May 2 - 5, 2005 Crossing the Gulf of the Tehuantepec

From Huatulco, Mexico to Bahia Del Sol, El Salvador

It was exhilarating releasing our lines from the dock. We were leaving Mexico! We have spent 1.5 years there and have enjoyed the country immensely, but we were very ready to move on to the next country and a new adventure. Winds were light and seas fairly flat.

Within an hour after we left Huatulco, Steve caught 19 fish on our two drag lines. Unfortunately, 17 were skipjack/bonita (too bloody to eat) and two were dorados which were too small to keep. Steve was so tired of pulling in fish that he brought in the lines before dark.

Day time cabin temperature averaged 92 degrees with night time temperature a low of 84. It was a quiet trip with very little wind and calm seas. The entire trip took 2 days and 20 hours; we motor-sailed (essentially motoring, but getting a little extra speed from the sails) most of the way. We were able to turn off the engines and sail for only two hours. Although we would have preferred to sail, this was better than the gale force winds that plague this area of the coast. On the second night we saw lightening flashes over land in the distance, and on the third night we saw lightening bolts going into the sea several miles from the boat. The lightening bolts into the sea were scary, but luckily they were associated with squalls which eventually moved out to sea.

We were approximately 45 miles offshore while crossing the Gulf of the Tehuantepec when a 100 or so porpoises crossed our path. They repeatedly jumped in the air doing double and sometimes triple twists. 20-30 swam in front of and between our bows, easily keeping up with the boat. Because the water was so clear and windless, we saw them very clearly just a few feet from where we stood on the bows. They amused and amazed us for 15 minutes during which Steve managed to video some of the action on our digital camera.

At 3:00 a.m. on the second night, we crossed into Guatemala. We were too tired to celebrate. From Guatemala we stayed 10-15 miles off shore. The following evening we saw a dozen or so marlin jumping close to the boat, but none were much interested in our small lures. How would we pull in a 100-pound fish? And then what? We couldn’t possibly store it or eat it all. Still, Steve was disappointed that we did not catch one. The florescence was so prevalent that night that when porpoises visited us a trail of light followed their every movement.

At 1:00 a.m., on May 5, we crossed into El Salvador. At noon we were close enough to see the coast line with palm trees and lots of greenery. This is the tropics!! No more cacti and deserts. At noon, 2 hours from our destination of Marina Bahia Del Sol, we were able to make radio contact and coordinate our arrival at the infamous bar at the entrance to the river. The timing of high tide, low breaking surf and the boat to guide us over could not have been better. We arrived at the GPS coordinates for the entrance at 2:00 pm, made 2 tight circles to get into position over 25 feet of water and went in. It was over in one minute. Whew! It was so ominous from the outside with large breakers everywhere. We had been anticipating/dreading this crossing. Within the last 2 weeks, one boat broached and was hit broadside by a wave of tons of water which nearly washed the couple overboard, laying her spreaders in the water with, luckily, little damage except to cause extreme fright. Another had a 10’ wave break aft into her cockpit and flood into the cabin wiping out almost all electronics. Another had a wave break aft filling their dinghy and irreparably bending the davits. We, however, made it over the bar without a single drop in our cockpit.

Once over the bar, we saw 3 dinghies filled with smiling cruiser friends who had come out to greet us. What a welcoming sight! We dropped our anchor in 20’ of water in the river which has palm trees and green bushes lining its banks. Although it is called Marina Bahia Del Sol (it is located in the Costa Del Sol section of El Salvador), it does not have docks and slips for boats, but a dinghy dock as part of its hotel/restaurant business. For $10 per week per boat, we use the hotel’s facilities, including its two swimming pools, restaurants and bars. Many cruisers are planning on remaining here for the summer months because the rainy season with its attendant lightening is milder here than in Costa Rica and Panama.

For now, we are happy to be safely tucked into an anchorage where we will begin our discovery of Central America.

May 7, 2005 - EL SALVADOR

This is just a quick note to tell you that we made it to El Salvador on May 5 after 2 days and 20 hours of pretty much calm seas and light winds. We crossed the treacherous bar outside of Marina Bahia Del Sol and we are now safely at anchor in the river. We were so happy to arrive and to see lush tropical green after 1.5 years of dry, arrid and cactus filled Mexico. We will write more later about the crossing and what we find here in El Salvador.

Huatulco, Mexico

May 2, 2005 – Huatulco, Mexico

We took the bus from Huatulco to Oaxaca. It was a 9-hour ride that took a circuitous route along the coast and through the valley. Although as a crow flies, Oaxaca is only 170 miles from Huatulco, the roads are not so good and this route avoided most of the Sierra Madre Mountains. Our first class bus was mostly air-conditioned and had comfortable seating. Friends from 3 other boats: Windsong, Soy Libre and Tricia Jean joined us on this trip. Cruisers are a very independent lot and only by circumstance did we all happen to get on the same bus.

