Weather resources for British Coumbia: post updated

The 2016 post providing information for marine- and land-based weather resources for British Columbia, with an emphasis on getting text-based band-limited forecasts, has been updated (broken/changed links fixed.)

See:
https://sailing-pelagia.blogspot.ca/2016/05/marine-weather-forecasts-for-british.html

UPDATE: Change (temporary) in Geary's SONRISA NET Mexico weather forecasts from the web and via saildocs

APRIL 10, 2016 UPDATE: It appears that Sonrisa Net weather website is now up and running correctly and obtaining Geary's forecasts via Saildocs now working fine.

Ignore updates etc below....

HOWEVER check out Pelagia's info re Mexico cruising weather (& charts, cruising guides, etc), go to this post:
 





APRIL 7th UPDATE:
It appears that the Sonrisa Net weather website is now being updated,  except for the "Daily Summary" (still shows February 18th summary) which is updated on Geary's "Blog" on Weather Underground.

Unfortunately,  it does not appear that requests ("queries") to SAILDOCS for Geary's forecasts are working properly (see below for workaround to get forecast via Saildocs) .



Important Update March, 2016:
Geary's SONRISA NET weather website and associated Saildocs files for the Pacific coast of Mexico (especially Baja and the Sea of Cortez) have not been updating over the past month.

HOWEVER: He still does his daily forecast over HAM radio on the Sonrisa Net AND publishes an up-to-date forecast on his blog on the Weather Underground website:

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/Geary/show.html

To get a copy of Geary's latest forecast from SAILDOCS, send the following to SAILDOCS (replace the date: the example is for March 18, 2016):

send http://www.wunderground.com/blog/Geary/gearys-sea-of-cortez-weather-for-031816

NOTE: Saildocs will send a copy of the html file as a text file. This message will be unreadable until is saved as a .html file, and then read by your web browser.




The July 2014 post regarding Mexico weather info has been updated:
http://sailing-pelagia.blogspot.ca/2014/07/information-for-cruising-mexico-charts.html

Boat gear Part I: What worked for us in Mexico.

Solar panels!

Part I: New additions that we found to be essential

UNDER CONSTRUCTION:
As boaters prepare their boats to cruise to/in Mexico, we felt we should highlight a few additions we made to Pelagia that we found particularly helpful and, indeed, essential. (This list does not consider gear already/normally on Pelagia, such as the sails, engine, autopilot, chartplotter, radar, etc.)

Readers might also be interested in our other blog posts concerning Mexican charts, weather and communications:

http://sailing-pelagia.blogspot.ca/2014/07/information-for-cruising-mexico-charts.html

http://sailing-pelagia.blogspot.ca/2015/05/mexico-nautical-charts-c-map-and.html

Listed below are some items we feel were "essential" to our successful, safe, and (mostly) comfortable cruising to/in Mexico. The list is not complete (see also future blog posts considering "Less useful" and "nice to have but not essential" items). These lists reflect our personal views -- others might not agree.



"Detailed" notes can be found at the bottom of this post.

4 solar panels over bimini

Solar panels/charge controller:

We added four 90W panels to the top of our bimini (and a Morningstar Pro-Star 30-amp PWN solar charge controller [1] installed in a cockpit locker) only a week or so before leaving. This addition changed our cruising life (while at anchor or sailing) -- effectively removing all worries about our battery charging while in Mexico [2].  With so much sun in Mexico, it was common for this system to provide 13-16 amps/hr charging in the midday, and 5-6 amps/hr on cloudier days [3]. We had little worry even with our air-cooled Nova-Kool refrigerator running 24 hrs/day.












Marine SSB/HAM radio with Pactor 4 modem, airmail software, and Sailmail membership:  

This system [4] was critical to us for obtaining marine weather information in Mexico, as well as the Neah Bay-to-San Francisco offshore section [5].  

We wrote about weather forecasting in a previous post. There is no official marine weather forecasting (that we could find) in Pacific Mexico; no forecasts are available the VHF radio [6].  The only forecasts available, all unofficial or experimental, must be obtained in one or more of the following ways: (i) downloaded from the internet, or (ii) audio (i.e., listened to) on Marine SSB/HAM radio [7].  

Audio forecasts are primarily: (i) Geary's excellent (but, nevertheless, amateur) daily forecast delivered on the SONRISA HAM SSB Net each morning, and (ii) Stan's computer-generated (no human input) forecasts read out on the AMIGO Marine SSB net each morning. (These forecasts, plus extra information, are easily downloaded from the internet or by using low-bandwidth email such as SSB/HAM-based or Satellite Phone-based airmail/sailmail and SailDocs.)  

