Anduril Sailing Blog: Miles and Miles and Adios

Miles and Miles and Adios

The coast from Acapulco to the southern border of Mexico & Guatemala involves a longish bit of sea trekking. Having become lazy sailors, the southern part of Mexico has made us feel the annoyance a teenager might feel after being woken by his parents to get the hell up and go to morning soccer practice. Please, just let me sleep!

If we are on a one or two night crossing, Alice and I like to do relatively short 2 hour watches at night. This schedule means that on each off shift, once the conditions debrief and transition is complete, the life jacket and extra clothes are doused, the visit to the head is done, the log is updated and the eyes are attempted to be closed, there is at maximum 1-1/2 hrs of sleep to be obtained, usually less. No sooner have you achieved REM than you are shaken awake – time for your shift, teenager! Thus can be the blur of sailing. Luckily, after a passage there are destinations to enjoy.

First stop after 212 miles was Puerto Angel, where once again we forgot to reel in the fishing line and it wrapped the prop while we were anchoring. This problem involves an annoying snorkel over the side armed with a knife to cut away the mess. But at least you can do it at anchor after a morning coffee, not while underway. Arriving evening, leaving morning we didn’t even bother to go ashore.

The next day was only 25 miles to Marina Chahue, located among the lovely bays of Huatulco. But the sea as we were arriving was remembering a recent “Tehuantepecker” (strong northerly wind coming from the Gulf of Mexico over land) and there were confused waves coming from all directions, also known as a “washing machine sea.” Here we rendezvoused with our good friends, the “Henderwalds”, Paul and Gaylene.

Marina Chahue is on the outskirts of the town of La Crucecita and much to our surprise this small FONATUR marina has several terrific restaurants dockside. Paul and Xene came expecting to eat only Mexican cuisine, but it is hard to resist a meal of gourmet Italian pasta when it is that proximate to a group of hungry sailors. Mornings gave access to excellent coffee and breakfast fixings followed by exploration of a nearby snorkeling spot and trips into La Crucecita for meals and provisions. With Easter celebrations in full swing the town square was bustling and lots of fun.

After fun there comes duty. The Gulf of Tehuantepec is a 250 mile crossing which is notorious for strong winds. Sailors like to pick periods of calm weather lest they have to deal with gale force winds and steep waves wanting to flush them out to sea. Paul & Xene joined us as cross-watch for this 36 hour crossing, and the Tehuantepec behaved like a pet lamb, with a few hours of nice reaching and the rest of the trip motor sailing. How to describe? Hot. Did we say it was sweaty below? Turtles and night-glowing bow riding dolphins under a 2/3rds moon. A lucky dorado catch. A fishing panga with 3 hungry men begging for food (they got 3 cold beers, a cooked chicken, crackers and cookies, Gatorade and a few bananas and Xene and Paul slept through the whole event). A fresh Dorado dinner, yum. Lots and lots of turtles, drift nets to avoid, flying fish and other jumping pescadores, and also whales.

Arriving at 11pm at Puerto Madero the port Captain kindly advised by radio that we could proceed directly to the docks and tie up. After a celebration margarita it was time for sleep. Holy smokes, did we say it was hot? Three crew somehow reconciled themselves to close-aired bunkage below, but Greg made a bed up on the bow. Misty bits of rain falling in the night failed to drive me below and I opened my tired eyes of first morning light to the sight of camouflage uniformed soldiers on the docks, wanting to board us.

The drug sniffing dog was a jumpy young thing, nervous but friendly. Luckily he missed our drug stash. Yeah right. We older folks are a law-abiding bunch and the truth is the poor dog seemed very eager to get off the boat and away from the cabin stink. But the searching, questions, and paperwork did manage to wake everyone up earlier than teenagers like to arise.

After some hours of boat packing and sail bricking (thanks Paul) we arrange a rental of the marina manager’s spare car and headed into the town of Tapachula for dinner and to see if we could escape the heat of the boat for a night in an air-conditioned room. The town was busy for Easter, but stopping there for dinner, the owner of the lovely Casona Maya Mexicana found us a nearby room with escape from of the heat of oppression.

A long sea trip and a season of sailing done, we wanted to help deliver P&X back towards whence we came and onwards to their destination in Oaxaca, so in the morning we headed in road-trip mode to the south-western border of Chiapas and the towns of Puerto Arista and Tonala. It turns out that the sleepy beach town of P. Arista turns into an Easter weekend vacation and beach concert hot spot. Whoa, four great big stages with musicians, Tecate Beer sponsored beauty contests, hoards of people stretching outwards to the beach horizons and the general atmosphere of a zoo. Cool. Walk the beach for a bit to see the sights, drink a beer and bolt, back-stepping to much quieter Tonala.

Xene and Alice nearly share their birthdays, on the 30^th and 31^st, so we tried to find a suitable restaurant to celebrate and after quite a bit of walking around on Easter Friday looking for open venues came up with: a Taco Stand. But the tacos were excellent and at a nearby Oxo store a few beers were found to wash them down. That night it was a sorry-to-see-them-go goodbye and Paul & Xene boarded a night bus for Oaxaca. G&A road-tripped back the following morning, returning to the boat and 3 more days of boat layup preparations to ready the boat for a summer on the hard.

Boat layup this year was a tedious business of shutting systems down, stowing items and protecting against 6 months of beating sun and torrential rain. Luckily, with Easter ending we were able to find a room and stay during the last two nights of boat prep at the exquisite boutique hotel, La Casona Maya Mexicana.

Haul out was scheduled for 10am and not unpredictably actually occurred on Mexican time, with the lift finally completed at 5pm. This was followed by a flurry of work to finalize engine layup and tarping, all so we could say goodbye to the boat. Adios Anduril, we’ll see you next year when we carry on with our visit of Central America.