Sailing Tips. The Sea of Cortez. A Summary. JULY 2017
We entered the Sea of Cortez at Cabo San Lucas in April 2016 after sailing down the Pacific side of Baja California. Leaving the big ocean behind, it got instantly warm. We spent the next two summers in the Sea and were loving it!
Called ‘aquarium of the world’ by Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the diversity of sea life, birds and desert animals in the Sea of Cortez is only rivaled by the Galapagos Islands. Fabulous, if you like stark mountainous deserts, sandy beaches, snorkeling and diving, whale and bird watching, fishing, remote fishing villages, small Mexican towns or just a few of these.
Best way to sail the Sea is to take the south winds up into the Sea, which start May/ June, spend the summer and hurricane season (June to November) in the upper Sea, north of Santa Rosalia and sail the north winds back down from November (to April) at the next season. This way you can enjoy swimming and snorkeling in warm water in late spring & summer with air temperatures around 30-35° and hiking the islands, Baja and mainland in the winter at cooler temperatures between 18-25°. In the upper Sea, the summers are hot and the winters are cold at night, especially during the Northerlies, so come prepared for both.
The Sea can be tricky with its Chubasco, Cormorels and Elefantes, very localized and hard-to-predict high winds from the Pacific funneled through Baja valleys in the summer and strong Northern winds in the winter. One relies on a good anchor and a good anchoring technique to be riding out storm gales of thirty to forty-five knots on the hook. There are many breath-taking anchorages and all, except at Ísla San Esteban and Ísla Isabel, are over large sand shelves with good holding. Depending on wind direction with thorough weather planning via weather fax and SSB weather nets, good shelter can be found.
Some bird enthusiast time their visits around migratory months and whale enthusiasts for whales, who come to the Sea during their migration in January until April, although some whales stay in the Sea all year around. Visit the whale museum in La Paz (update June 2019: it is currently closed and moving to a new location) , which offers comprehensive information on all whales and turtles living in the sea. John Steinbeck wrote a fascinating diary of his 1941 expedition about his research expedition of nautical life in the sea and observations of land and people, which is a great read; some editions include the full list of their collection effort.
The Northern Sea of Cortez is less traveled. Most cruisers don’t travel as far as Puerto Escondido or Bahía Conception and only go to La Paz and the islands just north of there. It takes preparation and provisioning to be at anchor for weeks with little or no cell or wifi connection, but it is certainly doable and provisions and fuel can be found. Bring enough cash though, because there are no ATMs between Santa Rosalia and San Filipe on the Baja. We enjoyed this off-grid existence immensely and find that, although less traveled, the Northern Sea is well worth it. There are choices of totally secluded anchorages, where hardly anybody goes, bays in front of fishing villages or marinas close to small or larger town. Something for everybody’s taste and budget.
We enjoyed the Northern Sea the most from Bahía de Los Ángeles to Bahia Kino, Ísla Tiburon, Ísla Ángel de la Guarda, Ísla Salsipuedes and Ísla San Esteban. Puerto Peñasco’s boat yard had very competitive prices and cheap storage for the boat. If we would be seasonal sailors here in the Sea, we would leave the boat at Cabralles’ during the summer months and travel from there down the Sea in fall and back up late spring.
Many sailors come back to the Sea after exploring the Caribbean or South Seas and find that the Sea of Cortez has it all. We are just at the beginning of our journey and will be heading out soon from La Paz to mainland Mexico all the way to Panama this spring, but we’ll be leaving here reluctantly.
Update fall 2018: Family circumstances delayed our departure from Sea and we had to skip one cruising season. We will stay in the Sea of Cortez for a bit longer and have hauled out at Cabrales Boatyard/ Puerto Peñasco in June 2019 for the summer.
Tips
Check out our extensive cruising tips for the Sea of Cortez here and our travel logs here
A very good cruising guide is The Sea of Cortez A Cruiser’s Guide Book by Shawn Breeding & Heather Bansmer, with an intuitive layout and very accurate bay descriptions
For the Northern Sea of Cortez and the Midriff Island we use an older, very good and accurate guide by Gerry Cunningham , who has written a total of three guides for the Sea of Cortez and we were lucky enough to inherit all three from a fellow cruiser.
Pat Rain’s boating guide here provides detailed information about the northern sea, but is visually not as well structured as Shawn & Heather’s, I use all three anyway.
‘The Desert Islands of Mexico’s Sea of Cortez’ by Stuart Aichinson is a detailed and interesting guide about the midriff islands fauna and flora here
Navionics has the most accurate navigation charts of the Sea as they take user’s input and so update continously. Paper charts are not updated. Seabreeze in San Diego/ Shelter Island (also online) has the largest collection of nautical and commercial charts for Mexico, South Seas and worldwide.
