Ann
04/22/2012, Bahia del Sol, El Salvadort

We left Flight for a couple of weeks, while we toured in Guatemala and took an immersion Spanish class. First Flight went for a drift about the bay, after the wind came up. Her new mooring, with the new stainless steel shackle, with siezing wire, came apart. Flight drifted across the bay and settled in mud. She did NOT drift up the estuary, and become stranded in the mangroves. She did NOT drift onto another boat, causing heartache and expensive damages. She did NOT drift onto the rocks 80 feet from her resting spot. And most importaantly she did NOT take an outgoing tide over the bar, and try her best summersault. For a bad boat to have left her mooring, she was pretty good overall.
Okay, that was the first excitment while we were gone. The second was also weather related. Bahia del Sol was hit by a microburst. This is an intense weather system. It is short lived (30 minutes), but strong (recorded 70 knot winds). Five boat either dragged or broke from their moorings. This time Flight stayed on her mooring. Anne and Hugh rescued our canvas (see making shade), and said there are some tears. The halyard held, and that kept it from taking a trip out of the bay. I have this image of Flight flying a 30 meter, gray, canvas kite from her mast. I'm just as glad not to have seen it in person. We still have half a week of Spanish School, and I'm worried what will happen next, while we are away.

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Ann
04/07/2012, Bahia del Sol, El Salvador

I've just spent the last twelve days, at the dock, creating shade on the boat. We now have a full cover, well really a ¾ cover of the boat. It didn't really take me the full twelve days, but it has taken most of them. It is an unusual design, because we want maximum shade, and still be able to walk on our decks, but we can't cover the solar panels, especially the big one on the dodger (three feet off the deck.) I did the bulk of the sewing on the boat, since the hotel is full with Semana Santos revelers - they leave tomorrow and peace will reign again.
Kara is excited about the shade, not because the boat will be cooler, but because we have a place for our hammock. I pulled it out and Dave and Kara strung it up. It looked pretty nice. Kara climbed in, smiled and said it smelled like Christmas. Christmas? I sniffed -mildew.
"Kara what smells like Christmas?"
"The Hammock. It smells just like our Christmas decorations."
It makes sense, since I keep them in the same locker. Will therapy help her with this association of Yule time and mold?
Hugh, on Serendipity, keeps singing "It beginning to smell a lot like Christmas, mold and mildew galore."

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Kara
04/03/2012, Bahia Del Sol, El Salvador

In El Salvador for the third time Kara fell into the water. We went to the school where El Salvadorians are taught English and the cruisers are taught Spanish. When we were leaving Kara slipped on the bottom step leading to the dinghy. Her foot got scraped on a barnacle. Mary, on Hotspur, who was driving us home, took off her scarf and hat to start the outboard. Her prescription sunglasses were flipped into the water, because they were on her hat. As we were driving home the outboard stopped in the middle of the bay. She restarted it, but when we started to move, it stopped again. A panga came over to help. Mary told the driver she didn't know what the problem was. We gave the line to the panga and he towed us to Hotspur. Kara got dried and put on Carolyn's clothes. The bandaid wouldn't stick, so we taped it onto my foot. Jim got the engine working and we went to TakingFlight and told Ann and Dave about our adventure.

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Ann
03/18/2012, Bahia del Sol

We had mixed feeling about leaving Mexico, for it has been a wonderful home for us. The people are welcoming, the cities beautiful and the shores incredible, and we hope that Central America will be as memorable and pleasurable. We came back from our inland trip and each boat decided at noon to try to check out that day, Friday. The day the Port Captain closed at 2 pm. It took them five hours, but they did it - the Port Captain agreed to let them drop off the paperwork after hours. Over the weekend other boats returned from their inland trip, and more boats crossed the Tuhaunapec. Ten boats checked out the next Monday, and it took them 11 ½ hours. We stayed ahead of the pack leaving for El Salvador.
We had planned for a slow trip. We have motored enough, and wanted to sail. The favorable tide for crossing the bar into the estuary was at 7 am, and only at 7 am. We didn't know if we could sail the 230 miles in less than 48 hours. The navy was late checking us out - five hours, so I had my doubts we could make the tide. When we were in Palenque we learned that the Mayan's have T shaped windows for the wind gods. We don't have any T windows, but we talked highly about the wind gods, maybe it helped. We sailed all the first day, most of the night. When I woke on the second day Dave asked me to help him reef. There was no wind, but Swift Current was 15 miles ahead of us, and had 20 on the nose. We tucked in the reef and sailed all day. It died a few hours before sunset, and the seas were sloppy, but by my watch the seas were calm and we had an easy light air sail. We could have come in with five hours to spare, but we decided to sail slow, and not anchor outside the bar.
Dave and I have very little experience crossing a bar. As it was Howard's birthday, we let Swift Current take the lead. The pilot boat, a red jetski, came out to lead them through the deep water into the channel. Serendipity was second, and since there were four boats, and a short slack tide, they tried to bring two boats in each set of waves. Serendipity got sideways and almost broached - turn on their side. The water come over the side, flooded the cockpit and flowed down below. They are still assessing the damage, but after two hours they noticed they were missing their outboard. The outboard was clamped and locked to the boat, yet was stripped off. We went after Serendipity. Bill the interpreter for the pilot asked if I was nervous. "No, I'm terrified." The instructions were clear, and Dave followed them to the letter. He kept perpendicular to the waves, and then we were slammed by the big one. We started to ride it, and then ride it, and then ride it. I never knew a wave could be that long. By looking at the pictures we deduced we rode the wave for over 25 seconds. We had two smaller waves, and then we were in, all safe. Kara slept through the whole thing. Our GPS has a new maximum speed - 19.2 knots. It was exhilarating, but I'm still scared.
The pilot went out to bring in Hotspur. They were offered the option of waiting until the next day, but they wanted to give it a try. They had a fast ride, and more big waves, but all was well.
El Salvador is lovely and the people welcoming. I'm glad to be here.

