Coming back to the states

After nearly a year in Central America, we will be heading north at high tide Tuesday, March 3. Weather check says there will be a weather window of 5-6 days for T-Pec. Our first stop over will be Huatulco, Mexico. A distance of 500 miles from Bahia del Sol, El Salvador.

ENTRY TWO:

We are now in Zihuatanejo,Mexico. Since leaving El Salvador we have sailed nearly 900 miles. The first 500 miles were the hardest 500 miles we have ever sailed. While weather forecasts predicted far winds ...

we experienced totally different conditions. While passing Guatamala we were hit by the Papagayos with winds 45-50 mph. The Papagayos are gale-force winds from the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean Sea that funnel through narrow breaks in the Cordillera, gusting to wind speeds normally found only in major hurricanes. We battled the 3 to 4 meter sea conditions thought the night playing one wave at a time as they came crashing over the deck. About every 3rd wave crested up into a giant foaming fist to delivered a Mike Tyson knockout blow into the side of the boat. Never the less, Madwenowe is a stout vallero and handled the high seas just fine. By day break I was exhausted so I did a heeve-to and pleasantly rode out the storm until winds subsided to about 20 knots then we continued heading into the Golf of Tehuantepec.
Once into Mexican waters we were met by a full blown Tehauntepec with 60-70 knot winds lasting 12 hours..(I will give a detail account next entry). Now that we are around the corner from Huatulco and Acapulco we are experiencing heads winds from the N/NW making sailing virtually impossible. The last 300 miles we have been under power at about 5-6 knots. All in all we are still enjoying ourselves and the wonders of the sea.
We plan on staying in Zwatt untill Thursday them make for Barra de Navida and then La Cruz, near PV by the first of April.

They say that cruising is working on your boat in exotic places. Well, we've done our share and this place is great! We hope to come back.

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