Huatulco area, Oaxaca, Mexico

Wednesday, May 15, 2013

015-45.791 N
096-7.276 W

Ahoy from Huatulco, Oaxaca, Mexico!

First off, take a guess at how to pronounce our location. OK, you got the "Mexico" part right! :-) Hautulco is pronounced "wah-TOOL-co" and Oaxaca is pronounced "wah-HAW-kah". It always helps to be able to tell people where you are and as you can see from the map above, we're way down south in Mexico and are at about the same latitude as the Bay Islands of Honduras on the Atlantic side. Being this far south (15° N) also means that it's getting hot at this time of the year and hurricane season is approaching, so we need to be thinking about storing the boat for hurricane season.

As you may recall from my last blog, we had just finished a 212 mile passage from Acapulco to Puerto Angel and from there we had a quick ~20 mile trip to the bays of Huatulco. These bays are part of a national park system and as a result many of them are pristine without any road access or buildings. One of the things that I've really missed during this trip is being at anchor in the midst of wilderness and watching the stars without the interference of artificial lights. Virtually everywhere that we've anchored during this year's trip has been near a town, so anchoring here was quite a joy.

There are about 8 bays that you can anchor in with varying degrees of protection from the wind, waves and swell. The above picture should be tilted about 45 degrees upward to make it north up, but from this you can see that most of the bays are somewhat exposed to southerly swell, so you have to carefully pick your anchorage if you don't want to spend sleepless nights at anchor rolling from side to side. These also tend to get very rolly when the Tehuantepec winds are blowing (more on them later).

Our first stop was in Bahia Jicaral, which provided reasonable protection from the SW swell and had a pristine beach with no road access. The charts for this area aren't the greatest, so a large part of your navigation is by eye. I would not want to enter here at night and try to anchor, as there are way too many rocks lurking under the water which could do great harm. However, during the day they provide quite the backdrop.

The snorkeling was supposed to be very good in Bahia Jicaral, but unfortunately the water was filled with jelly fish, so we took the dinghy to Bahia Sacrificios (aka Bahia de San Augustine) which was reported to have even better snorkeling. On our way through the bay we stopped at sv Lil' Explorers and introduced ourselves. We had seen the boat in Zihuatanejo, but have never met them.

We were quite impressed to find that this 57' catamaran had a family of 10 living aboard it. You have mom and dad (Courage & Shannon) with kids Cassidy, Intrepid, Integrity, Vitality, Innocence and 9 month old Valor plus brother Loyal and grandma Barbara! The picture to the right is from a cruiser's party that we had later, but it shows the everyone along with some other cruisers. Anyhow, quite the crew and wonderful people who we got to know quite a bit better along the way.

After stopping by Lil' Explorer's boat, we headed into Bahia Sacrificios to do our own exploring. There's a large roped off area just off of the beach which we assumed was the snorkeling area. We jumped in and were amazed at how clear the water was because elsewhere in the bay the visibility was quite poor. We were also amazed at how much coral there was. We haven't seen coral like this in ages. Don't get me wrong, I'm not talking the beautiful corals that you find in Belize or Bonair, but large expanses of live sheet coral with occasional coral heads. There were lots of fish too, but pretty much the same set of characters that you see elsewhere. It was a joy to see live coral such as this.

We then headed ashore and we were astounded by the number of palapa restaurants lining this bay. I counted between 40 and 50 restaurants lining the western half of this large bay. The only thing that we could figure out was that cruise ships come into Santa Cruz and they take their guests there. We were there on a mid-week non-cruise ship day, so it very quiet and most of the restaurants were closed. However, we picked Charlie's Place to have lunch at, and we had the best grilled whole red snapper that we've ever had. While we were waiting, we were amused to watch two guys struggling to walk on the beach each carrying an entire full sized bed frame and headboard made out of wood that they were trying to sell. First off, there was no one there; secondly who buys a bed frame at the beach and third: 2 guys selling the same thing? Oh, how I wish that I had brought my camera!

The next day we moved a few bays down to Bahia Chachaqual where we anchored at a variety of locations. One of my favorite anchorages was at Playa la India where you're supposed to get great protection from a reef that separates you from the ocean and which according to one guide book, doesn't let a ripple past it. Well, I don't know when he was there, but at high tide with a 20-25 kt wind blowing across it, we had quite the large amount of water rolling across it, which made it impossible to snorkel there. However, we did get to watch a large fin crisscross reef while hunting for food in the surf.

From Playa la India we moved back into the main bay and squeezed ourselves into a tight anchorage in NW corner of Bahia Chachaqual, which also appears to be the desired location for the day tourist boats which appear at 10 AM and are typically gone by 2 PM. The beach, as advertised, was pristine and it was obvious that it's used by turtles for nesting as there were fresh turtle tracks (image on the left) going up the beach and it appears that there were deep holes that had been scooped out for nesting. There are trees that are known as May Trees which only bloom in May (shown above) and otherwise are barren and we just happened to be there are the right time to see them.

