Huatulco Mexico

Huatulco or Wowtulco

We were very impressed by this little town, very safe and friendly, again,

You can walk anywhere, anytime, the presence of police was much much less than in other towns.  Canadians are in great numbers right now in Huatulco. The most remarkable trait of this town though is by far its cleanliness and well watered grass around roads and very healthy palm trees in spite of a drier climate.  Oh also, there was no need to ask taxi drivers how much to go here and there because every destination to and from all parts of town was always 25 pesos (2$), I had never seen that before. 

We went to the farmer’s market held in the Square, I tasted fruit I had never seen before, cacao in its harvested form I had not seen before. The vendors never once called you over to give you a sales pitch or buy, this could have been a market from my own town in the U.S. The behavior was the same. Did you know Oaxaca is a matriarchal society/state where women taunt men? I was surprised.

The nice touch was the folkloric dancing in the middle of the Square, the happy smiles of youth, their dedication to gladness. From there, just a short walk away, lunch on the beach under a large “ombrella”, so relaxing Skipper had to fold his arms and lock fingers behind his head to prevent total abandon to a snooze. This particular small beach had a long pier that extended out to sea a long way to welcome two cruise ships a month. though I was glad that our presence met their absence.

Huatulco is about 5 to 6 hours from Oaxaca City and only 30 minutes by plane. I would have loved to see this city with its ruins and other points of interest, but we now had a schedule to keep and the angst to leave Mexico.

Regrets.

Huatulco is one of the last ports before exiting Mexico, so paperwork is in order, provisioning done, fueling is done. By the way, fueling was interesting, we had to go through an agent that would organize the delivery of fuel by truck to the pier, all three boats quenched their thirst, but only two continued south east; Insignia the 55 Nordhavn decided at the last minute to sail north back to Barra de Navidad. Mike and Louann will be on SpringDay together until we reach Costa Rica where they will drive to the airport to catch their flight home. Thanks for all your help Mike and Louann!

Charming balconies

walking to Market

cacao beans

Jumping sting rays

Preparation for wedding in this very lovely church a few feet from the beach

Relaxing vendor in public Square

Taxi into town

Walking through the Zocalo (Public Square)

Louann and Kay 

Traces of Quebec fast food in Huatulco

Waiting for our "caballeros" at L'Echalotte  French restaurant with its provincial blue

First time ordering fish with head and tail !

Before the hair cut - By the way Don started the trend on Feb 8th!!! He hid the bear until the 12th when we celebrated, anniversary, birthday and Valentines Day. The other two skippers went back to the store to buy their own bear. So atypical of Don. 

On Valentine's day of all days, Skipper walks up to Pilot house looking for my help in shaving his head. He had one side done, but I declined to help disappointed that he had lost his great looking hair.  Suzanne had to finish the job. 

Fueling for departure

 

a passenger

A taste of Tehuanepec wind

A young passenger 

Underway in the bright of day, I keep watching this little bird circling and circling our starboard, near and far high and low, it must have been a good thirty minutes when suddenly it lands in the walkway.  I was so happy to get a close look, I also wanted to know why it wanted a ride. It definitely looks like a very juvenile bird. We were right into the Tehuantepec high winds and perhaps he needed a break.  He walked around from the starboard side, the pilot house door is open I am standing right over the top of him, and he sees me with my camera but he keeps walking passed me, around to the other side and a strong Tehuantepec draft made him tumble, I named him Tehuantepecker.  Sadly my enthusiasm and constant stalking made him depart. Lesson learned.

Dolphins

Just not equipped to capture such beauty with a camera in the dark, so I froze framed it in my mind forever,

dolphins under the bow at night and SpringDay under the Milky Way. Hunched over the railing, below me dolphins gleamed with phosphorescence, a feeling of surprise catches my breath, this is something so beautiful almost inexplicable. How can darkness produce that much wonder. Creation and light, essence of God. Dolphins radiating this surreal light,like a robe of electricity revealing their entire silhouette in one glance from nose to tail fin,  the high speed friction of atoms turning into a glow you have never seen but in animated movies. I stare for a long time by myself, Skipper turns his bright light on me to make sure I am still aboard. I am covered in salty air but I can’t stop looking at them, then I look up and admire the bright Milky Way, light above and light below, a layer of darkness in between. 

