LA PAZ TO TOPOLOBAMPO 2026

LA PAZ TO TOPOLOBAMBO 2026

June 19, 2026
S/V Wings
Pillar Point Bay, Mexico

I wasn’t going to write a blog during my cruise around the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez), this year, because we always do the same old thing and it gets rather dull. The islands are beautiful and it’s a pleasant enough way to spend time, but there’s not a lot to say about it. However, since Fred and I were both feeling like a change, we decided to go somewhere different, this year. Hence, I’ve decided to write about our trip, after all.

I flew into La Paz on June 14th, after making a very convenient connection in Guadalajara. This was much easier than connecting through Mexico City and faster, too. We immediately headed for the Mezquite Grill after stowing my belongings in the boat. We shared a filet mignon which, this year, came with a bacon gravy. I’m not a fan of gravy, but I do like bacon. It was still a very tasty cut of meat and the dinner was big enough for two. We walked back to the boat and stopped for ice cream along the way. It was rather late by the time we returned to the boat, but it was a warm night.

Monday morning, while running the motor to charge the batteries, the alternator caught fire and melted the battery cables. Fred spent most of the day replacing the alternator and rewiring. Then we went grocery shopping and cooked chicken cutlets for dinner.

Tuesday, we met up with my friends, Sally and Colin, and took an Uber out to D’Thai, a Thai restaurant that Fred had found online. The food was good and spicy. We tried a couple of different curries, the spring rolls, and pad Thai. It was good to catch up with Sally, whom I hadn’t seen since she left me in Ushuaia in February, and Colin, whom I had last seen in La Paz in 2022.

Colin, Me & Sally at Marina La Paz

Wednesday was a very hot day. We left in the late morning and motored down the channel to Marina Costa Baja to get fuel and water. Marina La Paz does not have fuel and, while they have potable water, it is very expensive to get a slip for one night just to fill up with water. We got fuel but, unfortunately, Costa Baja’s desalinization plant was not operating due to a red tide. We had only one tank of water, which was not sufficient for two-plus weeks of cruising. We would have to make as much water as possible and hope we could top up our tanks in Topolobampo.

We sailed to Balandra Cove and arrived by mid-afternoon. It was very hot and we enjoyed a swim. Most boats anchor near the beautiful white beach in Balandra, but we dropped the hook close under the cliff that protected us from the howling Coromuel winds that came up in the evening and blew all night. We passed a comfortable night listening to the wind howl.

Pillars at Pillar Pt. Bay

Playa Bonanza

Thursday morning, we still had decent wind, so we set sail for Playa Bonanza on the east side of Espiritu Santo. I had never been there, before. We hoped that we could get protection from the Coromuels, which usually blow from the west, in that anchorage. Unfortunately, the recent Coromuels had had a large southerly component and we could tell, right away, that we would not be protected. We anchored for a couple of hours to go ashore and explore. The sand was very soft and it was extremely difficult to haul the dinghy up onto the beach, even with big, balloon tires. We climbed over the dune and saw only scrubby desert on the other side. It was difficult to walk in the very soft sand, so we didn’t go far. Instead, we returned to the boat and continued up the east coast of Espiritu Santo to a small bay we had seen on the chart. Few people go this way and there was very little information available on the anchorage. Fortunately, while the anchorage lacked the lovely, white sand beach and turquoise water of the other anchorages on the island, the holding was good. The Coromuels blew as much as 40 knots from dark until about 1:00, but the waters remained calm and we were comfortable. Fred named the anchorage Pillar Point Bay after the rock pillars off the point at the entrance.

Pillar Point Bay

June 21, 2026

S/V Wings
Topolobampo, Mexico

It was dead calm on Friday morning and we lounged about the boat until it was time to leave. The entrance to Topolombampo is complicated and somewhat shallow and we didn’t want to arrive before dawn. We finally left our anchorage about 12:30 and headed off northeast. The forecast was for southerly wind that would have made a nice reach. Unfortunately, there wasn’t enough wind to sail and our wind indicator was jumping all over the place with no correlation to the actual wind speed. We had to motor.

We proceeded across the sea at about four knots, making sure not to overheat the alternator. We didn’t even raise the main until the late afternoon and there was never enough wind to bother with the jib. We traded watches every three hours. The weather was very mild. About 2:00, when I was just about to fall asleep after tossing and turning for two hours, the fan belt broke. I got up and took over the watch, sailing very slowly, while Fred changed the fan belt.

Isla Farrallon de San Ignacio at Dawn

I had the 3:00 to 6:00 watch. The moon had set just before midnight and it was very dark. I could see the Milky Way. Early in my watch, I saw lights from a large vessel. I couldn’t discern any red or green lights, so I couldn’t tell if it was coming toward me or not. Eventually, it became apparent it was sitting still. Before we passed it, I started to see flashing lights. They were not readily visible on the chart I was using. Eventually, after going below and zooming in on Open CPN, I verified that there were indeed many navigational lights around Topolobampo. The nearest of these appeared to be too close to be on shore and too high to be the sea buoy. We reached the area about 4:15, as dawn was just beginning to break. The light turned out to be on top of a small, flat-topped island with sheer sides.

