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Mango
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| Joined: | Sun May 11th, 2008 |
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Posted: Wed May 14th, 2008 04:17 am |
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| I will be cruising the Sea of Cortez for the month of October. I will set sail from San Carlos, and would like to cross over to Punta Chivato, cruise the Baja coast south to Lapaz and then cross back to San Carlos. My question is does it make more sense to make this triangle clockwise or counterclockwise with regards to taking advantage of the prevailing winds? I understand the southern summer winds shift to more NW and N in mid October. Is that correct? Any advice would be helpful
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Vince Radice
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| Joined: | Wed Oct 26th, 2005 |
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Posted: Wed May 14th, 2008 06:29 am |
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In October you will have prevailing northwesterly winds and an easy sail down to La Paz. Summer time is hurricane and Chubasco season and you will have prevailing southerly winds.
Coming back to San Carlos from La Paz will be an entirely different story. You may get a few days per month of southerly winds during the winter but they will be few and far between. I once, in febuary, got a nice 15 knot southerly coming back up from Mazatlan and sailed it over 125 miles before before it turned, in a matter of minutes, into a 40 knot northwesterly and I was forced to heave to until morning and then go run and hide at Altata with all the shrimpers and wait for better weather.
So that means you either need to be very patient when you are coming back, bite the bullet and sail back up wind "not for the faint at heart", or motor back up on the calm days.
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Mango
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Posted: Wed May 14th, 2008 11:42 pm |
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Thanks for the advice. I think it would be more prudent to sail directly to La Paz, cruise up the coast to Punta Chivato and then cross back over to San Carlos. Do the southern winter winds shift to northwest/north winter winds in early or mid October? or is it variable sometime in October. I know I have been down in early October and experienced some strong southwest winds. Folks there indicated that by mid October, patterns seem to stabalize to northwest to north.
thanks again
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Vince Radice
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Posted: Thu May 15th, 2008 08:42 am |
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Ya for sure, you can still get some southerlies in October and remember you can get a southerly at any time during winter. They will simply be few and far between. So If you get a southerly anytime during winter it is well worth your time to sail the hell out of it since the odds are that a day or two after it you will get a great Northerly to take you back.
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