Crossing the Tehuantepec

Crossing the Tehuantepec 

0800 I made a couple of egg salad sandwiches, ham and cheese sandwiches, fruit salad and portioned out the chili so we had ready to go meals for the next 3 days.

0900 anchor is up and we are underway.

1120: dropped the hook at Playa Tagalunda. David wanted to check the forecast one last time so we needed to be in a place where we could get on the computer. Things look good for the next three and a half days. Four other boats have also decided to do the crossing so we have a convoy! Confidence, Marova, Sea Swift, Elizabeth Jean  and Meridian.

We had some time to kill as we wanted to time our actual crossing for daylight hours the next day. So I jumped in the water and swam to the buoy line and back and then cleaned the water line of the boat. David has already eaten one of the sandwiches! We both had showers on deck and are ready to go. 

As you can see from the pictures - this beach is the one with the upscale hotels on it. 

The nice thing about Huatulco is that the beaches range from natural to high end and everything in between. Out of the nine bays we managed to anchor in 5 of them. La India was by far the best for swimming, clarity and fish.

1328: anchor up. Seas are lumpy. Steering a course of 100* at a speed of 4.7. Winds are on the nose at 5-7 knots.  We can see Marova coming out of Bahia Chiapas. Sea Swift is at the dock getting fuel and will be departing soon.

So before I go any further I think it is time to describe the Tehuantepec. This will give you an idea as to why crossing it is such a big deal for sailors. But before I get into it I must let you know that we have crossed it with ease, in fact it was almost anticlimactic as we motored for most of the crossing. And we are sitting comfortably in a marina on the other side. 

The Tehuantepec winds funnel through a 100 mile gap in the Southern section of the Sierra Madre mountain range. 

These winds start in the Gulf of Mexico and funnel across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec through the Chivela Pass. During the winter months the trade winds from the Gulf of Mexico along with the cool air from Central America blast across the Gulf of Tehuantepec. Think of the shape of a megaphone, narrow at one end and wide at the other. As the funnel gets wider, the winds get stronger and the seas get higher extending 100 miles out to sea in a NNE to SSW direction. 

Above is an example of a Grib file used for forecasting. The more flags on the arrow, the stronger the wind. This is what it looked like last week and the reason why we did not cross then. The little white box states the wind speed at 45 knots and the seas at 6.2. And they say you can add 15 knots to that to get the real picture.

The winds can last several days and reach gale to storm force. Historically the worst time to cross is December/January. What month is this? So this time of year weather forecasting becomes really important. Mother Nature decides when you leave. Trying to keep to a timeline will only get you in trouble.

Because the driver is the wind in the Gulf of Mexico you keep your eye open for a wind blowing from the northerly quadrant in Bahia de Campeche. This will be characterized by a high in Texas or the Gulf of Mexico.

They had just finished blowing for the last 10 days with only a short decline for a day or so in the middle. This was an especially long period for this time of year. The winds blew over 45 knots and seas got to 20 feet every 5-6 seconds.

The forecast is predicting a 3 and a half day lull with conditions good until Friday evening. The forecast was talking about a low developing in Texas. The crossing should take about two full days - 48 hours. So 5 boats decided to head across.

Now all cruising books will tell you to keep one foot on the beach (2-3 miles from the shore) in order to stay in the lee of the land. If the winds do pick up and have been known to do so quite uuexpectantly, then you can anchor close to shore and wait it out. Running a rhumb line 

( straight line between Huatulco and Chiapas) will save you about 30 miles and roughly 8 hours but it is not recommended. You are exposed to a larger portion of the funnel and no place to find refuge.

We decided to rhumb line it! Why? There was consensus among all five boats for the following reasons:

- good sea conditions

- light favorable winds

- large weather window for this time of year

- would miss the fishing active and long line nets along the shoreline

- less marine traffic in general

I was a bit apprehensive but I have to have faith in my captain. 3 of the 5 captains have a lot of experience so I had to trust their judgement.

Now I will get back to the crossing!