Back in the pilot house I am looking at the map now anxious to get to Costa Rica. Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua were overlooked, the paperwork to get in and out of these countries is too much of an inconvenience, and the many comments from cruisers suggested that it may not be safe enough and lastly, we have a deadline to meet for our crew Mike and Louann have to return to Utah on the 23rd of February.  

our position

Ana Mae in Tehuantepec winds in front of us

SpingDay in the Tehuantepec winds

Indispensable FLIR (forward looking infra red)

Sea turtle

cleaning

Four days at sea, one of them is declared a cleaning day. Louann takes the pilot house I take the salon and our shirtless men rinse the salty and sandy covering off of SpringDay's walkways and decks. 

While dusting the inside of SpringDay I am reminded of the many indentations in her amber skin,  I would have never let that happen had I been her first owner, I would have protected her against such assaults. With each stroke I see the many faces of those who took pride in working the teak, the shaping, the finishing the polishing…over in China, birth land of SpringDay. What would they think if they saw their work today. We’ll have to consider a little dermabrasion procedure when we return to the US.

(INFO)

Tehuantepec, or Tehuano wind, is a violent mountain-gap wind traveling through Chivela Pass, most common between October and February. It originates from eastern Mexico as a post-frontal northerly wind, accelerated southward by cold air damming, which crosses the isthmus and blows through the gap between the Mexican and Guatemalan mountains. The term dates back to at least 1929. This wind can reach gale, storm, and hurricane force. The leading edge of its cold front may form rope cloud over the Gulf of Tehuantepec. These winds can be observed on satellite pictures such as scatterometer wind measurements, they influence waves which then propagate as swell and sometimes observed 1,600 km (1,000 mi) away (such as in theGalapagos Islands). These strong winds bring cooler sub-surface waters to the surface of the tropical eastern Pacific ocean and may last from a few hours to 6 days.

But we had the green light from the Marina and our weather router that it would be good for the next 3 days so off we went. The advice given was to make sure all canvas and cushions were stowed, and to keep one foot on shore. Advice not immediately followed however; late at night, realizing that the elastic holding down the canvas on the upper aft deck was stretching and shrinking like an accordion under the pull of the canvas which by then looked like a parachute over the table and seats.  We had to wake Mike up to help us hang on to the canvas while Skipper crawls under the canvas and removes cushions two at at time, and walks them inside the pilot house, then we roll the canvas and stow it away. Should I say it Skipper? All right I will: “I told you so”! The point A to point B trajectory also defied the second advice of keeping one foot on shore. Skipper soon realized that there was a lot less wind when following the shore. Should I say it Skipper? I told you so.

Costa Rica, SpringDay reached down forty feet and touched Costa Rican land for the first time

After four days and nights at sea non stop since Huatulco, Mexico we pulled in this large Bay, our first stop in Costa Rica, it’s 5:20am twilight was at 5:15 and sunrise at 6am.  Everyone has gone to bed but I don’t want to miss the first light of this “new” country.  The first thing I noticed is the smells of Costa Rica, like fragrant bark with a hint of sultriness. The anchor is down and besides the heavy breathing of SpringDay’s blowers I can hear the raucous squawking of birds, oh how I wish I could see all of them, I did see a pair of black birds high up over the boat their loud cackle joining, flying very close together side by side as if husband and wife going to work, and then another pair right behind them; then right at sunrise, the squawking stops. I snap a picture of the sun rising.

Skipper scoping bay of Santa Elena

I did not expect to find a dry Costa Rica, but November through April is their summer, then after April everything turns back to green.  The Holy week (Easter) is usually the very hottest of the year.  This is not a black and white picture by the way.

Next I will show you pictures of VENUS, Steve Jobs' boat right behind us here in Papagayo Marina.

Thinking of you....