| On Tuesday morning, May 20, at 9:45 a.m., after listening to the latest weather forecast, we departed Huatulco, Mexico, for Barillas, El Salvador - approximately 480 miles away, located near the city of Usulutan in the southern part of El Salvador. During this passage we saw more dolphins and a few more turtles. We sailed, motorsailed, and motored our way across the Gulf of Tehuantepec - staying about 30 miles off the beach. Our first night at sea, the entire Mexican mainland was one huge lightning show! We, ourselves, experienced rain showers that evening. The next night, though, the entire Gulf of Tehuantepec was lit up with sheet lightning - pulsating like Morse code - lighting up the entire sky as if it were almost daylight. It was an amazing fireworks show put on by Mother Nature, and it lasted a long time with very loud thunder and bolts of lightning toward the end. Around midnight we got caught in a squall and our roller reefing became jammed (a first for us). Phil had to manually take down the roller-reefing jib, and the top of the jib was slightly torn in the process. Phil set the staysail to take the place of the roller-reefing jib, and we continued on with staysail and reefed main. By Thursday morning, May 22, we had lost all wind and were once again motoring. Late that morning we were officially in Guatemalan waters and south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec. While in Guatemala we stayed about 10 miles offshore. Keeping a sharp lookout for fishing pangas with their black flags floating in the water was our major priority. At night, most had a light hung, but a few didn�t, and if you got too close they would definitely let you know by shining their flashlight. Around San Jose, Guatemala, there were so many fishing pangas and larger fishing boats that we felt like we were driving through an obstacle course. Our radar was definitely going all night long. It was a clear night out, and upon looking back at the Tehuantepec we could see the nightly lightning show taking place. My, was it wonderful to be south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec! On Friday morning, May 23, with the wind coming straight down the nose at 25 knots and seas building, we had to tack for almost 2 hours. As the staysail wouldn�t allow us to point as close into the wind as our roller-reefing jib, we motorsailed so as to head closer into the wind. After the wind dropped down, the seas were still confused. It was another 3 hours before we could resume our track. By early afternoon we had entered the waters off El Salvador. Saturday morning, May 24, even though we once again had a head wind, the seas never built, and so we were able to head straight to our waypoint. At 10:30 a.m. the panga guide from the Barillas Marina Club met us at the waypoint and guided us through the channel entrance and into the Bahia de Jiquilisco. It took us almost 2 hours to get to Barillas. It felt like we were going up a river, but in reality, we actually went up a few of the many narrow fingers in the bay. We tied up to a mooring at Barillas around 12:15 p.m. Five minutes later, Heriberto, the operations manager for Barillas, came out with customs to officially welcome us to El Salvador. After clearing customs, we went ashore and were cleared soon afterwards by immigration. The cost was just $10 per person to check into the country. What a quick and efficient check-in! Often when you are at sea, you feel at times like you are the only boat in transit. Believe it or not, we were the third of three boats that actually arrived that morning. Thus, we all checked in with immigration at the same time. Crossing the Tehuantepec was the biggest topic of conversation. Now, being south of the Gulf of Tehuantepec, �time is definitely on our side.� Most the afternoon was spent socializing with the other cruisers at Barillas and visiting with John and Dodie whom we met in Huatulco. They had arrived a day earlier on their catamaran. On our first evening at Barillas, there were eight other cruising boats at Barillas beside ourselves, and we were all headed south. |
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| Barillas Marina Landing |
| Pilot Boat Guiding Us in to Barillas |
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