Huatulco to Bahia del Sol - Crossing the Golf of Tehuantepec (Part 2)
Hotel/Marina Bahia del Sol, El Salvador: 3/17/2010 –
4/3/2010 Stuck in paradise… Nasty! No it is not an oversized colon (sorry for the graphic analogy),
but close. It is our waterlock damaged in the engine overheating incident. Cool as a cat in the tropics I just realized, I didn’t mention much about Miette in my
last post. She’s been doing great and has become quite a good little
sailor of the feline variety. The latest thing she had to get accustomed to when we arrived in
Central America was the brutal heat down here. Since we crossed into Guatemalan
waters, I’ve pretty much been wearing a bathing suit 24/7 and sometimes I
wish I had more clothes to take off still. But hey, looking at things from the
right side, I have to say that walking around in a bathing suit all day is kind
of a dream come true for me who doesn’t like to wear clothes to start
with and had to be coached (by Eric) for years (still in progress) to wear
nightwear at least around the house back at home. J Speaking of coaching how to behave at home… When we first arrived at Bahia del Sol, Miette kept insisting on
sleeping on the floor of our back cabin at first, which is of course one of the
hottest places on the boat. I had to coach her every day for a week to lie down
on the floor under a fan in the fore cabin where the air is cooler to start
with from the draft that occurs between the forward and center hatches. ( Some
research I did on the Internet indicated that cat rarely suffer from heat
stroke. They can’t regulate their body temperature on their own though as
humans do, so it is best to keep the air flow around them for comfort.) After about a week, she got it and started positioning herself
on her own under the fan for her mid-morning and afternoon siestas. We now have
fans all over the boat cabins and you can find Miette compete with humans on
the boat to seek a spot under one of them pretty much any time of the day. J Watching the new boats crossing the bar Because of our engine troubles, we got delayed and stayed at
Bahia del Sol long enough for the next pack of boats from Huatulco to catch up
to us. Bill invited us to join him on a Panga and watch the pilot get
the new boats across the bar. View of the pilot jet ski from the panga The 4 new boats (‘Ahwanee’, ‘Joyeux’,
‘Dolce Vita’ and ‘Shannon’) have lined up behind the
bar, parallel to it, waiting for the pilot to guide them across. ‘Joyeux’ turning in the direction of the surf. ( ‘Joyeux’ was the second boat to cross the bar. Our
panga was not close enough to the first boat, ‘Awhanee’, for us to take
good pictures when it went across the bar.) And here comes the first breaker wave… Nice job riding it, ‘Joyeux’! Keep up the good work, ‘Joyeux’! Almost there. Leaving Bahia del Sol Pacific Mystic at the fuel dock during a national fuel shortage
in El Salvador. Have you tried to empty fuel out of a barrel into a filter on
top of the boat fuel tank? It took us all afternoon till sunset… Returning to the dock after refueling Our last sunset at Bahia del Sol William, shipwright from San Diego; Jean and Bill of ‘Mita
Kuulu’; Rob and Sue of ‘Joyeux’; Dennis of ‘Dolce
Vita’; Bill of ‘Turn the Page’ Dennis of ‘Dolce Vita’; Valerie of ‘Pacific
Mystic’; Oriol formerly of ‘Dolce Vita’ and now
‘Pacific Mystic’; Bill of ‘Turn the Page’ Oriol, Dennis, Eric and Valerie Crossing the bar out of Bahia del Sol (take 1) – 4/2/2010 Following the pilot jet ski Getting closer to the bar Not quite… …Turning around back to the marina after the engine alarm
went off… …at the disconcerted looks in a panga passing by. Crossing the bar out of Bahia del Sol (take 2) – 4/3/2010 Second time was a go... Views of the estuary as we leave… |