Baja Cruise...Am I Crazy?

C

capt. meares

New member
I have been having pipe dreams of how realistic or unrealistic a potential Baja trip could be done in my 22 cruiser. In my research I have roughly mapped out the distance of the entire trip into four stretches, with each stop at a place that provides gas and groceries.

Newport to Ensenada 125 nm
Ensenada to Turtle bay 280 nm
Turtle bay to Mag bay 240 nm
Mag bay to Cabo 180 nm.

Has any one here gone this deep into baja? I would be very interested in hearing the extent of any ones cruising experience in baja. There are a million challenges i can think of without trying too hard, the first being the best way to carry 100 gallons minimum of fuel on board.

I have lived and spent an extensive amount of time in Mexico including one year in baja. I am fluent in spanish. Baja is unlike anywhere i have ever been. Very desolate and undeveloped, unchanged for centuries, the last of the wild west. It would be a true adventure.

" Once the dust of Mexico has settled on your heart, you will never be happy anywhere else...." (old mexican proverb) OK, some one pinch me now.
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Sounds like an incredibly exciting journey! Need any company?

I question the distance between Newport, OR and Ensenada. Better check that. Seems off by about a factor of 10!
 
Not to discourage any contributions to this thread, but if you haven't already, if you put "Baja" into the Google custom search box just to the upper left of this box, you'll find a number of other threads with mentions of C-Dory/Brats who have been to Baja with their boats. I was going to paste them here, but there are too many.

Sounds like you have good "bones" for it - having lived there and being fluent in Spanish.
 
Saw your OR location and made an assumption! May as well cruise down the OR and CA coast while you're at it! More fun than trailering! :)
 
capt. meares":1wwwqb4y said:
Yes ive read some of the older threads on this a while back but didnt get alot of responses. Iam hoping some more current info.
Click to expand...

I understand. New contributions are good!
 
Sounds like a great adventure! If it was me planning this trip, I would trailer the boat to Yuma or Mexicali and cross the border to launch in the Sea of Cortez. Of course I have no idea if there is safe trailer and truck storage there, but avoiding the long distances of open ocean on the Pacific side might be a consideration. 240 nautical miles pounding through wind waves in the open ocean might just be too much for a 22' C-dory IMO. Good luck and if you go I hope you'll share your adventure with us
 
I have been looking at the Blue Latitude Cruising guide for a bit. It looks to be the one and only thing available for guides. I suspect there are just as few Baja specific Gold Card Navionics chips for any chart plotters.
 
We met the couple that wrote the book as they are docents during the summer on Vendovi Island in the San Juans. They spend the winter updating the guidebooks and travel to Mexico regularly to confirm and update guidebook info. They enjoy visiting with people. I bet you could correspond with them directly by email or phone to gather additional info if needed. Must be some contact info in the book or on the Blue Latitudes web page.
 
`Sounds like a good trip! I've thought of doing that a lot, with no timetable, but leaving from San Diego where we've a safe spot for truck & trailer. I've sailed large, slower boats up & down Baja's Pacific coast and think a C-Dory's plenty good for the task if you've a list of where to hide from heavy weather. Mexican pangas run it all the time, most of them successfully.

You may find fuel more frequently than you've listed, but you can't always count on it. A fuel bladder in the cockpit and a 'Mexican filter' (chamois & funnel) might be the answer.

I'd write a letter to Latitude 38, the Northern California sailing rag, and ask all the questions you can think of ~ after getting a second, temporary email address for the answers. So many do that coast on their own or in the magazine's Baja Ha Ha, there's lots of knowledge on running that stretch.

I thought of trailering to San Carlos or San Felipe to 'do' the Sea of Cortez, but where to leave the rig safely? The nonsense involved bringing a boat, railer & truck in seems daunting. Just a boat has to be simpler. Either way might be fairly painless with an agent who's up on the very latest changes in Mexican laws & permits like in the last five minutes (ask for recommendations in your letter to Attitude 38).

How do you figure to get back? The Baja-bash isn't fun in a 30 ton motorsailer let alone a planing hull. I'd be tempted to finish the cruise in San Felipe, leave someone aboard the boat and bus back to the States to fetch the rig, but again the permits & such could be a PIA. Earlier when thinking about such a trip, I've thought it might be good to go down the outside and work up the inside as far as I figure to go right away, as weather allows, then lazily put, drift & gunkhole back to LaPaz or San Jose.