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Ann
03/18/2012, Chiapis

After our benign crossing of the Tuhuanapec we spent a week at marina Chiapis. The Marina is on the verge of opening, so the docks are in place, the water and electrical lines are in place, but there is no electricity and the water is intermittent. While things are under construction we can use of the slips, for free. Once things get going this will be a nice marina. Enrique is welcoming and enthusiastic. He hopes Tapachula (the city nearby) will become a tourist destination, and the Marina a boater's haven.
We took advantage of the free docks to head inland again. The state of Chiapis is the home to San Cristobal de las Casas, the waterfalls at Agua Azul, the cascades at Misol-ah and the ruins near Palenque. The Morelia team (Serendipity, Swift Current and Taking Flight) were joined by Hotspur (with the delightful Carolyn) for the trip. This brought the number to 11. It felt like we needed a sheepdog to herd us along. For such a big group, things went surprisingly well. The hardest part was finding places to sleep and eat. Anne on Serendipity took most of that pain away by researching possible eateries ahead of time. We had incredible Italian food in San Cristobal, because Anne had walked by the café in the morning and saw a crowd. Dinner was their slow time, so we had the great food, and a relaxed atmosphere. We didn't stay at the hotels we had scoped out on the internet, but found clean, cheap spots near the bus stations. The other challenge of this trip had nothing to do with the number of people, just the size of Chiapias and the state of the roads. It was nine hours to San Cristobal, not the six we were told, and it was another five and a half to Palenque. When we got to Palenque we completely changed our return itinerary. We decided to have a driver return us San Cristobal, and stop along the way to the various sites. Then we took the night bus back to Tapachula. This worked well, although we would have enjoyed more time at the ruins, but it saved us about five hours in bus time.
What we saw? San Cristobal is packed with museums. This part of Mexico is known for weaving. Each indigenous tribe has their own patterns. San Cristobal is in the mountains, and cold. The women wear skirts made of llama wool to keep them warm, but we had our cruiser garb, and just wore more layers. Palenque is not as high, so was much warmer. The trick was to stay cool in Palenque, yet not freeze in San Cristobal or the night bus. Jade and amber were found in abundance, so there were museums for each. The best part of San Crisobal for our family was a pastry shop, that reviled Madame Dumas in New York. They must have a better butter source than I have ever found, and the éclairs had the proper consistency, not tough but solid. We went three times, including just before the night bus.
Palenque is a famous archeological site. It was the center of the Mayan golden age. We got a guide for the ruins and learned so much, but my retention was tested. I want to learn about these built huge burial pyramids, figured out ways to bring light into huge structures with small windows and white walls, which used an accurate calendar for centuries and had an intricate religion that focused on the underworld and corn. I can't explain all the details, but I really want to learn more. Our guide, Edgar, recommended a documentary by the Discovery Channel.
The waterfalls were spectacular. Misol-Ah is a huge cascade with a path in the back. There is a cave under the falls that Kara and Caroline explored. Agua Azul is over 2 km of waterfalls. There are three swimming pools, and water a tropic blue. When the sun came out it was breathtaking. The pictures in the photo gallery almost do it justice.

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Ann
03/14/2012, Huatulco

We spent ten days in the Huatulco area. We arrived two day before a weather window to cross the Tehuantepec. Well, that was too soon, so we decided to hang out in some of the outer anchorages until just before the next weather window. We can always go into the Huatulco anchorage or marina later. Sometime later never happened. We spent four days in La India a tranquil spot behind a reef. Every day from 10 to 2 tour boats arrived and spouted out their passengers who snorkeled and played on the beach. So Serendipity and Taking Flight had the white beach to ourselves each morning and the late afternoon. We would swim ashore and sit at the water's edge. Kara has perfected her snorkeling, not by studying the reefs, but by shell hunting in the surf. Hotspur, who have Jim, Meri, Tim (age 17) and Carolyn (a delightful age 12) joined us for a day.
After La India we went to Maguey (five miles away) that is populated by a dozen palapa restaurants. More tour boats come here, but with no electricity they close at sunset. Here we met Gabriel, who worked at Casa del Abuelo. Gabriel fed us, serenaded us and offered a new freedom. He suggested we taxi into Huatulco for fuel and provisions, and wait out the weather window in his beautiful bay. After checking out the rolly anchorage by the fuel docks we saw wisdom to his suggestion. One day at the marina would cost more than four taxi rides. We did Gabriel one better by staying in the anchorage next door, Organo, which was out of the Tehuantepec swell. It was a five minute dinghy ride to Gabriel. Again we had the tour boats from mid morning to late afternoon, but not as many or as big.
I should write about the Tehuantepec. Dave and I have been hearing about this stretch of water for ten years. We have feared the forty knot winds that come up quickly with 18 foot seas to roll the boat like a cork. We know a boat that was turned back, because they didn't think it would be that bad. We know another boat that screamed along in 30 knot wind with one foot on the beach (you stay less than a quarter mile to shore in 30 feet of water so there is no swell.) We had none of this. We wished for more wind, but were satisfied to motor calmly across. No great sea story here.

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