March 2017 – Adagio’s Voyage

On the Border

Arriving in Chiapas is a whole different experience than any other port in Mexico we have stopped at. Because it is on the border with Guatemala, the Mexican Navy boards every boat in and out of the port to inspect it with the drug dog. That was a first for us.

As we approached Chiapas, we called the Port Captain on channel 16 to request permission to enter the port. We had been told we had to do this by another friend and that they would not respond to you if you hailed them in English. Mike did an awesome job calling in Spanish. What was funny about it was at the end of their conversation when the guy realized Mike was trying to reach for the right words in Spanish, the guy just started speaking English. Sheesh.

Anyway, we pulled into the marina and unfortunately had a bit of a rough time. We were assigned to a slip where we had to make a 180 degree turn to get in through a narrow fairway. And, just as we were starting to turn, the wind picked up. Our bow was being blown by the wind and we couldn’t make the turn. To top it all off, the engine died twice while Mike was shifting between forward and reverse. Both Mike & I (and I think everyone on the dock) about had a heart attack. Luckily we didn’t crash into anything and Mike was able to back us out safely, but the stress was a bit much.

We couldn’t get into the assigned slip and the marina staff just yelled at us to pull in anywhere we could. We were able to pull into another, larger slip facing the opposite direction. Whew! I hate docking.

We were very happy to be reunited with our friends Mike & Katie (and their dog Penny) on Kya. They invited us over for drinks that night. They also invited two French couples from a catamaran called Ivadel. We had a fun time with Kya and our new French friends. We found out that Phillipe used to own a bakery in Paris, and he invited Katie and I over the next morning to give us a lesson on how to bake French baguettes. In return, he would get an English lesson!

The next morning Katie and I gathered on Ivadel with our pens and paper, like all good students, to take notes. Phillipe showed us how to mix and knead the dough, how to let it rise, and the trick to getting that crusty outside of the baguette (hint – steam)! It was so much fun! We learned that Phillipe had a bakery in Paris for 24 years and won all kinds of awards for his pastries. He said he used to make over 4000 baguettes a day. Wow!

I wanted to repay the favor for taking hours out of his day to teach us how to make the baguettes. We still had tons of dorado that we had caught two days earlier, so I invited everyone to a sushi party. Kya was nice enough to let us use their boat since we can’t really fit 8 people on Adagio for dinner.

Now, I’ve never made sushi rolls before, just sashimi, so I’m not sure what I was thinking. But, Mike was up for the challenge and helped me make a whole platter of sushi rolls with our fresh dorado, avocado, cucumber, etc. It just took us a bit longer than anticipated. But, it turned out awesome. We had a great time with everyone and the sushi was delicious.

We made the decision to leave Chiapas on Saturday to arrive in El Salvador on Monday. But, that meant that we had to get our zarpe (exit papers) on Friday. I had NO idea that trying to get out of Mexico would be harder than coming into Mexico!

We started out first thing in the morning in the marina office to fill out the required paperwork and make copies of all of the documents. Then, the marina manager would have to drive us to immigration, the banjercito, customs and the port captain. Everyone has to stamp this same document to let you out of the country. And, everyone wants copies of our boat documents, passport, visa, etc.

So, everything seemed to be going according to plan until just when we were about to leave the marina office. One of the staff came in and told the manager that the road was blocked. Apparently there was some dispute between a company at the port and their transportation contractor, so the contractors decided to block the entire road in protest. Nice. The police were there, but they didn’t really want to get involved.

Thankfully, the marina manager had a 4×4 truck and said he knew a way around. He ended up driving us on dirt roads through a mango grove and banana plantation to get around the road block. Only in Mexico…

After five hours, we were finally back at the marina with our zarpe in hand. I have such mixed feelings about it. I’m sad to leave Mexico, but I’m excited about the next part of our adventure. El Salvador…here we come!

~katie

Tehuantepec Tale

What the heck is a Tehuantepecker, and who came up with that name??? The Gulf of Tehuantepec spans about 250 miles from Huatulco to Chiapas on the Mexico/Guatemalan border. On land is a narrow peninsula between the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean. This low lying area creates a funnel effect drawing strong winds from the Atlantic to Pacific side.

When a Tehuantepecker (the name for the strong winds) is blowing, the winds can reach over 60 knots. But, the real danger is the short, steep waves that can develop. These waves can build up to 10 to 15 feet at 4 to 5 seconds. That is pretty gnarly.

All of the books and sailing blogs, etc. warn you not to become another “Tehuantepec Tale” arriving at your destination exhausted with torn sails or worse. Basically, they all try to scare the shit out of you.

