Writings > Hitia 17 > Baja

It's not the size of your boat...

... it's how you use it that counts.

In mid-December, I received an email from my friend Jonathan asking me if I was interested in doing some travelling in the New Year. His email was timely, as I had been pondering the idea of taking my boat down to Mexico and doing some sailing. And so I asked if he would he like to come. A couple hours later, I got an email back expressing interest and asking for the details.

"Those are the details," I replied.

"Ok, sounds good, I'm in" he answered.

HOW TO TIE A 17' BOAT TO THE ROOF OF YOUR CAR

Once you learn a couple knots, it's amazing what you can tie to the roof of your car. - This rig travelled 3000 miles up to 70mph and over some pretty big bumps with no problems. - You just need to know three knots.

• The bowline
• The round turn and two half hitches
• The truckers hitch.

This is the book that will teach you

Contrary to what we'd heard, the transpeninsular highway down Baja was excellent with very few pot-holes. - We were able to do 65 most of the time. From Tijuana to La Paz takes approx 21hours with stops just to pee and eat quick meals.

LORETO TO LA PAZ

We sailed in the very southern part of the Sea of Cortez. Our route took us from Puerto Escondido, just south of Loreto, to La Paz. - It's about 130 miles and took us about 10 days. - Travelling by boat isn't like travelling by bike. - On most days, we could only make 5-10 miles. On days when the wind blew, we could have knocked off all 130 before the sun set!

The coastline is completely unspoiled. - We saw only a handful of villages (most with less than a dozen habitations) and most had no roads to speak of. The ones that did were still several hours from the nearest highway. We had to pack almost 40 liters of water for the trip, and numerous cans of beans and hot sauce.

Check out the satellite photos from Google Earth

BACKPACKING BY BOAT

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