The Sea of Cortez –

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

As you may be aware, we have spent the last 12 months cruising the Sea of Cortez to learn about and modify our new boat Calypso. Despite the impression given by the media and a few daredevils, it takes a long time to know a new boat – even if you are a fairly experienced sailor – and it is a foolish tar who calls himself “Captain” before he has mastered his new boat.

The Sea of Cortez is a great place to do this as it has a variety of weathers from dead calm to howling – many times these can occur in the same day. However, I can’t honestly say that the Sea of Cortez is my favourite place because of the marginal nature of many of the anchorages (good holding, but open to the almost certain nightly windshifts) and the repetitive scenery of rock, rock and more rock. Having said that, it is a fabulous place in many ways and here below are the good the bad and the ugly

The GOOD…!

La Paz has a lovely bay and a great social life

Fantastic anchorage at Isla San Francisco

The fantastic people of the fishing village of San Evaristo who made us so welcome on New Year’s Eve 2011

The pretty town of Loreto

The Martian landscape of Los Gatos

The relaxed harbour of Santa Rosalia

Swimming with the friendly sea lions of Los Islotes

The 300,000 sea birds who make the rarely visited Isla Rasa their home

Visiting whale sharks!

Sailing with friends – old and new

So what about the Bad and the Ugly?

Well, there isn’t any really. The Mexicans are fabulous, friendly, fun and honest. The weather is normally dry and the sea rarely gets higher than 6 feet. However, sleep is an issue in the Sea of Cortez as hard windshifts at night are common. You can hang on your anchor off a dangerous lee shore or pick it up and head out into the weather. Either way, you won’t get much sleep. A tiny, weeny price to pay though for a magical place full of interesting people. I have to say though that I desperately need to see a tree or a plant that doesn’t have spikes.

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