Log 19 - Dec 21st, 2003 to March 31st, 2004

OUR LAST SOUTHERN PASSAGE IN MEXICO

1380 miles this leg.

As we sit here in Huatulco, Oaxaca, waiting for a weather window to cross the Golfo de Tehuantepec, we are busily trying to get all the last minute jobs done before we leave Mexico for what will probably be quite a while - unless of course we are forced by bad luck to have to go into Puerto Madero (the last port in Mexico before entering Guatemalan waters.) It has been a busy 3 months since we arrived back to the boat in San Carlos in December 2004. 

Our time prior to leaving Portland was likewise very busy. We had intended to return to the boat in October, soon after returning from our summer bike trip. One thing led to another and before long we were staring Christmas in the face. As many of you know we had applied for US citizenship when we returned from sailing in the spring of 2003. As INS advised us our interview date would be Dec 12th, it did not seem logical to travel to Mexico and back again, so we now have the citizenship issue behind us.

Last minute jobs, such as putting new laminate floors down in our son's house, kept us in Portland 'till Dec 21st. Grant tried his hardest to get us to stay for Christmas, but we wanted to get back to the boat ASAP. Hurricane Marty had wreaked havoc in the Baja and we had been told our boat was OK but we desperately wanted to make sure for ourselves.

The trip down was anything but boring. We wanted to try and get to Mexico before Christmas, but first the cooling fan clutch failed, so we bought a new one in Redwood CA. The water pump started to go in the San Fernando valley,  so we got towed into the parking lot of a casino in Indio west of Palm Springs. We sprinted 700 miles to Phoenix and back in the Saturn on Christmas eve to pick up two new solar panels from Kyocera (who closed at midday for the holidays.)  Mike bought a new pump and spent Christmas day draped over the RV's engine installing it. There we met our first good Samaritans. A couple from BC in an RV next to us took pity and offered us dinner and cold beer, as we were obviously looking the worse for wear at this stage. We became good friends with Jim and Helen, and traveled on together to San Carlos, arriving Dec 28th.

We were anxious to visit the boat, and after getting the RV set up we headed over to the boat yard. As expected our full boat cover was in shreds. It's amazing it lasted as well as it did. Sunbrella is great fabric for sun protection, but it can't tolerate chafe. The boat was very dusty on deck and covered with shredded blue poly tarp from other boats. Within 2 hours we had all the covers off, the boat opened up, wind generator mounted and BREILA was starting to look like the boat we left.  But there was still much to do to prepare her for our longest sailing journey yet. We moved to the work yard.  As this would be our last haul-out for 2 years, we had a survey done for insurance purposes. The biggest chore was rebuilding the engine.  Mike had removed and rebuilt the cylinder head and this had to be reinstalled. For the last 2 years we had been fighting alternator belt problems. High output alternators pull nearly 2 HP, and if your pulleys are not aligned properly, belts disappear in no time. After 6 hrs of shimming and adjusting it was right at last. After 150 hrs on the engine we are still on the same belt, so far so good. After 10 days in the yard we splashed, the engine started up no problem and we motored around to Marina Real, close to the RV.  Now we started unloading stuff from the boat that we didn't think we needed, and transferred other things from the RV to the boat, net effect: we were still the same level in the water. 

The next task was to sell the RV and the car. These were redundant as we don't plan to be stateside for a few years to come. We drove the RV, towing the Saturn back to Tucson. Along the way we hit a hidden curb (at 55 mph.) The bang was enormous. We did not expect to see the Saturn still connected but it was, however the damage report was not good. The Saturn's right rear suspension was totaled, and the RV's curbside rear rim had a bend big enough to let all the air out. After 1 1/2 hours of roadside work we had backed the Saturn 150 m down the highway to park it in the median (it would only go in reverse,) and drove to a gas station about 8 km away.  We borrowed a towing dolly from some friends in San Carlos, and 2 hrs later we had the Saturn loaded up and headed for Tucson. The first job in Tucson was to find parts for the Saturn and rebuild it.  $200 and 8 hrs later it was driving like its old self. Finding replacement rims for the RV turned out to be a much harder job that took 3 days of searching. After 5 days in Tucson during which time Mike had been suffering from the flu, the RV was left in consignment and Mike drove the Saturn back to its new owner in San Carlos. Cath had taken the bus back 3 days earlier, with her newly-serviced sewing machine to get started on the new dinghy chaps we needed.  So you see, it isn't all palm trees and sandy beaches. After all of these unexpected delays, we finally left the marina and headed out of San Carlos for the last time on January 21st.

