Out of Mexico

We spent a nice couple of weeks in Zihuatenejo, spending both Christmas and New Years with the rising number of other cruisers who were making it south for the holidays.

Zihuatenejo is well known to cruisers as one of the great destinations in Mexico. It must be the combination of the beautiful setting, the nice sized town and the many amenities, from resort-style bars and restaurants to the gritty central Mercado (or market) typical of all larger Mexican cities. While we were there the number of cruising boats increased from less than 15 to more than 35. During this time the water quality in this very protected bay took a nose dive, with a thick green algae bloom. Officials called a meeting of cruisers, thinking that our boats might be part of the problem. Not much came of it, but soon the algae subsided and the problem was largely forgotten.

One of the nice things about being in a place that is popular to cruisers is that the chances for kids to be there goes way up. Sure enough, Ben and Cam found playmates from New Zealand and San Diego, as well as meeting other kids who are football fans at the sports bars that featured NFL and bowl games. We were glad to cheer the Badgers at the Rose bowl, but of course sad for the Pack...

Departing from Zihuatenejo we headed down to Acapulco for a brief stay before taking off for Costa Rica. Acapulco is truly one of the most beautiful settings for a city that we’ve seen, with high cliffs rising starkly out fo the ocean all around. Perhaps not surprisingly, it also features Sams Club and Walmart, which makes for easier provisioning of our boat with necessary and not-so-necessary food and other sundry items. The WalMart in Acapulco is a destination of its own, clearly the largest we’ve ever seen, with its own travel agency, dry cleaner, complete grocery store, bakery as well as all the usual things we’re used to...not quite something we would have expected, until seeing Sams clubs at other Mexican cities. It's nice to be able to visit these, but they don't compare at all with the overall experience of shopping the local mercado's and mini markets.

Leaving Acapulco after only a couple of days, we headed out into the Pacific to make our way down to Costa Rica and Panama. This path carries us past two bays famous for great winds - Tehuantepec in southern Mexico and Papagayo in Northern Costa Rica. Prior to reaching Tehuantepec we were frustrated as ever with the light Mexican winds and the resulting motoring. We did get the promised Tehuantepec winds, but they only lasted about 35 miles. With fuel depleted, we made a stop in Puerto Madero, a supposedly popular spot for cruisers to take fuel and check out of the country. We were surprised how small and undeveloped it was... we parked at an old fuel dock across from a huge fleet of fishing boats (the rusty crusty kind used for the commercial fishing industry) No sooner did we pull up when a security guard came by to say that the dock was off limits. I tried to figure out who he represented, but we let him know that we wanted diesel and within 10 minutes or so, ‘Sam’ showed up and gave us his business card - servicios for yachts...He and karl took our jerry jugs off in a truck. Meanwhile, our security guard conferred with some friends who had showed up and decided that we had to pay $100 Pesos ($10) to stay at the pier. Then when one of his friends asked for ‘agua’, I said that a glass of agua would also cost $10 - they laughed. After some time Karl and Sam came back with our jugs filled along with some jugs Sam keeps for fuel delivery...we ended up getting our tanks filled and tipped the guard a few bucks and a Hershey bar.

Of course the Port Captain noticed come in so he sent an officer over to record our visit - this meant that we had to negotiate our presence there, since we had already officially 'checked out' of the Mexico. Not to worry, however, as the Port Captain was most accomodating and was happy with only stamping our paperwork and adding us to his list of visiting yachts.

Heading out of Puerto Madero, we embarked on a slow, light air sail south past El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua, towards Costa Rica. Our plan was to head to the southern part of Costa Rica, spend a week or so exploring the rainforest, then head to Panama. But Moondance had other things in mind.

At 1a.m. just past the dreaded "Papagayo" bay (which treated us pretty well, with winds only to 35knots), the jib started luffing after we cranked in a bit more reef so as not to have to worry about the sails through the night. Next thing we know, the mast was tipping over in a slow buckling motion, first hitting the cabin top and then sloughing off over the side. After a quick check to see that there was no immediate danger of the mast banging a hole into the side of Moondance, we rushed to keep the base end from being drawn into the water, securing it with some lines to our docking cleats. With a fair bit of wave action, but no serious weather happening, the mast was dipping in and out of the water, banging up and down, but with a relatively stable motion. We put our sea anchor into action for the first time, trying hard to remember the right way to deploy it (where were those diagrams again?). It actually went out easily and this kept the boat facing into the waves and wind and minimized the wave action on the boat and mast. Over the next few hours we very slowly inched the mast tip up onto the starboard hull, always monitoring the threat of damage to the hull and trying to minimize additional damage to the mast.

Meanwhile, Ben and Cam have been wakened by all the noise and they're a bit scared but also curious and wanting to help. We gave each other a reassuring family group hug, recognizing that through this fairly nasty happening, nobody was hurt, save for a few bruises and scrapes from wrestling with the mast. After the mast was up high enough so that it wasn't dipping into the waves, we took a couple of hours to rest. At daybreak, we spent another few hours inching the mast up so that it could be lashed down and cleaned up.

Finally we got the mast to the point where we felt it would ride pretty well on our motor into Bahia Portrero, the nearest port (about 100 miles). We hauled the sea anchor in and fired up the engine for the ride in.

Once we made it to the bay and anchored, we felt great relief and spent a good deal of time resting. We had arrived at one of only two significant marinas in Costa Rica, only to find that it had no real facilities and was in some disrepair. But, they did have 10 foot tides and a flat beach where we took Moondance in to scrape and paint her bottom. One thing about cruising is that you take advantage of opportunitites as they come.

After a couple of days we headed down to Puntaremus, where the best chance was for the repairs we needed. In fact, a gringo we met shortly after our arrival helped us arrange the metal work we needed at a local machine shop and within three days, Moondance's mast was repaired (the base of the mast was re-built and spreaders repaired). But, the problem of putting the mast back up remained. None of the boat facilities here had the necessary crane. Once again, our new friend John asked around and found a crane at one of the local tuna factories. With a bit of cajoling, the morning shift foreman was pursuaded to let us use the crane (for less than $20 and another Hershey bar). By the end of the week, the mast was back up, held by 4 strong lines. Sure felt good to have at least the illusion of a sailboat back.