The Itinerary

• Day 1: La Paz - Caleta Lobos
• Day 2: Roco Lobos and north to Puerto Ballena
• Day 3: El Candelero and Caleta Cardonal
• Day 4: Sea Lions and Isla San Fransisco
• Day 5: Stranded at Isla San Fransisco
• Day 6: Isla San Jose and Caleta Partida
• Day 7: South to Playa Pichilinque
• Day 8: Return to La Paz

La Paz is a small city in Mexico, near the southern end and east coast of the Baja peninsula. The body of water is known as either the Gulf of California or the Sea of Cortez. It was described as "the end of civilization" because once you sail out of this harbor, there are very few buildings or resources.

Sailing in this area is done between the mainland and a group of islands. Only one small island, Isla Coyote, is inhabited. In general, the coves where you anchor for the night are sandy bottoms. The seas are known for migratory whales and dolphins. On our trip, the winds were very fickle, coming from each possible direction depending on the day. It seems you need some luck in crossing channels.

The Moorings 4300 is a 43 foot (LOA) catamaran with 4 state rooms. It carries 206 gallons of potable water. We had Moorings provision the boat with food and beverages prior to departure.

All but the google pictures on this page may be enlarged by clicking on them.

Day 1: La Paz - Caleta Lobos

After a quick breakfast at La Fiesta Inn, we attended a briefing at the Moorings with Kevin at 8:30 AM. After the briefing and setting up on the boat, we set out after lunch.

It was a partially cloudy day with a strong northerly wind against us. It is a good thing we did not have far to go. After several tacks, we past Pichilinque and made it to our destination for the night Caleto Lobos.

We anchored in the inner bight with two other sailboats and later a large motor yacht. Anchoring note: We anchored between the two sailboats and ended up closer to one than the other. We should have anchored between their anchor's positions as we ended up quite close to one boat most of the night.

After anchoring, most of the crew dinghied ashore. I snorkeled in. I did not see a lot of sea life except for many puffer fish and a few miscellaneous fish.

Meanwhile, ahead, I could see the dinghy being dragged to shore by the crew. It turned out that this, like nearly all beaches in this area, had a very shallow gradient at the shoreline which meant the dinghy would run aground well away from shore. Every landing required jumping in the water and dragging the dinghy some distance. Dragging the dinghy back out, I could see that there were many stingrays in the sand. So, not only did we have to drag the dinghy long distances, we had to drag our feet on the bottom to prevent startling any stingrays.

On returning to the boat, we ate pizza for dinner. The stars this evening were a little disappointing because it was about half cloudy.

Day 2: Roco Lobos and north to Puerto Ballena

The first night was reasonably calm with some wind pick up at night. Unfortunately, the boat was noisy while we learned what needed battening down. The worst part was the dighny rubbing against the boat. Needed to let it out much farther.

After a not-so-restful night, we dinghied out to Roca Lobos where I heard sea lions barking in the night. The intent was to snorkel. However, with no dinghy moorings and very choppy water, no one got out of the dinghy and we returned to the boat. It was interesting to see some sea lions loungning about.

This morning was still somewhat cloudy with a light southerly wind pushing leisurely north past Canal de San Lorenzo towards Isla Espirito Santo in a single reach. We lunched en route and eventually anchored in the central bight of Puerto Ballena. There was one other sailor and another large motor yacht in this cove, spread much farther apart than last night. We felt very good about our anchorage and the waters were very calm.

We supped on white fish with an orange-carrot sauce.

Day 3: El Candelero and Caleta Cardonal

It is a good thing we were confident in the anchor last night. A strong southwesterly wind (Coromel?) came into Puerto Ballena with strong sea swells. The boat was very rocky and noisy making for another difficult night's sleep, though things were calm again in the morning.

After the rough night we were pleased to leave Puerto Ballena. Another light southerly breeze puched us to our next destination El Candelero, further north on Isla Espirito Santo.

We anchored in El Candelero for sand castle building, shell collecting and snorkeling. The sun was bright and waters shallow and calm which made for pleasant snorkeling which was best around the middle rock and a small rocky outset on the northern shore. We remained in the northern half of the bight. One other sailboat was in the southern half. The beach here was very deep with a small pond set back from the shore. The rocks back from the beach form interesting formations making this an interesting place for a hike.

We returned to sail after lunch. This was an even more leisurely sail with a very light southerly breeze pushing us north past the crowded Caleto Partida to Caleta Cardonal on Isla Partida.

Caleta Cardonal is a long narrow cove with high hills on either side offering good protection from most winds. Although there was not as much room as Caleta Partida, it seemed a very good anchorage with very calm waters. The charts, however, seemed to significantly overestimate the depth. We anchored further out than planned.

The cove was interesting for kayaking. There are old stone walls in the waters (fish traps) below a cave about 30 meters up the north wall.

We supped on steak and potatoes. The stars were good tonight. However, the moon is now past the first quarter and the light of the moon washes out any view of the Milky Way.

Day 4: Sea Lions and Isla San Fransisco

Caleta Cardonal turned out to be a very good anchorage indeed. Despite a fairly strong wind (at least 11 knots), the waters remained very calm and we got our best night of rest yet.

We set out early this morning to beat the crowds to Los Islotes north of Isla Partida. Los Islotes is well known as an area where one can swim with sea lions. Although we were the first there, other boats arrived shortly after. The sailboat was able to come right in to Los Islotes, but there are many dinghy moorings available. It is convenient if someone stays behind to keep the sailboat nearby rather than anchor and dinghy a long distance.

