Places We’ve Been: Playa Santispac, Bahia Conception- BCS Mexico

Let’s get this out of the way first:  Use this post for information or entertainment only, please do not use this post for navigation.

The run from La Ramada to the tip of Bahia Conception was a full 45 miles, while our goal anchorage inside the bay (Playa Santispac) was another 5 miles inside the bay….meaning about 52 miles total.  At 5 knots, with fluky winds (meaning a full day of motoring)…it would take us a full 10 hours to get into Bahia Conception.

So early one morning, we hauled anchor from La Ramada and took off heading north, bound for Bahia Conception.  The winds were light and not from the north, so we didn’t have to buck into the wind or seas, but it also meant motoring/motorsailing the whole way.  Tulum was a heavy boat, a motorsailer at heart….but when we had a combination of the right wind and steady motoring, she sometimes wanted to move faster.  That was the case on this day, we had a few hours of decent wind from the right direction so we got a speed boost, moving along at a whole six knots…..for a few hours.  That day we topped out at a full 7.9 knots with a combination of wind, surfing and motor on too.  We rounded the tip of Conception in the late afternoon, staying in the deep water channel as long as possible.  We also clearly saw the grouping of five sailboats in Bahia Santo Domingo…which should have told us something.  We would come to find out the next day that Bahia Santo Domingo (where all those cruising boats were hanging out) had cell service, a breeze and no swarms of people on the beaches.  We were there in August of 2020, so swarms of people were a consideration for us, this was nearly the height of Covid and we were careful to avoid getting sick.  

As we entered Bahia Conception, we stayed in the deep water channel delineated on our multi-function device (MFD) navigation software and continued into Playa Santispac.  I had been here several times as a kid…once on our sailboat Tulum II and once on a family roadtrip down Baja California during one spring break.  But nothing prepared me for the current Playa Santispac.  As we pulled into find a place to anchor, the HelmsMistress remarked that the place reminded her of the “river”….the Colorado River near Lake Havasu.  There’s now development/houses built all the way around the outer finger of the bay and the beach is lined with shacks, RV’s, tents and palapas in various shades of disrepair.  People were everywhere, but not many cruising boats.  

We put Tulum in a spot off Playa Santispac close to the BCS 482 waypoint in the Shawn and Heather book (Sea of Cortez, a Cruisers Guidebook), pg.211 and sat back to try to wrap our minds around the place.  We put the hook down in about 24 feet of water over sand, putting in 150 feet of chain and making sure to set the anchor well.  There was little wind but luckily for us, just enough to cool the place….and it was late in the afternoon with the heat starting to abate.  Despite my memories of the place, I was not in love with all the humanity and we mutually made the decision we were not going to shore.  It was just a taste of civilization we had been out of for months, so a bit of shock to the system to find it here….and in the midst of Covid. 

Once anchored, we had a chance to soak in the lack of silence.  The main highway through Baja California runs right past/through Bahia Conception, so once again, we could hear and see traffic….a new sensation after months of near silence at anchor.  

We also had a very interesting yacht neighbor in the anchorage….a boat we suspect was just hanging out in Baja because of Covid, probably unable to get into other ports because of its size and crew complement…and the fact that in 2020 some countries had blocked maritime traffic and this boat would need to get into ports to take on mucho fuel.  Sitting approximately 1/4 mile behind us that evening was a 350ft Benetti yacht named IJE that we believed was owned by Mr. James Packer.  Mr. Packer was an Australian gentlemen previously known to be engaged to Mariah Carey.  We don’t believe that Mr. Packer was onboard…or the yacht wouldn’t be anchored in Bahia Conception.  But the yacht was big, clean and very brightly lit….providing plenty for us to observe.  The most interesting thing was when several parts of the yacht slid out…and we could watch (and hear) the crew pumping iron in the slide-out weight room.  It was a bit wild.  Here’s a picture of the boat, mine are all stuck on a drive I can’t get access to: 

That night we had a decent sleep, but we knew we couldn’t stay because it was very, very hot without much wind to cool us down.

Here’s more info:

Ease of anchoring:  We anchored over a sand or mud in 24 feet of water.

Noise at anchor:  Yes.  We could near vehicles on the main highway coming down Baja and we could hear various noises from the beach.  

Provisioning:  Maybe if you wanted to go to shore and check out the small tiendas.  I would provision before coming here. 

Cellular reception at anchor:  Yes, spotty.  We found very consistent service at Bahia Santo Domingo.

Wifi in the anchorage:  None

Water Clarity:  None.  There were sandy spots but I think the bottom was mainly mud. 

Protection:  Some protection all around but winds tend to funnel through because of Conception’s geography, meaning they can be fairly strong sometimes…with no wind other times.  Not a hurricane hole at all. 

Bugs:  Maybe on the beach at dusk/at night.  

Beach:  Yes, but all the beaches were swarmed with people.   

Would We Go Back:  No.  It was too hot, too many people and the water wasn’t clear.  No marine life that we found, but we didn’t check out any of the various islands in the bay either.    

From the beginning, we knew that Bahia Conception was going to be hot.  But we really didn’t expect the combination of heat, not clear water and masses of humanity that we found.  We went up here to check it out…and with the freedom of a cruising boat we made the choices that freedom allowed us….time to go somewhere else.  We would stay in Santispac only one night, choosing to check out other places that I had gone as a kid.  But it wasn’t the same as when I was a kid at all, so in the end….we chose to get back to places we knew and loved.  

Thanks for reading, here’s recent posts about places we’ve been:

Places We’ve Been: La Ramada…AKA “Nudie Cove”

Places We’ve Been: San Juanico & “The “Farm”

Places We’ve Been: Painted Cliffs On Isla Carmen In BCS, Mexico