Not to be underestimated, additional real-time on-the-spot weather information is obtained by listening to boaters when they check-in on the SONRISA and AMIGO nets; moreover, individuals may, and often do, request "weather fills" (additional details for specific areas) from Geary; this audio information is not available on the internet or by using a satellite phone.  

Forecasts on the Internet: in addition to Geary's and Stan's forecasts, experimental NOAA forecasts, and other forecasts are available as text files (most easily using Saildocs). GRIB files are also easily available to download (these files are computer-generated "forecasts" in graphic form which have no human input and thus do not take multiple factors into account such as local conditions, topography etc). While at sea or at anchor (and away from broadband or cell-phone based internet), these files can be downloaded using a satellite phone with a data plan or, as we did, using our Marine SSB, Pactor modem, and Airmail software (and Sailmail membership)[8].  Another great feature of  Marine and HAM SSB radios is the ability to talk to other boaters located up-and-down the coast (or on a passage), and to learn the locations of others, often friends, by listening to the SONRISA and AMIGO nets, or other nets such as the Pacific Seafarer's Net (difficult or not possible using a satellite phone).[9]

Shawn & Heather's (Blue Latitude Press) Guidebooks and Waypoints:  

As we noted in our earlier post, the Blue Latitude Press guidebooks are excellent and essential [Sea of Cortez: A Cruiser's Guidebook. 3rd Ed.; Pacific Mexico: A Cruiser's Guidebook]. 

Additionally, we downloaded digital/electronic versions of all their waypoints [10] so that they could be easily transferred to our Furuno chartplotter as well as to a computer-based charting program (OpenCPN) [11]. The guidebooks provide large-scale detailed chartlets [12], with the locations of these waypoints accurately indicated. (These chartlets are also available as electronic charts -- see Note #12.) Given the lack of  accurate and detailed marine charts for most areas of the Mexican coast, Shawn and Heather's accurate waypoints gave us confidence in navigating closer to shore and when anchoring. Download the waypoints, and don't leave San Diego without purchasing these excellent guidebooks [13].



(Bulk) Water Treatment System:  

Before coming to Mexico, have a method to treat water obtained from marina and fuel dock taps. We recommend obtaining a Filter/UV Sterilization system.

Most cruisers reading this heading will immediately think "watermaker", but this is not what we are referring
to. Due to pollution (especially the slightest bit of gas, diesel, or oil), watermakers are rarely useful in marinas, as well as in some crowded anchorages where there may be poor water circulation and/or pollution (e.g., Barra de Navidad lagoon).

We stayed in marinas a lot (especially Marina Palmira, La Paz). A watermaker, if we had one (we don't), would be useless here [14]. Many cruisers purchase water for their tanks; at about C$2.50-$3.00 per 19-litre garrafone arranged through a marina (a little less if you do not need to tip staff from the water company, or deal directly with agua purificada store), filling our tanks (~460 litres or 24 bottles) can really add up (C$60/fill!). Additionally, lugging these large heavy bottles to the boat and the subsequent pouring into the tank fills are a pain. Finally, in many places it can be difficult to find more than a few bottles at a time. We usually used dock water, filtering and chemically treating the water.

Rather than purchasing water in bottles, some cruisers treat the water at their dock taps using combinations of filters, UV sterilization, and/or chemical treatment.  Waterfixer makes Filter/UV sterilization systems (available directly from manufacturer, or through Downwind Marine in San Diego). Tom at La Paz Cruiser's Supply also sells a filter/UV Sterilization system. One hooks the water hose up to the filter/UV system, applies power (12v or 110v, depending on version purchased), run it a bit to clear filters, then take its output to the boat's water tank(s). The system is portable and can be temporarily hung on the lifelines while filling.

In our case, we first filtered the dock water as we put it into our tanks, then chemically treated each tank (using a solution similar to Microdyn, but a much less expensive Soriana/City club store brand). This system worked well for us [15]. A better system, however, is a combination filter/UV sterilization system, such as noted above.




Fans to cool you off in hot weather:

It gets really hot on the boat in Mexico!  Short of an air conditioner (which we certainly did not have), the primary way of cooling off inside was by using fans (in addition to open hatches and windscoops). Before leaving Vancouver, we installed two fans in the V-berth, two fans in the main salon, and one fan in the galley. All of these fans were Caframo "Bora" 3-speed fans, which were fairly powerful (for their size), (relatively) quiet, and very easy on the batteries.

