Huatulco to Golfito, Costa Rica
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Huatulco
Golfito
Dave Udell, Geoff Lillegraven and Tom Nelson flew home from
Huatulco on Sunday, May 27. Steve and Russ spent Sunday,
Monday and Tuesday cleaning Dakota Rose and provisioning for
the next, long leg: the 935 mile sail to Golfito, Costa Rica.
Provisioning in Huatulco was hard work and a bit of a challenge. The
marina had no fuel dock, so we had to hump fuel by taxi from the local
Pemex station in 5-gallon jugs. We needed two trips, one to get enough
diesel to fill the boat's tank, then another trip to fill 10 jugs to give us an
extra 50 gallons for the long trip. Surprisingly, Huatulco doesn't have a
large supermarket, so we spent one afternoon going from the vegetable
market to the meat market to the poultry market to the water warehouse ...
We've decided to try to make this next trip non-stop, bypassing the
intervening countries of Guatamala, El Salvador, Honduras and
Huatulco on Sunday, May 27. Steve and Russ spent Sunday,
Monday and Tuesday cleaning Dakota Rose and provisioning for
the next, long leg: the 935 mile sail to Golfito, Costa Rica.
Provisioning in Huatulco was hard work and a bit of a challenge. The
marina had no fuel dock, so we had to hump fuel by taxi from the local
Pemex station in 5-gallon jugs. We needed two trips, one to get enough
diesel to fill the boat's tank, then another trip to fill 10 jugs to give us an
extra 50 gallons for the long trip. Surprisingly, Huatulco doesn't have a
large supermarket, so we spent one afternoon going from the vegetable
market to the meat market to the poultry market to the water warehouse ...
We've decided to try to make this next trip non-stop, bypassing the
intervening countries of Guatamala, El Salvador, Honduras and
Nicaragua. Our cruising guide listed one fuel stop in Guatamala and two in El Salvador, but none in Nicaragua, so we'll
have a decision point based on progress and fuel consumption about halfway through the trip.
We're facing what the collective wisdom of our cruising guide and other cruisers with whom we've consulted deems the
most difficult, challenging and potentially dangerous part of our entire west coast passage: crossing the dreaded Gulf of
Tehuantepec. East of Huatulco, at the narrowest point of the Mexican isthmus, a gap in the Sierra Madre Mountains
funnels winds from the Gulf of Mexico that fan out into the Gulf of Tehuantepec, creating 40-50 mph "T-Pecker" gales that
can strike with little warning. This area is also the spawning ground for most Pacific Coast hurricanes. Conventional
wisdom is to wait for a low pressure front moving into the Gulf of Mexico, then make the run for it, hugging the shoreline the
entire way.
Steve started checking weather reports twice daily starting on Saturday. By Monday and Tuesday it was looking like an
ideal weather window was opening. Not one but two low pressure fronts were moving into the Gulf of Mexico, one from
mainland Mexico and one from Texas. In addition, NOAA was reporting a "local, stationary low pressure zone with
possible cyclonic activity" about 150 miles due south of Huatulco; counter-clockwise winds around this low pressure zone
would be very favorable to us, both in counteracting the prevailing north winds of T-peck and in (hopefully) giving us south
to southwest winds to allow us to make this southeastbound crossing on a beam to broad reach.
So, we picked up Jay Poe and John Killian at Huatulco Airport on Tuesday afternoon; cleared them in through Immigration
and Customs; gave them a brief opportunity for dinner; then headed out from the marina at 9:15 that night.
By Wednesday morning we were entering the "danger zone" of the Gulf of T-peck, the point at which the cruising guides
recommend staying in 30 to 40 feet of water, hugging the coast. But, that same morning, that "low pressure zone with
possible cyclonic activity" had morphed into Tropical Storm Barbara. We could now count on favorable winds from
Barbara, so Steve made the decision to cut straight across the Gulf, both to save 12 to 16 hours of voyage time and to put
as much distance as possible between us and the hopefully-not-moving-east Barbara.
This proved to be a good decision, on the whole, We had a great sail on Wednesday, making good progress with
southerly Barbara winds. Wednesday night brought localized squalls and some heavy rain as the outskirts of Barbara
encountered the Intertropical Convergence Zone, but the seas stayed relatively calm. Thursday brought the worst weather,
with significant squall activity. At one point we counted six or so water spouts; we turned to a northeast heading and
cranked up the engine to move away from the squall line. We were able to get back on our course that night.