We stayed at a reasonably priced and clean hotel one block from the Zocalo (the Central Plaza) of town from which it was an easy walk to the Cultural Museum, Cathedral Plaza, Modern Art Museum and the mercados (markets). What a nice city! Some streets are open to foot traffic only which made for very comfortable strolls from one sight to another. We enjoyed wonderful restaurants with innovative dishes like tomato based garlic soup with a whole raw egg yolk, chicken with Jamaica (hibiscus flowers) sauce, the seven mole sauces for which this city is famous, and the hot chocolate with sweet bread in the mornings. We shared a few meals with our cruising friends which were festive occasions as there were 9 of us. We took a tour to Monte Alban, the Zapotec ruins just outside of town, and visited a few villages known for their art crafts. We combed the downtown mercados for gifts and a few items we needed for the boat, and tasted chocolate at the numerous chocolate specialty stores. The chocolate here is primarily used in hot chocolate drinks and mole rather than in candy form and came in a variety of flavors: pecan, vanilla and, the local favorite, cinnamon.

After 3 days in this wonderful city, we along with 2 of our cruiser friends boarded a van for the return trip to Huatulco. The van takes the more direct route through the mountains and does it in 6 hours rather than 9 on the bus. We could easily see why buses do not take this route. It was 4 hours of constant sharp turns with drop-offs and no shoulders on the road. We really appreciated the competency of our driver. Two other cruiser friends took the same van service the next day and experienced a hair raising 5-mile dirt road detour because the main road had washed out in a thunder storm sometime after we had come through. We were initially concerned about the van being air-conditioned but that worry disappeared as we traveled in the clouds and coolness of the thick pine and fern forests of the Sierra Madre Mountains.

Upon our return, we took Dream Caper to the inlets around Huatulco for a few days. Our favorite was Chachacual Beach where there is no road access and we were the only boat there for most of the time. Steve’s foot prints on the beach are probably still the only ones. It was here that we used the hooka, a compressor with two 100-foot hoses with regulators that allow use to breathe underwater when we clean the bottom of the boat or make underwater repairs. We replaced the zinc on each propeller. Zinc draws electrical currents in the water away from the propeller and engine, and protects them from corrosion. Since both of our propellers fell off last year because the stems on the shafts corroded, we are now extra careful. Unfortunately, replacing the zincs requires removal of each propeller and when the boat is afloat, this must be done underwater. To our great relief, we successfully completed the zinc replacement on both propellers without dropping any parts or tools so we moved on to the time consuming job of scraping off barnacles from and scrubbing the boat bottom and hull of the boat. This arduous chore took us three 1.5 hour sessions with both of us pushing brushes and scrapers back and forth under water. Catamaran means 2 hulls, and lots of work. We will need to have the bottom repainted in El Salvador this summer.

100’ power boat anchored near us. We watched as the 5 crew members lowered the back platform and took out the inboard (motor) dinghy and kayak. Two crew members carefully held the kayak as others helped the owners step in and be seated, adjusting the back rests for them. When they were situated another crew member handed them the paddles. The owners paddled to shore. The dinghy delivered beach supplies to shore and took the kayak back to the mother boat. After a nice stay on the beach, the dinghy returned to pick them up. We bet the owners have never even seen the bottom of their boat let alone had the pleasure of scrubbing it.

We also anchored in Tangolunda Bay next to the old Club Med Huatulco which is now Las Brisas Resort. What a lovely setting. We dinghied ashore in search of tennis courts. The Las Brisas tennis pro who we happened to meet in town last week, had told us to come play tennis. There were 11 beautiful courts with nobody on them and the resort did not charge us for their use. We played there twice and had dinner on the patio next to the pool overlooking our boat, the only one in the bay. There was good snorkeling and swimming off the back of our boat.

We returned to the marina in Huatulco to news that the weather window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec was open but that we should leave by evening of the next day. We provisioned, purchased diesel, and checked out with the Huatulco Port officials and Immigration and Customs officials at the airport. We had to get a “zarpe” (official checkout documentation for the boat which is required before the next country will allow us in). The Gulf of Tehuantepec is 250 miles wide ending at the southern border of Mexico and is notorious for causing sailors much heartache with its gale force winds. Eight boats crossed loosely together in the last weather window the previous week. Although there are several boats in port with us who plan on crossing, none were ready to make this window. On Monday, May 2 at 6:30 p.m., we set out for the crossing, alone.