Why the Sea of Cortez?

Uncrowded Beauty

Imagine yourself leading family and friends on a week-long charter on a new Lagoon 450 catamaran.  You can do this because you’ve achieved your Bareboat Charter Master Certification and Catamaran Endorsement, having gotten your training in these same waters with Santana Sailing.  Now, this boat is yours for the week.

The air is warm as you depart the marina, and your guests share a bit of excitement with you as a Manta Ray leaps out of the water with great flapping wings.  Your guests don’t know the area but have heard about it, and you feel confident in the training you’ve received.

Photo: Wes Smith

Good Sailing

It’s the Sea of Cortez.  You could sail anywhere in the world, but you’ve come to this place.  With warm water, uncrowded anchorages and abundant sea life, The Sea has attracted luminaries like Scuba Pioneer Jacques Cousteau, author John Steinbeck, and legendary cruisers Lin and Larry Pardey, all of whom spent significant time in and on these waters.

The Sea of Cortez is one of the most stunning cruising grounds in North America

Photo: Wes Smith

Different and Fresh

The Sea of Cortez is a completely different and fresh experience from the Caribbean or Mediterranean.    No crowds, no boat boys, few tourists, no race to the next mooring field – just stunning scenery, a good sailing breeze, and a chance for solitude. 

Photo: Wes Smith

World Class Instruction

You can also get your International Sailing License (SLC) and/or Bareboat Charter Master training and assessment completed during the week with Santana Sailing.  And, it is very easy to get there – a 2h 30m  flight will bring you from LAX to Cabo. 

Read this blog I wrote, published by NauticEd for additional details:  Cruise The Sea of Cortez

Jaw Dropping Sunsets and Sunrises

Frequently the sunsets are so amazing that the conversation just stops. And when you wake up to the sound of bare feet pattering on deck with hushed oohs and ahhhs, get out of bed and grab your camera.

Contact us to learn more about Instructional Cruises and Slow Cruises on The Sea. Scroll down for a gallery of un-retouched sunsets and sunrises.

Sat Comm & Weather Made Easier

Hi Sailors,

Happy New Year!  In this newsletter I have a gift for you:  2 FREE sailing courses from NauticEd (Click Here). 

I also have a story from my Sea of Cortez trip in December, and it's in keeping with the third part of our theme for sailing adventures this year:  SAIL, EXPLORE, GROW.  We had to grow with a new and potentially hazardous situation, and you should know about the DeLorme inReach satellite communication system we used to handle it.  We also got reliable weather forecasts without single side band, VHF radio, cellular signal or WiFi, and that's pretty darned useful.

Disclaimer:  I’m not being compensated in any way for writing what you’re about to read; you should know it about it though.  You’re going to want this system wherever you sail and cruise, even off the Southern California coast.   At Catalina and the Northern Channel Islands, you'll find that often when you are anchored out in a nice cove, there is either spotty or no cellular signal, and definitely no WiFi.

Easy & Cheap Satellite Communication & Weather – the DeLorme inReach (now Garmin)
I bought my inReach SE in 2015 when I started doing week-long instructional trips on the Sea of Cortez.  I had WiFi at the marina in La Paz, but that ended as soon as we pulled away from the dock, and cellular coverage ended within about 7 NM.  I wanted to be able to keep in touch with important people, and I wanted to have a backup rescue service available in the event our VHF radio quit working, or in case we just couldn't reach anyone in this remote area.  

The inReach gave me that functionality and peace of mind, and weather forecasts too.  On this last trip I just did not expect how useful, and how important it might be. 

My weathered inReach SE

Weather
I just recently started using the weather forecast function, and it was unexpectedly useful for us.  We were anchored at Ensenada Grande, on Isla Espiritu Santo, and I wanted to take the crew out to snorkel on the point in the morning.  The weather was changing though, and we wanted to know if it was going to be too windy.  The forecast was for winds around 6 knots at 9 AM, so it looked good for snorkeling.  Turns out we got a late start for the snorkeling, and the wind came up after 10 AM, but it was an accurate forecast.  We would have made entirely different plans if we had gotten a forecast for strong conditions.

Screenshot from the inReach web page for 12/16/17. In the image above, you can see our track and where we anchored. I added the labels for the anchorage and the point we were going to snorkel using Adobe Illustrator.

The really cool and useful thing is that the forecast we received was for our actual location – the GPS coordinates where we were anchored.  We were a good 25+ NM from La Paz, and we'd have to see if we could tune to the cruisers' net the next day to get the regional forecast.  When you can get the local forecast on the inReach on demand, you realize just how handy that is.

A sample of the free forecast as it appears on the iPhone thru the Bluetooth link. Shown is the 3 PM forecast for "Tomorrow." A more detailed forecast is available for a premium.

Note to weather gurus:  I know you can't see the longer term trends with this forecast, and there certainly are limitations, but it's nice to be able to see accurate local predictions of wind strength and direction.  I asked Garmin tech support where the weather data comes from, and they replied via emai, "Land forecasts are Powered by Dark Sky, a leading provider of weather data around the globe. Marine forecasts are based on OCENS premium marine weather data.

A Potential Medical Emergency
This situation is what the inReach is really for.  One of our crew was walking in shallow water, pulling the dinghy along toward the beach, and was stung by a stingray.  When she got back to the catamaran she was shaky, in pain, and in shock.  Beyond first aid for the wound and treating for shock, I needed help with treating for the venom and clearly recognizing specific signs of an allergic reaction.   

