Successful T-peck Crossing.....(almost!)

We left the Huatulco anchorage per plan, leaving at around 7am.  Seven other boats left that morning as well, having waited for the winds to ease in the Tehuantepec.  Winds were light, and we motor sailed most of the morning.  But the fishing was good for a change, likely due to the water temperature which has been rising as we've headed south, now at a balmy 84 degrees.

Ahi on the hoof!

So, the fishing report was excellent, for the first time in a few months.  Total for the passage:  1 30" dorado, one small skipjack tuna (thrown back), and one fiesty 20+ lb. yellowfin tuna.  All on the same lure!  Dorado sushi for lunch, and ahi poke for dinner was hard to beat.  A couple of the other boats had good luck as well.  Tonight we'll have a bbq with our neighbors on the dock, w/ seared ahi featured on the menu for the gang !!! 

Otherwise the passage was calm, mostly TOO calm.  Our weather window was accurately forecast, and we found ourselves motor sailing much of the 40 hour passage, save for a couple of 6-8 hour stretches of fine spinnaker reaching.  But better this than the common option in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, where many boats have had difficult crossings in the frequent gales.

We arrived at the town of Puerto Madero (Chiapas) at around 11 last night.  The marina in this gritty working port is brand new, and our charts don't show it at all.  In fact, it's so new that it has not officially opened.  As they're still checking out their systems, there's no charge to stay here...the price is right for the 'Bravo' crew!  At any rate, we had detailed waypoint spot locations from a couple of other boats who have come into the marina, a circuitous 1/2 mile or so of dredged channels from the ocean breakwater, past the large fishing and shrimping fleets.  Oh, did I mention the word "dredged"???  Well, that proved to be an important word, as about 1/2 way down the channel, as we prepared for our first turn, we felt the unmistakable feeling as our keel augured into the ooze of the mud bottom below us.  The shifting sands had come up quickly, and we were stuck fast.  Quick efforts with the throttle would not free us.  It was now around 11:30 pm, and the tide was running out.  We called the Capitania del Puerto (Port Captain) on the radio and said in our rather tense Spanish, that we were "on the beach".  I communicated that "we needed more water".  Bad attempt.  He kept thinking we were on a beach somewhere, and dying of thirst.....  Finally found the Spanish word for "aground" in a Spanish boating dictionary (note to self, it's "encallado"), and he sounded like he might be able to help.  Radio went silent.

After a few moments a panga with 3 guys in military uniforms and their drug dog showed up.  Perfect.....They weren't at all helpful, and clearly had no plan to get us off the sand bar.  The whole event seemed like it was pretty funny, as they kept joking that we were going to be spending a lot of time here in Mexico before exiting their country.  They finally said they would go get a bigger boat, rather than trying with their (very big) fishing boat with (very big) outboard motor, and disappeared into the darkness.

We realized that we needed to act fast if we had any chance of freeing ourselves.  We launched the dinghy and attached the outboard.  Cindi lowered our 90 lb anchor off the bow into the dinghy, and Adam motored it out into the deeper part of the channel, after first sounding the depths with a hand held depth sounder (it earned its keep last night!!!).  By this time the swells had pushed us broadside to the channel, and we were luckily facing the deeper point.  So the anchor was dropped in that direction.

Adam got back aboard 'Bravo'.  With Cindi using the electric anchor windlass on the bow to pull the chain, and Adam applying full throttle with the engine, we broke free.  What a great feeling to see rising numbers on the speedo, not to mention the depth sounder!!!

At this point Rob from another sailboat 'China Doll' had heard us on the radio, and showed up in his dinghy to lead us the rest of the way through the rabbit warren into the new marina.  THANKS, Rob!!!  We happily tied up after midnight, tired, but happy to have this crossing behind us.

So now we're here in the new Chiapas Marina.  We were just boarded by the Mexican navy with their drug dog (naval boarding number eight in our 1-1/2 years in Mexico, for those of you keeping track).  After clearing in, we're free to explore the area, about 10 miles away from the border with Guatemala.  The region (state of Chiapas) is famous for it's Mayan culture, and we may spend a few days traveling inland to check out Palenque and other sites before heading to El Salvador.  More to come!

