After a great month in La Cruz we flew back to El Salvador to haul the boat and repair the broken rudder. After hauling out at Island Marine which is owned by our friends Colette and Murray,
we found that ten inches missing from the back of the rudder and a foot missing off the bottom. Murray welded a reinforcing structure made from 3/8” steel to the now exposed old one. We covered the whole thing with close-cell foam and after shaping the foam wrapped it in many layers of fiberglass and resin and reinstalled it. All in just three days. We decided to stick around to watch Super bowl with our friends Bill and Alice aboard Grey Wolf. We had a great party and were joined by the other cruisers in the anchorage. Before leaving we purchased another solar panel from a friend on another boat so we now have over 400 watts of solar power. We checked the weather for the Tehuantepec and the forecast was for a gale about the time we were to arrive there. The Bay of Tehuantepec is located between Northern Guatemala and Southern Mexico and is notorious for extremely dangerous winds blowing from the shore out to sea creating huge seas just a mile or so from land but, if you transit along the shore in 30 feet of water it is quite safe as you are protected from the seas so we felt that we would be right next to the land by time we arrive there two or three days later. A few years back we did the same thing in a 40-knot gale so we weren’t worried. We transited the bar along with Grey Wolf and once clear we turned opposite directions. Grey Wolf was headed south and we north. Just an hour or so later we picked up a nice wind coming off the shore and sailed parallel to the land on our way to Guatemala. We hoped that it was a good sign that we would arrive in Mexico with much of our fuel still onboard. We paralleled the shore until we had to move out to five miles go around a point. By midnight we were pushed out to seven miles, farther than we liked but the wind was slowly dying so we set a course to angle us back near shore over the next six hours.
Shortly after midnight the wind all but stopped so I started the engine and motor sailed with the staysail and double-reefed main still up. Yup. Holy Crap time. The wind came up to 50 knots in an instant and I had to turn the boat down wind to take the pressure off the sails so I could take them down. I yelled Jean awake and she came up to steer the boat while I dowsed the sails. By the time the sails were down the seas had built to over 12 feet and very short duration. We started the engine and turned up wind but the wind and seas were so strong that the closest we could motor to the wind was 45 degrees and we had to use full throttle to do it. We had to hand steer to keep the boat from accidentally tacking through the wind and heading us out to sea where the seas were bound to be much larger. This is the first time in 10 years that the autopilot failed to steer the boat. By now we were out 12 miles and making only one knot towards land. We took a lot of green water over the bow and got soaked in our, until now, dry cockpit. It took a lot of concentration to keep the boat on course. If I took a moment to check our progress on the GPS we went way off course and took a long time to come back. Jean and I both felt a little sea sick because of how rough it was and from the adrenalin. It took us 12 hours to make the 12 miles back to shore and we were both toasted. We stayed less than ½ mile from the beach still with lots of wind and decided to pull into Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala to take refuge from the weather. Everyone has been warned that 
Quetzal should be avoided due to the cost of the marina, (no anchoring allowed) and the governmental costs but we had no choice. For our two-day stay it was over $350. We arrived near dusk and were happy to be out of the weather. The following morning we discovered that the mainsail was completely shredded so we removed it and left it in the garbage. Also, we found that the huge seas had damaged part of the planking on our bowsprit platform and we had wrapped a 10-foot line around the prop.
To add insult to injury, the surge at the marina was so strong that we ruined a set of dock lines in two days. Well, two days later the wind stopped and we motored out of Puerto $$ and motored all the way to the marina in Huatulco, Mexico all the time staying very close to shore. Oh yeah, we’re chickens now!
In Huatulco we met up with our long-time friends Alan and Margaret aboard Effie. They were planning on going to Bahia del Sol where we had just left. We also made some new friends in the marina and handed out some information on El Salvador. We loaded up on fuel and a week later headed out for La Cruz. It was a total motorboat ride. We stopped overnight in Zihuatenejo and Chamela just so we could get relief from the sound of the engine. We arrive in La Cruz at 3am and anchored as soon as we found 30 feet of water. Later that night we went to a Mardi gras party at the Britannia Restaurant and I played with the band until 2 am and, unfortunately, had way too many Jack on the rocks and tequila shots. So, here we are back home in La Cruz among our many friends and with lots of opportunity to play music. Oh, and we gotta fix a lot of things too.
