There is a considerable difference of opinion among Gringo trailer sailors about “checking-in” and “checking-out” with the Port Captains. The system dates back to the days of sailing ships. . .involves forms that seem ludicrous for a trailer sailer (vessel of how many tons burden? How many tons net? With a crew of (many blanks available to fill in), Bound from this port to what port with stops in what other ports? On and on. However, it is the law. You check in with the local Port Captain, check out with him as you leave his jurisdiction, then check in at the next Port Captain down the coast. It costs about $20 at each stop all told and it’s hard to see the value in it for the cruiser. Many people manage to simply slip through the cracks and recommend the procedure to others. On the other hand, the potential hassles and fines worry me. On my first trip at least I elect to play the game per the rules. The form filled out I’m sent off to find at least 4 copies of it and to proceed with my passport to the immigration office across town. I went to the immigration office first. . .without the copies. Wrong. The immigration officer needs to stamp all 5 copies for you. I also forgot my passport (though I had my Tourist Card) so I really presented a competent picture to the gentleman behind the counter. He asked me why I’d bother to come to the immigration office without my passport or copies. I just grinned and said “stupid I guess. . .” He shook his head, stamped the papers, signed with a flourish (marvelous signatures are required of officials here) and sent me on my way without ever seeing the passport. The copy shop, incidentally had a computer with internet access for $30 pesos per hour or $15 for half. . .long enough to send off messages to various people letting them know I’d at least gotten to the start point alive. Back to the Port Captain’s office with the Immigration stamps and signatures and there the final documents were drawn up allowing me in fact to sail to La Paz, though I didn’t specify any intermediate ports. I left the trailer and boat parked outside the Port Captain’s office (they offered to keep an eye on her) and went shopping for provisions. Found a small supermarket, bought the necessities, beer, rum, water and food. Hauled the whole load back to the boat and began straightening up and loading it all. With the boat pretty well stuffed everywhere I still had 5 more gallons of water sitting in a large jug in the back of the truck (that would have brought the total to 14 gallons, about twice what I figured to really need). Eventually it sat in the back of the truck and leaked slowly away while I was gone. Oh well.
In the early evening I walked around Loreto. . .the original capital of California, over 300 years old, with a beautiful old church and civic offices, a small but pleasant square with a statue of Benito Juarez. The place is clearly oriented toward gringo tourists these days, at least near the downtown and though busy, it’s clearly a bit down at the heels and could use a little more traffic. I found delicious tacos. . .the meat sizzled over mesquite coals out by the sidewalk. . .almost dragged me into the restaurant by the nose. The panga harbor is full of blue and white pangas. . .some rigged for hauling tourists and divers, some for fishing. . .all with big motors. They mostly all come from the same factory, two different lengths, 23 and 26 feet, high bows, high speed sterns except for a very few examples of the older boats. . .which had pretty rising lines aft, rather like a Whitehall or maybe a whaleboat with a bit of a transom. . .The harbor is made of stone marking out a square basin with the opening to the South. The boats all tie stern offshore, bow to the rocks with a line fore and aft (to an anchor offshore). Unfortunately, admiring the boats I stumbled on the signboard for the Parque Nacional de la Bahia de Loreto and learned (in English as well as Spanish) that I had to have daily use permits to visit all the islands on my route and that the office for the Parque (visible in the building next to the boat launch ramp) wouldn’t open til 0900 in the morning. Oh well.
Restless, I walked through the evening around the neighborhoods nearby. It seemed every third or fourth house was a “dulceria” (sweet shop) of some sort. . .people sipping sodas in front of a TV on the porch, nibbling sweets and chatting. On one corner a fruit stand (“fruteria”) offered beautiful cheap fruits. With the boat already loaded I had to restrain myself but still carried off a goodly bag of more fresh stuff and one packet of dried fruits that had peaches, pears, dates, prunes (hard and with the pit still in) and figs that clearly were grown and dried in heaven. Such figs I’d never tasted before. H’mm. A bright eyed 8 year old chased me down the street demanding to know my name. I told him “Ken” and he insisted I was Santa Claus. . .the bushy grey beard at work again.
Finally to bed in the boat. No one disturbed my sleep til the cocks began crowing in the early morning. I started the day at the panga harbor to be sure the Parque staff hadn’t accidentally turned up early. . .then walked into town and had a really nice breakfast of scrambled eggs with tomatoes, onions, cilantro and salsa with beans and a huge stack of tortillas, for about $2.50. . .in a plywood shack sort of restaurant-cum-house. . .called Restaurant Adelita. The family was fun. . .gramma I suppose is about my age, her daughter in her early 30’s, with her husband and 4 kids. . .three daughters, maybe 9, 7 and 5 and the spoiled baby brother, a husky 2 year old. I sat down at the table the 9 year old had just vacated, still littered with home work scraps, sunflower seed hulls and breakfast crumbs. Gramma was mortified and hurried to scrub the old table top til it sparkled. Homework packed in backpack, braids done up, uniform skirt ironed (on the table in the kitchen) and friends waiting on the sidewalk (on new 10 speed bikes), the oldest got away to school. Baby brother dominated the conversation for the rest of the morning. . .and kept the two remaining sisters busy dragging him back from the brink of whatever he could find to get into.