The snorkeling here was quite good. Better visibility with less sand being stirred up into the water for better visibility (perhaps 30 feet). There was also a lot of variety in the sea life. The tunnel through the smaller, eastern rock was passable and a refuge for many fish. There were many sea lions lounging on the rocks, but there did not appear to be many in the water. Nevertheless, after a while, one will swim directly at you, likely causing you to wet your pants. When you get to the right location, which needs to be somewhat deep, the sea lions do seem to have a mission to entertain you doing flips and spins right below you. This is a difficult snorkel, but well worth it.

Before lunch, we were back in the boat and setting sail to cross the 17 miles to Isla San Fransisco. Although the wind started fair at about 6 - 8 knots, it picked up later to 10 - 14 knots from the west which allowed us to make the crossing on a single tack in only about 4 hours.

When nearing Isla San Fransisco, high mountains of the mainland appeared to calm the winds just in time for a more peaceful approach. On entering The Hook, we were pleasantly surprised to see only one other boat. There was room for a few more but even the other boat left us shortely after we anchored.

We anchored in the south where we hoped the rock wall would provide protection from any SW swells. We dinghied ashore to explore the beach. Then returned to the boat to sup on shrimp and zucchini.

Day 5: Stranded at Isla San Fransisco

Remarkably that was our calmest night so far. Much of the night the winds were light. However, even when the wind picked up to 11 knots, we were well protected from the swells. So, the boat was quieter than most nights.

At dawn the skies were mostly sunny with a very light breeze and we climbed the summit on the Hook. This of course provides a 360° view with the Sea of Cortez to the east and south, past a steep and colorful cliff, a good view of the striated mountains of the mainland to the west, and to the north the cove, the rest of Isla San Fransisco, and Isla San Jose. The trail up this hill was steep in parts, but of greater concern, covered in scree in places. It would not be a difficult hike in proper footwear. Wet, sandy, sandals were not as much fun.

On return to the boat, we prepared to set sail for Isla San Jose. Unfortunately, the windlass motor malfunctioned. Remember this destination is referred to as the end of civilization. You can see in the picture to the left how isolated we are. After some coummunication by radio, a message was relayed to Moorings base and we were told a repair would be available in about 2.5 hours. We had to choose between raising the anchor by hand (100' of 3/8" chain) or await a repair. We chose to wait. 7 hours later the repairmen arrived at sunset. They had to replace the motor. Fortunately, the Hook at Isla San Fransisco is not a bad place to spend a day.

We lunched on lasagne and supped on scallops with a green salad.

Two other boats anchored in the northern part of the hook this evening.

Day 6: Isla San Jose and Caleta Partida

The 2nd night at Isla San Fransisco was calm as well. This morning was very sunny and both wind and water very calm.

We set off early this morning easily raising our anchor with a replaced and much more reliable, and faster windlass. We motored past, Isla Coyote, the single inhabited island of the of the area. Our destination was the cove at the south end of Isla San Jose.

We reached the cove after less than an hour of motoring from Isla San Fransisco. The cove was fairly shallow and we had to anchor some distance from the shore before getting in the dinghy. Even the dinghy was dragging some distance to get to shore at the Cactus Forest. There was no chance that we could bring the dinghy into the mangrove. The cactuses were quite dramatic.

After returning to the boat and a short snorkel we raised the anchor to begin our trip south.

Winds were only very light, as little as 1 - 2 knots, so we motored until we passed outside of Isla San Fransisco when the winds picked up to about 10 knots from the east. Fortunately, the winds stayed up at 6 - 10 knots and we were once again able to make the crossing back to Isla Partida under sail in a little over 3 hours.

We made our way straight to Caleta Partida where there were again several boats anchored. With 8 boats, this was the most crowded anchorage. We tried at first to squeeze in the northern end of the boats. However, decided it was too narrow and chose to anchor south of the other boats instead. This was the first evening where none of the crew ventured off the boat at the end of the evening.

We supped on cheese burgers tonight.

Day 7: South to Playa Pichilinque

Strong winds and clear skies continue. We spent the morning on the shore of Partida Cove. But the shore was very shallow making the dighny approach very difficult. Even the kayak would ground well away from the shore. The sand on the north east corner was silty and muddy with algae off shore.

There was very limited snorkeling here. It wasn't clear to us why this anchorage is so popular, except that there was a lot of room.

We set sail shortly before noon, south for the mainland. The winds were very strong, in excess of 20 knots with 4 - 8 foot swells. With the winds at our backs we may have managed the trip on a single reach, but gybed several times, only occaisionally on purpose.

The winds became anemic for a short while SW of Isla Espirito just long enough to have a late lunch break. The winds then picked up again to over 20 knots off the coast of the mainland. We made it to our destination, Playa Pichilinque, with plenty of time. But pulling down sails and anchoring in 20 knot winds was a harrowing chore.

Playa Pichilinque has a couple of restaurants on the east side and a harbor on the south side. We were the only sailboat anchoring this night in this cove but there were some large commercial vessles in the cove which we had to pass on our way in. At this location, there was quite a bit of noise from the harbor and the road.

After a pleasant seafood dinner at Luna Brula Restaurant. The winds were calmer on return to the boat.

Day 8: Return to La Paz

Despite the strong winds during the night, because of the direction, there were no swells and other than noise from the mainland, it was a reasonably peaceful final night.

The morning was sunny with very light winds. We motored the short distance to back to the Moorings dock.