Be sure to bring multiple spares of your fans: when we returned to Mexico after leaving Pelagia in Mazatlan for the Summer, we found the 3-speed switches on two fans were stuck in one position (rather suspiciously, the two broken fans were next to windows that had been replaced over the Summer -- we believe their problems stemmed from damage occurring when the windows were removed and/or replaced). Fortunately, we had one spare Bora, plus a used spare Hella 2-speed "Turbo" fan to replace the damaged Boras. The Hella Turbo is noisier than the Caframo Bora, and has no protective grid at its back, making it awkward to adjust the fan when it is running. We prefer the Boras.



Bug screens for windows/hatches and companionway:

Whether it is the pesky little mosquitoes whose "bite" carries a real itchy punch (and, possibly, Dengue fever), nasty "jejenes" ("hey-hey-nes", no-seeums) which are tiny and give a rash of itchy sores, or bees searching for fresh water, you need a good bug screen setup for your boat.

Our new Lewmar portlights came with somewhat flimsy but effective bug screens; for the hatches and the companionway, we purchased "Sogeman Bugbuster" screens, which worked very well. These are available direct from Sogeman, as well from many online marine businesses in Canada and the USA.

A real downside to bug screens is that they really cut down on air flow -- a real problem when the temperatures heat up!



Other essential items (we already had on Pelagia)
(i.e, not installed specifically for Mexico)

• 25-kg ROCNA anchor and 300' all-chain rode, with Lewmar V2 windlass [16]
• Furuno 1724C Radar/Chartplotter (with annually-updated C-Map card)
• Wagner S50 Autopilot. Old technology (not computer compatible...), but a workhorse that always kept true 
• OpenCPN PC-based charting system with official USA and Canada RASTER charts, CM93 worldwide VECTOR charts, and GE2KAP/Google Earth software (for preparing GPS-accurate Google Earth "charts")
• Nova Kool LT201-RT6 air-cooled refrigerator in ice box with 3-inch insulation [17] Kept items cold; froze meats and kept them frozen; and made ice (using only the RT6 ice box as a freezer). As noted above, our solar charging system had no problem keeping up (and surpassing) the energy demands of this 2.2 amp/hr Nova Kool system.

Detailed notes:

Solar panels/charge controller:
[1] We had planned to obtain a MPPT controller. However, the solar power specialist from whom we purchased the panels and controller strongly recommended a PWN over the MPPT controllers. When we objected ("but online blogs and 'experts' say we must get a MPPT controller...!"), he went so far as to telephone a Morningstar representative, who also agreed with his advice: we would be paying extra money for a MPPT controller but receive no benefit due to the small size of our solar array. For those concerned with electrical noise from the PWN controller during SSB/HAM radio use, we found such noise was only an issue when the PWN controller went into Stage 3 charging; it was simple to turn off the controller when required.
[2] The only time we had concerns with charging and battery levels was on the 3rd day of our Ensenada-to-Turtle Bay passage; all three days (and 2 nights) were cloudy and the combination of sailing, lower panel output, and (too much) use of the autopilot resulted in lower battery levels. Our first day in Turtle Bay, it rained solid for most of the day. This was the one and only time we felt we needed to use our Honda generator.  
[3] Back home in British Columbia, we still seem to be getting 12-15 amps/hr charging late morning until early afternoon on sunny days, and 4-8 amps/hr at other times (and 4-8 amps/hr on days with high clouds).