We had no cell coverage, and I was skeptical we'd be able to reach help via VHF radio while tucked deeply back in the cove.  I got on the inReach and texted my wife Chrissie back in California, asking her to research it on the web and to contact the doctor we knew in La Paz for advice.  That is the important part:  the ability to communicate clearly and quickly in an urgent situation (Pan Pan), can really make a difference.  Even more so if it were a sinking, or a life and death situation (May Day).

IMG_6223 small.jpg

This is a screenshot of part of the actual conversation.  I was able to ask Chrissie to look up treatment for stingray stings, and the indications of an allergic reaction.

One of the things we learned through this process was that hot water helped to neutralize the venom.  We wouldn't have known otherwise.

We headed back for La Paz at max rpm under power, with a reefed main for the strengthening wind conditions.  While underway we were able to communicate with the doctor.  Once we had cellular coverage, our injured crew’s husband was able to call the doctor to confirm arrangements. 

When we landed at the marina, we got help from a local cruising couple, and they were off in a car to meet the doctor at the hospital. 

After 7 stitches and a professional medical evaluation, our crew and her family had confidence that all would be well.

That was a really good outcome.  I don’t have any promotional product links for you, but I’m sure you can find the inReach on the web.  I use the tracking function on every trip so that I can let important people see where we are at any time of day.  On my next Sea of Cortez trip in March 2018, this will come in handy so that people who are meeting us in Loreto can see our progress from La Paz, and even ping me for questions.

And now, take a look at what we have coming up!!!

  • Grenada trip, April 21-28, on the Lagoon 440 catamaran, Almost There. This is a guided sail training adventure, where you can step up your game. It'll be an amazing experience. Sail. Explore. Grow.

  • Maneuvering Under Power – On the Water. Stay tuned for the announcement of our upcoming Maneuvering Under Power course, on the water in Newport Beach. This is the practical training component to the NauticEd online course.

  • 2 FREE Sailing Courses from NauticEd. Check in to these online courses and you’ll begin to see how online training combined with on the water skill practice works in the sailing world.

Best wishes for the New Year! 

Marc Hughston
Santana Sailing

Sizing Up a New Anchorage

Hi Sailors,

EXPLORING is our theme, and one of the essential skills for exploring new areas is figuring out how to anchor for the night in the cove you want.  We had to figure out a few new anchorages on our November Sea of Cortez trip, and I was so glad that I knew without a doubt, just what I needed to do. 

Puerto Los Gatos
At the end of our third day of sailing on the Sea of Cortez, we found ourselves in a new cove, Puerto Los Gatos, enjoying a sundowner and reflecting on just how beautiful this isolated anchorage was.  Of course, there was a catamaran anchored in the prime spot when we first arrived, and I didn’t think we had enough room to fit in. 

By using the three S’s though, we were able to anchor securely and enjoy snorkeling that afternoon, exploring ashore, and dinner under the stars.  I thought, there are probably a lot of sailors out there who would really love to understand and own this process of sizing up a new anchorage so they could do this same sort of thing – here on the Sea of Cortez, the Caribbean, or anywhere in the world.  Here’s what we did.

Survey
The first S is to Survey the anchorage.  You’ve read the guidebook and have a good sense of where the hazards lie, but you have to see how that other boat is anchored, and exactly where the rocks and the shallows are.  This is a motor through the cove with your eyes on the depth sounder and open for changes in the water color.  A person on deck spotting for you may be necessary.

We found three crucial bits of information on our survey that made the difference.  First, the open area to the south was no good because the wind waves were marching right in and crashing on the beach.  It would be far too rough in that spot.  Second, between the catamaran and the beach it would be too shallow and there wasn’t enough room to swing.  Third, we found a spot with 12 feet of depth ahead and to windward of the catamaran, and that could give us just the room we needed.

Scope
The second S is Scope, or the ratio of anchor rode length to effective water depth.  I use 5:1 scope for moderate conditions, and so here is the question I had to answer:  If I had 12 feet of depth, and added 5 more feet for the height of the bow roller, and had no more increase in the height of tide, how much anchor rode would I deploy?  12+5+0 = 17, and 17 x 5 = 85 feet of anchor rode.  Ok, could we live in that spot, swinging with an 85 foot radius?  The answer was yes.

Setting The Anchor
The real test comes when you consider the third S, Setting the anchor.  After deploying the anchor in the desired spot, we backed down on it with 1700 RPM, and set it firmly.  I got out my snorkeling gear and dove on the anchor just to be sure.  It was buried in the sand. 

Thought Starter
Here’s an island we’ll be visiting on our upcoming Grenadines trips – Petit St. Vincent.  Imagine you are skipper for the day, leading the exercise to anchor nearby and dinghy in to the beach bar (there are no moorings here).  You’ll have back up coaching from me and the first mate…

  • What concerns do you have based on this picture?

  • Where’s a likely spot to anchor, and how do you make the final decision?

  • What do you have to do, absolutely, positively, before you dinghy in to the beach bar?

Give your answer in the comments below!

Sizing up a new anchorage and setting the hook is just one of the practices you’ll work on mastering when you join us on our upcoming sail-training adventures - follow this link to learn more.  It’s a week of sailing, learning to explore new cruising grounds, and working on the skills you want to master. 

Coming up next with the GROW theme – heading out in a Small Craft Advisory.

See you on the water,

Marc Hughston
Santana Sailing