Chased By A Storm

SSB weather guru Don Anderson has been studying Mexican weather, including the Tehuantepec, for five decades, and he has been guiding boaters through this risky stretch of water with his daily forecasts. 

Winds start in the Gulf of Mexico, hit Mexico at the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, scream across land and are funneled through two mountain ranges.  The winds are amplified up to 3 times and then are shot out the back side, and hit the Pacific in the Gulf of Tehuantepec with gale force and up to hurricane force winds. 

This wind storm and the resulting high seas are referred to as a "T-Pecker".  Mark has been monitoring the patterns for a few months now, and once this winter there was a T-pecker that was blowing 70 knots per hour, with 50 foot waves for 1500 miles out to sea.  Watch out if you are in this path!!!

Rules of the Road

Boaters follow some basic rules when crossing the Tehuantepec.  Rule #1: When heading east, stop in the resort area of Huatulco (wah-TOOL-coh) at Marina Chahue (cha-WAY) to wait for your weather window.  Marina manager Enrique Leclette told us he gets 500 boats per year, more than any other marina on the coast, because everyone stops here to wait for weather.

Rule #2: When Don Anderson says "go," go!  The weather windows for safely crossing, only last about two days, and they only pop up every week or so.  For us, Don said Tuesday, February 12 was the day to go, and if we didn't go on Tuesday, we'd have to wait until Saturday to have another chance to go.

Rule #3: Hug the beach. When a T-Pecker starts blowing, it is blowing from land, so the closer you are to the beach, the more protected you are.  Conversely, if you are several miles out in the gulf, you are going to get hit hard.  It is exactly 25 miles longer to follow the coast line, the safety factor makes this an easy decision.

Our Turn

We had been following the weather reports, and it was looking more and more like Tuesday was our day.  I wish we'd had more time in Huatulco. The marina was very nice (and we hadn't been at a marina since leaving Puerto Vallarta in November), the Bahias (bah-EE-ahs) de Huatulco are beautiful, and I had wanted to go inland in Oaxaca (wah-HAWK-ah) to Oaxaca City and the ruins of Monte Alban.

Mark promised we'd see ruins somewhere else, like in Guatemala or Cancun, so we ran around like crazy on Monday trying to get everything ready for a Tuesday departure- cleaning, shopping, cooking, boat repairs, phone calls, and standing in line to check out of the country.

Our plan was to leave around noon, and that would give us 36 hours to make the crossing safely.  We finally got out of Huatulco around 5 pm, much later than expected (something about getting stuck in the mud next to the fuel dock, for 5 hours).

As we were leaving, I thought to myself, "sure is windy for a good day to cross the Tehuantepec."  As soon as we got out of the bay, the wind was blowing 20 knots and the waves were four feet or higher.  Robert hadn't had his nap yet, and neither had I, so I was glad to escape reality and go below to sleep for a little bit with Robert.

I didn't get much sleep due to the severe rocking of the boat from the wind and sea conditions. When I awoke and came out to check on Mark in the cockpit, the conditions had worsened.  We were on the VHF radio with our friends aboard Ogopogo, who were crossing with us, discussing our situation. 

Mark got on the SSB to listen to and talk with Don Anderson, the weather guru. 

According to Don, there were light winds and calm seas.  Obviously, Don was in Oxnard, CA, not the Gulf of Tehuantepec.  He said we had to be passed Salinas Cruz in less than 12 hours, because conditions had changed and a 40 knot gale was now forecast for the next morning.  "Time to make tracks and don't think about turning around", he said.

After the sun went down, the winds did die, and the seas calmed, too. We spent the evening covering as many miles as we possibly could so that we would cross the most dangerous area.  We were averaging a record breaking 7.1 knots with the 20 knot winds behind us.

We had originally planned to anchor in Salinas Cruz, about 14 hours east of Huatulco, to break up the trip and get some rest.  We had to scrap that plan because Salina Cruz is right in the middle of the T-pec "danger zone."  Instead we sped along, at times surfing 10 knots down the building waves- a new speed record for us.  We changed course to continue now for Puerto Madero, on the edge of the Gulf of Tehuantepec, and well outside the "danger zone."

After forty five hours and 249 miles of traveling- two long nights and one day- we were glad to see Puerto Madero, Mexico's southernmost port. 

Puerto Madero offered nothing if not photo ops. Stay tuned for a wonderful array of life in Chiapas!!