Hurry up and wait...

The last several days have been a push....pushing hard to get down to Huatulco to wait for our window in the continual gales to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec.  It's been snorting pretty hard in the Gulf for several days according to all of our weather sources, so we've been timing our transit to reach Huatulco just before the winds subside.

Unfortunately, it's been mostly very light and variable winds heading to Huatulco from Zihuat.  We've squirted a lot of diesel into our engine, with just a few stretches of 5-8 hours at a time of excellent sailing for the 56 hour passage to Puerto Angel, about 25 miles west of Huatulco.

But first, let's get caught up on our time in Zihuatenejo.  This is a great town, and we really lucked out on our timing, as we arrived at the start of their carnival celebration.  Great music, dancing, costumes, and the usual politicians speeches opened the week long hooplah.  We were there for opening night, but sadly had to leave the next day.  Next time, we'll definitely try for the whole week!!! 

Easels set up in the street for kids to paint their own carnival artwork

Kids at the market enjoying another kind of "art".  This was a video arcade, Mexico style, for guys to play video games in the huge Zihuat market!!!

We didn't always understand the skits, but the Brazilian dance troupe spoke a universal language!!!

"Burning Man", Zihuat style!

Not just a tourist town, Zihuatenejo supports a huge fleet of panga fishing boats.

Anchored in a sea of pangas

From Zihuatenejo we headed SE to Puerto Angel, a very pretty little fishing village approximately 320 miles distant.  Although a slow passage wind wise, we did get in some great sailing when the wind would pick up in the afternoons.  Happily we arrived in the tight harbor just before dark, as there weren't a lot of anchoring options due to the panga fleet on moorings all around the bay.  We spent a very rolly night on the anchor, as our anchorage was wide open to the swells rolling in from the Pacific.

 We've been seeing more and more sea turtles as we've worked our way south.  Even heard a "clunk" or two during the night as we bumped a couple of sleepers.  Sorry, guys!!!  Lots of turtles serve as rafts for tired seabirds! 

We're now anchored in Huatulco, the last good anchorage and marina to hang out waiting for a weather window to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec, on the Mexico/Guatemala border.   This is a roughly 275 mile stretch of water just south of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, the narrow (120 mile wide) land bridge separating the Gulf of Mexico on the Atlantic side from the Pacific Ocean.  (Before the building of the Panama Canal, this bridge was seriously considered for the site of the canal).  Winds can build on the Atlantic side, and roar through the low lying valley of the isthmus, creating gales that can last for several days.  One guidebook, Charlies Charts, describes them: "Violent gales, known as Tehuante-peckers can happen at any time.....Their Force 8 or 9 winds raise treacherous, short, high seas which can be experienced as much as 100 miles offshore...." 

There are around 10 boats heading south waiting to cross the Gulf now.  As you can imagine, there's no end to the strategizing and weather guessing going on.  Conventional wisdom is to "keep one foot on the beach", traveling along the shore in around 30 feet of depth.  The idea is that if the winds come up, you're close enough to keep any waves from developing, as the winds come off the beach.  While this adds around 30 miles to the passage, it's considered a better way to go than straight across.

There are many excellent sources of weather info for the T-peckers, both on-line and via radio.  Obviously we're following closely, along with our neighbors in the anchorage.  Right now it looks like tomorrow morning or possibly Monday will give us the window we need to make the 2 day passage as pleasant as possible.

Today we filled our fuel tanks (via 7 jerry jugs in the dinghy), and we're looking forward to continuing our journey south.  Our next stop will be in Chiapas, (also known as Puerto Madero), still in Mexico, but adjoining the Guatemala border.  We will clear out of Mexico at that point.

BREAKING NEWS!!!!!  We just checked online, and Cindi's ham radio callsign was just issued.  Next time you see her, you can call her KF7UPI  !!!