San Diego to Chiapas, Mexico – Winter 2021-2022

We cut the lines on November 18, 2021, around 4 pm from Chula Vista on our way to Ensenada, just a month and a half late. We were finally on our way! We pulled into Cruiseport Village Marina in Ensenada at around 8 am the following day and were not allowed off the boat until the medical person checked our oxygen levels and temperature. We had to show her our vaccination cards as well. We next paid a visit to the harbormaster office to check into the marina and country. One of the people at the office drove us to immigration, the Port Captain, and the other places where we needed to fill out paperwork and pay the fees to enter Mexican waters. It was nice that all these places were in one building, making it very easy to get everything done promptly. All in all, it took only a couple of hours. We went back to the boat and slept until the next morning. We were quite tired after the all-nighter.

The next morning, we departed Ensenada with a mission to be in Barra de Navidad by December 3^rd for the Panama Posse launch party. We were on a fast track. We got fuel at Marina Coral and then motored in circles in the bay to reset our autopilot calibration as it seemed to not be tracking correctly. Off to a great morning start. Our destination was Turtle Bay for an overnight rest. 

We sailed for two days to arrive at Turtle Bay on the evening of November 22^nd. This was a great passage, as we had enough wind to sail instead of just motor. We set the spinnaker for the first time on the second day. What a great day of sailing! We arrived at Turtle Bay and spent the afternoon refueling. There is a Panga that comes to your boat to fill your tanks for a price. It is well known that the fuel prices at Turtle Bay are a rip-off, so I haggled with them to get the price down a bit and was slightly successful. After our tank was full, we rested for the remainder of the day. 

We then motored (mostly) on for another two nights and stopped at Bahia Santa Maria, a nice big bay. We spent that day just hanging out on the boat, resting. It was Thanksgiving and we didn’t have a turkey, so we improvised and had turkey sandwiches as we had some turkey lunch meat. Not fancy, but we gave thanks regardless. The next day we left in the late afternoon, on the 26^th of November. We had a slightly eventful sail/motor to San Jose del Cabo. There was a boat a bit too close on our tail. It was a bit unnerving to have them so close, so we hailed them to back off nicely. It is a big ocean, no need to be so close to another boat.

Out of nowhere, the winds picked up on the second night out. We had not been prepared for this as none of PredictWind’s weather models had predicted wind. I had set up for a nice night passage and got knocked around quite a bit as I wasn’t prepared for the wind and rough seas. It was about this time that we ran out of fuel in our main tank, so switched to the secondary tank to finish the passage to our San Jose del Cabo. A nice feature of our new Beta Marine engine is that it auto-primes the fuel, so we didn’t have to bleed the fuel lines after we ran out of fuel and sucked air. 

We arrived at San Jose del Cabo on the 28^th of November. The marina was nice but only the fuel dock was open, so we filled up and went to our slip. We are required to check in with the Harbor Master and the Port Captain, but it was a Saturday, and they were both closed, so we had to go without a check-in. At the shower building, there was a self-pay station where we used our credit card to pay for the slip. Kind of convenient. We took showers and went for lunch with my sister, who lives part-time in the area. She took us to provision at La Comer after our wonderful lunch. What a nice big grocery store. They had lots of food choices, so we stocked up quite well. 

The next morning, we left for Puerto Vallarta. The winds were favorable, so we sailed on a beam reach for a bit over 24 hours. It is so nice to turn the engine off and the only thing you hear is the creak of the boat and the ocean-going by. As with all things, the wind left us and we had to motor for the last few hours. When we arrived at Marina Vallarta we went to check in, get a shower and have dinner ashore. After a 3-day passage we were dead tired, so went to bed early for a good night’s sleep. 

It is now the 1^st of December, and we have a two-day passage ahead to reach our destination of Barra de Navidad. The Panama Posse event started on the evening of the 2^nd, so we were going to miss the meet and greet scheduled for that evening. We did make it in time for the party on the 3rd. There were seminars on navigation, provisioning, etc., and a big potluck on the 4^th. After the 4^th many Posse members left for parts unknown, we stayed a month as we still had projects to complete. 

I finished installing the watermaker and commissioning it (finally). We couldn’t test it in the marina, so we took the boat out in the ocean to test it and then dump our holding tank. In that order, of course. We found out later that since there are not many dumping stations in Mexico the Marinas are not safe to swim in if you get my drift. At high tide, many just dump their tanks in the marina. Luckily there was a nice pool at the resort we could swim in. 

