Puerto Madero, Chiapas, Mexico

Saturday, June 1, 2013

014-41.930 N
092-23.525 W

Ahoy from Puerto Madero in the state of Chiapas, Mexico!

Believe it or not, we're at the end of our cruising season and this blog will be my last position report for 2013. This season was certainly shorter than most, but I can assure you that we're ending it just on time. When I last wrote we were in Huatulco waiting for a weather window to cross the Gull of Tehuantepec, which is a 250 nm passage and takes about 40 hours. The winds can be intense as they blow from the Gulf of Mexico though a pass in the Sierra Madre mountains, making the passage extremely uncomfortable to down right dangerous if you time things wrong.

The route that we had planned on taking is shown in red on the right and the route that we actually took is shown in yellow. We departed on a Friday afternoon at about 4 PM and had wonderful winds to sail by. We left at that time so that we would arrive at Puerto Madero at about 8 AM on Sunday morning. It also allowed us to make most of the passage at night when it was cooler as the heat during the day can be unbearable.

The seas were very calm with just a 6' long period swell rolling in from the SSW and at about midnight I decided that it was OK to cut across the Gulf and shave off about 25-30 miles. All of the guide books tell you not to do this, but the winds were so light that I made the decision to make the turn. We were in VHF contact with sv Wild Rose who was also headed to Puerto Madero and they made the same turn. The wind had pretty much died at that point and from there on it we motored/motor-sailed for the rest of the way. There wasn't much excitement except for my final 3-6 AM shift when I got to dodge some sizable thunderstorms which had us pinched against the shore. I wonder why Sue was so happy to turn the helm over to me with those storms approaching?

We pulled into Marina Chiapas a little before 8 AM where we had quite the welcoming committee from other boaters that we knew who had preceded us. Because we're so close to the Guatemalan boarder, the port captain and the marines show up with a drug sniffing dog before you're allowed off of the boat. We've never seen that before!

I was very impressed with the welcoming party that the marina had for us. Well, maybe it was the marina's inaugural party combined with a fishing tournament, but we'll pretend otherwise. The governor had even been there the day before. Late in the afternoon they had the weigh-in for the fishing tournament and the winning fish was 38.55 KG (85 Lb.). I think that it was Don and Kathi from sv Wild Rose who pulled it in on their way in...or maybe not... :-)

After that it was non-stop work to get BlueJacket ready to store. One major difference is that BlueJacket has been stored in desert conditions for the past 2 years and in reality, it's been almost 3 years since we've been on her when it's rained. As a result we were quite worried about possible leaks, but rainy season started right after we arrived, so we got a great chance to find and repair any leaks.

Speaking of rain...hurricane Barbara came ashore just N of Puerto Madero. This was the second named Pacific storm this season and it formed right in the Gulf of Tehuantepec and brought us a lot of rain. We got over 6.5" in just one 24 hour period! We didn't get much wind, but we did get torrential downpours. We're certainly glad that we don't have plans to continue moving, as the weather pattern down here certainly seems very active.

There was no doubt that rainy season had started as we suddenly were getting rain on an almost daily basis. The temperature and humidity had also spiked with heat indexes well over 100°F and dew points in the upper 70s and low-to-mid 80s. At home when the dew points reach 70°F, everyone complains about how humid it is. Try a temperature of 86°F and a dew point of the same. Yuck! This kind of heat just saps your energy and you're just constantly dripping with sweat. I actually enjoyed the rain, as that meant clouds and less heat.

It took us almost 12 days to get BlueJacket ready to store, although I think that we could have done it in 8-10 days had we really pushed. She got waxed top to bottom, the interior completely cleaned and all of the sails and most of the rigging pulled down to keep it from turning green in the intense humidity. We also installed tarps to keep some of the rain water off of the boat and we installed a dehumidifier that we carry with us. Hopefully all of this will keep the boat looking good and keep it from molding/mildewing, which was a problem in the past when we kept BlueJacket in Guatemala.

Marina Chiapas is a very safe place to leave a boat. First off there's a huge ship's channel that enters Puerto Madero, so there's absolutely no issues entering the channel when a swell is running. Then you have to wind your way through channels to make it into the marina. As a result any swell that reaches the marina is very slight and it has OK wind protection as it isn't located next to the ocean. The satellite photo to the left shows the marina (the triangular shape on the right hand side of the photo) before the channel into the marina was cut.

The major downside to the marina is that it's in the middle of nowhere. Tapachula, which is the nearest large town with shopping, is 25+ minutes away by car. If you walk out to the road, you can catch a collectivo for $16 pesos ($1.25), but you may be squished in there with 20+ of your closest friends. Forget about bringing groceries back this way! For that you need to take a taxi, which runs between $150 and $200 pesos ($12-17), depending upon how far you need to go. Another issue is that the only restaurant in the area is located at the marina, but the restaurant closes at about 6:30 PM and if it rains, the restaurant often closes due to its open architecture. Over all, Marina Chiapas is a great place to leave a boat, but not a destination.

On June 1st we flew back to Boston. It was a long day of travel, starting at 4 AM and we didn't arrive back at home until 10:30 PM. Luckily all 3 of our flights went well and we made it through Customs and Immigration at JFK without any issues. We really want to thank our dear friend, Jenn Mandelbaum, for picking us up at the airport.

We'll be home in Marlborough, MA for the rest of the year and we'll probably be headed back to the boat in early-mid January next year. Our route will take us through Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama. I had wanted to store the boat on the Pacific side of Panama, but it doesn't look like there's a safe location to do that, so we will probably have to go through the Panama canal and store the boat on the Atlantic/Caribbean side.

Thanks for following our adventures via these blogs. I hope that you've enjoyed them and found them interesting. And to all of our new friends that we made this year: please be safe, have fair seas and hopefully we'll see you along the way sometime in the future.

-- Geoff & Sue

---

For the cruiser:

Marina Chiapas charges $0.40/ft/day for dockage. For the 2013 season the have a storage rate of $200/month (regardless of length) for the months of July-October. The bathrooms/showers are very nice and kept exceptionally. Fuel is not available at the marina, but they will drive you to the Pemex station to get jury jugs of fuel. If you need more than that, there's a Pemex station with a fuel dock located nearby.

The following waypoints are from sv Groovy to get into the marina:

Entrance to Puerto Chiapas 14° 41.819 N, 92° 24.685 W
First turn (RIGHT) towards Marina 14° 42.173 N, 92° 24.327 W
Second turn (RIGHT) towards Marina 14° 42.240 N, 92° 24.170 W
Third turn (RIGHT) towards Marina 14° 42.195 N, 92° 23.781 W
Fourth turn (LEFT) into Marina Chiapas 14° 41.990 N, 92° 23.665 W
Marina Slips 14° 41.930 N, 92° 23.525 W

In Tapachula you'll find just about any shopping that you can imagine. There's a very large Walmart located across from a Home Depot. There's a Sam's club and a large Cheduari grocery store. Provisioning here should not be an issue, but driving could be extremely challenging as they're very aggressive and once you get off of the main roads, the streets are filled with pot holes.

Just before departing we move to a hotel in Tapachula. We stayed at the lovely hotel Casa Mexicana, which is located in central Tapachula and a $200 pesos taxi ride from the marina, but it's very reasonably priced and an absolute delight to the eye.

Log ID: 2220