Reflections from Huatulco

Hi there. It’s a quiet, peaceful evening on Sidewinder in Bahia de Santa Cruz, and as I crawled into my quite toasty bunk to read Shantaram, I was inspired to write to you instead. Before I forget about the adventures on the high seas, I wanted to reflect on them.

As David and I pulled out of Z Bay, we were rested and anxious to move on to our next set of challenges and excitement which come from exploring the unknown. There was a strong sense of strength and appreciation between us, largely due to our delightful and fulfilling time with you two. I had missed our time together which I must have taken for granted, and I am convinced that your active presence in my life helps to keep me in touch with who I am. Thank you for reminding me. Our week was definitely a gift from heaven for me and I owe you big time, buddy. David, too, was reminded by you to be loving. As he read that, he quietly smiled and noted, "That was for me, wasn't it ?" So, as David and I set out with renewed life and love, the dolphins blessed our first evening, along with the gentle warm wind. It is so soothing to feel the breeze on our cheeks, feel the waves pushing us along, and see the stars twinkling all the way down to the horizon.

Visiting Acapulco was very fun because we knew we were not looking for somewhere to stay; it was just a curious visit. Another day of sailing and David even caught a fish for dinner; we motored most of that night and caught some great easy wind early in the morning to send us sailing into Puerto Escondido Bay, with the deep blue crystal clear water to soothe one's heated body and notorious world class serious surf to survey. Unfortunately, or fortunately for the Mexican fishermen, all of the secure anchoring area was taken by the pangas inside the quiet bight, and, although we did drop our anchor, swam in the soothing salty warm water, and checked out the waves down at the point and beach, we decided we needed to move on.

The next sailing adventure began, and David and I gained a whole new respect for Sidewinder's engine and the wind. When the anchor was up and we began to leave, the engine died. Hurriedly, with me on the helm and tailing the main sheet, David pulled up the main; together we put up the headsail and, luckily, the little wind that we had safely allowed us to depart without getting closer to the precarious rocks and huge surf down the line. Suddenly, it is the wind who begins to be the most important factor in our lives and our precious engine takes on a whole new role. I have always resented the noise and the additional heat down below when motoring just to get somewhere faster, but when anchoring, the engine has always been our best friend and security, especially after having had no engine for so long in Las Hadas. Once again, the importance of our engine and its main function, security, is profound and, with no option any longer, the wind became our companion and lifeline. We appreciated every puff and after a few hours of good wind, we slowly slithered with the light air, onward to our next destination, Puerto Angel.

When we first set out, we imagined that we would be in the bay, secure by sundown. As the sun set, we knew we would have to wait until dawn to go in. It was heave-to time and I was quite ready to learn. Of course, the wind began to increase at a steady pace, and if we had it to do over, we would have just continued sailing down to Huatulco. But we didn’t. We were exhausted from two nights of watches with little sleep, and stopping in the middle of the ocean to wait until sunrise seemed like the thing to do. Unfortunately, the wind completely died in a few hours and the waves increased considerably, coming from every direction. The sails flapped and flopped and the boom clanked with chaotic clamor. I took the helm and tried to steer us into the waves, keeping the lights off of Puerto Angel to my starboard side so we would be in the same place when morning arrived. After a couple of exhausting hours with banging, I woke David up and we dropped all sails, leaving us to bounce, bob, and roll radically from side to side. Plates flew out of the cupboards, bottles inside the shelves clanged, rigging groaned, and we slept, woke up, nodded off, woke up………for.what seemed like hours. I think it was about four or five hours of crazy shit.

Some soothing calm came up with the sun, along with a new gentle breeze and we reassessed the situation. We had bobbed our way out to sea about 20 miles and we were now south of Puerto Angel. Instead of back tracking, we decided to go for it and head down to Huatulco, where we thought we might find Mandy and some security. We started out with good wind, but the waves were still big and they pushed us sideways, again making the journey slow but not so steady. With exhaustion and time, I think we finally just decided that any progress even at a snail pace was just fine. Patience actually was our friend, and you know just how David loves patience! We finally did arrive after many jibes and being becalmed for awhile, and as we entered Bahia de Santa Cruz, we called Mandy and heard from Pedro on another boat, Jade. He said Virginia and Richard were gone, but he advised us of where to go and met us in his dinghy to help. It is quite unnerving to come into a new anchorage under sail with no engine. We dropped the headsail first and came in with the main up; luckily it was very quiet and calm inside and Sidewinder slowed way down, giving me a chance to breathe deeply. We even had to raise the headsail once again to gain some steering power, but we were able to drop anchor and stop. Phew! Last night we were both exhausted and I slept like a baby. I was still pretty wiped out today and am ready to go to bed right now. We were actually very fortunate we did not have gale winds and so, wind is now, more than ever before, one of the most significant factors in our cruising life. And then there is the amazing importance of our precious Perkins (the engine). Amazingly, I am the one who found a major part of the problem, and, of course, it was just an intuitive feeling I had. I took off the side panel to the engine with the electric screwdriver, and there was the mechanical fuel pump leaking like a sieve. Of course, I didn‘t know what it was. David to the rescue again! David proceeded to replace it with the new one he had and then had to bleed the system. It took many hours and today, while anchored next to the huge cruise ships, was the end of the bleeding process and it was successful. Yippee! She fired right up with a smile on her bow and Captain David grabbed a beer, yelped "EEHAA!", and grinned with renewed energy. We love Perkins, our precious smelly, hot, sweet purring engine. My my……….. What an adventure we are on.

I think we will be here until Monday and perhaps we will then head south with Mandy across the infamous Tehuantepec. More on that later. We plan on some relaxation time with snorkeling and snoozing on some of these pretty Huatulco beaches in the next few days. Good night. Love, Suzi