If you sort out how to take truck & trailer in & leave it in northern Baja, a lazy run south in the Sea of Cortez seems inviting too, then a bus ride back to the rig from La Paz, say, where it's usually safe to leave a boat, driving back to fetch the thing.

Wife & I spent a few winters ago in Baja, my first time there with wheels. `Been dreaming of returning with the C-Dory since. Best wishes!
 
We have boated Baja California since 1972. We kept extending our trips south as the road, Mex highway 1 was paved.

I would trailer the boat, not attempt the long runs down the Pacific coast. There are many good places to launch and explore from on both the Pacific side and especially on the Sea of Cortez side.

We spent the winters of 2002 and 2003 in the Cabo San Lucas area, after trailering our TC 24 down. We have spent many summer vacations in the Loreto and Mulege and Bahia de Los Angeles on the Cortez side.
 
If going down the coast is an important element of the trip, then I'd do it. If it was just to get down to Bahia de Magdelena and the Sea of Cortez, then I'd trailer.

I thought a little about doing the Sea of Cortez in my CD 16, so a long open coastal trip is basically out. Here's what I would look into. I'd look for a rental place on VRBO in Kino Bay, San Carlos or Los Barrillos, depending on where I wanted to start. I'd look for a rental place with an RV pad. Then I'd contact the owner and say that I don't want to rent the house, just the RV pad. Likewise, some of the gringo enclaves have fenced RV parking. Contact a resident or the park manager and see about monthly storage.

Not only will you get secure storage, but my experience is that you can't help but meet some locals that will be glad to help and give advice.

Mark
 
Like Brooks&Judy, I have been up and down the Pacific Baja coast a number of times. First was in the mid 1960's. I took a flotilla of 12 boats from our yacht club down there in the early 1970's. We hit most of the usual anchorages (anchored every night), going an average of 6 knots.

Correct, there are many places where you can hitch a ride to a local gas station and jerry jug fuel if necessary. I can tell you most places where you can land a dinghy. BUT, getting good protection is another story. The wind can come from the South as well as from the North. I have had to power all of the way to Cabo, and I have beaten against 8 to 10 foot seas and winds up to 50 knots each way. These would be very uncomfortable conditions for the C Dory 22. (or any C Dory).

There have been any number of small boats which have had this trip. Don't equate what a Panga does to what the C Dory can do. The Panga is made to run thru surf, and with its flat bottom, right onto the beach, and then rolled up the beach on log rollers.

If you are really serious--I have some of the out of print books and charts of this area, including the aerial photos of each cove.

Don't forget, there are lots of shipwrecks along this coast. I have had the pleasure of diving on many of them, including the Schooner Goodwill. A Nordhavn 62 went on the rocks near Mag bay a few years back. Most of the wrecks were mis calculations, or something nefarious, but many were weather related. There can be serious fog. There can be big surf, which is an issue with landing. And, as I always say--the range in calm water, is far different that the range under power in rough and "usual" conditions.

It can be done.
 
Yes, you are crazy in my opinion... you might be fine...but I have a friend that is a wanted felon in Mexico .....they "found" a pistol clip in his baggage that had 8 bullets in it...so he went to jail...no it was not his...it was planted yet it cost him a small fortune in bail and now he can never go back... he jumped bail...

We spent one summer in Mexico and did not have any problems years ago, but now things have changed...not a safe place to visit...you will be a target of opportunity.

Joel
SEA3PO
 
for a lot less money you could trailer to Hermiston.....same thing isn't it? :)

I just had to throw that E. Or slam at you
 
We got spooked about going back into Mexico and haven't returned since 2004. We were harassed be the Army wanting us to siphon gas for them because they ran out along the road. Happened more than once. Cops looking for mordida. Too many reports of problems by lone travelers, kidnapping of anyone that appeared to have any resources to pay. We went into Mexico almost yearly, from 1972 until 2004. I don't think we'll be back on our own. We have returned twice since 2004, but on cruise ships and only into secure port areas.

Maybe as you get older, you get more fearful. We used to go into Mexico, mostly Baja California and spend weeks, sometimes months at a time. Camping and boating with two children. We had a 9.5' Lance camper and towed a C-Dory 22 and in later years a TC24. Politics and the drug cartels have ruined Mexico for us.

We still travel and boat , almost every year for extended trips, but in the US and Canada. Where you still have some rights.
 
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