So much of the trip from San Carlos to Zihuatanejo has been covered in previous logs, the big difference this time was that we were headed as quickly as possible for Tenacatita with extra crew. We invited Helen and Jim to join us for the 10 day passage - quite an adventure for 2 non sailors. After 4 days not seeing land I think they had had enough adventure, although we were accompanied by dolphins every day, and we finally did catch that fish Jim trolled for daily. After a mixed bag of sailing and motoring we arrived in Tenacatita, dropped the hook and slept for 6 hrs. We took Jim and Helen on the "Jungle Tour" to the next bay and next morning delivered them to Barra de Navidad to take the return trip to San Carlos.

Also different on this trip, for the first time we were sailing "dogless".  Rosie had such a horrible time at the vet's in San Carlos, that we decided we would not be able to find good places to board her while we made our inland travels - especially as we were heading into more remote areas as we sailed south.  So Rosie found a new home with Cath's sister in Toronto, where she has two boys to keep her busy.  We got a chance to visit with her on our motorbike trip, and it was obvious we miss Rosie much more than she misses us.  We were surprised, however, how many people - cruisers friends and Mexicans alike - who remembered and asked after our ship's dog.  

Our friends Kurt and Joanie from Sequim, Washington arrived the next day and we spent a fantastic 7 days with them between Barra and Tenacatita. Kurt is over 6'8" tall, so he spent the time looking for somewhere to stand up on the boat. It was great to be able to just relax, swim when we wanted and generally have a good time with good friends. After Kurt and Joanie left we returned to Tenacatita for 10 days and completed a few more of the projects on the "to do" list - which never seems to get any shorter. The trip down to Zihuatanejo was uneventful, the usual too much wind or not enough and always from the wrong direction.  Zihua was as we had left it last year. SailFest had just finished about a week before. They managed to make $30,000 this year for the school and a couple of other projects, $5,000 more than last year. Jay from INDRA arrived from Vancouver to buddy boat with us down to central America. He also brought with him water maker parts for our leaking unit and charts we had ordered for the west coast of South America.  Murphy lives on our boat too. Just after unrolling the charts, we met Tom and Vicky of SUNSTONE, a British couple in their 6th year of cruising. They are headed in our direction, and had on board a stack of charts they had picked up cheap. We photocopied about 50 of them from Panama to Durban. We could have saved ourselves a bunch of money and angst had we met them earlier. 

After leaving Zihuatanejo we were finally in new territory. It's over 350 miles to Bahias de Huatulco on the north edge of the Golfo de Tehuantepec. The only real shelter along the way is Acapulco, which has a reputation of not being very cruiser friendly. The only shore access for cruisers is via the 2 yacht clubs - one of which is for the very rich, the other falling apart. Mike wanted to stop, Cath did not. We both won! After a day and night of very light to non-existent winds we agreed to spend a night in Puerto Marques, a small sheltered bay just south of the main city. It was a great opportunity to sail by the famous cliff divers and wonder at the size of the developments around this very mountainous bay. Acapulco is one of the oldest resort destinations of Mexico and a big city besides. We were amazed. We have added it to our list of places to visit by land if and when we finish cruising. Leaving the next morning was necessary if we wanted to avoid checking in with the Port Captain. The 250 miles down to Bahias de Huatulco was another mixed bag of sailing and motoring, most of the sailing to weather in light winds (to 12 kts). It was a busy passage with lots of ships coming up from Panama heading to the Mexican ports, big Mexican fish boats working the edge of the continental shelf and a Mexican Navy cutter sitting off Puerto Escondido waiting to board any small vessel heading north. Your tax dollar at work, the US funds drug intervention all across Mexico and it appears all parts of the armed services in Mexico benefit from new equipment and funding. Hopefully they do manage to slow the drug traffic a little.

Finally turning to the NE we headed into the Bahias de Huatulco. Huatulco is another of the Mexican governments' planned tourist developments, in one of the poorest Mexican states. There is actually no town called Huatulco, only 7 or 8 bays of various names stretched out along 20 miles of coast. Some of the bays are only accessible by water and they all have something different to offer - from deserted sand beaches to hotels and palapas lining the shore. After 20 years of development it is still relatively unspoiled. We spent the first night tucked in behind a small reef that broke the ocean swells as they rolled into the bay and the next day motored through crystal clear waters filled with millions of jelly fish. There were turtles and fish feeding frenzies everywhere you looked. We dropped the hook in Bahia Santa Cruz and went ashore to check in with the Port Captain. By late that night the effects of the Tehuantepec winds could be felt in the anchorage. These winds are quite predictable if you know what to look for. High pressure over Texas creates a north wind in the Bay of Campeche on the Gulf side, which roars through the narrow isthmus into the Golfo de Tehuantepec. Winds in excess of 50 knots and big seas raise up in no time at all. It is as if someone throws a switch. So boaters wait either side of the Golfo for a window. There are two ways to cross, heading south you can take a chance of not getting caught by a sudden weather change and head straight across. Or "one foot on the beach", which literally means staying in sight of land, sailing or motoring along the 5-10 fathom line. Even if you are hit by a Tehuantepecker you do not have the huge waves that develop in no time at all in the Golfo. For us in the anchorage it meant refracted winds and swells blowing straight into the bay. After a night of rolling almost rail to rail we moved across the bay and tucked into the shore as much as we dared in 14' of water and waited it out for 3 days.

