Monday, April 20th, the Port Captain’s Office sends an officer to clear us to leave. Judy from Moontide stopped over to say “see you later” and took photos of us in front of Lungta then Dan and Kathy. We said our fair wells to Jake and Danielle on Ohana as we watched Isleña pull away. We left Marina Chiapas at 16:30 behind Isleña and in front of Irie. We motored out of Marina Chiapas and as we made our way past the breakers and Port Captain’s Office we started putting up the sails. The mizzen and jib were out first then the mizzen stassel and the main stassel. The winds slowed enough, 4 knots and put out the main sail. Really sweet being back out on the open water, wind off the beam and breeze in our hair. Looking forward to crossing the border of Guatemala.
We left Mexico in flames with a large fire off in the distance. Wayne took the helm first shift, Keith stayed up as we both kept each other company on our respective shifts. We crossed into Guatemala at 20:50 when the winds shift right on the beam with wind gusts between 12 to 15 knots, we were moving up to 7 knots. Kathy came up to check on us and agreed we should pull in the main sail. Keith and Wayne pulled on the furling to get the sail in, quieting down the boat and leveling off our speed to 5 knots. During the course of the next 3 hours the winds would shift 90 degrees coming off the starboard stern. We cut our time down to arrive in El Salvador from 3 days to 2 days and 12 hours. Keith took the helm at 23:10 for the second shift.
Burning on the coast with heavy smoke in the sky
Tuesday, April 21st, Keith was at the helm while Wayne kept him company until 1:30. Keith stayed awake to 3:30 before giving over the helm to Dan. Winds had died down and we slowly made our way to El Salvador. Kathy was at the helm as we all woke from our sleep. We were doing 1 knot and would make our destination in 5 days leaving us with limited opportunity to get across the sand bar into Bahia del Sol. We turned the motor on since we had a short window with the tide to get over the sand bar at the entrance since we needed more than 10 feet to get over, Lungta’s draft is 10 feet. We spent the day on deck reading and taking some siesta time to prepare for the evening shifts. Keith brought in a Pacific Crevalle Jack (aka Jurel). It put up a great fight but was not something to eat so we threw the fish back in. We did not weigh the fish before letting it go back but figure it weighed 12-15 pounds. Within 30 minutes the line on the port side was off and Wayne tried to bring this fish in. The fish was a strong fighter and started to dive under the boat. As Wayne’s hands and arm were getting tired Keith took over for some assistance, the rod was given to him then back to Wayne for final catch. With a little more fight we were able to get the fish from under the boat and to the side, finally identified the fish and “YES’ another Pacific Crevalle Jack , ugh, possibly a little bigger than the other one, maybe 15-18 lbs. Keith took over the helm at 19:45 after dinner, finished the delicious cannelloni Dan had made. Keith maintained the helm to 22:00 then Wayne took over. Keith slept on the settee while Wayne was watching for wind and boats, but mostly pangas in the distance fishing. Caught a good gust of wind around 23:00 and maintained speeds of 3.6 to 4.1 knots then at 11:15 we were moving around 4.5 consistently for 35 minutes.
SV Irie and SV Isleña in the distance
As early morning came, we were maintaining our course when Wayne was able to hand over the helm to Kathy at 1:00, all sails were out and traveling at 3.2 knots. We woke at 7:00 with Kathy at the helm, Dan was sleeping on the settee. We were traveling at .6 knots. With us all up we motored for an hour since we needed 3.8 to 4 knots of speed to meet the weather and tide window. We had smoothies for breakfast and still no wind. The “fleet” ( and Lungta) spoke to Bob from Nirvana to catch the weather and let him know we would plan to be into Bahia del Sol by late high tide on Thursday, which was also Selena’s plan. Nirvana was already at Bahia del Sol in the marina. We are now 91 miles from our destination at 10:00 a.m.. Slow going day with minimal wind. We were entertained by terns flying by the boat doing figure eights around the bow then sweeping around the boat while chatting to each other. They would then take a floating seat on the sea and hold what sound like a “coffee clutch”, chipping up a storm. Just as the day was closing and the sun started to set we saw several “fish boils” in front of the bow on the stern and port sides. Hundreds of birds diving into jumping fish making the water look as if it were actually boiling. This subsided within an hour. We were hailed by Isleña, they just caught a Stripped Bondito and asked if we had our lines out. We did but no fish today. We sailed into El Salvador waters at 18:50. Wayne took the helm at 19:00 and Keith stayed up to teach him more about the electronics and use of the wind. We sailed our way off course to get the wind and then did a jibe. Port of Quetzal in San Jose, was in the distance with a very busy commercial shipping area. We had 5-6 ships in front of us at one point with Momi Arrow approaching from the starboard side at 12.5 knots and slowing. They passed in front of us, about 4 nautical miles ahead and then anchored. We heard them hale the port captain granting them permission coordinates to anchor. We were looking at the chart when we notice our course was taking us close to Saucosa Rock. This rock was 5 miles off shore. Dan came upstairs and we discussed that with him, we decided to go away from shore to go around the rock and other buoys out there, The charts on his tablet were warning of dangers in these waters with rocks off shore and reef that came out further from shore. We saw blinking lights off shore and finally passed one of them, a buoy with a 9 second strobe light about 3 miles off shore.
Photos taken during our crossing from Puerto Modero to El Salvador
04/23, Thursday woke to us moving fairly quickly at 5 knots but needing to motor some to get to Bahia del Sol at evening high tide around 16:00. Spoke to Isleña, they were ahead of us 7 miles off shore. Irie appeared to be at the destination and would let us know how the approach was this morning for the 8:00 high tide entrance to Bahia. We motored for an hour to get us back on course since the wind was coming directly off the bow. Took in the sails using only the main stassel and the mizzen stassel. Caught a fish which got away, we could not identify it either. Damn! We made it to Bahia del Sol at 16:45 and over the sand bar by 15:42. Checked in to immigration and port captain. Welcome to Bahia del Sol, Costa del Sol, San Luis la Herradura in El Salvador. Great with rum punch drinks and a group of familiar and unfamiliar faces greeting us to Bahia.
Sunset leaving Guatemala
Changing the courtesy flag from Mexico to El Salvador
Costa del Sol beaches and Bahia del Sol beach
Waves on the sandbar waiting to cross
Just before we take the sails down to enter across
Inside the estuary after successfully crossing the sandbar
Safe and sound
We checked into immigration and secured our Visa for 90 days for four countries, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala. We checked in with the Port Captain to registered the boat and all of us on the boat. Irie and Isleña checked in at the same time. Back to Lungta for dinner, Dan and Kathy went off to bed while Keith and Wayne grabbed the opportunity to get some internet. Hung out with Dave and Sam from Isleña while at the restaurant.
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