On our way out to make water and dump our tanks, we had a mishap. I hit an immovable object. We had a big gash in the side of our boat. We had just gotten the bottom cleaned by a crew that works at the marina, and the crew put a temporary patch on the damaged area to keep the water out until we get to a boat yard to haul it out and fix it properly (Costa Rica possibly).

The Barra marina is very nice. The showers were good when there was hot water, and the laundry service (no one does their own laundry) was great and inexpensive. The best was the French baker who came to the marina in his boat ringing his bell to announce his arrival. He would come right to your dock with pastries, bread, and other tasty items. 

We spent Christmas and New Year in Barra. Both were uneventful days for us. We stayed on the boat and relaxed. We left on the 11th of January and headed south for just a day trip to Carrizal, a small, secluded bay. We met some other Panama Posse boaters there. One of them, Bob, came to our boat in his dingy and introduced himself. He was heading south also, so we decided to buddy boat. Early the next day we headed out. We motored overnight to Cabeza Negra. A nice bay with very nice private homes on its shore. That night was rocky making it difficult to sleep, but the next morning the seas were calm, and the day was quite nice. We stayed in the bay and were visited by a whale. It was swimming around our boats with curiosity. It hung around quite a while, then took a dive right under our boat and was gone. The only picture taken showed the whale way too far away.

The next day after a nice rest we sailed/motored to Caleta de Campos. Palapas lined the beach with food stands everywhere. We needed to provision a bit, so we asked a person in a car about the grocery shopping, and he offered to take us up the hill to the town. Thank goodness we got a ride as the hill was quite steep. It would have been a very tiring walk up the hill. He dropped us off at a nice small grocery store where we bought some fresh food, eggs, and a few other items we were low on. The town was very nice and clean, and everyone was very friendly. 

We did meet up with another Panama Posse couple and decided to rendezvous at one of the beach eateries, so we all took our dinghies in for dinner. They paddled and we motored in with Bob. The dinner was cheap and excellent! We each had a whole fish with a spicy sauce along with cocktails. When we left the other couple got out and paddled right to their boat. Bob decided to try to go right out, and we hit a wave, then another wave right in our faces. The boat was swamped, and we were drenched. We got out of the boat in the water and pulled the boat ashore to bail it out. A woman with her child came over with a bucket to help. She did not speak any English but smiled the whole time. We finally got the boat bailed and we moved the dinghy over to where we were supposed to depart. That exit was successful, and we made it back to the boat, although we were quite drenched from the incident, so we took another shower to get the salt off and wash out the clothes we had been wearing. It’s a funny story now, but it was not so funny then. 

The next morning the tsunami was announced, and it was hitting the bays up and down the west coast. We were advised by our Panama Posse colleagues to get out of the bay and head at least 4 miles out to sea to not be affected. So off we went, out to sea on our way to Ixtapa. This was an overnight passage. We took our time so we would arrive at first light as we left 5 hours earlier than we had planned, to be safely out to sea when the surge hit.

We entered the channel to Marina Ixtapa at what was supposed to be high tide. A panga came out to guide us in. Well, the tsunami surge decided to hit exactly when we were trying to go in. When we entered the channel, the seas were running out very fast. We grounded for a short period, but I was able to twist and turn the boat with the strong current and shortly freed it. The current was running so fast that at full throttle we were only making 1.5 knots. It was a little scary. After we arrived the marina closed the channel for all boats. 

We checked in with the Harbor Master and needed to go to the Port Captain in Zihuatanejo to check in there as well. Zihuatanejo is a 15-minute taxi ride away. There have been issues with checking in at Zihuatanejo by other cruisers so we were aware that this check-in would be a bit more involved. They were right. Not only was this the only port where we had to pay to check in and check out. It also was the only port where none of the paperwork was in English. After waiting for a bit and then filling out the 3 pages of forms, we were told to come back the next day to get our stamped paperwork. What should have been a free 1-hour process took about 3 hours and two separate trips to the Port Captain’s office.

Our friends from Barra, Terry and Nancy came in two days after us. They are on a catamaran, so we hung out on their boat as it has way more room than ours. We stayed in the marina for 10 days and then anchored in Zihuatanejo bay for two nights. Bob stayed in Ixtapa waiting for his wife to join him from the states. 

