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Published: March 26th 2008
Well, here we are still in Huatulco waiting for a weather window to cross the fearsome Tuhuantepec (sp?), I'm not being facitious (sp?) either, it can be a dangerous passage if you just go whenever, so we sit in a nice marina and wait. It´s not too bad, as we have endless fresh water and electricity. It is unbelievably hot down here and we are taking cold showers 2 to 3 times a day to cool off. El Presidente came here today, but we didn´t see him as he was in the resort area south of us. Supposedly he is designating something like $300 million for this area for tourism development.
As I left the last log entry, I still had quite a few photos to download from our trip from Manzanillo to Puerto Angel to here in Huatulco. Somehow my photos got erased, and I don´t know how it happened. To erase photos you have to actually hit certain buttons for that to happen, and I know I didn´t do anything like that. Oh, well,... that why I hate Cyber Space right now.
Our few days in Manzanillo were pleasant (not as hot as here for sure), but we needed to continue the trip. So we fueled up, watered up, and headed out after only 2 days there.
The trip was pretty uneventful, the weather was mild, but hot, so we sailed and motor-sailed with the cockpit cover up the whole time. We were always hugging the shady spots. We had a couple days where there was tons of traffic out there, traffic in big cargo ships going up and down the coast. One was very close to us, and I did take a photo, but you will have to imagine it now. We also had an interesting visitor for a couple days.
A bird landed on our bow pulpit. It was a booby bird with a light blue beak, and tan and brown feathers. Robin was taking in the head sail, or messing with the pole up forward, and the bird didn´t move, just sat there and preened him/herself. I took a few pics of that too. The next morning, the bird was still there. Took some neat silouettes of that too. Then a bunch of dolphins were jumping and splashing (feeding time) and there are always tons of birds hanging out around them looking for leftovers, well our friend Ms. Booby, took off. I crept up to the bow to see if there was a gift for me...a pretty feather..hmmm, no just shit, shit, and more shit over the anchor area. About 30 minutes later another bird (or the same) came circling back to land, and I chased it away, enough bird shit for one passage I thought.
We saw many, many pods of small dophins feeding. The pods were large too. It was pretty cool. Then one of the mornings Robin and I were up on deck and we see some fisherman in their pangas and all of a sudden we realize we are heading right towards their nets they have spread out . We were sailing, not motoring. I didn´t know what to do , so we started to turn up like we were heading out to sea, then saw more plastic bottles and nets, then we turned down and ended going right through a net. I was a little freaked, as we didn´t want to get a net all caught up under the boat, or in the prop, luckily we werent´motoring. As we went over the next, we realized that our trolling line was still out behind us...(NO. we havén´t caught any fish yet) So we had to pull and pull and our lure was dragging this huge net and the fisherman were rushing in their skiffs towards us. Dang! I thought, this isn´t cool. We thought we would have to cut the line and lose our lure, but then PING! It came off, and we sailed away, looking back behind us, but not for too long, and we weren´t chased! Whew!
Then a little later, or it may have been another day, I was topsides and watching and reading in the shade, and out of the corner of my eye I see something that looks like trash. We had read stories about all the trash in the ocean, and sometimes trash can get caught up in your intake valves and really mess things up. So besides looking out for big tankers and fish nets, we were looking out for trash. I said, Robin, what is that... is that trash? As we slide by, it´s a bloody Striped Marlin on top of the water whoosing around. It had this big sail, and it was the most beautiful colors of aqua marine and dark blue. Course I didn´t have my camera there, and we didn´t have our fish line out in the water either!!!! Of course, I did put the line out, but ...No, we STILL didn´t get a fish. We passed by Acapulco during the day, and the only thing I can say about that place was that the water was the clear, clear aqua light blue, it was sooo pretty.
On the fifth day we decided to enter an achorage called Puerto Angel. It was a very small entrance, and we were the only sailboat in there. We anchored really close to a little palapa beach and nearby was a nice rocky cove for snorkeling... YEAH! I went snorkeling for a couple days, We went into town and shopped, had our laundry done, and went inland to a little town called Pochutla, and bought some really good coffee there. The heat is ON now. When we got back to the boat in the afternoon, I went in the water, showered with fresh, and went for the shade and a cold drink.
We had heard through our marine radio, that our friends we had met in La Cruz (Bill & Jean,,,Jean no.1, I´m Jean no.2) were in Huatulco and there was a lot of room in the Marina, so we deicded to head out of Puerto Angel the next day. We were going to stay longer, but we know our time is limited to get south. Of course the day we left there was a strong swell , 8-9 feet, coming right into the anchorage. Our sleep the night before was horrible, really rolly. So going out that little entrance was quite the challenge. Pretty good sized swells. Once we got out, the wind and waves were right on our nose. The swell mellowed a little, but it was slow going on this passage. Huatulco was about 27 miles southeast of us. As we got closer, I looked off in the distance and saw some blow holes spouting...I know the CA gray whales are more north, so I was a little surprised. Then we saw some whales breeching ahead of us and next to us. Coming completely out of the water. It was pretty exciting. Of course I got my camera and took some photos, ( I HATE CYBER-SPACE!) At one point a whale was behind us about 75 feet back, right on our stern. Now I have read stories about whales and boats, and the boats seem to get the worst of it, so I started yelling , Robin, Robin, there´s a whale right on our stern!!!! Of course, Robin was down below with only one good ear, and the engine is going, so he doesn´t hear me. I felt immobilized, like I couldn't move, About 5 minutes later he pops up and the whale is off to the side about 100 feet away and breeching again. It was a little tense there for me out there....but it was really quite a sight to see .
Finally we see the entrance to the marina around some breaking reefs and rocks. The waves had built up again close to shore, and as we were heading in the boat was getting inbetween these very close swells and we were really reeling side to side, and our boom preventer snaps. Our radar had stopped working before we reached Puerto Angel, so we had some projects to take care of when we reached.
Our friend, Bill, and Robin together were like lttle curious boys who want to take things apart and see how it works, but luckily after two days of digging in wires and checking connectivity, they suceeded in fixing it!!!
So all is well, and we are refueled, and watered up, now we wait.
Will not give up on my camera yet, but I will make sure Robin uses his camera also. Until El Salvador, the voyage continues...Robin & Jean
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Margaret
non-member comment
Whales
I've been in a panga boat and actually touched the whales from the boat. They definately won't hurt your boat and are just curious about people. They will spy hop and breach just to see you. Eye to eye it's rally exciting! Happy trails.