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Wooden Canoe Bahia del Sol
Parrot Bahia del Sol
Thea - ready to hoist anchor
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Cockpit Underway
Dock Party
Following a terrific dock party organized by SV Effie, we left Huatulco at about 9:30 am on Saturday March 7 to cross the Tehuantapec with Effie, Ecos, Equinox and Inspiration. Lost Elvis arrived at the entrance to Bahia del Sol, El Salvador on Monday March 9 at about 7 pm. We decide on Bahia del Sol rather than Barillas because we wanted to spend some time in El Salvador and Barillas is remote and does not have much to do. See http://www.sailsarana.com/ – they have a whole guide on Bahia del Sol.
The actual crossing of the Tehuantapec was unenventful; other than Effie and Equinox bragging about the Dorado they caught. The gulf was like a lake with no wind. We got a bit of a push from a strong current for the first few hours. The second morning I woke up for my 6 am, 6 hour shift and Randy went to bed for 6 hours as he had just finished his midnight to 6 am shift. It was still flat and calm so I did my exercises on deck, did some Sudokus, read my Spanish for Dummies book and watched the dolphins surfing in our bow wake. The next morning was quite the opposite. I woke up for my early shift and just as Randy was heading below we got slammed with offshore winds of up to 30 knots. Randy didn’t want to leave me up there in that kind of weather so he stayed up in the cockpit. Once the winds diminished to about 15 knots, he went back down to sleep but couldn’t so he rejoined me in the cockpit where within minutes our autohelm quit and the winds picked up again. Exhausted, Randy manually steered Elvis. I relieved him occasionally for a few minutes and my shoulders felt the strain of old Elvis bucking through the seas and the winds. The wind tapered off again and was right on our nose (as usual) so we took the sails down about 5 hours before our arrival. Of course with the wind in our face and no sailing, the seas grew to 12 feet swells on our beam. As our friend Paul says “that was the opposite of ‘fun’”. We finally arrived at Bahia del sol at 7 pm on March 9 but it was too late to cross the bar so we anchored in an uncomfortable swell. The next day Equinox, Inspiration and Effie arrived and anchored with us to wait for the panga to guide us through the surf and the bar. Going through the surf and the bar was a piece of cake. Me raising the anchor in a 12 foot pitching sea just prior to that was more dangerous than the bar. The pilot, Rojelio was an expert and just kept saying “no problem” over the radio.
The marina is part of a quiet hotel complex with a pool, power, cable, a restaurant and $1 beer. The estuary is huge with interesting “stilt restaurants” to have fresh fish and a small town called La Herradura. We are tied up at the marina but may move out to anchor (which is free).
El Salvador seems to have a greater gap between the rich and the poor. That’s probably why the FMLN did so well in the elections yesterday (51%). It is a beautiful country and the people (with the exception of my former cleaning lady in Vancouver) are very nice, honest and pleasant.
We took a quick trip in to San Salvador to go to PriceSmart (Costco) and to Burger King (for Randy). Tomorrow we are going to visit a weaving town, some ruins and a volcano.
I don’t know when I have to return to Vancouver so we might leave here in the next five days or so and head for Costa Rica.
Today I am going to help a local woman from Vancouver teach English. She has about 30 children, twice a week in several classes. She has cashew trees on her property so I have seen the fruit and the nut. No wonder they are so expensive.
The actual crossing of the Tehuantapec was unenventful; other than Effie and Equinox bragging about the Dorado they caught. The gulf was like a lake with no wind. We got a bit of a push from a strong current for the first few hours. The second morning I woke up for my 6 am, 6 hour shift and Randy went to bed for 6 hours as he had just finished his midnight to 6 am shift. It was still flat and calm so I did my exercises on deck, did some Sudokus, read my Spanish for Dummies book and watched the dolphins surfing in our bow wake. The next morning was quite the opposite. I woke up for my early shift and just as Randy was heading below we got slammed with offshore winds of up to 30 knots. Randy didn’t want to leave me up there in that kind of weather so he stayed up in the cockpit. Once the winds diminished to about 15 knots, he went back down to sleep but couldn’t so he rejoined me in the cockpit where within minutes our autohelm quit and the winds picked up again. Exhausted, Randy manually steered Elvis. I relieved him occasionally for a few minutes and my shoulders felt the strain of old Elvis bucking through the seas and the winds. The wind tapered off again and was right on our nose (as usual) so we took the sails down about 5 hours before our arrival. Of course with the wind in our face and no sailing, the seas grew to 12 feet swells on our beam. As our friend Paul says “that was the opposite of ‘fun’”. We finally arrived at Bahia del sol at 7 pm on March 9 but it was too late to cross the bar so we anchored in an uncomfortable swell. The next day Equinox, Inspiration and Effie arrived and anchored with us to wait for the panga to guide us through the surf and the bar. Going through the surf and the bar was a piece of cake. Me raising the anchor in a 12 foot pitching sea just prior to that was more dangerous than the bar. The pilot, Rojelio was an expert and just kept saying “no problem” over the radio.
The marina is part of a quiet hotel complex with a pool, power, cable, a restaurant and $1 beer. The estuary is huge with interesting “stilt restaurants” to have fresh fish and a small town called La Herradura. We are tied up at the marina but may move out to anchor (which is free).
El Salvador seems to have a greater gap between the rich and the poor. That’s probably why the FMLN did so well in the elections yesterday (51%). It is a beautiful country and the people (with the exception of my former cleaning lady in Vancouver) are very nice, honest and pleasant.
We took a quick trip in to San Salvador to go to PriceSmart (Costco) and to Burger King (for Randy). Tomorrow we are going to visit a weaving town, some ruins and a volcano.
I don’t know when I have to return to Vancouver so we might leave here in the next five days or so and head for Costa Rica.
Today I am going to help a local woman from Vancouver teach English. She has about 30 children, twice a week in several classes. She has cashew trees on her property so I have seen the fruit and the nut. No wonder they are so expensive.
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