After spending spending 5 days in the bays we decided that we needed to move to a marina due to a much larger swell which was going to develop. Our first stop was the fuel dock in Santa Cruz. I've pulled into a lot of fuel docks before, but this was a fuel wall with timbers which descended (on part of it) to keep you off of the cement wall. We came in at low tide and fit *under* the standoffs on the approach end, so Sue had to really fend the boat off of the wall. It sure didn't help that a good sized swell was working in and shoving us around. Oh, did I mention that there are underwater rocks that extend out about 10' on the approach side, so you have to come in at a 30° angle to avoid them? This was a Sunday and the huge cruise ship dock which parallels this was filled with people listening to a band so loud that we had to shout at the top of our lungs to be heard. To get back out, I had to shove the stern out as far as I could and back out as there are pangas blocking the path forward. We got fuel without damaging the boat, but I sure don't want to do that again!

From there we headed into Marina Chahue (pronounced chah-WAY) in Huatulco. The marina is quite nice, but not directly near anything. For those who don't like to walk, taxies to the delightful town of La Crucecitas are only $25 pesos ($2 USD) and are very plentiful. The town itself is extremely clean with wonderful very wide tree-lined boulevards running down the center of major roads. It was very nice to meet up with cruising friends that we haven't seen in a while and hang around with others that we wanted to get to know better.

A tour that we were planning on taking got canceled one day and Sue, I and Kathi from sv Wild Rose ended up wandering around La Cruceicitas for the day. We found a lot of really nice locally made art products and we found one of the weavers that we had been told about. Wow, what beautiful work they produce! Sue was looking at table cloth runners and asked me which one I liked. When she told me the price (less than $15 USD each), I said get both! How could you go wrong? It was really something watch the weaver working away in this heat and not breaking a sweat. I guess that he was a 3rd generation weaver and I think that we saw the next generation playing in their showroom!

The next day we headed to a tour of the Hagia Sofia (which translates to something close to "Holy Wisdom") botanical gardens, which are located about an hour away up in the mountains. This is a 350 acre tropical flower and fruit orchard with over 300 species of plants that the owner, Armando Canavati Nader, has brought in from his many travels to exotic locations while doing business for clothing textile business. Believe me, the US would never allow these species to be introduced the way that Armando has done it, but this is Mexico and it's amazing to see all of these plants brought together in one place.

In addition Armando is trying to find crops that the local farmers can raise instead of corn which only grows for a few years before depleting the soil. It was truly amazing to see all of the fruit trees that he has cultivated including more species of mangos and avocados than I knew existed. And if you're a bird watcher, this is a paradise as we saw an incredible variety of birds that we've never seen before. At the end of the trip you get to swim and relax under waterfalls and if you're brave enough, climb into the cave behind the waterfall. All in all it was a wonderful day.

One of the primary reasons for stopping here is to wait for a weather window to cross the Gulf of the Tehuantepec. These winds are caused by N to S pressure gradients between the Gulf of Mexico and the Pacific ocean. The winds funnel through a 40 km pass in the Sierra Madre mountains and often build to gale (>= 35 kt) and storm force (>= 48 kt) winds and occasionally build to hurricane force and these winds extend hundreds of miles out into the ocean and generate fierce waves.

They're known an T-peckers and throw fear into normal cruisers. It's a 250 mile passage across the Gulf of the Tehuantepec and you do NOT want to be caught in the middle with one of these blowing. If you're smart, like we hope we are, you simply wait for 24 hours once one has stopped to let the waves die down and then cross. If you can't wait, you drive with one foot on the beach...Not fun, but doable.

They're strongest and most frequent in December and are least frequent in June. In mid-May they're much less frequent and fierce. The attached picture shows what it's doing right now out there. If you want to read a good paper on this, check out this link.

The Pacific hurricane season started on May 15th and guess what? Our first tropical storm was forming and was threatening to form into a hurricane. Alvin, the first Pacific storm of 2013, was supposed to turn from a tropical storm into a hurricane within several days and even though it was a long way away and wind wouldn't be an issue, it was going to generate a swell which was going to make a 250 mile passage across the Tehuantepec uncomfortable. Luckily upper level wind sheer chopped off the top of the storm before it formed into a hurricane and it became a non-issue for us, but it certainly emphasized that it was time to wrap up this year's cruising.

The plan is to leave on Friday afternoon (May 17th) and make the 250 nm trip across the Tehuantepec in about 40 hours. By leaving at 4 PM we should arrive at around 8 AM on Sunday morning. This gives us plenty of leeway should we move slower than the planned 6 kts and most of our passage will be at night when it's cooler.

