A Taste of Cruising Mexico

We've waited out four days of high winds and seas, snugly tucked in the little harbor at Santa Rosalia. The forecast for Thursday was that it would quickly die off and go light by the afternoon. So our plan was to leave out and enjoy a quick sail down to Punta Chivato before the wind died. Morning dawned with about 8-10 knots of wind at the harbor, so the plan was looking good. Another check of the forecast encouraged us to go. An hour later the wind was piping up as we weighed anchor. I prudently set a double reef in the main and we headed out. Immediately, it was obvious that there was more than we expected. Just outside the harbor mouth it is fairly shallow (just like the mouth of Ventura Harbor) and the ground swell was pretty big. I figured that it would back off and be more reasonable in a mile or so. Well, it was not to be. Instead the wind built to a steady 25-30 knots and seas were runing 6-8' with occasionally breaking 10' waves. We were ok with the wind, but the seas were really short period and steep. Lots of white water, spray, wind shreaking in the rigging. A real "character building" kind of day. We filled the cockpit with six inches of water at least three times that morning, which is a record for us. We kept waiting for the wind and seas to back off, but it did not happen.

We ran down the backside of Isla San Marcos because the channel on front side is very shallow and narrow and would be dangerous in those conditions. Even on the backside there were lots of waves that continued to get our attention. A quick check of the charts showed an anchorage on the south end of the island and we decided to call it quits after two hours and run in for shelter, and wait for another day to continue. It was quite a relief to put the hook down and relax. In hind sight, we wished we would have turned around and gone back into Santa Rosalia, but by the time we realized it, it would have been too difficult to claw our way back up wind.

What a difference a day makes: Today dawned quiet and calm. We sailed out of the anchorage at San Marcos doing about 4-5 knots of speed in 8 knots of wind and the seas were about 1-2 feet. It took us three hours to complete the trip down to Punta Chivato where we were anchored by 10:30am. We spent the afternoon wandering one of the most incredible shelling beaches in Mexico. Tonight we visited with friends and then barbecued hamburgers and watched the sunset.