Finally, returned to the harbor, found the Parque Staff not where I thought they should be, so went over to the Port Captain’s office and asked to use the hose to rinse off the poor filthy boat. Ended up with the Port Captain’s general assistant fetching a bucket of sudsy water, some rags and the hose and helping wash it all down! With the boat clean it was back to the harbor and the Parque office and finally made connections. I’d been looking in the wrong office. Sigh. What looks like the office is really the interpretive center, but no one was manning it that early in the morning. . .the business office is off to one side and I’d missed it entirely. Oh well. I bought 5 days worth of tickets. . .little squares of cardboard properly imprinted, but NOT DATED. I don’t know for sure but suppose you’re required to hand one over to a warden each time he asks for one. I never saw a warden so. . .anyway, they cost $25 pesos each, good for one person for one day. I still have all 5.
I’d briefly considered launching in Loreto (and may well do it some day) but here are the objections. 1. The ramp is fairly rough and doesn’t extend very far. . .it is concrete but the fill under it has settled some and there are a couple of gaps big enough to lose a trailer tire in. . .could have been overcome. 2. There’s no good place to tie up in the harbor while you finish rigging, park the truck and so forth with the possible exception of the Port Captain’s float. . .which he’d probably let you use. 3. The parking is very well lit but not fenced or otherwise secured. I’d worry at least a little leaving the truck and trailer there for 2 weeks. People would have to notice that it was not being watched. On the other hand, I certainly felt comfortable and secure in Loreto. Perhaps it would have been all right. Other arrangements could probably be made near by that would be very secure. Launching in Loreto would put Puerto Balandra on Isla Carmen (about 10 miles East) readily accessible as the first port of call and would give you a choice of two good interesting routes South. . .either North around the top of Carmen and down its East side or directly down the West side, which is certainly beautiful from a distance, to Isla Danzante. That’s a very appealing prospect. However, this trip I launched at Puerto Escondido.
My plan for the voyage was based on an assumption that the weather would follow the “normal” pattern for the area and season, which is to say, frequent or daily morning calms, followed by a NW breeze by about 10:00 building to about 20 knots in the afternoon, dying away in the evening. Since the coast of the peninsula trends pretty much to the South of Southeast, that’s a really fine way to go from Loreto in the North to La Paz 130 miles to the Southsoutheast. The caveat is that now and again you get a true North wind that settles in and blows from hard to darned hard for several days, making the long channels and open stretches mighty rough by the second day and probably dangerous for small boats thereafter. Hence the plan to sail a one way trip from North to South and return by bus to pick up the trailer and truck after parking the boat in La Paz. In general that seemed to be well advised. The concerns all center around proper anchorages to avoid the probable and likely winds and swell. Since the Gulf is almost a thousand miles long the potential for really good sized chop and moderate swell is pretty good, though the islands do a lot to break up the really long fetches. For many miles the coast drops sheer from mountaintops to deep water, offering no anchorages at all. Some potential anchorages offer shelter from NW weather but would leave you exposed to true Northerly weather, much the more dangerous of the two. Finally, any anchorage on the West side of one of the islands will probably leave you exposed to a Westerly blow, and I did see two of those, though neither severe enough to cause me serious problem where I lay. The suitable anchorages are actually fairly limited.
Loreto, inside the boat harbor is quite secure, but it would be very imprudent to try anchoring even if they’d let you. The bottom must be completely carpeted with the stern anchors from the pangas and their lines. Puerto Balandra on Isla Carmen appears to be an excellent harbor, Escondido is superb for any wind or swell (the best hurricane hole on the coast I’m told). Agua Verde is another excellent harbor. Puerto Gato is good for a NW or N wind if you tuck right up in the corner, where there’s room for maybe 2 or 3 boats and Timbabichi, just a ways farther South is similarly protected. Nopolo offers shelter from Northwest, but is pretty open to the North (the locals all haul their boats up on the sand). San Evaristo another few miles South is an excellent harbor with protection from almost any wind, then you come to the large Bay of La Paz. There is not much showing on the chart that looks like good shelter along the Baja coast, but the offshore islands offer some good shelter. Isla San Francisco has three good anchorages, one, the “Hook” is a magnificent almost fully enclosed bay with a good sand bottom. From there is a 17 mile open water crossing to Isla Partida, which has at least 3 good anchorages, one the very popular cove formed where Partida almost joins Isla Espiritu Santo, Partida Cove. There are a number of nice bays along Espiritu Santo’s Western shore, most of which will give good protection from N or NW wind, but are all wide open to West or South. . .and I got some fairly good W’ly breeze the one night I slept there. Oh well. There’s one good harbor for N or NW wind as you approach the Baja coast across from Espiritu Santo, Estero Balandra and another quite close to La Paz itself at Pichilinque (where there’s also a boat launch ramp). Finally you come to La Paz, which is really quite open to a lot of wind, though the sand banks and shallows keep the big dangerous swell away. The marinas are fairly to very well protected behind their breakwaters.