Speaking of hot, the water temperature is 88°F with air temps during the day in the mid 90s and dew points in the upper 70s and low 80. The heat-index is typically 100-110°F. That's hot...

-- Geoff & Sue

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For the cruiser:

Bahia Sacrificios: We didn't anchor here, but were on a friends catamaran which was anchor there. They were anchored in 35' just went of Isla San Agustin. I would have tried to anchor behind Isla San Agustin to get out of the swell, but they were riding nicely in the gentle 4' swell. The beach has an amazing number of palapa restaurants on it. I counted between 40 and 50. The people selling items were very laid back with very few approaching you. The snorkeling around the roped off area in the W side of the bay is some of the best that Mexico has to offer with large expanses of mat coral. Note that this doesn't compare to the Caribbean, but it's very good for the Pacific side of Mexico. We ate at Charley's Place and had the best grilled red snapper that we've ever had anywhere. It wasn't cheap ($300 pesos), but it was amazing. HIGHLY recommended.

Bahia Jicaral: We were there in fairly calm weather and 4-5' SW swell and we had a very calm anchorage. We did have our flopper stopper out to mitigate the random larger swell that worked in. The beach was very nice to walk on. One of the few places that you can anchor and not have any lights from shore. Absolutely no wireless signal.

Bahia Rescalillo: We didn't anchor there, but stuck our nose in. I can't understand why one would want to anchor here other than to say that they did it. We were there on a fairly calm day and there was lots of wave reflections off of the surrounding rock walls. The beach was very small. With all of the other beautiful and more protected coves, why anchor here?

Bahia Chachacual: Very nice anchorage with reasonable protection from swell W of S. Very popular stop for tourist boats who anchor in the NW corner and take their guests ashore for lunch and to snorkel. Tour boats start arriving at 10 AM and are typically gone by 2 PM.

The beach area is pristine with no road access. Beach is coarse sand with walkable slope. Very obvious turtle nesting site.

This is one of the few anchoring spots along the Pacific coast of Mexico where you can anchor without having shore lights.

Land dinghy in SW corner by rocks. Most of the western edge of bay is roped off for snorkeling. This is some of the best snorkeling on the Pacific side of Mexico that we've seen with lots of coral and a variety of fish. Visibility can vary widely day to day.

The most protected location is in the SW corner, but be VERY careful of the reef on that side of the bay as it extends underwater to the W about 45 yards. This makes it very difficult to find a location to drop the anchor and be clear of the reef and the swimming area lines. You have over 10' almost to the shore, but the dark patches towards the shore are reef which are only 4' deep in places. We anchored in 17' MLW over sand 90 yards west of the exposed reef, which splits the submerged reef with the swimming area lines. We also anchored S of the exposed reef in 33'.

Note that the large orange mooring ball is only in use until about 2 PM and has a 3/8" SS cable going to a large cement block, so one might be able to pick it up for an overnight if you trust it. I snorkeled on it and the maintenance looked good and it's used to hold the large, heavy tour boats.

LA India Cove in Bahia Chachaqual: This anchorage is behind a rock reef which is submerged at high tide which allows a fair amount of swell/wave action to cross it. The eastern portion of the bay is roped off for snorkeling. Anchor between the large orange mooring ball and the roped off area in about 25 feet of water over sand. Holding is good and the ventilation is excellent.

We anchored there with 20+ kts winds blowing out of the west and at high tide it got a bit bumpy, but in normal winds and low swell it's probably a very calm anchorage. Great view out over the ocean and great ventilation with nothing to block westerly winds. This anchorage is used by tourist panagas during the day, but they typically only stay for a couple of hours and move along. The large mooring ball is used by the big tourist boats, but they also come and go quickly.

Marina Chahue: Dockage was $0.70 USD/ft + 15% for power. The marina is reasonably well maintained and has excellent security. It's a 1+ mile walk into town, but taxis are only $25 pesos each way. Our biggest gripe was that the bathrooms regularly didn't have toilet paper. The water was potable. We ate at the Vienna restaurant in Tangolunda 2 times and had excellent meals. Highly recommended. We can also recommend the day long tour at Hagia Sofia botanical gardens. Contact them directly through their web site to arrange transport as the owner lives nearby. Good shopping in the downtown. The Super Che grocery store is nearby and is well stocked.

If you're hot and feel like relaxing in a pool, walk across the bridge and make a left on the 1st street. When the road Ts, make another left and go to the end. You'll find 2 beach clubs. Go to the one on the right named Club Chahue, have lunch and relax in their pool.

Be sure to visit the church downtown near the center square. It has some of the more unique paintings murals that I've ever seen in a church. Beautiful!

Hagia Sofia botanical gardens: We had a thoroughly enjoyable day there exploring the gardens and fruit trees. The cost was $550 pesos/pp. Contact them directly through their web site to arrange transportation as the travel agency that we went through screwed up thoroughly.

Log ID: 2217