So, the prudent thing to do is to closely watch the weather forecasts and go when there is no Tehuantepecker predicted. There are also lots of “strategies” for how to make the crossing. You can do the straight shot, rhumb line approach and take your chances. But, you have a greater area of exposure to the strong winds. Or, you can take the 16 degree short cut where you head northeast into the Gulf and then cut the corner when you get to 16N. And, of course, there is the “one foot on the beach” approach where you hug the coastline all the way around the bay.

Mike and I read and read all these different pieces of advice and looked at weather forecast after weather forecast. Finally, we just decided we had to go for it. We did NOT want to be stuck in Huatulco for another week waiting for a more perfect forecast.

After we returned from Oaxaca, the forecast started to show the winds dying out the next Monday afternoon, Tuesday looked calm, and then the winds started up again Wednesday afternoon. The 250 mile trip would take us approximately 48 hours. So, the weather window looked tight. But, the funnel effect of the winds means that it really is only about 60 miles or so of that 250 where we would really need to worry about the wind.

We kept looking at the forecast for days as it was changing slightly but still looked like a good window. We had to time the crossing just right. First we decided 6pm Monday would work. But, as it got closer to Monday, we realized we need to leave even earlier. Finally, Monday came and we decided 2pm was the perfect time.

We said goodbye to our friends in Huatulco. Several of them were also going to make the crossing, but they were a bit trepidatious about the window we picked. Everybody has to make their own choices as to when to sail and when not to sail. We certainly would not be pressured to go if we were uncomfortable, and we weren’t going to do that to anyone else either. We made it clear they shouldn’t go just because we were going.

We started out sailing just beautifully, 10-15 kts of wind and not too much swell. As we started to get closer to Salinas Cruz the seas were getting bigger and a bit confused, but we still only had about 10 kts of wind. That changed pretty quickly when we arrived at the “funnel” in the Tehuantepec. As the wind creeped up to 18-20 on a close reach, we put a double reef in the main and pulled in some of the jib.

I had the overnight shift as we headed past Salinas Cruz (the beginning of the funnel effect) and had to drag Mike out of bed twice to reduce sail. We ended up with a triple reef in the main, pulled in the jib completely, and just had part of the staysail out. (Just FYI, we always get the other person up if someone has to go up on deck out of the cockpit, which we have to do to reef the main. We also are clipped in with harnesses to the jacklines.)

The winds settled in at 22-23 for a while and then slowly crept up. I saw it hit 28 and stayed in the 26-28 range for less than an hour before settling back down to 20-22 for the rest of the night. With the wind in my face, I was perched pretty tightly behind the dodger for most of my shift. It wasn’t cold out, but that’s a lot of wind to take for 4 hours!

By the time Mike got up around 5am, the wind had backed down into the teens. The boat handled the wind beautifully, we were properly reefed so the boat wasn’t overpowered, and the hydrovane kept us right on course! But, I was definitely ready for a few hours of rest.

We ended up taking that 16 degree shortcut I mentioned above, but not intentionally. It was just where the wind allowed us to sail. And, we were happy to sail that first 100 miles. We do not like being a motor boat. Unfortunately, after we made it through the funnel, the wind died completely. We only sailed about 3 hours during the day Tuesday, having to motor the rest of the time.

The ONLY advantage to motoring is that it is much easier to fish! If you’ve followed this blog, you know that Mike LOVES to fish. Unless it is really rough out, the trolling lines are off the back of the boat. On Tuesday Mike was in fish heaven.

First we hooked 2 skipjack and threw them back. Next was one of those big jack crevalles. Then we hooked a marlin and saw him jump clear out of the water behind the boat! But, he shook the hook loose (fine with us). Then another jack crevalle. Mike was getting a serious workout at this point trying to drag in those big crevalles.

We had a bit of a lull in the fishing in this point until we hooked another skipjack. But, just as Mike was reeling in the skipjack, we saw a huge dorado going after the skipjack. (I don’t know if he was trying to get the dorado or the lure the skipjack had). Anyway, we tried to get another lure in the water in front of the dorado who was on the surface right next to the boat, but it took off. After throwing back the last skipjack, we were feeling a bit defeated on the fishing front. All those fish, and none that we kept to eat.

A couple hours later, right before sunset, we finally got our fish! After the line started peeling out we saw a huge splash behind the boat and Mike knew it was a dorado. We reeled this guy in and couldn’t believe the size. We measured him at 51 inches! That is the biggest dorado we have ever caught. Mahi mahi for dinner!!!

