Puerto Angel, Oaxaca, Mexico

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

015-39.865 N
096-29.700 W

Ahoy from Puerto Angel, Oaxaca (pronounced oh-hock-ah), Mexico!

This log is quite a bit late in arriving, but we've been without Internet since it was written and instead of sending it without photos, I thought that I would wait.

When I last write we were in Acapulco and were just about to begin a 212 mile passage to Puerto Angel and then make another 35 mile jump to the Huatulco area. I had calculated that is we would maintain 6 knots on the 212 mile section that we could make that in 36 hours. Thus is we departed at 6 AM we could arrive at 6 PM the following day. One thing that many people don't realize that as you get closer to the equator, that the days are much more equal in length. Down here the sun rises at around 7 AM and sets at 7:48 PM, giving you just 12:48 minutes of daylight. Compare this to home in Massachusetts where we have almost 2 more hours of daylight. This makes a big difference when you're pulling into an unknown, rock lined anchorage!

We departed Bahia de Marques right on time and successfully navigated the channel out of the bay in the dark. One of the things that you really have to worry about is that most of the local fishing pangas have no navigation lights. You often hear them zipping around at high speeds in dark. How they keep from running into one another is a mystery to me. As a result to have to be very vigilant and keep a close watch as even in the daylight it can be hard to spot the low lying pangas given a 5' swell which can make even larger boats disappear in wave troughs. We only saw a few pangas, none of which had navigation lights, but they did signal with flash lights.

Another issue is that the navigation charts for down here just aren't very good. They're nothing like the US charts which have every rock and bump charted to within a foot of their depth (not really, but close). There are lots of rocks which lay offshore which aren't charted. As a result the prudent choice is to stay way offshore in deep water. That's easier said than done when you have a coastline that wanders in and out and staying well offshore adds miles and time, especially when you're only moving at 6 kts.

We were treated to an orange globe rising through the haze on glassy seas. The winds remained low and on the bow until the afternoon when we finally were able to sail for a few hours. After that it was back to motor sailing. The night passage was very calm and sleeping was even comfortable. We had loaded up the iPhone with pod casts to keep us entertained. We were also treated to quite the meteor show with many meteors leaving bright trails. The next day was about the same, with maybe even less wind, which wasn't good as we had been fighting a 1/2+ kt current for much of the way.

Happily we had maintained 6 kts and pulled into Puerto Angel at around 5:30 PM. It was a much larger town than I expected, as it's always hard to judge by just looking at charts. The anchorage is divided into 2 sections, with the primary anchorage being very deep and open to southerly swell. There's also a western lobe which has OK protection from the S swell, but is filled with mooring balls and had a large rock wall to the S. We went for the western lobe and on the second attempt got ourselves anchored in what I think was the only possible location which kept us off the rocks and away from the other boats. The winds switch during the night, so you have to take into account that you'll swing a full 360 degrees and with 100' of chain out and a 40' boat, that's almost a 280' diameter!

After getting anchored we quickly threw on our bathing suits and jumped into the beautiful, crystal clear blue water to cool down. We also shared an ice cold beer, which tasted wonderful! The shoreline was lined with palapa restaurants, but they typically are closed by 6 PM, so we to stay on board and have dinner and relax there. The town itself looks very nice and inviting and I would have liked to have spent a day there exploring, but we decided to keep moving to Huatulco, where beautiful anchorages were supposed to await.

Photos of Puerto Angel can be view by clicking here and in the last blog I forgot to provide a link to photos from Acapulco.

-- Geoff & Sue

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For the cruiser:

As stated above, we had 1/2+ kt of current against us for significant portions of the trip. Occasionally we'd have current with us or very little current, but I guess that you always notice the current against you more than the other way.

We anchored in the western lobe at N15-39.865 W96-29.700 in 18' over sand. As described, it was a very tight fit.

If we had to anchor in the main area, it would have been in 30-35' and been open to the S swell. The satellite image makes it appear that there is shallower water to the east side of the side of the bay.

Log ID: 2216