1412: big turtle, loggerhead, green or leatherback.

1423: Call from Sea Swift. Barry and Armon have left Chiapas

1441: lots of Rays jumping around. They are quite acrobatic with about a 2 foot wing span.

1500: I can just make out Sea Swift on the horizon. Marova is pulling ahead of us. The swell is getting a bit bigger and the seas are getting lumpier. But this boat is so solid that you can hardly feel the lumps. How comfortable is it? Well David is sleeping and I am reading a book!

1629: another turtle. Seas are starting to calm down. Marova has really picked up speed and is slowly moving out of site. They are having some issues with their auto helm which means they could be hand steering all the way across. Could be a reason for them to pick up speed. 22 miles out. 198 to go!

1658: Captain is up. A lonely dolphin has come over to say hello. You must bear with me. When you are on watch for 3 hours and are surrounded by blue water and blue sky and no land in site it becomes a pretty big event when you see something - thus making it noteworthy!

1705: I no sooner got the last entry written when I looked up to witness a site that really was noteworthy. I guess the lonely dolphin called over his friends because we were now surrounded by about 50 of them. And these were large Dolphins, as large as 6 feet long. They started racing with Confidence and you could see six to ten of them at any given time directly under the bowsprit! Some of them were jumping out of the water - so close that they were getting me wet with the splash. It was like watching an episode of National geographic live! This show must have gone on for over an hour!

1840: the wind was starting to pick up so I decided to roll out the Genoa and motor sail. I decided against pulling back on the throttle to see what my speed would be without the motor. But I knew that if I did that David would wake up. I only had another hour on my watch so I chose to motor sail at a respectable 5.8 knots. The winds were from the SE which is unusual for this time of year but at least we had some wind.

2000: captain was up and I heated the chili for dinner. And then I went to bed.

2030: a lot of phosphorescence in the water tonight. Dozens of Dolphins "torpedoes" streaking towards the boat.

2100: radio check- in across the fleet. All is well. Everyone is anticipating northerly winds after midnight. We will see.....

2400: I am up for my watch. The wind has shifted so we moved the preventer to starboard and rolled in the Genoa. The wind was now due East on our nose. Now I know this may sound weird - you might expect that we should be heading south. Look at an atlas!

Radio check- in. It is very comforting to hear Barry's voice across the waters. He is 1.7 nm aft and we can clearly see his running lights. We can hear Marova but he is unable to pick us up on the radio. He is over the horizon and is no longer visible.We can pick up Meridian and can also see his lights about 3 miles ahead, just off the starboard side.

Elizabeth Jean is a little closer to the beach.

Ursa Major is abeam on our port side. Orion is aft on our starboard quarter. Jupiter is directly above. Polaris is aft on our port side.

Time for tea and Oreo cookies!

0101: Shooting star

0157: I have lost the smell of the land. We are approximately 30 miles off shore abeam of Santiago Astrada

0245: Genoa unfurled. Cruising at 5.5 knots. Winds NE at 8 knots

0300: check- in with the fleet. It is nice having this check-in. First of all it means someone to talk to! It helps to break up the watch though I believe that David and I take longer watches then anyone. A couple of dolphins jumped beside the boat to say hello.

0430: BA is down and the motor is off. Finally we re sailing! 5 knots

 0600: radio check- in and all is good. Marova solved their auto helm issue. Barry also had some transmission problems but managed to do a temporary fix.

0800: position is 15*22.5 N 94*44.7W

47 miles offshore

0900: Captain is taking a nap but not before he makes me a wonderful cup of coffee. That is one thing about Mexico -no end to really really good coffee! Fruit salad and egg salad sandwich for breakfast. And yes, we are still sailing!

0915: I crossed over to the starboard side of Sea Swift. Course 100* 4.5 to 6.5 knots

0945: turtle

1012: 110 nm At the halfway mark! I could make out another sailboat heading west.