We left Zihuatanejo on January 29^th for Acapulco, and are now buddy-boating with Terry and Nancy. This was an uneventful overnight motor trip. We met up with another Panama Posse couple Nicole and JP who were in Acapulco waiting for their windlass to be fixed. We were all side tied on the outermost dock of the marina so got to know them. We all went to dinner at a place that was like a Beni Hana if you are familiar with that style of Japanese restaurant. If not, it is where they have a grill, and you sit around it watching your food being prepared. The cook puts on a show as he cooks that is entertaining. The next day we took a hike to where the famous Acapulco cliff divers do their dives. Unfortunately, it was too early for them to be diving, so we missed the show. 

We left the next day for Bahia Chahué. Another overnight motoring trip. Terry and Nancy decided to chance the channel and went in at low tide. They ended up in the mud but were able to get free and dock. Since our draft is a foot deeper, we opted to anchor outside in the bay until high tide. We had no issues with the bottom and were safely tied up at the dock.

Marina Chahué is a holding spot for boaters to wait out the strong Tehuantepec winds that blow quite frequently across the narrowest part of Mexico. The Gulf of Tehuantepec is very dangerous for all boats. These winds can blow more than 50 knots. No one, not even large ships, cross it until the winds subside. 

Since the winds had just started blowing and PredictWind indicated the next weather window would be about a week out, we decided to take a road trip to Oaxaca to explore the city and cultural sites. We drove about 5 hours on a winding road that was sometimes dirt and often had areas that were caving in or had fallen rocks scattered around. We rented an Airbnb for three nights right in downtown Oaxaca.

Be careful when renting an Airbnb in Mexico. This place was advertised as a great place, but it was not so great. The floors were dirty. It was advertised as a two-bedroom, but it was one bedroom and an open area. In the kitchen, you had to unplug one appliance to use another. Hot water was only in the shower and the water pressure was so low that the water just dribbled out of the shower head. When someone turned on the water elsewhere or flushed the toilet you got scalded in the shower. 

On the flip side, Oaxaca is an amazing city and area. The public market was just down the street with lots of activity and many stalls selling many items and food. Oaxaca is known for its Mezcal, chocolate, and mole. We sampled all three and went to two Mezcal distilleries outside the city. Oaxaca is also known for its archeological sites. Just outside the city is the ancient city of Monte Albán. What a great cultural site. 

We went a different route back to our boats to stop at another archeological site, Mitla, another ancient city in ruins. This one wasn’t as well preserved as Monte Albán. 

We got back to the boat just in time to go check out and leave for Chiapas across the Gulf of Tehuantepec as there was a 3-day weather window approaching. The port captain turned us away to come back the day we were leaving so that he would be assured we wouldn’t leave early. They are very concerned about the safety of boats making the crossing. 

It was an almost uneventful 2-day crossing of the Gulf. I say almost uneventful because we ran across two long line fishing lines. These are illegal in Mexico, but the fishermen still fish with long lines far enough out to sea so they don’t get caught. Long lines are very long lines with floats and fishing hooks attached to them. They string them out for miles in the open ocean and every boat that comes by gets caught in them or at least must deal with crossing them. The usual course of action is to cut the line to free the boat. We ran across one in the middle of the night and had to cut the line to get free. The second one was during daylight, and we spotted the floats that were spaced about 100 yards apart quite easily. After following the line (it was right across our path) for about 30 minutes I decided I wasn’t going to find the end, so picked a spot midway between two floats and set a course to cross the line. When I reached the line, I put the boat in neutral and drifted across. Watching the floats on either side I could see by their wakes that I had snagged the line. I stopped the boat and with the boat hook was able to push the line off our rudder and free ourselves. Quite an experience I must say. 

We are now at Marina Chiapas, which is the last port in Mexico. There are about 8 Panama Posse boats here, all crossing the Tehuantepec at the same time as us. Some are leaving today or soon. We haven’t decided what we are going to do yet. We want to explore the area as there are Mayan ruins to the east that would be great to see.

Two days ago, on February 22^nd, we took a tour of a small Mayan ruin, coffee plantation, and artisan chocolate maker. We had a nice road trip and a very nice tamale meal at the end. The chocolate maker was the highlight of the trip for sure. On our way back to the boat the tour guide stopped at Walmart so we could do some shopping. Very nice.

That’s it for now. Stay tuned for our next chapter.