Traveling north from Baja to Washington

[jmmondeau]

Has anyone done the trip from Baja California to Washington in their trawler and what’s the best time to make the run.

[mvweebles]

20+ years ago I was a full-time delivery skipper out of San Francisco. About half my business were new Nordhavns running from Dana Point northbound to avoid California sales tax. I've run the coast every month of the year.

While it's possible to make the trip fairly comfortably during the summer, the afternoon winds stir-up some chop but usually only 4-7 hours or so. When time came to move my personal boat - a Willard 36 sedan trawler, I planned for the Sept/Oct timeframe. Granted I was going south from San Francisco to Ensenada, but I wanted good weather. HINT - when San Francisco has it's mini heat-wave that arrives sometime around mid/late Sept and extends into early Oct, it's time to go. It's massive hi-pressure over the desert and just makes life beautiful off the coast. I made the run non-stop: 500 nms in just under 70-hours.

Good luck - it's a great trip.

[Stu Jackson]

Send me a pm and I'll get you a copy of CW's The Baja Dash article.


August is the best time to go N from SF.

[Capt.Don]

Just 'bashed' from La Paz to Los Angeles; left La Paz the first of July, 11 days later with overnights at Muertos, Frailes, Asuncion and Ensenada. We motor-sailed 'Lake Pacific'. The most wind we saw was 23kts at Cabo Falso and again at Port of Los Angeles. Ideal bash conditions.

A couple things to be mindful,

May/Jun is still mostly northerlies. Towards the end of June, southerlies start to build. June/July tropical storms/hurricanes start spinning up south of Acapulco which helps offset the predominate NW 15kts wind. What surprised us was how much colder the pacific vs. the sea (foulies/jackets came out after Cabo). In July, we had several days of dense fog. Insurance may not approve sailing south of latitude 27 after Jun 1. Start watching the weather systems - high north of San Francisco and lows south of Acapulco. Look for 2 or 3 days of calm for rounding each point. You always have the option to hold-up at Mag Bay, Asuncion/Turtle Bay, Cedros, and San Quintin. Fuel planning is important -- fuel is available at Asuncion (call for Lerry), or Turtle Bay.

Don