Roca Monumento and the anchorage at Ensenada del Candelero
Hanging out on the bow We found amazingly empty white sand beaches, aquatic wildlife, tranquil anchorages and much more while sailing on the Sea of Cortez out of La Paz, Mexico. For a week over the 2015 holidays, we bareboat charted a 38 foot Catalina from a small outfitter and sailed off into the sunset.
Unlike many other chartering destinations throughout the world, the cruising grounds of the Sea of Cortez consist of peaceful desert and sand with no development, which means open seas, solitude, and family time.
Unlike many other chartering destinations throughout the world, the cruising grounds of the Sea of Cortez consist of peaceful desert and sand with no development, which means open seas, solitude, and family time.
 Our cruising grounds After leaving the La Paz Harbor, we headed to three undeveloped desert islands: Isla Espiritu Santo, Isla Partida and Los Islotes. Each island has protected anchorages with snorkeling reefs, hiking trails and miles of empty sandy beaches. The 6 of us were told that once we leave the slip for our 7 day charter, there is no place to re-provision. We needed all the food and water to last for the duration of our trip. We stocked up, dropped the lines, and headed out on our adventure! |  From the air, our cruising grounds with some of our anchorages marked. |
 Sea Sueno our Catalina 38' We charted our boat from a small, personal and very friendly outfit called Go Baja Charters. Our boat, named Sea Sueno, was a well-equipped 1987 38 foot Catalina. It had enough bunks for comfortable sleeping, a galley (kitchen) and basic electronics for easy navigation of the waters to each destination. |  Tons of fresh fruit and veggies from a La Paz grocery store |
 Our chart and cruising grounds | Sailing and navigating was simple line of sight and there was no need for any complex GPS or navigation equipment. We could navigate to each destination by simply looking at a chart and estimating our location given land features, hills, mountains beaches, etc. Each anchorage offered protection and mountainous hiking trails. Some of the anchorages had underwater reefs for some pretty good snorkeling. The only destination that would have other boaters was at the very northern tip called Los Islotes, a wild sea otter sanctuary. Our first day we sailed from the harbor across a 4-mile channel from La Paz and made our way to anchorage number 9. It was called Ensenada del Candelero. It had fine sandy beaches with snorkeling along the rocky shores. |
Snorkeling with sea lions The next day we made it to the sea lion sanctuary at the northern boundary of our cruising grounds. Dozens of tour boats all via'd for about 4 mooring balls and snorkeling access to the sea lion populated waters. We got super lucky in grabbing a mooring just as a tour boat was leaving. We spent about 90 minutes snorkeling and photographing the activity. Afterwards we dropped the mooring and headed south to another anchorage for our second night.
| |  | We made it to Ensendada el Cardona and anchored. It's a long and shallow 1.5-mile-deep bay. We took the dinghy into shore and explored steep desert hiking trails and watched an amazing sunset thus ending a wonderfully adventurous day. |  Dried-up puffer fish on a beach |
 Vacant Fishing Outpost. |  The beach at Caleta Partida. Next was Caleta Partida, a unique place. It derives from volcanic origins and has a long narrow winding river passage separating the two islands of Santo and Partida. We dinghied to shore and hiked along the narrow channel separating the islands. The flow through the narrow opening was like a torrent river. We also explored a vacant fishing outpost. |
| We continued hopping from anchorage to anchorage. We dropped the hook in places like Ensenada la Gallina, Playa Pichilingue, Bahai San Grabriel, which was our favorite since it had a nice reef to snorkel. We returned to the boat slip at La Marina del Palmar after having completed an amazing adventure. We celebrated the New Year and my sister's birthday on the boat. We witnessed many beautiful sunsets, collected shells, cooked and ate delicious meals. What an amazing sailing family adventure! | |
Contact me for more information and details on chartering and sailing in the Sea of Cortez.
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