The night before we left we had sundowners on s/v Island Summers. It was a great get together before we all make the 3-day, 2-night voyage across the Gulf of Tehuantepec to Chiapas. The Gulf of Tehuantepec is famous for its “Tehuano” gale-force winds that blow through the Isthmus of Tehuantepec and its abundant marine life.
We departed our little anchorage at Playa Organo (in Huatulco, Oaxaca) on a Thursday morning. There’s always lots to do on departure day . . . boat checks, remove the dinghy outboard and mount it on its stand for the passage, secure the dinghy, pull up the stern anchor (by hand), and the bow anchor (although the windless is electric :-), and take Riley to the beach. Riley has his fake grass on the boat but he likes the beach better, so off Kevin and Riley went.
The surf was up and the sand was soft but Kevin managed to get the dinghy safely up on the beach (wheels on the dinghy are very handy for rolling the dinghy onto the beach). The return trip — not so successful. Just as Kevin was trying to push the dinghy off the shelf into deeper water the dinghy wheels stuck in the sand at the same moment that a big wave broke just behind the dinghy. The waves picked up the rear of the dinghy and all at the same time turned it sideways, filled it half-full of water and almost flipped it over. Wet but still upright, Kevin dove into the dingy with Riley in hand and got the engine started and backed away from the beach. His only consolation was that a panga trying to pick up snorkelers was not doing any better with the sudden train of large waves arriving.
We pulled the main anchor up and departed in the company of about 5 other boats who had been sharing the anchorage and also planned to cross the ‘Golfo de Tehuantepec’. For two days we shared intel on the VHF radio and our WhatsApp chat group. Boats pointed out pangas and black flags indicating long lines and we loosely competed to go as fast as we could under sail. Near the end of the first day we all were able to fly our spinnakers until the sun started to set. (It’s the rare sailor that flies a spinnaker at night – too many lines, all attached on the foredeck to deal with if something goes haywire in the middle of the night.)
Our course took us straight across the gulf so we’d eventually get about 50nm offshore. On the morning of the second day, Kevin returned from briefly doing something below and saw that we’d snagged a string of white plastic bottles (long line floats) and directly behind our port rudder was a thoroughly tangled sea turtle. Kevin quickly hailed nearby boats that he was stopping to free the long line and the turtle. Harnessed to the boat, we lowered the swim step and managed to untangle the line the turtle was wrapped in and cut him free. (YAY!) The sea turtle swam off but there was still a line strung around the boat — maybe. Kevin put on his mask and fins and freed the line and jumped in off the stern of the boat and swam around checking that nothing else was wrong or most importantly wrapped on the prop. 50nm from shore the water is absolutely crystal clear with easily a 100ft of visibility. Of course, with 2000 feet of water under the boat, no one really wants to see anything coming up from below! We (all the boats in our caravan) were all sort of surprised to see long lines with pangas tending them as far out as we were. The long line that we found did NOT seem to have a panga nearby.
Long lines are a constant frustration for us sailors. The legality is questionable. They’re difficult to see and they can potentially do damage to a boat. In addition, they can be a ghost fishing menace that entangles and kills sea life. Did we snag a detached drifting line? Maybe. What can we do about it? Little it seems. At least we freed the tangled turtle.
The rest of our trip was punctuated by beautiful sunsets, moonrises, dawns and an occasional birdle (a sea bird taking a rest by riding on the back of a sea turtle). I thought this was only in cartoons but its very real!
We arrived in Puerto Madero near the Guatemala border and made our way into Marina Chiapas. There we were greeted by the most exhaustive port check-in we’ve yet received. The Port Captain was accompanied by the military with a well-trained Belgian Malenois dog. At this point Bev had to take Riley off the boat. They toured the boat and took many photos and detailed notes before providing us with our port check-in document. We will get to go through this routine again when we check out.
Marina Chiapas is located off the Pacific Ocean up a long estuary in the jungle. You exit the surf and follow a few sea buoys making sure to watch your depth and stay in the deepest part of the channel. There are many coconut and banana trees lining the waterway. It’s very hot and humid but lucky for us, this marina has a nice swimming pool and a bar staffed with a very nice dama named LillyAnna.
Leave a Reply