Marine SSB/HAM radio with Pactor 4 modem, airmail software, and Sailmail membership:
[4] Our Marine/Ham SSB radio is the ICOM M802. This radio can be set to receive/transmit on all Marine and Amateur Radio (HAM) frequencies in the "high frequency" range (i.e., up to 30 MHz), and works very well for us. (However, there are other HAM radios with fewer "bells and whistles" (which we also did not use) available at a lower price.) Rather than the more-complicated ground-plane installation, we used the "KISS Ground Plane" (actually, a counterpoise) -- a very easy installation that worked very well for us (as well as friends on other boats), despite the "kerfuffle" sometimes associated with it.
[5] At times we were over 100 nm off the coast of Washington/Oregon/California, making reception of NOAA weather forecasts on VHF radio sometimes difficult (though, surprisingly, we were often able to receive VHF forecasts this far off the coast). However, even when we could hear forecasts on VHF, we still relied on the text forecasts downloaded using our SSB radio/Pactor modem. NOAA VHF forecasts would usually cover a small area, so it was hard to "look ahead", and equally important, the huge number of forecast regions off the West coast was very confusing, and having these forecasts downloaded and saved in text format made it easier to interpret. (We had very "difficult" weather -- gales and "hazardous seas" -- off of the Oregon/Northern California and we should have been better at evaluating the many NOAA forecasts....) 
[6] In several locations popular with cruisers (La Paz, Puerto Escondido, Mazatlan, Banderas Bay, etc), there are "cruisers' nets most mornings on VHF radio, when weather forecasts are read aloud (usually either Geary's or Stan's). These forecasts on VHF nets are not obtainable when one is farther away or when land mass intervenes. Also, in some harbours (e.g., Puerto San Carlos in Bahia Magdalena), the Port Captain reads aloud (in Spanish) a daily weather forecast on VHF radio. 
[7] Weather forecasts on Marine SSB and HAM SSB may be listened to by anyone, even those without a Marine ROC or an Amateur Radio (HAM) certificate (provided their radio can tune to these frequencies). Technically, a marine ROC ("restricted operators certificate") and station license (outside of USA/Canada) are required to transmit on marine frequencies (VHF and high-frequency marine SSB). A HAM certificate is required to transmit on HAM frequencies. However, in the case of a true emergency, HAM and Marine NETS will take calls from anyone.   
[8] Email access to HAM stations is free to HAMs using Winlink2000. Access to Marine SSB Sailmail requires a US$250/yr membership (and a marine "station license"). In Mexico, we found connections to HAM stations to be difficult, slow and often unobtainable. Sailmail stations, on the other hand, were easy to connect to and much faster than the HAM stations. (This situation continues for us in British Columbia.) 
[9] In the case of an emergency, a broadcast on marine and HAM SSB frequencies and associated NETS will be heard by boats nearby and far -- as well as by land stations --  possibly enabling faster assistance. A satellite phone cannot do this.

Shawn & Heather's (Blue Latitude Press) Guidebooks and Waypoints:
[10] One could, as many do, enter each waypoint manually. However, errors can occur doing it this way, and it is a lot work. The ease of downloading and transferring waypoints accurately makes the low cost of downloading these waypoints (US$4.95 per guidebook) an excellent investment. 
[11] We use GPSUtility to modify and transfer waypoints to our chartplotter (and other GPS systems).
[12] The detailed chartlets in the Blue Latitude Press guides are now available as GPS-accurate electronic charts for PC, Android, IPad and Mac. The charts are the same price for all platforms; however, software required to view these charts is expensive for PC and Mac, but quite reasonably priced for Android ("PathAway" charting software) and IPad ("INavX" charting software) tablets. See Blue Latitude Press and Fugawi X-Traverse websites. We only recently learned about these electronic charts, thus we did not have this while in Mexico. If we were returning to Mexico, we would definitely have these on our Android.
[13] Unfortunately, Blue Latitude Press guides do not cover the Pacific Coast of the Baja peninsula. Most of these areas do not have official large-scale detailed charts (electronic charts such as C-Map and Navionics reflect this lack of detailed charting), and the existing cruising guides, in our mind, are lacking in accurate details (especially, no GPS-accurate chartlets). In a subsequent post, we will suggest using OpenCPN charting software and GPS-accurate "charts" (Google Earth photos) produced using GE2KAP software to provide additional information for sailing down the outside of Baja (and, indeed, for anchorages elsewhere in Mexico).

(Bulk) Water Treatment System: 
[14] We do not have a watermaker. Given Pelagia's large water tanks -- and we plan to install a third water tank, replacing a 30-gallon diesel tank we removed two years ago --  and how much we stayed in marinas, we did not need one while in Mexico. Decent watermakers (e.g., Spectra) are very expensive, both in initial purchase (US$5000-$15,000), installation, and in ongoing maintenance. They require substantial energy to produce water, and usually take up a lot of space. Moreover, watermakers are easily among the most common items to fail during cruising (along with autopilots and refrigerators). So, a watermaker is still not on our "wish" list for Pelagia (although, given current drought conditions in southern BC, especially on the islands, one has to wonder...).
[15] In two seasons of cruising in Mexico, we had food/water-borne sickness only once: Giardia. We have no way of knowing where we picked this up (it takes 8-10 days for symptoms to show up, and they are not that obvious); likely it was from eating out (cruiser friends in La Paz were also hit by Giardia, at a different time, even though they only used bottled water in their tanks). Happily, Giardia is pretty easy to treat using Tinidazole (Fasigyn in Mexico) -- and we are pretty familiar with it from our many trips to Nepal. As for tank treatment: one could use chlorine (i.e., bleach) to disinfect water after filtering (the filtering is required to remove sediments and cysts/parasites such as Giardia and Cryptosporidium).  However, using chlorine to disinfect is not recommended for our aluminum water tanks.


