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.
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decades out-of-date, and for most areas, show far too little detail.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; 2nd edition) [UPDATE 2015: a 3rd Edition is now available]
Pacific Mexico: A Cruiser's
Guidebook (2010; 1st edition)
By Heather Bansmer and Shawn Breeding, Blue Latitude Press
LLC,
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:
[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).
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.]
