failed to nail on the head was the direction of the wind: the predicted NW breeze would have given us a decent sailing direction and a bit better speed — but the actual wind was straight out of the west – right on the nose with the NW-reversing-to-SW chop on the beam. Mal-de-mer ensued. The wind fizzled (as Don Anderson predicted) at about midnight so the Iron Genoa was pressed into service. The next morning, the wind increased the closer we got to the Baja shore; by the time we entered the relatively sheltered Bahia de los Frailes it was gusting to 33 knots from the north — inside the bay, in the lee of the shore. Anchoring was without incident (thanks, 30Kg Bruce and 300 feet of chain!) but the wind pinned us and a couple other boats down for 2-1/2 days before finally quieting down enough for us to comfortably snorkel and dinghy about.
When the weather improved we scooted north – in fog – to the next good anchorage at Ensenada de los Muertos (referencing not dead guys but dead-man mooring anchors) — where we and a few other boats again got pinned down by a norther for a couple of days. One aspect of sailling in the Sea of Cortez is that, when the wind blows, the
seas get high very rapidly – but when the wind diminishes the seas lie down quickly. We’d tried to leave Muertos a day early but heading the Fox directly into a norther did not appear prudent given the sea state at that time. (Oh, the Fox could have handled it; the crew’s a little weak.)(Plus, if waiting one day makes for a far more comfortable trip, it’s silly to knock yourself out, know what I mean?) (And, later, we met a fellow in La Paz who told us he had been underway during that same norther, and he had been struggling with wind blowing in the 50s.)(So it seems we made the right decision.)
Once the weather turned decent again we rounded the peninsula from Muertos through San Lorenzo Channel, dodging a Baja Ferry and a couple of commercial shrimpers, and dropping the anchor amongst 4 other sailboats in Balandra Cove a mere 9 miles from La Paz. 
This pretty cove is very popular with both boaters and RVers – white sand beaches, turquoise water, sea caves, rocks, snorkeling, etc. However the wind came up yet again at about midnight, this time from the WSW and the weather forecast over the VHF local cruisers’ net sounded suboptimal, so by morning we felt it best to proceed directly to La Paz and save Balandra for a look-see on our way back north toward the islands in the Sea of Cortez. Join us in La Paz, won’t you?
m
Leave a Reply