Other items:
 [16] We never used more than 200' while in the Sea of Cortez (the remaining 100' is lower down in a 2nd chain locker below the V-berth. One never knows when one needs the extra chain (think Hurricanes...).  

[17] We purchased a new Nova Kool conversion system in 2013 -- similar to our existing and functioning  10-15-year-old Nova Kool system (that we had been told, in 2010, was on its last legs) -- stored it on Pelagia and carried it all the way to La Paz. This new system was supposed to be more efficient -- using only 2.2 amps/hour. We had Will at Techs Mex in La Paz install the new Nova Kool (the old Nova Kool was donated to a family in San Evaristo, where it was installed in conjunction with a large ice chest; with a charge of refrigerant, we are told it works great. So much for being on its "last legs".)   Other cruisers had more-expensive "fancier" systems. We were worried our comparatively simple (and less-expensive) air-cooled Nova Kool couldn't compete.  To the contrary, it worked great and gave us no problems.

Information for cruising Mexico (charts, guidebooks, weather sources & communications) – Pelagia’s experience (2014-2015)

• MARCH 2022 UPDATE: Best chartplotter package and chart source for Mexico: OpenCPN and O-CHARTS. See post.
  
• UPDATE: Sadly, Geary (SONRISA Weather forecasts) passed away in May, 2019
• UPDATE: Jan/Oct 2018: New, detailed, SEMAR chart for Bahia de La Paz and islands
• UPDATE: April 10th: Geary's SONRISA NET Weather website now working fine 
• May 2016: see our post comparing C-MAP and Navionics charts for Mexico
• March 2016: see also post concerning CM93 electronic charts. 
• UPDATE: see also our October 2015 post on sailing down the west coast of Baja and making GPS-accurate Google Earth "charts"    
• UPDATE: A post concerning official Mexican (SEMAR) nautical charts and C-MAP charts was posted on May 28, 2015

When we left Vancouver in August 2013, we had (what we thought) was a reasonable inkling of the various guidebooks, communications options and weather sources for Mexico.  After a season of cruising Mexico from Ensenada to La Paz, the southern Sea of Cortez, and Mazatlan, we now have a more critical (and detailed) view of options. It seems appropriate to share this with those cruisers planning to sail to Mexico this Fall (2014).

Note that these represent our experience and opinion – your mileage may vary.

MEXICO CHARTS  [see: https://sailing-pelagia.blogspot.com/2022/03/the-best-chart-package-for-pacific.html]

All cruisers heading to Mexico have heard about the notoriously inaccurate/incomplete nautical charts in Mexico – with some cruisers suggesting many (most?) date back to the 1800s or early 1900s. While certainly true for a disconcerting number of charts, depending upon format, many regions have charts with excellent detail. Furthermore, accurate/up-to-date official charts (paper and electronic) are available from the Secretaría de Marina Armada de México (SEMAR) (see below).

Cruisers heading down the West Coast to Mexico typically have two or more of the following chart options:

• Paper charts (most common seemed to be chartbooks based on NMA charts)

• Electronic charting for onboard chartplotter (C-Map; Navionics; Garmin)

• Electronic charting for computer for use with freely available (e.g., OpenCPN) or for-purchase (e.g., Fugawi; Nobeltec; Navsim) software using raster or vector charts. These charts may be the same as the C-Map, Navionics, etc chips, or may be the older vector CM93 charts that many cruisers trade with each other.

 
• Tablet-based charts for IPad or Android (available for relatively low cost from Jeppesen/C-MAP or Navionics)

The USA "Defense Mapping Agency (DMA)"-based chartbooks were the only paper charts covering Mexico we could find while in San Diego; so, we purchased them. They are decades out-of-date, and for most areas, show far too little detail. We did not find them useful -- don`t waste your money.

 

We had an up-to-date C-Map card for our chartplotter (and computer), and also Navionics charts for our Android tablets.

[We also had older CM93 electronic charts (used in OpenCPN) and the DMA-based chartbook – neither showed acceptable detail or accuracy for coastal cruising/gunkholing. NOTE: make sure you have the latest version of CM93 charts -- approx 2010/2011 seems the latest date for Ver 2 CM93 (Ver 3 does not work in OpenCPN). There are major improvements between pre-2007 and later.]

Both C-MAP and Navionics have major areas lacking accuracy/detail. Some cruisers suggest one is better than the other – this may be the case for some specific areas, but for Mazatlan and the Southern/Central Sea of Cortez, we did not see significant differences. (Still, at little extra cost, having the “alternate” data set on the Android tablet was comforting.)  Unfortunately, none of the above charts had acceptable accuracy for the Pacific Coast of Baja. [Update: C-MAP 2014/2015 has reasonably good coverage for Ensenada and Turtle Bay.]

