Ensenada de Los Muertos to Matanchen Bay – Crossing the Gulf of California

April 16, 2022

Ensenada de Los Muertos to Matanchen Bay – Crossing the Gulf of California

One note on the use of “Gulf of California” vs “Sea of Cortez.” We will most often refer to the body of water separating the Mexican mainland and the Baja peninsula as the Gulf of California. Hernan Cortes was a Spanish conquistador who brought much of the mainland Mexican territory under Spain’s rule. He is thought to be responsible, at least partly, for the fall of the Aztec empire and for introducing Christianity to the indigenous people. In an effort to be sensitive to the independence of Mexico and their general distaste for Hernan Cortes, we try to show respect for the Mexican people by referring to it as the Gulf of California. However, most sailors and North Americans still refer to it as the Sea of Cortez.

After looking at the weather forecast, we decided that the best weather window for our Gulf (Sea of Cortez) crossing required us to leave Ensenada de Los Muertos on the afternoon of December 27, 2021. We set out of Los Muertos at ~15:30 under engine. The seas were glass and the wind not present for the beginning of our crossing! Finally at about 21:00, the winds filled in and the engine went off…..ahhhh, peace and quiet except for the soft sound of Infinite Grace slicing through the water as gracefully as a ballerina flowing across a stage. The winds kept shifting in a favorable direction ever so slightly as we made our way southeast toward Mazatlan. The wind died at ~04:00 on 12/28/2021 so on came the engine. We only had to run the engine until about 09:00 when the winds filled back in and we sailed until 04:15 on the 29^th. We always use radar at night because not all boats, especially fishing boats, are equipped with AIS. At about 4am on the 29^th, we saw what appeared to be several fishing vessels in front of us. Since we were under power we were able to adjust course to avoid the vessels. As we got closer, we realized that the radar was not displaying vessels but rain squalls that were moving through the area. This was exciting for us as this was the first time we had seen squalls on radar! We motored for 3 hours then sailed the rest of the way into Old Port in Mazatlan. We anchored in Old Port at about 15:00 on the 29^th. We found Old Port to be generally dirty with LOTS of trash in the water from the entrance to the anchorage, loud with party boats throughout the anchorage, and lots of wake from said party boats and cruise ships entering and leaving the commercial port. The saddest part for us was all of the trash in the water; there was a lot of plastic (thanks very little Coca Cola) and Styrofoam. As many of you know, these items do NOT biodegrade so they will be around forever. We decided that this anchorage wasn’t for us so we called around and secured a slip at the El Cid Marina near the hotel district of Mazatlan.

Sunrise over Gulf of California

Ferry from La Paz headed to Mazatlan

Stone Island as seen from Old Port Anchorage

We pulled into El Cid at about 07:45 on 12/30/2021. The entrance to the marina is very narrow with shoals on both sides. There is also a lot of tour boat activity in and out of the area making for an exciting entry. At that time of morning, we encountered a very strong ebb tide with tight slip tie-ups. It was not our prettiest tie-up but we had lots of help and even more spectators trying to figure out how we were going to get into a slip that literally had 1 fender width between us, the dock, and our neighbor! One woman later commented to us that Jeff did such a great job handling the boat in those challenging conditions that she was “sure [we] had a bow thruster” (no, we do not!). Once in the slip, we feared we might never get out!! As low tide neared, we could feel IG bumping her bottom. Our draft (the distance from waterline to the bottom of the keel) is 6.5feet and clearly the slip depth was less than that. For the next 5 days, we would babysit IG and adjust mooring lines as we approached low tide and she settled her keel into the soft mud. We would then tighten the lines as the tide came up. Needless to say, this made our time in the marina anxiety-provoking. We did make a trip into Old Town and went to the cathedral, stumbled into a quaint bookstore, and walked down to watch the cliff divers. Afterwards we walked along the Malecon where we saw even more plastics on the shoreline. We spent a quiet New Year’s Eve on the boat, waking up to fireworks at midnight, sleepily rolling over to wish each other “Happy New Year”, sealing it with a kiss, and quickly falling back to sleep! We did not generally find Mazatlan to be “our kind” of town so we were jazzed to be throwing off the docklines on 1/5/2022 at 09:30. At 13:30, we sailed under a full main and genoa towards Isla Isabela.

Entrance to El Cid

One fender between us and our neighbor!

Catedral Basilica de la Inmaculada Concepcion

Street Mural in Old Town

Malecon Art in Mazatlan

Walking the Malecon - Hotel District in background

Boat projects while waiting for the water to rise - note the water line

We arrived in Isla Isabela on 1/6/2022 and set the anchor at 08:30. Jacques Cousteau filmed a documentary about Isabela and the Cousteau Society was instrumental in helping to get Isabela designated as a national park. Watch the documentary here. Our overnight sail included a little excitement when we received a May Day call from a vessel that was more than 200 miles north of us in Altata. After transmitting the only phone numbers we had for the Port Captain in Altata, the vessel captain told us that the numbers were not working. We were not within cell service range so we fired up our satellite phone and tried the numbers ourselves. Sure enough, they were “no longer in use.” So we called our daughter in Oregon who looked up the number for the US Coast Guard in San Diego. We contacted the USCG and relayed all the information we could. Apparently, the vessel was stuck on a shoal in the entrance to Altata, a notoriously sketchy entrance even during the day with migrating shoals. We’re not sure of the outcome of the vessel but hopefully the captain was able to get off the boat.

We had hoped to stay at Isla Isabela for a couple of nights and go ashore to explore. The island is home to a large frigate and boobie (blue- and brown-footed types) breeding ground. We also had wanted to do some snorkeling. However, we were a little uneasy about the anchorage. So after a good night’s sleep and waking to humpback songs and blows, we decided to weigh anchor and head for Matanchen Bay near San Blas. On our way, we saw a whale shark. They are spectacular animals. This one was just a little smaller than our boat and moved gracefully through the water. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to swim with these guys up in the Gulf when we head there in the spring. We also caught our second fish, a Crevalle Jack. Unbeknownst to us at the time, these guys put up a good fight but are terrible to eat. Lesson learned! We had a beautiful sail under full main and genoa for several hours then we sailed under full main and spinnaker. We dropped the anchor at about 17:00 on 1/7/2022 in Matanchen Bay with 3 other boats.