This area of Mexico, like many others is steeped in history, from the  Olmecs 4000 years ago then the Aztecs - represented in this area by 17 different tribes at various times. Cortez arrived in the early 1500's and used the area as a port to supply colonists along the coast and inland. Drake came around 1578 and everyone fled, due to his reputation. Drake found no gold here, the closest is over a 1000 miles away, so traded with the locals for "huipilies"- the colorful upper garments still worn by the indigenous peoples of Oaxaca. Bahia Santa Cruz gets its name from a famous cross.  A shipwrecked sailor landed in the bay clinging to a big piece of timber. The natives believed he was a god to have arrived in such a way and stood the timber up on the beach. For years they worshipped this wood. Huatulco means " the people who love the wood" so when the Dominicans arrived they decided that the best way to convert the locals to the cross was to make one. So they fastened a cross bar to the famous wood and made a cross "Cruz". So the people worshiped what was now a cross. When Thomas Cavendish arrived in his ship in 1587 to pillage the area all he found was the cross. Legend has it he tried cutting it down and burning it in spite. All efforts failed and finally he tied lines to his ship and tried to pull it out of the sand. It didn't budge and he went away empty handed. The legend of the cross grew and finally the high church in Oaxaca had the cross removed and broken into smaller pieces, which now make up crosses in Oaxaca, the local church here in Santa Cruz and in Rome.

Well that's enough local stuff, the highlight of this area has been our trip to the old colonial city of Oaxaca.  While cruising in Mexico, we had wanted to visit some of the spectacular historic cities.  Time and travel considerations prevented us, so we were determined to make the inland trip to Oaxaca, about 175 miles from Huatulco.  Many cruisers here had the same interest, and as we had to await a weather window anyway, and there is a handy new marina in Huatulco, the timing was perfect.  We took the night bus, 8 hours along twisting mountain passes.  We spent three days in Oaxaca, and it was wonderful.  We toured the Zapotec ruins at Monte Alban, where they leveled seven mountain tops to build a large city.  We poked around the churches and cathedrals - and were awed by the interior of Santo Domingo, completely covered in 23.5 karat gold leaf.  The adjacent ex-monastery, built in the 1500's, has been beautifully restored and now houses a large collection of artifacts.  We sampled regional cuisine in the mercados - moles, chocolate, cheeses, specialty fruits (mamey, zapote, tuna not the fish), and even tried the fried grasshoppers.  They are fried in spicy chile oil, and go down great with the local hooch, mezcal.  We haunted the artisan markets, and admired the beautiful Zapotec rugs.  We purchased woven shawls, and some wooden carvings to grace the boat.  Oaxaca is in the mountains at 6600 feet, and the climate is perfect - high 60's at night, mid 80's in the day, no humidity, clear skies.  It was a refreshing change for us.  Most of the buildings in the old town are built of the indigenous stone - which has a green cast in daylight and glows golden in the evening.  There are lots of leafy cool zocalos (squares), and we wandered around listening to Indian bands play pan flute and unusual stringed instruments.  One particular highlight was our visit to the Rufino Tamayo Prehispanic Collection.  Senor Tamayo was a Oaxacan artist who became very famous.  He used his money to purchase artifacts from the region from 1500 BC to 1500 AD.  He had always intended that the collection be made available to the Mexican people, so the museum is especially good at displaying and explaining these artifacts.  We were amazed at the beauty and expressionism of these items.  Even our return bus trip was eventful.  There had been a rainstorm the day before, and part of the mountainous road had washed out.  Never a dull moment!

We returned to BREILA at the marina in Huatulco, and have heard that our weather window to head south is approaching.  We will make our final check out of Mexico - with visits to Customs, Immigration, the Port Captain (twice), and, of course, the bank. This ends our three year Mexican cruising adventure.  We are really excited about sailing to Central America, and our next log will cover our crossing of the Golfo de Tehuantepec, through Guatemala, and in to El Salvador.