We had an uneventful last night and the next morning motoring. We arrived at Marina Chiapas around 2pm on Wednesday. We had survived the Tehuantepec and had not become another Tehuantepec Tale.

~katie

Road Trip!

We spent five days at sea sailing from Manzanillo to Huatulco, with a one day layover in Zihuatanejo. The real excitement on that trip was the sailfish that we caught. (Check out the video on our Facebook page.) But, after so many days traveling, we were happy to arrive in Huatulco and have some time off.

Our next leg of the trip would be from Huatulco to Chiapas, where we would have to cross the Gulf of Tehuantepec. I’ll write more about the Gulf of Tehuantepec in a later blog, but it was really important for us to pick a good weather window to make the crossing. When we looked at the forecast upon arrival, it was clear that we were going to stay put for at least a week.

Anjuli, one of the other boats in the marina that traveled with us from Zihuatanejo, mentioned that they were interested in traveling to Oaxaca City and asked if anyone else wanted to go. Since several boats were all in the same position we were, we all decided to go on a road trip to Oaxaca!

We rented three cars and all headed out for a seven hour trip to Oaxaca. In order to get from the coast to Oaxaca, we had to pass over a mountain range that required us to travel the windiest, narrowest roads I’ve ever seen. And, there is no shoulder or guardrail on these roads, so if you screw up you are going off the cliff. I’m really glad Mike was driving and not me. It was bad enough being a passenger…

We arrived in Oaxaca and found our cute little hotel not far from downtown Oaxaca. The city has a population of about 250,000, so it is a decent size city. After dropping off our bags, we decided to walk around the city for a drink and some dinner. We passed several large cathedrals and town squares. Eventually we made our way to the Zocalo, which is the main square in town. After a couple of cervezas and margaritas, we were on a mission for some good street food which is ubiquitous in every Mexican town square. We found a great taco stand and had delicious al pastor tacos. I think we got 10 tacos for 30 pesos (about $1.50). Pretty crazy.

The next morning we got back in the cars to see Monte Alban, the Zapotec ruins which are just outside of town. It was really stunning. These structures were built over 2000 yrs ago. It is amazing that any of them are still standing! The cool thing about the ruins is that you can walk all over them and explore on your own. There aren’t rails and fences prohibiting you from getting close. There are lots of signs and plaques explaining each structure and what it was used for.

This is a pretty big tourist attraction and there were a lot of school groups there on field trip. I would guess most of the kids were probably 5th-7th grade. Several groups of kids came up to us to ask us questions. Many wanted to practice their English, and some wanted to take their picture with us.

But, the funniest interaction was when one group of giggly kids walked up to us and kept looking at each other to see who would speak first. Finally one girl spoke up and asked, “What do you think of Donald Trump?” We both smiled, gave them the thumbs down sign and said “Booooo.” The kids went nuts laughing and jumping up and down. It. Was. Hilarious. I quickly said to Mike, “You should have gotten that on camera.” So, he grabbed the GoPro and ran back over to them to get them to do it on camera again. So funny.

After seeing the ruins, we headed back into town for some lunch and then to the cultural museum. The museum is in a large building connected to the large cathedral at the Zocalo. The building used to be a monastery or convent and was as fascinating as the museum itself. The museum contained all of the artifacts that had been pulled from Monte Alban that we had seen earlier in the day. Many of them were so well preserved, because they had been found sealed in the tombs, similar to the artifacts found in the Egyptian pyramids. It took hours to get through the museum, but it was well worth it.

Oaxaca is also known for two other things: mole and mezcal. If you haven’t had mole, I’m not sure I can explain it to you. There are seven different kinds of mole in Oaxaca. I was only familiar with mole found in Mexican restaurants in the States that usually has chocolate and different spices in it. We went to a restaurant for dinner where you could a sampler off all of the different moles; it was delicious.

I think mezcal can be described as a smoky tequila. It is either made with agave (like tequila) or maguay. We drove down a highway with signs that we were in mezcal alley, with mezcal production all around and hill after hill covered with agave plants. We stopped at one small shop and got to see the maguay plant up close. It looks like an agave. The plant had been roasted (probably set in a fire) as it was charred on the outside. The woman pulled off one of the leaves and cut it into strips for all of us to taste. It was very similar to eating sugar cane. Very sweet! We bought some local mezcal which was awesome. It is funny when we mention mezcal to the locals. People look at you with a smile and say “peligroso” (dangerous). I guess we’ll have to take it easy with the mezcal.

Overall, it was a wonderful trip. And, it got us back to Huatulco just in time to prepare for the crossing of the Tehuantepec!

~Katie