December 24, 2013.

Well we departed Puerto Escondido at first light. It was a rough windy night, should have left at 3am when the wind started to get up but I thought that Jan and Marina were still asleep so I decided to hold off. As it was, Jan and Marina were both wide awake. Jan wanted to get underway but she thought that I was asleep so she decided to let me be. So we all quietly suffered in silence till day break.  Once underway we hoisted sail and paralleled the shore, about 3 miles off, sailing fast and hard on the wind. This stretch of the coast is just one long tan colored beach that runs almost unbroken for 30 miles. Every once in a while a small group of huts or houses would be tucked into a tiny cove but otherwise, it was  deserted sand dunes lined with palms and scrub. We hadn’t been underway more than an hour when we spotted the first Hawksbill Sea Turtle. Before we knew it we were surrounded by not dozens but, hundreds of coffee table size turtles just lounging on the surface. There were so many turtles that we had to steer around some, but as careful as we were we still managed to side-swipe several. Fortunately the wind had died some so we were sailing slowly through their midst. We left more than a few turtles looking shocked and confused as they were left spinning in our wake after being clipped by Maiatla. I even donned my snorkeling gear and dove in to get some pics and video. By the end of the day we could easily claim to have seen thousands of turtles. All presumably, waiting for the moon to tell them to head to shore to lay their eggs, way cool.

Once we rounded the point at Puerto Angle, the turtles vanished. Puerto Angle is a small Mexican resort town full of banana boats and fishing pangas and two story hotels with beach bars. You would look long and hard to find and English speaking white face here. Not that we wanted to see any.

We passed up the harbor and went around the cliffs to a secluded bay that cut deep into a hill side. It looked like a good place to anchor for a few days and do some snorkeling but as we learned the first night, two sets of swells from different directions roll straight in here making for the roughest night at anchor we have had yet. Again no sleep for anyone. In the morning, Marina and I took our high-speed dink and raced back to Puerto Angle, about 3 miles away, to see if we could find a spot in the busy, but tight anchorage for us, so we could get caught up on some rest. But no luck, it was packed and the swell was likewise causing all the boats there to dance about. After a quick snorkel to cool off, we returned to the boat where Jan was still trying, mostly in vain to get some sleep. We quickly up anchored and were off looking for a bay to tuck into to get away from the swell and find some peaceful sleep.

 The wind filled back in at about 15 knots and the waves quickly grew making for a rough ride as they would crash against the nearby rocks and rebound back out creating a nasty cross chop. I was eager to find shelter so for the next 15 miles I attempted to enter every little bay and cove that looked promising, but as I had no detail charts and the tiny bays often had rocks above and below the surface which made us all more than just a little nervous. I have two depth sounders aboard, one of which shows the bottoms profile and composition, rocks or sand so I was able to anticipate what lay just ahead. But I was still on edge most of the time. 

One bay that looked promising had an ominous sounding name, Puerto Scaraficos. As we weaved through close standing rock fingers with white water crashing over them, Jan suddenly decide to leave her station watching the depth sounders to disappear below. “Where you going” I asked, think it odd that she would leave me at such a critical moment. “ To throw up” she said before vanishing. Well that was Jan’s way of saying that she did not care particularly for this anchorage and that somewhere else might be better suited to our needs. I carefully turned us around between three pillars of rocks that were just a few boat lengths away and beat a hasty retreat back to sea.

And hour later we final dropped our bow and stern hooks in small heart shaped bay, called Bahias Maguey and Organ, just a couple miles west of Huatulco Mexico. The lobe called Maguey contains several thatch hut restaurants and bars. The lobe called Oragn is around the corner and a mile away and is where we now live. A quiet tranquil bay that we have all to ourselves. The water is so clear that I can see the fish darting around the bottom 30 feet below the boat. We have steep rock cliffs 100 feet on either side with a beautiful crescent shape beach just off our stern.  Just before dark we went for a short walk through the jungle that lays just beyond the beach . The canopy was full of chirping and squalling birds and the underbrush was twinkling with glowing fireflies and to our delight, no mosquitoes. Back on the beach we swan in the gentle surf to cool off then later back at the boat, we skinny-dipped and marveled at the bio-luminescence that caused our bodies to glow as if coved in pixie dust. We showered then ate. After a rousing game of Mexican train Dominoes we went to bed to sleep like the dead.

We will spend the next few days here, exploring and getting ready to cross the dreaded Gulf of Tehuanteepec, the start of which just lays around the corner. We will have to wait here for a good weather window to make the 275 mile crossing to Guatemala. Today its blowing over 50 knots in the gulf, but it is predicted to died down over the next few days. So we will wait and spend xmas here. It may not be paradise, but I think I can see it from here.