Going back to the crossing... our friend Mark arrived on Friday morning, the weather window was open; so we agreed on a midnight departue. After stowing the dinghy and securing the deck, we headed into the night.
There was no wind to speak of, so we motored through the darkness, using our AIS and radar.
The next day, Mark took the helm all day, allowing us some needed rest. We enjoyed sailing at 4- 5 knots on our course!
There was no wind to speak of, so we motored through the darkness, using our AIS and radar.
The next day, Mark took the helm all day, allowing us some needed rest. We enjoyed sailing at 4- 5 knots on our course!
I put out a line, and soon hooked a Bonita. We let him go, and caught another one 5 minutes later. We brought in the line... tired of injuring fish lips for no good reason. That evening the wind backed off, so we motor sailed through the night on 3 to 4 hour watches.
Shortly after sunrise, I was on watch, and noticed a difference in the water about a mile or two ahead.
Very quickly, the wind came up to about 30 or 35 knots ( a guess), with line of building chop as far as I could see! All I could think of was that an unexpected Tehauntepecker was brewing; we were about 8 miles offshore, so I turned into the wind, and our speed dropped to about 2 knots. I woke Karin up, and was seriously concerned about our situation. Fortunately, I think it was a local condition of cool night air descending from the mountains, and it quickly abated. Whew! That was exciting!
The rest of the crossing was uneventful, except on night watch, we passed an unlit panga, miles offshore, and by the time I saw him, had we been a quarter mile north, we would have hit him. Oh well, we didn't!
We were making good time, and had to slow down to arrive in daylight, so we heaved to for a couple hours and had lunch. Shortly after sunrise, we were on our approach into Chiapas.
We docked in the marina. and were soon boarded by the Navy, and Harbormaster; they were very friendly, courteous, and enjoyed telling us about the Miss Pacifico bikini contest, including wet t-shirts! We all had a good laugh. Once we had cleared the paperwork, we headed to the palapa bar for breakfast and our landing cocktail!
That's it! This sailing season is done.... we'll spend the week exploring Tapachula and Puerto Madero until Mark leaves on Monday, then we'll figure out our plan for the summer. We've got more photo's and stories from this week.. so ... we'll update soon.
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