Last Winter, we overheard a cruiser stating that there was no use in purchasing chart card updates (e.g., C-Map) as their Mexico data had not been updated in decades (I think he said since the 1800s). This simply is not true. Our C-Map cards show clear changes over several updates (e.g. a few years ago, the C-MAP card did not show the “new” marina at San Jose del Cabo; our new (2013) card showed it clearly and accurately), and had considerably better detail (e.g., compare DMA paper versus C-MAP charts for La Paz). A quick check of the latest C-Map update (June 2014) shows substantially increased detail for Altata (north of Mazatlan) and, importantly, San Blas (south of Mazatlan); probably other areas too. Nevertheless, there were many areas with similar detail/accuracy (i.e., little) as the terrible DMA charts. 

UPDATE: SEMAR has issued a new, detailed, chart of Bahia de La Paz (Jan/Oct, 2018). Very detailed chart of the islands north of La Paz.

UPDATE: The detailed charts in the Blue Latitude Press guides are available as GPS-accurate charts for PC, Android, IPad and Mac. The charts are the same price for all platforms; however, software required to view these charts is expensive for PC and Mac, but quite reasonably priced for Android ("PathAway") and IPad ("INavX") tablets. See Blue Latitude Press and Fugawi X-Traverse websites.

UPDATE 2015: C-Map updates show good detail for Altata, San Blas, and Loreto. Navionics charts do not show these updates [see this post]

Waypoints: The Blue Latitude Press cruising guides – the best guides (see below) – give waypoints for important routing, anchorages and dangers in the Sea of Cortez and for “mainland” Mexico from Mazatlan south. We have found these waypoints to be accurate and extremely helpful for navigation (of course, they are labelled “not for navigation”), especially when the electronic charts are lacking detail or accuracy. All of these waypoints are available for download from the BlueLatitude Press website  for a nominal (low) cost. We use the “gpx” format so that we can load these waypoints into OpenCPN (with CM93 charts) as well as transferring these to our chartplotter. (We’ve found the “GPSUtility” program to be very useful for converting/transferring between differing formats/systems.)  Unfortunately, the Blue Latitude Press guides do not cover the Pacific coast of Baja (they hope to do so in the future).  Charlie's Charts and Rain's Mexico Boating Guide provide waypoints/anchorage coordinates for the Pacific coast of Baja.

OFFICIAL MEXICO CHARTS ARE AVAILABLE: The Secretaría de Marina Armada de México (SEMAR) produces its own series of charts, and these are available directly from SEMAR in both paper and electronic (raster) form for the same price. The SEMAR website  has a full listing of these charts, indicating their coverage, scale, and date produced/revised. I have seen some of these official Mexican charts and, at least the charts I viewed, they are considerably more accurate/up-to-date than the various electronic charting cards. Unfortunately, these charts are priced individually, not as a package. At 369 Mexican pesos each (plus tax) – about C$31 for either format – a full set for Mexico would be rather pricey. Another problem is that these charts are a little complicated to obtain: one has to contact a government chart seller (for example, in Ensenada: Estacion de Investigacion Oceanografica de Ensenada, B.C.,  Boulevard Costero y Agustín Sangines (A y B), Ensenada, B.C. 22800 Tel. +52(646) 172 57 43   EMAIL: oceanografia_eda@hotmail.com digadhicar@semar.gob.mx).  We plan to purchase some specific charts when we return to Mexico in October. [Update 2015: We borrowed a friend's SEMAR charts, but did not purchase any, as we had decided to return to the Sea of Cortez.]

GUIDEBOOKS FOR PACIFIC MEXICO

Before we proceed on this topic, we have to be clear: Without a doubt, the Blue Latitude Press cruising guide series (two books) stand head and shoulders above the other guides:

Sea of Cortez: A Cruiser’s Guidebook (2009; 2^nd edition)  [UPDATE 2015: a 3rd Edition is now available]

Pacific Mexico: A Cruiser's Guidebook (2010; 1^st edition)

By Heather Bansmer and Shawn Breeding, Blue Latitude Press LLC, 

Website: http://www.bluelatitudepress.com/index.html

When we arrived in San Diego, we wanted to ensure we had the right cruising guides for the west coast of Mexico. After all, the navigation charts were "notorious" for being either/both inaccurate or lacking significant detail. We had already purchased two guidebooks – those by Heather Bansmer & Shawn Breeding (referred to above). These beautiful guides with beautiful photos are very detailed, with excellent chartlets and accurate waypoints.  However, the most recent edition was 2010, and they did not cover the west coast of the Baja peninsula. So we felt we should find other guides.We found two additional guides we hoped would fit these requirements:

Charlie’s Charts Western Coast of Mexico Including Baja California (2013; 13^th edition)   http://charliescharts.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=31

Rains’ Mexico Boating Guide (2013; 3^rd edition)  http://mexicoboating.com/books/

[There are also USA National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Sailing Directions covering the Pacific Coast of Mexico, available free to download. We had this but found them of little use.]
  

