What a Difference a Few Hundred Miles Makes

When people ask us about cruising itineraries in Mexico for the winter, we always suggest they do the Sea of Cortez before December 1 or after March 15. That’s because the water is too cold for swimming, and there’s only about a 50% chance the air temperature will be comfortable in the dead of winter.

The proof comes in the following report from David Addleman and Heather Corsaro of the Monterey-based Cal 36 Eupsychia: "We are in La Paz with engine troubles right now, which wouldn’t be so bad except that it’s freezing! I swear it’s going to snow or we’ll wake up to see frost on the decks. We’ve had a bit of rain this past week and chilly winds in the 15- to 18-knot range."

We don’t think there’s any danger of snow in La Paz, as the lows haven’t gotten below the 50s at night, but the highs haven’t been getting above the high 60s either. Compare that with Puerto Vallarta, just 400 miles to the south, where it’s 85° almost every day. Not everyone is a warm weather cruiser like we are, but we’d never want to do a winter cruise where we couldn’t jump overboard into a warm ocean. And you can’t do that in the Sea.

Speaking of which, every year some cruisers in the Pacific are surprised to learn that New Zealand isn’t tropical. The latest to report this are Rob and Lorraine Coleman of the Honolulu-based Angelman ketch Southern Cross. The tropics are from 22°N to 22°S. Auckland is 38°S, which means it’s as far from the tropics as San Francisco. In addition to not being tropical, New Zealand — because nowhere is further than about 80 miles from the ocean — is subject to rapid and major changes in weather.