About the club.
Sixty years, one purpose.
Vagabundos del Mar is the oldest non-profit travel club built around Baja California and the Sea of Cortez. For sixty years it’s been a club run by its members, for its members — with one purpose that hasn’t changed.
Members help members get there, and back: the roads, the water, where to go and what to watch for. That’s the whole club, and it always has been.
Helping our members travel safely, economically, and enjoyably across North America — and especially in Baja California.
How sixty years started.
Twenty-nine people in small trailer boats buddy up and cross from Bahía Kino. Others want the same thing — and more trips follow.
After years of friendship and word of mouth, the group incorporated. As a group, members could get deals no one could get alone.
Taken from the fishermen Ray Cannon wrote about — the “gypsies of the sea.” The idea stuck: freedom on the water, and on the road.
Non-profit, member-run, built on shared knowledge — renewing what it offers for the way people travel Baja now.
A real beginning, and a good one.
In 1966, twenty-nine people in thirteen small trailer boats buddied up and crossed the Sea of Cortez from Bahía Kino. The trip pulled in others who wanted the same thing. More trips followed, and the habit of sharing what you’d learned — the roads, the water, where to go and what to watch for — became the thing the whole club was built on. It still is.
After a few years of running on friendship and word of mouth, the group organized. It incorporated in California in 1971 as a non-profit, and over the years grew into a club of thousands of households. Getting organized had a practical payoff that holds to this day: as a group, members could get deals no one could get alone — most importantly, low-cost Mexican insurance, but also tours, discounts, and the rest.
Vagabonds of the sea.
We took the name from the Mexican fishermen who once roamed the Sea of Cortez in log canoes — the ones Ray Cannon wrote about in his book Sea of Cortez, the “vagabonds” or “gypsies of the sea.” They’re nearly gone from the Cortez now, but the idea stuck: freedom on the water, and on the road.
Two names at the center.
Generations of members have kept this club going — but a handful of people gave it its shape, its newsletter, and its compass.
Ray Cannon
Introduced a generation to Baja and the Sea of Cortez, and gave the club its name and its spirit.
Chet Sherman
Called the club “a hobby I started in my garage that just got out of hand.” He had a gift for organizing the unorganizable, and started the Chubasco newsletter — named for the Spanish word for a big wind.
Fred & Gloria Jones
Kept the club running for more than three decades — the steady hands behind the trips, the renewals, and the members.
The club today is still led the same way it always has been: by members. Elected officers, a volunteer board, ambassadors out on the road and water, and the staff in the office keep it going.
Non-profit, and proud of it.
Over the years the club has given thousands of dollars to conservation and other causes across the Western U.S. and Mexico, and organized trips by boat and RV that ranged far past Baja.
It’s a club that actually uses its gear. We believe in getting the boats and the RVs out and on the road — though you don’t need either one to join. What you get from being a Vagabundo is the part members talk about most: the trips are better, and the people you meet on them tend to become friends for good.
Same mission, renewed for today.
Sixty years on, the mission is the same and so is the model — non-profit, member-run, built on shared knowledge. Here’s what the club is renewing for the way people travel Baja now.
Insurance & the legal aid behind it
The low-cost Mexican insurance program members organized for — and the claims and legal support that stand behind it.
Decades of Baja travel knowledge
Hard-won road and water intel — where to go, what to watch for — gathered over sixty years and kept current.
A members-only network
A way to find people to travel with — caravans, buddies, and the friendships that come out of a shared road.
The annual Crab Feed still brings members together to swap stories and plan the season ahead. If you travel Baja and mean to keep doing it, this is your club.
“To the young in spirit, no matter the years, to those with an inner ache to thrill once again with wild and true adventure… for all this and more, I say ‘go down to the sea in little ships.’”
Get on board.
Sixty years of Baja, and room for one more. Join the club, get covered, and go.