Overall, Barbara cooperated ... at least for us. She didn't build into a hurricane as initially predicted, hung around pretty
much in place for a few days, then moved north and made almost a direct hit on Huatulco. If we hadn't left that Tuesday
night, Barbara would have kept us bottled up in port for three days and then would have pummeled us. We caught a lucky
break!
The rest of our trip was uneventful. We pulled into the Banana Bay Marina, in Golfito, Costa Rica, at 9:00 am on Steve's
birthday, June 6, after a 7-1/2 day sail, averaging about 5.2 knots. Total distance travelled from San Diego: almost 2800
miles!
have a decision point based on progress and fuel consumption about halfway through the trip.
We're facing what the collective wisdom of our cruising guide and other cruisers with whom we've consulted deems the
most difficult, challenging and potentially dangerous part of our entire west coast passage: crossing the dreaded Gulf of
Tehuantepec. East of Huatulco, at the narrowest point of the Mexican isthmus, a gap in the Sierra Madre Mountains
funnels winds from the Gulf of Mexico that fan out into the Gulf of Tehuantepec, creating 40-50 mph "T-Pecker" gales that
can strike with little warning. This area is also the spawning ground for most Pacific Coast hurricanes. Conventional
wisdom is to wait for a low pressure front moving into the Gulf of Mexico, then make the run for it, hugging the shoreline the
entire way.
Steve started checking weather reports twice daily starting on Saturday. By Monday and Tuesday it was looking like an
ideal weather window was opening. Not one but two low pressure fronts were moving into the Gulf of Mexico, one from
mainland Mexico and one from Texas. In addition, NOAA was reporting a "local, stationary low pressure zone with
possible cyclonic activity" about 150 miles due south of Huatulco; counter-clockwise winds around this low pressure zone
would be very favorable to us, both in counteracting the prevailing north winds of T-peck and in (hopefully) giving us south
to southwest winds to allow us to make this southeastbound crossing on a beam to broad reach.
So, we picked up Jay Poe and John Killian at Huatulco Airport on Tuesday afternoon; cleared them in through Immigration
and Customs; gave them a brief opportunity for dinner; then headed out from the marina at 9:15 that night.
By Wednesday morning we were entering the "danger zone" of the Gulf of T-peck, the point at which the cruising guides
recommend staying in 30 to 40 feet of water, hugging the coast. But, that same morning, that "low pressure zone with
possible cyclonic activity" had morphed into Tropical Storm Barbara. We could now count on favorable winds from
Barbara, so Steve made the decision to cut straight across the Gulf, both to save 12 to 16 hours of voyage time and to put
as much distance as possible between us and the hopefully-not-moving-east Barbara.
This proved to be a good decision, on the whole, We had a great sail on Wednesday, making good progress with
southerly Barbara winds. Wednesday night brought localized squalls and some heavy rain as the outskirts of Barbara
encountered the Intertropical Convergence Zone, but the seas stayed relatively calm. Thursday brought the worst weather,
with significant squall activity. At one point we counted six or so water spouts; we turned to a northeast heading and
cranked up the engine to move away from the squall line. We were able to get back on our course that night.
Overall, Barbara cooperated ... at least for us. She didn't build into a hurricane as initially predicted, hung around pretty
much in place for a few days, then moved north and made almost a direct hit on Huatulco. If we hadn't left that Tuesday
night, Barbara would have kept us bottled up in port for three days and then would have pummeled us. We caught a lucky
break!
The rest of our trip was uneventful. We pulled into the Banana Bay Marina, in Golfito, Costa Rica, at 9:00 am on Steve's
birthday, June 6, after a 7-1/2 day sail, averaging about 5.2 knots. Total distance travelled from San Diego: almost 2800
miles!
| Jay and John joined us in Huatulco for the long sail to Costa Rica |
| Taking advantage of some light winds to cool off |
| Catch of the Day |
| Morning of our last day at sea, we enter Golfo Dulce in southeastern Costa Rica |
| We left the dry, stark landscape of Mexico and arrived at the jungles surrounding Golfito Bay, which used to be the home port of the United Fruit Company's "banana boat" fleet |
| Welcome to the Banana Bay Marina, where everything's clean!! |
| We hired a panga for the day to do some local exploring |
| Up a jungle river |
| John finds a friend at the monkey rescue compound |
| Heading home from Golfito airport ... Banana Bay Marina and Dakota Rose as we take off over the bay |