Liebling at Marina Chiapas

Gulf of Tehuantepec – a non-issue (with the right weather window) After all my anxiety over the crossing, we crossed the Tehuantepec without any problem. I believe that we timed it just right with a 2 ½ day weather window. We left at 12 noon on Monday (for the 40 hour passage) wanting to get to the next safe port (Marina Chiapas) during daylight hours in the morning. There was wind and some waves for the first 10 hours but nothing that we couldn’t handle. We then passed the port of Selena Cruz where there is a refinery and lots of tanker traffic. We passed by about 5+ miles out so no problem. As we traveled further east we then came upon the fleet of fishing boats. They are huge boats with lots of lights and nets. There must have been 40 of them. As this was the end of my watch I woke Jim because the line of boats looked like a flotilla of sea creatures ready to eat us up. I thought that they were all in a line but in reality they were spread out over about 5 miles with gaps in between. We motored carefully and slowly forward and picked our way through. Thank God for our radar which showed the distance between the boats and their spacing!! Being alert was the name of the game and we made it through the gauntlet! The next 30 hours was a dream with winds 10-15 on our side. We were able to sail a beam reach for most of that time at 4-5 knots. We even had to slow Liebling down because we didn’t want to get here in the dark. There was almost a full moon all night and it was a delight to be sailing in the calm water with our music serenading us in the cockpit. Our good friends Romana and Jan caught our dock lines and we arrived safely to the marina at about 8:30 am. We will now plan our trips inland. There are all kinds of ruins and coffee plantations in the mountains here. The locals say it is cold up there but 70 degrees during the day and 50 at night sounds great to me. During the day here at the marina our temperature in the cabin has reached 93 degrees! But we have 220 volt 50 amp power so now in the afternoon when it really heats up we can run the air conditioner. We have seen flocks of Egrets, Cranes and other birds that nest behind the marina. Hopefully I will get a picture of them tonight. All is well we miss you all! Linda and Jim