We have had quite the excitement over the last 24 hours. It all began with being boarded by the Mexican Navy for a routine inspection in the southern portion of the Gulf of Tehuantepec on Thursday afternoon. Us, along with the 2 other sailboats we were traveling with were hailed on the radio and advised that they would be boarding each of our boats. We scrambled to get the sails down as the Navy boat deployed an inflatable with 8 men in it and came towards our boat first. Two men boarded the boat, explained that it was a routine inspection circled our boat at a close distance. Both the men onboard and the inflatable were heavily armed. Our documents were inspected and we were asked various questions as dictated by the forms the needed to be completed. The process went well and between our horrible Spanish and their decent English we completed the inspection and were given approval to continue to our destination. Later, Kent and I laughed that we have now been boarded in all 3 countries we have been in thus far (Canada, US and now Mexico).

Saturday came word that there was a Papagallo warning as far north as El Salvador. This combined with the fact that diesel is far cheaper in Mexico than Central America lead us to decide to stop in Puerto Madero, Mexico for the night along with our buddy boat Moody Blues. Since we had checked out of the country in Huatulco this meant we would need to surrender our international zarpe, hire an agent in Puerto Madero to check us back into Mexico and then check us out again and provide us with a new zarpe. Luckily the agent was able to do all of this within a few hours while we fueled up. Turns out the cost of the agent vs. the savings in fuel meant that we broke even. The good news though is we had a greats night sleep in a calm anchorage so it was worth it.

Mexican boarding #2 came as we were at the fuel dock; documentation was reviewed, forms were filled out and we passed with flying colors once again. After 8 hours of much needed sleep we set off from Puerto Madero for El Salvador. Our departure was cut short outside of the breakwater when the Port Captain hailed us and told us we needed to return for an Army inspection. We explained we had already been inspected at the fuel dock but to no avail he explained that we needed to return for another inspection. Frustrated, we took the sails down and reentered the breakwater. By this time we are pros and Mexican boarding #3 is a snap. The only difference is that a drug sniffing black lab named Jon came aboard and took a good sniff around above and below deck as part of the inspection.

We are currently in Mexican waters and working our way to the Guatemalan border, hoping that we are not boarded again by the Mexican Navy who has been known to patrol the border. In 40 hours we anticipate being in El Salvador where we will do the paperwork shuffle again to check into a new country.