Paul’s Tiller Time accounting of our Gonzaga disaster

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By Lowell McCulley | May 7, 2025 | Category Baja 2025

Tiller Time report Sat 5/3 Departed Isla Polmo 11:30am to Bahía Gonzaga. Local wind projected to shift west and build to 30kt range late afternoon so we opted to anchor in the sand close to shore in Gonzaga. Began with east wind 4-8 kts, port tack reach with main, jib and screacher, Stephanie on helm. Wind built to 8-10 kts and clocked slightly south. Gybed into Gonzaga bay and set spinnaker for the starboard tack run to the beach. We anchored in 5’ of water in front of Alfonsina’s restaurant. Around 4pm the wind shifted west and built to 20-25kts. We went ashore for dinner around 6, returned to Gato Loco around 8 then back to Tller time around 9. Wind was gusting around 20kts. Anchor was holding solid and bridle secure. Secured lines on deck so they weren’t slapping in the wind and went below at 10pm. Got up several times to check the anchor bridle. We could hear the wind building from lines whistling and boat movement. Sunday 5/4 Went topside around 2am to secure the rotating mast that was slapping side to side in the chop. Wind had built again, checked the anchor bridle and we were holding. We hit the rocks shortly before 3am. Our anchor failed. Wind was extremely strong. I started the motor and backed off the rocks. Water was coming over the transom so Stephanie secured the companionway hatch. She turned on all running lights and we put on lifejackets. We attempted to motor upwind back to the beach. Within a minute of leaving the rocks the motor cut out. The rudder hold down line broke when the boat hit the rocks and fouled the prop. We drifted east away from the anchorage for about a minute while I cleared the prop and restarted the motor. At this time we were in 3-4’ steep chop and extremely high wind. It was impossible to move the boat into the wind. Approximately 3 minutes after hitting the rocks we broadcasted our first distress call on vhf channel 16 and Stephanie started adding emergency items to the waterproof ditch bag. She continued broadcasting Mayday over the radio. We maneuvered best we could to keep the boat close to shore to avoid drifting out of the bay. Outside Gonzaga bay is open sea of Cortez, so this was no option. As we drifted further downwind the chop built to 4-5’ and very steep. Wind around 60 knots. Plan is to abandon the boat and swim to shore. Stephanie came to the cockpit with the ditch bag and we both put on shoes. We motored out as high as possible into the wind and chop, then back toward shore again as high as possible but we lost ground every pass. We repeated this several times, spotlighting the shore for a safe location to land (most of the peninsula is steep with jagged shoreline). We continued this for approximately 10 minutes. Gato Loco broke loose from anchor shortly after us. We spotted Gato Loco’s lights moving downwind toward us. A new option was to abandon and board Gato Loco. We approached Gato Loco in opposite directions. About 10’ from Gato Loco we abandoned Tiller Time. Unfortunately we separated quickly. We started swimming north toward shore. I kicked off my shoes to swim. Steph held the emergency bag and I held on to her jacket, we kicked together toward shore. Now dark without the boat lights we saw the silhouette of mountains against the stars and realized we were inside the peninsula hook about a hundred yards from shore. As we got close we spotted a low spot in the mountains and swam toward it. Fortunately the shore was round cobbles. After resting onshore a few minutes we hiked over to the leeward side of shore and sheltered from the wind against the rocks. It was 3:45am. Cold, minor bumps and scrapes but otherwise good. At first light I hiked back to the south side of the peninsula and contacted Gato Loco on the handheld VHF. Gato Loco was anchored against the rocks, everyone accounted for. Once the sun was high and we warmed up I put on Steph’s shoes and hiked toward Gato Loco to see if we could get to them. We could. Tiller Time was on the rocks north of Gato. Lowell threw me a pair of Ed’s shoes which fit better than Steph’s and I hiked back. We stayed in the rocks on the lee side of the mountain for several hours then hiked back to Gato Loco and boarded. Marine Rescue extracted all 7 of us by boat around 5:45 and took us to San Felipe.