As you do when you are a living full time on a cruising sailboat, watching the weather becomes a daily occurrence. As we prepared to leave the Huatulco Bay National Park we would discuss weather over breakfast -- and dinner. We were looking for a good 48 hour window of calm weather that we enable us to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec without to much trauma.
This area has pulsing winds that are created when a low pressure system crosses North America, down through the Gulf of America (or as everyone every else knows as the Gulf of Mexico) and escapes through a low point in the Mexico mountains. Due to the funnel effect created between pressure systems and mountains the speed increases. Then, it abates a few days later creating calm conditions. So the wind is all ON or all OFF.
There are two strategies for crossing this gulf. One is to cross on a rhumb line (shortest direction between two points) or to follow the curve of the Gulf and stay close to the beach. This second approach is longer but enables a boat to go in close to shore and anchor in the lee of the beach in the event that big winds show up which they can do in a matter of 3-6 hours.
We had a great, but short window (about 48 hours) and the predictions were giving high confidence to be correct. So with full fuel tanks we took the direct route. We left at 5 am on Tuesday and by Wednesday morning we were happily passed the 'dangerous' area.
We had delightful calm seas and less than 5 knots of wind. We saw many dolphins and turtles along the way which made up for our annoyance that we had to motor the entire way.
We pulled into Puerto Madera, Chiapas Marina at about 2 PM on Wednesday afternoon. At 14 degrees south, in a lagoon surrounded by green mangroves and palms the sound of the tropical birds reminds us we are bordering central america jungle areas. We are now just 13 miles from the Guatemala border.
There is a coffee processing plant on one side of the marina and a navy base on the other. There are limited services (ok, really none) within walking distance. The nearest city Tapachula is 20 miles away and we are pleased to know there is a walmart and a sams club there that we'll get to at some point.
Our friends, that left the same time to cross the Tehuantepecs had a bit of a more exhausting trip -- their fuel gauge malfunctioned and they ran out of fuel 10 miles before getting to the port. The wind had died and the current was pushing them backwards. So they anchored out for awhile in the shallow waters, then as luck would have it the wind picked up ever so slightly such that they could make it close to the port's breakwater. Dan was able to run 10 gallons of diesel out to them in our dingy so they could make the final mile of the passage.
And now we are settling in with the AC cranked up, running our power tools and enjoying a respite from a boat that isn't rocking. We've got a list of 20 things we plan to do here on the boat before we continue on towards Costa Rica in a few weeks. There is a small pool here with a community bbq where all the boaters congregate at 4 pm to swap stories every evening. There are less "permanent" boat residents here. This is a harbor where cruisers come in, stay for a few weeks and continue on. So there are always new faces to meet and people to learn from making it very enjoyable. As our lost port in Mexico we are reflecting on our fun adventures here and looking forward to the next.
Onward.
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