Back to the Sea of Cortez
March 10 – April 7, 2025
It was time once again to start heading back north to the Sea of Cortez. Although beautiful, it is pretty cold and windy in the winter so best visited in the fall and spring. After saying goodbye to friends, we left Tenacatita at first light. The weather was good and allowed us to proceed directly to Mazatlan in just over 48 hours. We arrived just in time to get tied up in Marina Mazatlan before some strong winds set in. We knew we would be there for several days before the weather allowed us to head across to Baja so we made good use of our time with multiple boat projects. In three days we were able to service our diesel engine and change all the oil and filters, wash the boat, treat the exterior wood with two coats of Semco treatment, polish and wax all the stainless, and inspect and service the anchor chain. We did a trip to Walmart to stock up on food and supplies and took time enjoy the great restaurants near the marina.
Once our work was done and the weather settled, we set off across the Sea of Cortez for Baja. We arrived in Los Muertos anchorage after an uneventful passage. Much nicer than last year when we had a terribly rough passage along the same route. As there was forecast to be strong winds again, there were many boats in the protected anchorage. Once the weather improved we set off towards La Paz. We anchored in Bahia Falsa just outside the channel entrance to La Paz for the first time. It was a great anchorage with a good beachside palapa restaurant.
The next day we headed out towards Isla Espiritu Santo and Isla Partida. We stayed at several new to us anchorages and explored several more by dinghy with the crew from One World. Over the next four days we visited Ensenada Grande, Caleta Partida, Ensenada El Embulo, El Portico, Caleta el Candelero, and Ensenada el Cardonal. We enjoyed hiking and crystal clear waters. There was a tough rock scramble hike in Candelero, a mellow flat hike across the island at Cardonal, and an fantastic climb to an overlook from the el Embulo anchorage. Although just a day anchorage in settled conditions, El Embulo had swimming pool clear waters, which along with the great hike, made it well worth the stop.
We next headed in to La Paz where we anchored just off the town next to our friends on SV Jus Rockin. It was great to catch up with our SGYC friends Baron and Patty along with Barry and Nadia and Baron’s brother Steve. Of course we made use of out of town visitors to bring us some much needed parts from home. Thanks Patty and Barry! We had some great food and drinks including a new favorite restaurant, Mesquite Grill. Soon enough it was time to take off again and we headed directly to one of our favorite anchorages on Isla San Francisco for some great hiking.
After a few days in Isla San Francisco, we saw a forecast for strong winds from the north later in the week so we decided to start heading north to find a well protected anchorage. Our next stop was the small fishing village of San Evaristo but we stopped at some new places along the way. First stop was Isla Coyote, a tiny fishing village on a small, isolated island. The villagers were super friendly and it was cool to walk around the village. The next stop was Bahia Amortajada where we explored the expansive mangroves and deserted beaches. Very cool stop. We spent that night in San Evaristo where we enjoyed great tacos and met up with SV Kelea who we have been in contact with for several weeks but had never met in person. We have similar plans for the upcoming summer and hope to meet up again with them soon.
Our next stops were the anchorages at Los Gatos and Agua Verde for a night each followed by a brisk sail to the Punta Perico anchorage on Isla Carmen. We were joined by SV Jus Rockin and SV Karma to sit out the strong northerly winds. We explored the salt flats at Salinas before the winds kicked in.
We are now riding out wind gusts into the mid-30 knots range catching up on boat chores and waiting for the winds to subside so we can explore some anchorages north of here.
