PUERTO ANGEL TO HUATULCO

17th May we headed out for a day sail to Marina Chahue (chow-Way) with very little wind. We had decided that since adding our second new electronic fuel pump in Puerto Angel, that we would engine all the way there just to check that we could ! We arrived without incident late afternoon, and, unable to raise anyone on the VHF, made our way into the marina, chose a slip and tied alongside.

Our time in Chahue passed quickly, Paul spending the first 3 days fitting the autohelm that has become our 4th crew member. Because we have a wooden wheel, the fitting wasn’t that simple, and so he spent hours in lockers and under floors while I relaxed at the pool by the beach and checked the weather. Southern Mexico isn’t clear of the Pacific hurricane belt and in order to be safe, all cruising boats are advised to be in Northern Costa Rica by the middle to end of May. It was now May 20th and on checking the weather that particular day I, along with the crew of another boat that had arrived in Chahue just a few hours before we did - Rusty and John on the Anna Lee – noted a tropical depression forming approximately 150 miles due west of Huatulco. This became a conversation stopper in the marina and by the next day it had been named as Tropical Storm Barbara (later to develop into hurricane Barbara), and was forecast to make landfall in approximately three days time with predicted wind speeds of 180 kph. So, what to do? Batten down and have a party! We avidly tracked the storm, hoping that it would follow the regular track of all such hurricanes, and head off north west, out into the Pacific. Contrary to all known weather models, it actually turned and headed south east, and into the Gulf of Tehuantepec, making its landfall between Salina Cruz and Puerto Madero, approximately 150 miles south east of Huatulco. The only effects felt by the boats in Chahue was a few hours of heavier winds, but nothing significant. The boys on Anna Lee and Xochitl decided that these winds would make for great surfing conditions and took off for the beach, to return several hours later battered.

So, having fitted the autohelm, Paul then had to get to the bottom of the engine problem, once and for all. He thought that we may have had some bad fuel which was now the cause of our problems, so decided to empty both fuel tanks and clean them. We had noticed that the problems seemed to occur when we were using the starboard fuel tank. The port tank was emptied and cleaned with nothing evident. Paul re filtered the fuel before returning it to the clean tank. Next the starboard tank which still had around 45 gallons of diesel in it, and so, with a siphon pipe, he set about emptying the tank. Long story short, the starboard tank had a very large amount of water in the diesel, the most disconcerting thing being that we still don’t know how it got in there. Three days later Paul had filtered, re-filtered and re-re-filtered the diesel, cleaned both tanks and, crossed fingers, we may now have got to the bottom of our engine problems. !!??!!

Although the majority of ‘traffic’ had gone through this marina for the season, there were still another couple of boats around, the Vrouwe Christina, an immaculate and beautiful dutch barge, crewed by Ari and Hillier, and waiting for a window to head north, which is just as difficult at this time of year as heading south, and Kim, another single hander, waiting to go south. We’d only been in the marina a day when a large catamaran came in, enroute from Panama to Puerto Vallarta, with engine problems. There was a delivery crew on board who jumped ship the following day to return to the States, but not before emptying out their fridge, freezer and cupboard contents to us, supplying 9 of us with enough food to eat for the next 5 nights!!!! Every night in Chahue was a BBQ and party, we needed to leave soon to get some rest!!! We were just waiting for a good window to cross the dreaded Gulf of Tehuantepec (T-peck).