we found that ten inches missing from the back of the rudder and a foot missing off the bottom. Murray welded a reinforcing structure made from 3/8” steel to the now exposed old one. We covered the whole thing with close-cell foam and after shaping the foam wrapped it in many layers of fiberglass and resin and reinstalled it. All in just three days. We decided to stick around to watch Super bowl with our friends Bill and Alice aboard Grey Wolf. We had a great party and were joined by the other cruisers in the anchorage. Before leaving we purchased another solar panel from a friend on another boat so we now have over 400 watts of solar power. We checked the weather for the Tehuantepec and the forecast was for a gale about the time we were to arrive there. The Bay of Tehuantepec is located between Northern Guatemala and Southern Mexico and is notorious for extremely dangerous winds blowing from the shore out to sea creating huge seas just a mile or so from land but, if you transit along the shore in 30 feet of water it is quite safe as you are protected from the seas so we felt that we would be right next to the land by time we arrive there two or three days later. A few years back we did the same thing in a 40-knot gale so we weren’t worried. We transited the bar along with Grey Wolf and once clear we turned opposite directions. Grey Wolf was headed south and we north. Just an hour or so later we picked up a nice wind coming off the shore and sailed parallel to the land on our way to Guatemala. We hoped that it was a good sign that we would arrive in Mexico with much of our fuel still onboard. We paralleled the shore until we had to move out to five miles go around a point. By midnight we were pushed out to seven miles, farther than we liked but the wind was slowly dying so we set a course to angle us back near shore over the next six hours.
Shortly after midnight the wind all but stopped so I started the engine and motor sailed with the staysail and double-reefed main still up. Yup. Holy Crap time. The wind came up to 50 knots in an instant and I had to turn the boat down wind to take the pressure off the sails so I could take them down. I yelled Jean awake and she came up to steer the boat while I dowsed the sails. By the time the sails were down the seas had built to over 12 feet and very short duration. We started the engine and turned up wind but the wind and seas were so strong that the closest we could motor to the wind was 45 degrees and we had to use full throttle to do it. We had to hand steer to keep the boat from accidentally tacking through the wind and heading us out to sea where the seas were bound to be much larger. This is the first time in 10 years that the autopilot failed to steer the boat. By now we were out 12 miles and making only one knot towards land. We took a lot of green water over the bow and got soaked in our, until now, dry cockpit. It took a lot of concentration to keep the boat on course. If I took a moment to check our progress on the GPS we went way off course and took a long time to come back. Jean and I both felt a little sea sick because of how rough it was and from the adrenalin. It took us 12 hours to make the 12 miles back to shore and we were both toasted. We stayed less than ½ mile from the beach still with lots of wind and decided to pull into Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala to take refuge from the weather. Everyone has been warned that 
Quetzal should be avoided due to the cost of the marina, (no anchoring allowed) and the governmental costs but we had no choice. For our two-day stay it was over $350. We arrived near dusk and were happy to be out of the weather. The following morning we discovered that the mainsail was completely shredded so we removed it and left it in the garbage. Also, we found that the huge seas had damaged part of the planking on our bowsprit platform and we had wrapped a 10-foot line around the prop.
To add insult to injury, the surge at the marina was so strong that we ruined a set of dock lines in two days. Well, two days later the wind stopped and we motored out of Puerto $$ and motored all the way to the marina in Huatulco, Mexico all the time staying very close to shore. Oh yeah, we’re chickens now!In Huatulco we met up with our long-time friends Alan and Margaret aboard Effie. They were planning on going to Bahia del Sol where we had just left. We also made some new friends in the marina and handed out some information on El Salvador. We loaded up on fuel and a week later headed out for La Cruz. It was a total motorboat ride. We stopped overnight in Zihuatenejo and Chamela just so we could get relief from the sound of the engine. We arrive in La Cruz at 3am and anchored as soon as we found 30 feet of water. Later that night we went to a Mardi gras party at the Britannia Restaurant and I played with the band until 2 am and, unfortunately, had way too many Jack on the rocks and tequila shots. So, here we are back home in La Cruz among our many friends and with lots of opportunity to play music. Oh, and we gotta fix a lot of things too.
