After the inauspicious first start out of San Carlos and with a happy Tohatsu outboard, we skedaddled north out of San Carlos for the second time on June 13, 2009. GB and I were both itchy to start cruising again after having spent so long tied up to a dock (somewhat against our will) in Guaymas and spending even more time anchored in San Carlos doing business (somewhat against our will). I for one was already feeling this summer's cruising time slipping away.
In my last post I mentioned that we'd noticed some northerly fetch and swell? Yeah, that continued to plague us all the way up the mainland. I'm talking, not much wind (10-16kt.), but head seas of 3-foot chop on a five-second period. Bouncy. A passing school of leapin', flippin' manta rays (smooth-tailed mobulus if you want to get technical) lifted my spirits as we left San Carlos. During the following few days we alternated sailing with motoring. As the shoreline bent to the northwest, so did the fetch and I'm here to tell you, it did not let up.
This year, we visited 6 of the "official" anchorages the guide books describe in the 40 NW miles along Mexico's mainland from San Carlos to Caleta Colorada, a location that can be used to cross the northern Sea to the nearest and largest of the Midriff Islands, Isla Tiburón. In order, from south to north out of San Carlos, we looked at:
Bahía San Pedro – we found this to have the most shelter and the least rolliness – though when a NW fetch starts up, it can get mildly unpleasant. We had some annoying swarms of black flies and bees there, but only for the second of the two times we'd anchored there. Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, the seashelling ashore is fabulous. Everyone moving north up the Sea along the mainland stops here, and so should you.
Ensenada Juan Villa – a one-boat anchorage unprotected from all but flat-calm seas. Regardless of how it looks on the guide books' chartlets, it's an open anchorage and wasn't viable when we got there. We moved on.
Las Cocinas – a popular anchorage with "gin-clear water" for snorkeling when conditions are calm. They weren't, for us – a NW fetch kept rolling right in; anchoring there wasn't so much uncomfortable as it was impossible. We moved on.
Pozo Moreno – same.
Bahía San Agustín – same.
Caleta Colorada (28deg.17'N/111deg.25'W) – same. Though, by this time the sun was setting and we decided to anchor here instead of traveling overnight along the mainland's shallow shore (in places it's 6 feet deep or less, 5 miles offshore. SHALLOW). With the NW fetch, we set a stern anchor in addition to our bow anchor to keep us pointed into the waves, which was the only way we got any sleep. We stayed only one night, then set out for Isla Tiburón on June 15.
Later in our travels, we met a couple other sailboats who had followed the same path we had about a week later than we had set out. They had found similar fetchy conditions. However, another boat we know came up the same way around the Fourth of July, and for them conditions were stellar. I even saw from the photos they took, that rumors of the gin-clear waters of Las Concinas are completely true.
Lessons learned: in the Sea of Cortez, you may find anchorages the guide books like, that are absolutely terrible when you get there — yet a few days or weeks later, the same anchorages may be absolute paradise. So don't feel shy about bailing out on them if you must; always have at least one other anchorage you can bail out to; and if you have the time, try the first anchorage again to see if conditions have changed.
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