East Coast Mexico, Any Experiences ?

[otgadventures]

Try as I might, I cannot find any cruising guides or even stories about cruising around the inside of the eastern coast of Mexico, (western Gulf of Mexico) from Texas to Yucatan. I have heard it is 'too shallow', 'too desert(ed)?' but hey, does one have to skip from Texas direct to the Yucatan tip? There must be some excellent waters there, anybody have info/ experience? We only need 2' of water in our catamaran, and there looks like a lot of barrier islands along the way. Is this a hospitable cruising ground? Any references or does the book still need to be written? Thanks for help. Merry Christmas cruisers.

We're at present on the hard, painting, buffing, and finalizing some 'post shake-down cruise squawks' that needed repair.

[Pura Vida]

Check with the Texas Mariners Cruising Association. I believe they have a Yahoo group. It has recently turned into a powerboat club but I recall back in the '90s there were a number of guys who had cruised those waters. There may still be some cruisers there.

[daven]

I'm trying to put together a trip from Galveston to Belize in Jan '08 and I'm running into the same thing, I'd be intersted to know what you find out.
Dave

[Waterwayguy]

John Raines "Cruisers Ports" covers this area.

[Waterwayguy]

Actually that is "Cruising Ports"

[otgadventures]

Thanks all, we will look for Raines book.. We met him in Panama in May 05 where he was updating some of his books. It just surprises me that so large a stretch of ocean, in semi-tropical and tropical waters has so little written about it.

Daven: email me and let's talk.

[GordMay]

LATITUDE MEXICO offers a lot of excellent information: Latitude Mexico - Latitude Mexico

including:

Caribbean Mexico:
All about Sailing in the Gulf of Mexico
Goto: News about The Gulf of Mexico, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, and more - Latitude Mexico

and

All about Mexico's Caribbean Coast Line
Goto: News about The Gulf of Mexico, Veracruz, Tamaulipas, and more - Latitude Mexico

and more (follow the numerous links)

[otgadventures]

Thanks Gord! Will review all those pages ASAP.

Any other suggestions by forum members will also be appreciated.

Happy 2007

bob

[Euro Cruiser]

Bob, the main reason you see so little written about that area is that Mexico's Gulf Coast offers little to the cruising sailor and it's East Coast is tiny.

I did find a cruising guide covering the entire Mexican/American gulf coast (which I gave to friends some years ago), so keep looking for that. There is an annual cruising/racing regatta that goes down to Veracruz each year and the sponsoring YCs will have information you might find helpful...altho' in reading the guide, I found even that stop to be marginal in most respects.

The Tampa Bay/Isla Mujeres race is conducted each year and, again, the sponsoring authority will offer some Gulf weather and routing strategy info that, to some extent, could apply to you. Calder's NW Caribbean guide is now dated but his discussion of the Gulf weather systems is timeless and, I thought, pretty good. The cruising S of Isla Mujeres is almost non-existant due to the short coastline and few anchorages.

FWIW my advice would be to not put much effort into that stretch of the C American E coast as there's much better, more interesting cruising further S.

Jack

[otgadventures]

Thank you one and all. I will keep the forum posted on our findings as well as our plans. It seems that a stretch of Gulf coast as long as Florida's West Coast in Mexico should have something of interest, even if the development of marina and support facilities is not adequate for cruising.

As Spok would have said...."Fascinating..."


regards

Bob