Sailing between Isla Tiburon and Sonoran

[alansmith]

Heh fellas, any one want to chime in with real world experience of sailing north in the slot between Isla Tiburon and coast of Sonora? From Punta San Miguel to Punta Perla.

My trimaran draws about 2 feet with board up. About 6 foot board full down. It is adjustable. Since the prevailing winds are northwest the mountainous terrain on Tiburon should act as a wind shadow. But I also worry about severe downdrafts on the leeward side of the mountains. The second thing I worry about is the natural slot (funnel). I could easily just motor this area to lessen these fears.

There are many shallows and I won’t be doing anything too foolish. But I want to know what other skippers have seen. Any and all recommendations or musings will be well rec’d.

I will be in San Carlos Sonora by the weekend. Will work on mast and rigging for a week and shove off solo. Thanks ahead of time for your advice and sharing your experience.

[alansmith]

What? Not a single voice from the wilderness. Is it such a secret that no one dares to invite an outsider in? Smile. BTW ... YouTube has a couple of language videos about Isla de Tiburon.

[Bycrick]

I think that part of the problem is that a lot of cruisers won’t go someplace if it isn’t in the cruising guides. I’ve been in several anchorages in southern Mexico where the people ashore said that they’d never seen another sailboat there. They were within 20 miles of a big tourist destination with a marina. I visited some offshore Panama islands where the fishermen told me they’d never seen a sailboat there.

If people don’t visit, then they don’t write about it. If it isn’t written up, people assume there’s a reason. So nobody goes there.

[alansmith]

Byrick, maybe you have a good point there. Also the prevailing is NW. Tiburon is usually uphill to the prevailing. Also a lot of skippers might avoid it due to shallowness overall. Check out the history of this island on Wikipedia. Some dreadful things happened to early visitors. YouTube has very little videos on it. All in Spanish.

[mglonnro]

This is sincerely off topic but when I see the title of this thread my mind leads me to a completely different island. I almost posted a mock thread asking for directions and detail charts to Isla Sorna =)