attention Pacific Mexico sailors

[Celestialsailor]

Originally Posted by DawnTreader

We also don't like cruising in/around large population centers. We prefer being out in nature and then calling on small towns (anchoring)to re-provision and be social. Does this sound like the Sea of Cortez? I am beginning to wonder if anchoring is more the exception then the rule in this area.

Sea of Cortez has some definite groups of cruisers. Mostly due that it takes little effort to sail there from State side of Canada. many hundreds of miles of coastal cruising. You get the Ba ha ha'ers, The Norhaven fleet and others that go there for a good time, not a long time. These are usually the "stay in a marina" crowd, to the tune of $20 a foot slip rent. While others who are on a shoe-string budget will anchor out. A few of those boats are covered with blue tarps and not going anywhere. Then there are a fair portion of cruisers that like to anchor in one spot for a few days and move on to anther quiet anchorage.
I liked staying in a Marina for about a week every month or so and venturing out other times.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by DawnTreader

...Timing could be tight for us, so we are beginning to consider a Central American landfall. It is a long hard sail up the Chilean Channels. We're hoping to leave Tierra del Fuego in a week or two, but it might take 4 months to get north to Puerto Montt, then it is nearly 5000 miles to SOC. If we can't time it to arrive comfortably before Hurricane season start, we may head to Panama or Costa Rica. What is the cruising like in these places? Mostly anchoring, or marinas? Plenty of nature? We love wild isolation...

You are getting a lot of opinions about your choice of landfalls in Mexico. I'd take most of those with a grain of salt; each of the ports discussed can be wonderful for a cruiser new to Mexico, and really no bad places, some better than others for certain things. For repairs, Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, or La Paz. For anchorages, the Lagoon at Barra is bullet proof, and convenient, as is the Mogote at La Paz. Farther up in the Sea of Cortez you can find the isolation you crave but less amenities. But you'll need some guide books. If I was you I'd order the books and have them sent to Marina Chiapas, which is easy to enter and is a port of entry, and the Marina staff walk you through the check in procedure. A few days or a week there to decompress after a long passage might be worth saving for. Some people even anchor in the commercial area Puerto Madero a half mile or so farther in from the Marina.
You can get cheap transport to the town of Tapachula for provisioning and shopping.

Let’s talk about timing. You have a few thousands of miles to go and who knows how smoothly or how long that passage will take. However, arrival in any port in Pacific Mexico, north of Huatulaco, during Hurricane season is risky. South of Mexico (i.e. Central America) there is effectively no hurricane risk. So we travelled north from Panama without regard for the season until we got to Mexico, then we stopped to wait for Hurricane season to get over before proceeding further north.

We stopped in Chiapas in July and waited until November. Then we could proceed at our leisure to any places we wanted on the way north.
So, I guess I am recommending Chiapas, it is easy to enter, laid back, and generally expenses there are less than the more frenetic places up north.

By the way, there are some tips you should know if you might think about traveling up through Central America and up the coast of Mexico. For instance, the strong winds and big seas of the Gulf of Tehuantepec can extend out over 200 miles so it is a really big diversion to avoid them by going out to sea. It's better to make landfall south of there and wait until there is a good weather window.

[merrydolphin]

A great source of current Mexico requirements may be found in Latitude 38 magazine. And it IS available on line. Yes, Mexico does change a good bit so unless you’ve just been there or are there now. No telling. Come prepared with all you can and pick a user friendly port like La Paz, a wonderful port and town to anchor or dock. There is an excellent and very helpful, active cruisers net on VHF. And yes, the Sea of Cortez is wonderful cruising. La Paz is a well marked port. The channel is a few miles to the center of cruising area but well marked. Keep in mind that La Paz is a little over a hundred miles into the Sea past Cabo San Lucas ( a good place to avoid). Its just not so cruiser friendly. More rip off touristy. La Paz is where Mexicans go to vacation; and very cruiser friendly.

[mvweebles]

Merrydolphin - coincidentally, I was just reading Lat 38s online magazine and came across this article on clearing into Cabo. More complex than I remember from 5 years ago. Definitely does not sound like it's up the OPs alley, but wanted to include for others.

https://www.latitude38.com/lectronic...m_medium=email

[merrydolphin]

Yes, it’s more involved that it use to be but worth it. I just find La Paz so much more cruiser friendly.

PS. Willard Trawler, cool boat!