5. Golfito, Costa Rica to Mazatlan

Dec. 5th to Dec. 19th: With the weekend of R&R over in Golfito, it was time to get the show on the road. We left Golfito on Tuesday, Dec. 5th with the intention of covering as much turf as possible before sea conditions required us to head to shore. The big hazards on this route were: 1) countless fishing nets all along the Costa Rican coast, 2) the Papagallo winds in northern Costa Rica/Southern Nicaragua, and 3) the Tehuantepeckers. One out of 3 worked for us!

While travelling along the Costa Rican coast, we picked up some fishing line/nets which compromised our saildrive seals. Net, we had oil/sea water mix in our saildrives. What that required was changing the saildrive oil about 5 times between Costa Rica and Mazatlan (then hauling the boat to replace seals).

The Papagallos turned out to be a gift. We had 20 - 25 knots of breeze just aft of beam on the starboard side allowing us to turn in a 203 mile 24 hour run! What a thrill!

That leaves us the Tehuantepec winds. Our weather reports told us that, if we maintained speed we ought to be able to squeeze in front of the next gale force winds going through the region. But of course, the closer we got to the decision point, the lower our boat speed became, pushing us well beyond comfort. We made the decision to turn to starboard and go to Puerto Madero (now Puerto Chiapas). A smart move! Our chart is shown to the right.

As we approached the Mexican waters from the Guatemalan waters, we saw a small boat approach. It looked like an old PT boat. Sure enough, it was the Mexican armada working to intercept us. They did and informed us to head into Puerto Madero for inspection. Since that was our intention, no problem.

We got into Puerto Madero at about 9:00 pm and dropped anchor in the cove outside the Port Captain's office. Within an hour, a vessel with about 10 Mexican navy personnel and a drug sniffing dog showed up at our boat. They were very professional and very thorough. An hour later, they left and we had a late night's dinner, and the first night without a watch on in a while!

We checked into the Port Captain's on Saturday morning and he personally drove us to the airport to check into the country. He would accept no contributions for fuel; he was just a very nice guy. Thank you.


We needed to pick up some fuel, so went to the local Pemex station to fill up. Since their normal clientele was the shrimping fleet, the tie-up was a bit rustic (translation: nails and rebar poking out of the wharf wall).

By Sunday night, the weather forecasts were stating that the Tehuantepecker was settling down, so we took off. This required one more full inpection by the Armada (again, very professional), and we were under way again.

For the next 24 hours we had very benign sailing conditions, 15 or so knots, more or less on the nose. Then (there's always a "then" when it comes to the Tehuantepecs), about 7:00 pm all hell broke loose! The wind ramped way up and we headed closer into the shore (one foot on the shore). By 3:00 am the winds were gusting in the 40's, we had a triple reef in and the engines running. Now, to make it interesting, the shrimping fleet out of Puerto Saline were out in the same waters working! I guess they had to make a living and could exactly order up the weather they wanted.

What that required from us was a good deal of course negotiations to avoid the fleet, their nets, and the winds. By 6:00 am the winds had moderated and had moved more or less astern. Awesome! Let's get the spinnaker up. As soon as that was completed, the wind clocked around on our nose at 5 - 10 knots. Not awesome, let's get the engines started!

About 400 miles later our fuel supply looked limited. Based on calculations and a 200 gallon tank capacity, we should be okay all the way up to Barra de Navidad, right? No. The tank capacity turned out to be only 185 gal. and if you don't fill the final one inch or so, it's about 20 gal. less than that. We ran out of fuel, but fortunately, not out of wind and limped into Caleta de Campos, which though it had no fuel dock, did have a Pemex up the hill a ways.

We sent a shore party to meet the natives (taxi) and 3 hours later we were back under way.

Now, if you're going to make an error, might as well make a really memorable one! Bill decided to put the last of the Gerry cans of fuel in the tank. Well, he grabbed the gasoline can instead of the diesel can. Ouch! The engine didn't seem to like that too well. Time for another stop; this time in Barra de Navidad! Once we emptied the fuel tank (Fortunately it only had a few gallons of diesel/gas mix), cleaned it and refueled, we were off again for Mazatlan.


The sail from Barra to Mazatlan was beautiful, with one of the most amazing sunsets we've seen. These pictures were from outside of Banderas Bay, headed north.

So, December 18th, 6:00 pm we finally make it to Mazatlan, though too late to pull into the marina to the north of Mazatlan. We decided to stay in old harbor area that night and continue on to the marina in the morning. Arriving at 9:00 am into the marina, Diane and I caught a 3:30 pm flight back to San Francisco and back to work. Fortunately, Ron and Lloyd stayed an extra day or so to help put Wirewalker away properly and Diane and I returned 4 weeks later for more of the same.