Those familiar with Charlie’s Charts, will know that these guides contain hand-drawn chartlets. The Rains’ Mexico Boating Guide contains smaller drawings/chartlets of harbours, etc. Neither book's chartlets could be considered, in our minds,  “charts". Nevertheless, we did use both going down the Pacific Coast of Baja; however, neither gave us confidence when navigating within sight of shore. 

When we rounded Cabo Falso (by Cabo San Lucas), we entered into the region covered by the Blue Latitude Press “Sea of Cortez: A Cruiser’s Guidebook”.  From thereon in, we had excellent guides with detailed chartlets. Combined with their downloadable waypoints, we felt much more comfortable navigating and gunkholing. At first (and occasionally later), we often “double-checked” information by also looking at Charlies’ Charts and Rains’ Mexico Boating Guide. However, we did not find these latter guides to be very helpful. Indeed, occasionally, their information seemed to us to be out-of-date, despite being published in 2013. By the end of our first cruising season, these latter guides were usually left on the bookshelf.

MEXICO WEATHER

When we came down the Pacific coast of Baja (November, 2013), we felt uncomfortably limited in our weather sources for  Mexico. Used to "official" frequent, detailed and accurate forecasts for Canada and the USA, we could not find similar official forecasts in Mexico. (Occasionally, we would hear a Mexican Port Captain, such as in San Carlos near Mag Bay, read off a forecast – in Spanish, of course – but they were few and far between and hard to understand.)

We learned to rely on amateur forecasters, especially Geary of the Sonrisa Net, who provide daily forecasts via HAM (or any single-side band receiver) radio as well as via the web. These forecasts are easily available via Saildocs if one has a Pactor modem and either HAM or Marine-SSB Sailmail (see below). Also, many morning VHF nets (e.g., La Paz) provide forecasts, although I was never sure of their sources.

UPDATE MAY 2019: SADLY, GEARY PASSED AWAY IN MAY.     R.I.P. Very sad.
Not sure what the best weather sources are now....
Possibly the "experimental" NOAA forecast (see below):
https://www.nhc.noaa.gov/experimental/epoffshores/data/WRKOFFPZ7

In April 2014, this situation looked like it would finally change for the better: NOAA (USA) now provides frequently updated text-based forecasts for reasonably/usefully small areas all the way down from the USA-Mexico border to Central America (and, to Ecuador, as well), including the Northern, Central and Southern Sea of Cortez. Currently, these forecasts are “experimental”, with limited or no human input -- essentially text summaries of GRIB file data;  nevertheless, they are very helpful.

[UPDATE 2015: they were scheduled to become official at the end of 2014, but this has now been delayed -- apparently indefinitely.]

NOAA Eastern Pacific Zones

Weather sources:

VERY USEFUL: Single-side band radio (voice):   

• Sonrisa Net (3968 kHz LSB HAM; 7:30am Mountain time; weather at 7:45am)      
• Amigo Net  ( 6212 / 6217 kHz USB Marine-SSB; 1400Z Daily; weather at 1415Z)
• Southbound Net (8122 kHz at USB Marine-SSB; 0000Z Daily). [UPDATE JAN 2016: according to https://southboundnet.wordpress.com/ , the Southbound Net, which has been out-of-action for awhile, has started again. Now as an evening net.]

Single-side band radio (weather fax): less useful

Weatherfaxes do not provide detailed information for small areas of the Mexican coast, but they are excellent for seeing the big picture (and they DO involve a human forecaster). We did not use them often while in the Sea of Cortez. They would be useful for forecasting hurricanes (if internet access not available).

Easy to obtain with either the Airmail program or a program off the web such as JVCOMM32. A Pactor moem is not required. See NOAA for frequencies/schedules:  http://www.nws.noaa.gov/om/marine/radiofax.htm (download “rfax.pdf”, which contains weather fax information for the world).

A complete set of relevant (to West Coast of Mexico) up-to-date weatherfax images can be downloaded very easily/quickly from the web.

