Bahia Santa Maria

Scream spent two delightful nights at Bahia Santa Maria. The four mile wide by 11 mile long bay is in the lee of 382m tall Mount Lazario. A fleet of boats can tuck in directly behind the mountain in 30 feet, sand bottom. This location is well sheltered from Northerly or Westerly wind and swell.

Boats in the anchorage of Bahia Santa Maria, mountain in background

The anchorage is quite beautiful and we enjoyed our stay.

Bahia Santa Maria is less than 20 miles north of Magdalena Bay. Many cruisers bypass Santa Maria for Magdalena. Having been at both now, this is a mystery to me. I'm told Man O' War cove is the best anchorage in Magdalena Bay. While Man O' War does have a settlement, the settlement is quite small. It for instance lacks either telephones or internet. Only limited provisioning can be done. And while Santa Maria is open to the south, Man O' War has a twenty mile fetch across Magdelena Bay and the mainland is so flat as to be invisible. I think that Santa Maria is prettier, and it did doesn't require an eight mile detour to get to. In short, boats in a hurry should skip Magdalena rather than Santa Maria.