Cruising the West Coast Recommendations

[calmitty]

My family and I are planning to depart San Diego in late October to cruise until mid-August 2010. Our current thinking has been to sail down to the Sea of Cortez, then make our way further south along the Mexican coast and into central America. Since we need to be back in California by mid-August, and as a result of the hurricane season, we are trying to figure out what good options might be for us. Also, since we intend to sell the boat when we are done, we have figured that having it back up in either San Diego or San Francisco would be two good final destinations, though if there is a good market for used boats further south we would also consider that. Your input would be much appreciated.

[DOCRIVERS]

It occurs to me that many folks don't know about noonsite.com. I want to recommend it to anyone in need of detailed information about Pacific Mexican ports / marinas / anchorages / services, etc. I was given this site by a friend, and it is the best I've seen for really useful details, if one is planning to put in at any particular spot.

Unlike this forum, noonsite.com is not a good spot for interactive real-time question & answer, etc, but it has great resource information that anyone cruising the Pacific side of Mexico will appreciate. Of course, it does the same for most other coasts in the world as well. I find it a great service to private boaters. Hopefully, this will help somebody.

DOCRIVERS

[calmitty]

Thanks. I have been to noonsite. Though, unfortunately, I did not find much on this specific question.

[nhschneider]

Sounds like a great trip. Maybe we'll see you down there but we're not planning on leaving until December or so. Last year, we left in February and made it as far south as Manzanillo before we turned around and sailed as far north in the Sea of Cortez as Puerto Escondido. We left Cabo San Lucas on May 30th and we took 13 days to 'bash' back to San Diego. Our insurance required us to be north of Ensenada by the 15th of June.

The trip for us was much too rushed. The longest we stayed in any port was 4 days and there were many ports in which we would have liked to have stayed longer and some we wanted to visit that we sailed by altogether. Certainly the time you have allowed is adequate to cover your itinerary but you, too, may find it not enough time to cover everything. For example, this year we're not even planning to go to mainland Mexico - we're just going to stay in the Sea.

You didn't mention if this is the first extended cruise you've taken with your family. We did two extended cruises with our children and we still cherish those memories as they act as a bond for us, even though it was a long time ago.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[Dreaming Yachtsman]

Calmitty,
The only problem I see with your plan is that you will be leaving before the current hurricane season is over and will still be in the danger zone at the beginning of next season, assuming you plan to bring your boat back to the U.S. by mid-August.

Another area that demands careful planning is crossing the Gulf of Tehuantepec. May is the best month for crossing that potentially dangerous body of water. Crossings can be made at other times of the year but you may have to wait quite a while for a safe window, depending on the weather in the Gulf of Mexico.

Unless you really want to cover lots of miles in a short time, I second nhschneider's implication that you will be moving so fast that you won't be able to enjoy the scenery. Even by taking a year and a half to go from San Diego to Central America, we felt that we bypassed many great cruising areas, particularly in the Sea of Cortez and the area south of Acapulco. One of our favorite spots was Marina Chahué, in the Bahias de Huatulco National Park (huatulco.htm | Travel Mexico Vacation | Huatulco, Mexico, Beaches, Tourist, Natu). The nearby town of Las Crucecita is clean and friendly. It could be a great place to ride out a hurricane season. Take a look at chapters 5-11 of our cruise log covering our adventures on the Pacific Coast of Mexico at: Log of Yachtsman's Dream.