VERY USEFUL: Single-side band radio (pactor modem) TEXT Forecasts: 

April 10th 2016 update: After not being updated for a while, the SONRISA NET Weather website is now fully functional,


Updated November 2014: Saildocs and Airmail now make it easier to obtain Sonrisa and Solmate weather forecasts. Both sets are now available in the Airmail "Text-Weather" window.

!! Airmail has an easy method to have text (i.e., small size) forecasts sent by Saildocs: 

• Send an email to: query@saildocs.com, with line(s) in body of message requesting forecasts [no subject]. “Send” sends one time; “Sub” subscribes.    For example:  Send Sonrisa.Sea   [this sends Geary’s daily summary plus additional forecast info for the Sea of Cortez]
• Sonrisa forecasts: see http://sonrisanet.org/Saildoc_info.html (Geary provides how to "subscribe" to his forecast using Saildocs and the full web URL. One can receive a  one-time sending of a forecast by using "send" instead of "sub".
• NOAA (experimental):  http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/experimental/epoffshores/data/WRKOFFPZ7.   Via Saildocs: "send http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/experimental/epoffshores/data/WRKOFFPZ7"
• Solmatesantiago (Stan, Amigo Net):Fore info see:  http://www.weather.solmatesantiago.com/fcstemail.html [we found these forecasts less accurate for the Sea of Cortez]  
• Other pages: In general, one can request Saildocs to send a text version of any page on the web. However, Saildocs will strip all images etc, and one might have to rename the text file received to xxxxx.htm and read the file into a web browser such as Firefox or Chrome

USEFUL: Grib files: 

For a warning about GRIB fioles, send an email to: GribWarning@saildocs.com

These relatively small-size files provide computer-generated weather forecasts – they are very useful but one must be cautious as they have no human (forecaster) input, and do not show shore effects. They can be downloaded from the web or via HAM or Marine SSB (Sailmail) from Saildocs. The Airmail program has a particularly easy-to-use Grib-request window.

Summary:

Here is an example email sent to Saildocs to obtain information for the Southern Sea of Cortez: 

Line #1: Grib file; Line #2: NOAA forecast; Line #3: Geary’s Sonrisa Net weather summary; and Line #4: Stan’s solmatesantiago “southern crossing” forecast.  This email may be sent by regular web-based email, or by HAM/Sailmail SSB and pactor modem.

send GFS:34N,10N,126W,102W|2.5,2.5|0,6..96|PRMSL,WIND,WAVES|4.0,102,2014042515

send http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/experimental/epoffshores/data/WRKOFFPZ7

send http://sonrisanet.org/Saildocs/Sea.html

southerncrossingforecast

COMMUNICATIONS

We depended on four communication methods:

• Cell phone: we obtained a TelCel SIM card in Ensenada. (Ask for an area code for somewhere south, where you expect to spend more time – we chose a La Paz area code).  Amigo Plan: If you purchase 200 MXN each and every 30 days, there are no long distance charges within Mexico, per-minute rates are the lowest, and long distance to the USA & Canada is very reasonable. However, one has to be sure to do this every 30 days. We found we did not use up 200 MXN each month, so ended up with somewhat more expensive rates. Note: no charge for incoming calls or texts.

• Cell data: we initially purchased a “Banda Acha” data stick and SIM card, so that we could access the internet while cruising. We subsequently found that our Android phone with TelCel SIM card provided at least as good connection as a “hotspot” (allowing computer and tablets to connect via the Android wifi; IPhones do this too). So the banda acha stick is no longer needed. After a little research, we found it was easy to top up the data plan by web.

Cell phones worked often down the Pacific Baja Coast, in the Cabo area, and La Paz. Between La Paz and Loreto, cell coverage was nearly zero (OK at south end of Isla Espiritu Santo; very poor signal at Puerto Escondido).

[UPDATE: Cell coverage in front of  Villa del Palmar Beach Resort at Bahia Candelario/Ensenada Blanca, just south of Puerto Escondido is good]

• WiFi: We found the WiFi at marinas more-often-than not to work poorly while on the boat. Purchase of a WiFi amplifier antenna helps substantially.

WiFi amplifier

• !! Single-Side Band (voice and email): We especially found the combination of Single-side band radio, pactor modem and Sailmail made communication (by email) very easy, and possible almost anywhere. We would not want to be without it. (We found Sailmail to be much faster and easier to connect to than HAM Winmail.) We are not big “talkers” on the net, but we do enjoy hearing boat reports on the regular nets.

Of course, we also talked a lot in-person with other cruisers, often at sundown with a cold drink in our hands.

[We will update and revise the above, as necessary.]