1200: noon position 15*17.5N 94*24 W Wind is starting to die. 3 knots

1230: We had a visit from a very curious whale - looked like a juvenile humpback but still as long as the boat! He came beside us a couple of times and just hung around behind us. David is hoping that he doesn't want to become too amorous with Confidence! This time I even got a picture!

The blue thing in the picture is our awning. Let's you know just how close he was to our boat. At one point he was even closer!

1300: David noticed that the shackle on the Genoa was hanging down. The pin had worked its way out. He got the container out and luck was on our side this time as he was able to find a replacement pin - the correct size. This time he put an extra electrical tie on it so it couldn't back off.

Speed down at 2 knots so we started the motor and rolled in the Genoa. I decided to whip up some Hot and Sour soup for lunch.

1634: we are seeing a lot of turtles again. Also a large school of fish and lots of Rays jumping out of the water. Too far away for pictures but pretty clear with the binoculars.

1700 BA tries to lay down. Just got to sleep when I was woken by voices and no motion with the boat.

David was doing a radio check when he noticed a panga approaching at a rapid speed. He had picked up a long line with baited hooks on the lower bob stay fitting. Immediately put the boat in neutral. He was able to unhook it with the boat hook and it sunk below the boat. Whew! The fisherman told him that he should be clear for the rest of the crossing.

You really do not expect to see a panga fishing 60 miles offshore but I guess they were taking advantage of the weather window also!

1900: Hot and Sour soup for dinner. Time to try and get some more sleep.

1935: moon rise. Orange sliver of a moon which Venus close by!

2100: radio check- in. Elizabeth Jean also picked up a long line but were able to back off on it and carry on

2123: shooting star. It is a clear and starry night. Moon has already gone to bed but the starts are so bright that you can still make out the horizon quite clearly. We are picking up a bit of wind but not enough to sail and we are fighting a 1 knot current.

2200-0200 David took over the watch.

0600 check-in and all is good. David is sleeping well so I have decided to let him sleep til he wakes up on his own. I am feeling remarkably well and want to finish my book! Guess it's all those years on the night shift!

0641: The sun has risen and the world is waking up. There is a short chop. Winds are less then 5 knots from the SW

I am thinking of one of BA's famous skillet scrambles for breakfast!

0700: several Dolphins have arrived to greet the day and play in the bow wake.  39 miles to go" and I can smell land again.

0722: Captain finally rises

0735: unfurled the Genoa. Light NW'ly  We still have a 1 knot current against us.

0900: Meridian ahead of us with an ETA at the marina of 1200. Mirova's ETA is 1300. Confidence is 1519. Sea Swift is 1730. Elizabeth Jean still has 40 nm to go as they hugged the beach til the 16* before rhumb lining it.

0915: watermarker on. First taste test was good.

1045: large naval vessel just barely visible on the port side.

1130: seas uncharacteristically calm. Shrimper on the port side. Which means fresh shrimp in Chiapas!

You can see how calm the seas are!

Puerto Mederes - just before the marina and site for the cruise ship and shrimpers and tuna boats

1500: Entrance to the marina

1519: lines secured at Marina Chiapas! Very impressive Marina. The marina manager and staff were on the dock to receive our lines. The port captain and immigration officers were contacted and came to the marina to check all of us in. We were boarded for the first time - complete with dog. We were told that they have a dog for sniffing dope that they use on boats heading north and a dog for sniffing money ( money laundering) for those heading south. Do not know how true that it. And of course two guys with guns - one on the dock and one on the bow. But everyone was very friendly and the process was very efficient.

We were all commenting how anticlimactic the crossing was after all the angst we were feeling getting ready for the crossing. There was an 85 foot boat in the marina that crossed a couple of days before us - he was on a schedule and did not wait for the weather window. The winds were over 50 knots, he did an accidental gibe (winds changed direction and boom came flying across). Boom was bent, mainsail was torn and one of the winches was sheered off. They figure over $100,000 in damage. So all of a sudden we were all very happy with our anticlimactic Tehuantepec crossing! We are happy to leave the wild stories for someone else! 

Celebratory dinner at the fine palapa restaurant at the marina.

We did it!