Logbook and Photos

Our planned passage from Zihuatanejo to Huatulco went anything but as planned!  The immense sheets of rain, combined with 25 knots of wind and big seas, gave us a solid 3-day butt-kicking that was not predicted in any of our weather sources.  The relentless tacking back and forth in the heavy weather delayed us a day, so we decide to pull in early into Puerto Angel, rather than land in the dark in Huatulco, another five hours away.    We were immediately boarded by the Mexican Navy complete with search dog.   They literally had to push the dog down our companionway in order to have him sniff out our boat for any illegal substances.  Though intimidating at first, they turned out to be a very friendly bunch of guys who enjoyed having their pictures taken. 

Most times when we pull into a port, there is no fuel dock to conveniently pull up to, lift  a nozzle and fill.  We are then forced to choose the 'self-serve' option, which in boating takes on a whole new meaning!  Here, Chris has just come from unloading the jerry jugs from a taxi that drove him to the fuel station, carried them down the beach to our dinghy, and is now 'rowing' them out to Tioga because we did not feel hooking up the outboard motor to the dinghy would be necessary here!  Good thing we sailed so much in that last passage and only one trip does the trick.

We depart Puerto Angel after completing the final papers to officially check us out of Mexico.  Five hours further south-east, we pull into La India Bay and wait for a few days for a gale blowing 40+ knots across the infamous Gulf of Tehuantepec to blow itself out.  Here, we raft Atalanta and Tioga together to enjoy some good company, swimming to the beach and general relaxation prior to leaving Mexico for a 5-day passage that will land us in El Salvador.   Before this long trip, Michael from Atalanta wanted to inspect the top of his mast so we sent him up complete with cameras for this slightly odd shot.

On Saturday, with a good weather forecast, we head out again.  The plan is to get through the Tehuantepec by staying close to shore, but with the latest in weather information and conditions we are observing first hand, we decide to go straight across, something we swore we'd never do.  But its a great sail.  The farther south we go, the more and more turtles we begin to see.  They typically dive out of our way if we get  too close but, occasionally, we dodge the boat to avoid hitting these peaceful creatures.

With the potentially treacherous stretch of the Gulf of Tehuantepec now behind us, we decide to stop the boats and cool ourselves in the blue Pacific waters of offshore Guatemala.  The current is so strong that you can do a full stroke beside the boat and stay in the same spot, thus the life jackets on our normally very strong swimming children.  We took turns swimming and made sure we always had an adult on shark look out!

After five days at sea, we approach the river entrance to the port of Barillas, El Salvador, and the possibility exists we can make it in before dark.  But first, we have to cross a treachorus bar.  Throughout the day, the wind has built to 25 knots and huge ocean swells break across the bar that regularly requires a panga driver to guide boats in safely.   Atalanta goes first and is literally going out of our sight when a swell crests between us.  We batten down the hatches, tether on, say a prayer, and put our trust in God and the panga driver to lead us safely through.  He holds us back for a huge set of waves to pass and then we go for it.  One wave crashes over us and numerous others crash all around us.  Chris helms Tioga beautifully (singing to stay calm - the others went below!) and soon we were into this calm river run into Barillas.  We found out later, two other boats a couple hours earlier had declined the entrance thinking it was too dangerous.  Glad we found that information out after our entrance!! 

What can we say, this beautiful marina focuses it efforts on cruisers like us who are looking for a safe place for their boats while taking in El Salvador.  It was a fine place to get odd jobs done, provision and leave the boat while we toured  inland for 2 weeks to Guatemala and Honduras.  (You have to see the next log for photos of that)     The only annoying thing was the nearby burning of the cane fields often caused it to literally rain cane ash.  The boats became incredibly dirty....ahhhh, what they don't tell you about paradise!

With it being just over 2 weeks since our last provision run in Zihuatanejo, we are very low on the fresh items we use day-to-day, like produce, milk and bread.  We catch a bus into the nearby town of Usulutan and find the market streets filled with all sorts of fresh produce along with anything else you can imagine to buy.   El Salvador is the smallest, most densely populated of the Central American countries, but its land of volcanoes causes rich, very fertile soil that often produces many fruits and veggies we have never seen before.  Sometimes we are brave enough to see what we can do with them and other times we stick to our old favorites. 

We are pleased to find out there is an air show in El Salvador's capital city of San Salvador, about a 2.5 hour drive away from us.  The Barillas marina has organized complimentary  bus rides and passes to the air show so we sign up immediately.   As we ride through the city, we recall our guide books talking about the long history of devastation this city has endured.  It has been the capital city of El Salvador since 1839 and has been destroyed several times by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and floods.  No wonder there are no old buildings to see!     The airshow itself is held at the Ilopango Military Base as shown in the first of the three pictures, and there are numerous planes and helicopters about for viewing.  We spend the day enjoying the various stunt shows, complete with a military flight group firing rounds of blanks every time they passed by the audience.  Joel hit the dirt on their first fly by!  In the final picture, Joel and Gerrit are pleased to have a photo taken with a United States military pilot  currently stationed in Honduras.  Their troop flew in for the day and the boys even got to sit at the controls of this powerful machine.  

We are told about some  spider monkeys apparently living just a short walk from the marina.  Our crew along with a few other cruising couples,  accompany a local guide through the jungle walk and sure enough....spider monkeys galore.  They were so agile and cute, eating bananas right out of our hands and one even pulled Joel's hair.  After our outing, we went home, researched spider monkeys and the boys each wrote a report.   Did you know they have tails longer than their bodies, have no thumb, live in groups called bands, live in trees which they rarely come down from and that their enemies are wild cats, other bands and people??  Now you do!  The world really is our classroom. 

With the boats safely secured in Barillas, our family along with our friendly travelling family on s/v Atalanta, hop into our rental van and set off for an extensive inland tour to visit some old colonial cities, see some Mayan ruins and experience the ways of the Mayan Indians.  Check it out in log 19!