Sailing Tips 1.4. Upper Sea of Cortez traveling North from Santa Rosalia to Bahía de los Ángeles JUNE 2016
Santa Rosalia
Fuel dock.
There is space to anchor in the port at the far side, but we heard that there is a lot of debris on the harbor bottom and anchor retrieval might be difficult. The is also a protected bay outside the port. We didn’t anchor there, please research.
There is a sunken panga near the end of a long jetty. Be alert when crossing the harbor.
Cell service.
No bees, no noseeums.
Fonatur Marina is the only marina left, after a hurricane took out Marina Santa Rosalia. So far there are no plans for rebuilding it.
Cheap, laundry, showers, pool, situated between the malecon and center of town.
Wifi at the marina office and ok to spotty at the docks.
Small charming, mining town with a landmarks as the Mahatma Gandhi library, a museum, several good restaurants, the best seafood taco stand in front of the library, banks, hardware stores, a Ley for provisioning and Onel, a department store and plenty of vivid city life.
Taxis cost 40-50 pesos in town, no matter where you are going and how many in your party.
Bahía Trinidad
Gorgeous bay, long beach.
Very large 30′ sand shelf
Unprotected from the swell from the sea, although we stayed close to the southern point, it was very rolly for us.
No cell reception.
Didn’t stay long enough to know if there were bees or noseeums.
Bahía San Francisquito
Large bay with a teardrop inner bay for boat with shallow draft.
Large shelf of around 30′. Good wind protection from South, but only marginal protection from swell. We anchored behind the point, but it still was rocky for us at night.
No cell reception.
Bees. No noseeums.
Oyster shells on beaches, especially at the one in the teardrop bay. Small vacation home community on the beach. Nice desert plant vegetation and rock varieties.
Ísla Partida North Bay
Large bay on a very remote island.
Large anchoring shelf of 25′-30′.
Wind protection from South. We had swells during the night.
No bees! No noseeums.
Bahía de las Animas
Small bay at the Southern entrance to the very large bay. of Bahia de Las Animas. Wind protection from South. We a some swell during the night from the West.
No cell reception.
No noseeums.
Bees in the boat and on the beach.
Good snorkeling around two inlet rocks.
Puerto Don Juan
Best hurricane hole in the region. Large nearly completely enclosed bay.
Good anchorage on sand.
Few bees, some noseeums.
Bahía de los Ángeles
Two good anchorages in sand behind Punta Arena point with light and beach and in front of the 3 village piers on sand at 15-30′. The one in front of the town is open roadstead, but has surprisingly little swell.
Check for Elefantes storms with local fishermen. In case that wind builds from the West, don’t wait too long and go directly to Bahía Mona further south in the bay as Elefantes are very localized and don’t hit there. Serious storms, can have 40 knot gusts. We weathered out an Elefante here just fine, but it was very uncomfortable and lasted 10 hours.
No cell reception on boat nor in town. Restaurants and stores offer free wifi.
Best food we found was at Casa del Sol Motel and a guy who makes very large fresh pizzas for 250 pesos on the north side if town. Guillermo’s food is ok, great for the location and view, drinks, nice tienda, art gallery, free wifi and hospitality (they let you hang out all day/charge for Wifi use if you don’t consume anything).
Markets: Guillermo’s, Ísla (large, wide selection, fresh veggies and fruit), for frozen meat is a market past the round-about we didn’t go to, Marisco has some hardware store items (but don’t eat there), one smaller market across from Guillermo’s and a large one on the street off the public boat ramp.
For fishing tours contact Guillermo’s son Igor Galvan Jimenez on his facebook account or through the restaurant/motel. Grandson Ivan Igor Galvan Beltran is deckhand on his fathers fishing boat and sever at Guillermos in the afternoons.
Anchorages near Bahía de los Ángeles. We were told that there are 25 incredible anchorages alone! We will come back to this area after Puerto Peñasco and keep you posted! Check back for our experiences.
La Mona south of the bay, east of the esturary.
Large bay with long beach on either side of the estuary. Anchor closer to the east side where the houses are and further away from the estuary because of possible high tidal currents.
Be aware of rocks coming off the beach.
We anchored in front of the third lobe beach in front of the middle of the settlement sheltered by the east point, and although we didn’t have winds higher than 5 knots, waves came down the bay and seemed to rise progressively mounting into a bouncy anchorage.
No cell reception.
Few bees.
Did not see noseeums, but lots of mosquitos right after sunset on land, flew very fast back to the boat.
June 2017
Bahía La Gringa north of the bay
Very large bay with long beach and wetland.
Large sand shelf at 20-35′ for anchoring.
Popular camping and fishing spot. Mostly gringo houses along the beach.
Elefantes and Chubascos can hit here but with less swell than in Bahia de Los Angeles, at least that was our experience.
No cell reception.
No bees.
No noseeums.