The Entrance to Topolobampo

Just before the end of my watch, we broke a second fan belt. We raised the jib and, while Fred worked on replacing that, I sailed the boat in the light breeze that came up at dawn. By the time I was free to go below, we were moving along at 2.25 knots. We had enough wind to move the boat and were in no hurry. Fred had determined that, when we replaced the alternator, the fan belt was rubbing on a hose clamp. We hoped this was the reason for the failures, but we were out of replacements and didn’t want to take any chances. We slowly sailed all the way up the main channel and only ignited the motor when we turned into the narrow channel that ran across a shoal to the back side of the peninsula where the marinas were located. I called ahead to reserve a slip and we arrived at Marina Palmira in Topolobampo about 11:30.

Sailing into Topolobampo

Marina Palmira in Topolobampo

Everyone at the marina was very friendly and helpful. After checking in, the staff advised us where to go in Los Mochis to get fan belts. We folded our sails and got the boat squared away and then called a taxi to take us the seventeen miles for Los Mochis. We started at Los Munecos, the auto parts store that everyone recommended, but they didn’t have the right size fan belts. We bought a couple that were slightly wider and a little shorter than the originals that we thought might work. Everyone in the store was curious about us and wanted to know where we were from. They gave Fred a free hat.

AI suggested that Autozone would have the correct sized fan belts and there was one only about 450 meters away. It was very hot, but we walked over there. They didn’t have the right size, either. We bought another couple of belts in a different size and then went looking for somewhere to have a beer.

Sculpture Near the Marina

There were a lot of taco stands, but none sold beer. We stopped at one to ask where we could get food and beer. After answering their queries about our origins, they directed us to a nice restaurant a few blocks away. We were very hot and thirsty by the time we found the restaurant. It was then 13:00 on Saturday afternoon and the restaurant was packed. We had to wait some time for a table. When my family came to Mexico in 1913, they settled in Los Mochis. I struck up a conversation with the woman sitting next to me in the waiting area. She was a native of Los Mochis and her family had been there for several generations. She recognized our family name. Los Mochis was founded by gringos around the beginning of the 20th century, but we were definitely a novelty in the present and everyone wondered what we were doing there. What gringos they see stay on the toll road and are not out wandering around, buying auto parts. After a very nice lunch and some cold beers, we took an Uber back to the marina.

It was hot in the boat and, having only slept a couple of hours in the morning, I slept most of the afternoon. We tried to sit outside around sunset, but there were too many bugs. We were ready for bed by 21:00.

Having slept for seven hours on top of a good afternoon nap, I was awake by 5:00 on Sunday morning. Around 7:00, I tried to go take a shower, but the water was turned off. I came back and showered on the boat. After what seemed like a very lazy morning, we finally left the boat about 10:00 to walk into Topolobampo in search of a little produce and some totopos.

Colorful Houses in Topolobampo

Topolobampo is a very colorful place. The town is built on a hill and the hill is covered with pastel colored houses and colorfully painted retaining walls. To get from the marina to town, we had to cross the access road to the port and a set of railroad tracks. Close to the marina was a statue of Albert K. Owen, the American who envisioned building a railroad from the United States to a port at Topolobampo. He also tried to start an agricultural commune in Topolobampo that ended up failing due to conflicts over water rights. A few years later, Benjamin Johnston built a big sugar mill and developed the area for agriculture. My great uncle and his wife came to manage the sugar mill. Later, two more of my great aunts and their husbands came to raise tomatoes. When I first came to Los Mochis, I was surprised to see that the land looked very much like Ventura County in California, where my family had lived previous to immigrating to Mexico.

More Colorful Houses & a Tabachin Tree

We wandered around Topolobampo, in search of a grocery store. Fred didn’t want to drag groceries around town, so we explored the malecon before going shopping. We stopped at an Oxxo for iced coffee. After we bought a few items, Fred wanted a hamburger, so we stopped at an air-conditioned restaurant. Then we walked back to the boat and relaxed for a few hours.

The Topolobampo Malecon in the Afternoon

Topolobampo Scenery

About 19:00, we headed back into town in search of dinner. The mariscos stands we had seen during the afternoon were then closed. We walked all the way into town and ate at a roadside carne asada stand near the malecon. Then we followed the malecon back to the boat. It seem everyone in town was out strolling along the malecon and it was crowded. Cars were cruising slowly along the shore and blasting music. There were a few mariscos places open on the malecon, but we had already eaten. We followed the malecon all the way back to the port entrance, crossed the access road, and returned to the boat.