Puerto Madero to Bahia del Sol, El Salvador

The first day out of Puerto Madero was okay. We sailed most of it and crossed over into Guatemala at about 4:20 pm April 10. The night was crazy. We spent most of the night maneuvering around fishing boats. They are always closer than you think, but a lot of them don’t have running lights and you can’t tell which way they are going. The radar was a life saver. I’ve learned to trust it more than my eyes, although occasionally there is a light that you can’t identify on the radar. The pangas don’t always show up on radar so you have to pay attention. The next day we took turns sleeping and sailing about 6 – 8 miles out from shore. It was really hot. Fortunately, the breeze from the sails kept us from wilting. Burt had to use the sling shot to get rid of some frigates. We could see the plumes from the volcanoes in Guatemala all day. We were pretty tired and enjoyed the quiet of the sailing.
The next night was exciting! Not necessarily what we had in mind for a good night. We were still pretty tired. The whole night – just about every minute – was spent dodging lightning. You could see the center of the storms on the radar and then you would just try to keep it so the mast was pointing to stars and not heavy clouds. Ugh! We had to motor hard and we were exhausted and didn’t make much headway. Finally about daybreak the sky started to clear. We spent a long time trying to get around the point at Acajutla, but we were now in El Salvador waters. We didn’t want to go into Acajutla or Libertad because we the cruising guide said the bottom was pretty junky there and we don’t relish the thought of losing our anchor. So we pressed on. We were passing by Libertad at night. We were surprised at how much the coastline was lit for so long. We had to watch the traffic all night again. Finally, we reached the entrance to Bahia del Sol about 3:00 in the morning. The sea was pretty rolly and it was dark so we used a way point in one of the cruising books to find a spot to anchor. We couldn’t really see where we were but the depth was about 45 feet so we dropped the anchor and rolled and slept for the rest of the night. The rolling didn’t even bother me. Burt slept up on top for awhile until he was sure the anchor would hold. He said he had to switch sides a couple of times and he got a bit cold. When morning came we were all too ready to get into the Bahia, but…

To get into Bahia del Sol, you have to do a bit of surfing. The hotel there sends out a pilot to help you get over the surf. You have to wait until slack high tide to try it and so you radio the hotel one hour before you want the pilot. Well, we started trying to hale someone early just to be sure we had the right time for the tide. Nobody could hear us!!!
Our radio was not transmitting!!! We tried and tried. The problem is - we couldn’t stay where we were, and the next port is about 40 miles away and that one you need a pilot also. So we were just trying to figure out what we could do. A panga was going by and we waved them over. They offered to take one of us ashore to communicate with the hotel. That one would have to be me. Burt would need to stay with the boat. The only problem is - the whole panga was filled with a tiburon (shark) wrapped up in a fishing net. I would have to sit on a shark!!! I don’t think so. I didn’t really know the condition of his deadness. Just as I was putting my shoes on and contemplating my fate, another boat came along and the guy spoke English. He said he would come back for me in an hour. His boat only had a couple of humans in it. That sounded much better to me!!! So we thanked the panga guys and asked them if they would just let the marina know we were out here.

Shortly after that we could here them discussing us on the radio. They said there was a boat out in the bay waiting to get in. We kept trying to get someone to hear us and finally
Ian and Nes, who we had met in Huatulco, heard us!!! They were able to relay to the hotel that we needed assistance getting into the bay. For some reason, they could hear us and nobody else could! So, we quickly pulled anchor and headed for the opening.

SurfingSurfing the Bar It was daunting. The surf was huge, well I guess it was ‘tranquilo’ but I didn’t think so. Nes told us on the radio, ‘we all survived it’. Burt said he didn’t need to hear that. It sounded pretty scary. One of the cruisers, Bill, rode in the panga with the pilot. He relayed with Nes at first and then when we were close, he was able to hear me. So he asked me how fast can you go if you are pretty scared. I said our average was 5 knots but we can go faster than that if we have to. He told us to really give it the gas when he said so and to stop when he said stop – but never never turn the boat around. Okay, so when he said go we went! Can you believe it we actually surfed! Eat your heart out Brent! We really surfed! It was cool. Then he told us to slow down a bit and we were in the middle of the waves. There was a couple of really big waves coming behind us. I told him, I think we better give it some gas. He said ok go for it. We surfed a bit more. (He got some pictures of us surfing – as soon as I get them, I’ll put them up). When we were almost in, the motor started smoking! I opened the motor thing and looked in. Even I, who know very little about engines, could tell what was wrong. There was a little hose squirting fuel all over the place. Burt said quick take the helm. EEEyah! I took the helm and he stuck the thing back together. No harm done, but I quick went down and opened all the hatches to let the smoke out (we had closed everything up in anticipation of the surf).
So we got into the dock with no problem. There were people there waiting to welcome us. Immigration was there, and the port officials were there. They do everything for you at the hotel! Considering our run around in other places, this was great. The visa only cost $20 and its for 4 countries – El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. We can explore from here if we want to. The owner of the hotel met us on the dock and offered us a beer on the house. We both accepted it, not realizing it was still morning. Then he gave us a complementary breakfast! Wow! Royal treatment. Although, I find it a bit unusual to put French toast and a beer on the same table.

So here’s our situation as I know it at 8:33 am April 14. Burt got an email from the guy in Alaska. He said he might want to pay the airfare from San Salvador after all for Burt to go up there for some work. My sister said she will come stay with me while he’s gone.
We have to find the brothers here today or tomorrow. There is a hole in our gas tank and we have to fix it before we leave here. We need to fix our radio before we leave here. Oh yeah, and the handle on the icebox broke somewhere between Huatulco and Madero and we are holding it closed with big screw driver. Burt received a form to fill out from the Panama branch. We will see where that leads us.
It looks like we will be here for awhile. So I paid for a whole month of internet here. And Burt can’t find his mouse. This is a beautiful place! We will update everyone when we know anything more.

Update: Burt found his mouse.