We had hoped to day-hop down the coast to San Juan del Sur in the southern end of Nicaragua. All of the anchorages are poorly charted and there are no guide books for suggestions or help. We had heard El Transito would be a good spot to stop and it was within reach before sunset. However the swell was exploding in El Transito like some scene in a movie. The waves were pounding so hard they refracted back into the bay making it a washing machine. Anchoring and sleeping in that mess would have been impossible.

There a few other poorly charted spots to stop, but we ran out of daylight and there's no way you want to approach these shores in the dark. That left us with only one option, keep trucking to San Juan del Sur. It's only about 100 miles, but it is also in an area with strong Easterlies (oh, and thunderstorms at night). We encountered strong winds about 50 miles out and we were getting pasted. The boat was covered with salt spray and only going about 3 knots. A little voice from other sailors' warnings reminded me to stick close to the shore. So we moved from 6 miles out to 3. The wind shifted magically to be less of a headwind and turned to be more off the shore providing us some relief from the pounding waves. After that we hugged the coast as close as we dared in the dark and kept an eye out for thunder squalls.

As luck had it, we trucked along with some brisk winds and no storms! We are anchored happily in the bay with the typical brisk Easterly wind blowing a nice breeze through the boat.

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After another boisterous lightening show we sucked it up and headed out. There was a constant boom of thunder and gloomy clouds all around as we departed Gulfo de Fonseca. The weather forecasts was all messed up. Four different models all told us different stories. Typically as the rainy season approaches there are more southerly winds and that would suck. With the forecasts so divergent, yet showing light winds, we decided to just give it a try and see what was out there.

And unlike previous forecasts showing only light winds, this one proved true. In fact we had to motor the entire 50 miles to Puesta del Sol because there was no wind over 4-5 knots. A little frustrating, but better than a nasty headwind.

So we worked our way through the entrance, which was missing several key buoys due to maintenance and grabbed one of four buoys. Once again we took the cheap seats, or maybe I should say cheaper seats as they aren't exactly free.

The facility here is first class. Two pools, amazingly beautiful beaches and mangroves are breath-taking. Of course there's a bill to pay for staying in a paradise like Puesta del Sol, but for now we're trying to remain in denial.

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We're anchored on the edge of El Salvador after returning from El Tigre in Honduras. Early this morning we were getting ready to depart (4:30am) when we found ourselves surrounded by lightening and it was raining. Rather than face that dreary start, we decided to leave tomorrow.

Naturally we spent a little time exploring the town. There were several loud and rude drunk guys, lots of curious kids and lots of people gave us the cold shoulder. Some barely managed a grunted "buenas" to our friendly greetings. Oh well, the good thing about a boat is you can always leave.

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El Tigre, Honduras.
Report to the King of England. April 18, 1578. Two small strange craft not of wood sailed into the harbor. They traveled against the wind as if moved by magic. There is much idle talk about the origin of these little ships as they claim to be from the United States of America and fly no flag I've seen before. One Portuguese captain claims to know the northern country all the way to the ice has no idea of this country or craft. We have dispatched two of our fasted ships to sail north to sight for this advanced technology. They travel forth with great haste. While not armed or hostile they do keep cats and dogs on board (possibly as livestock).

Were even a small fleet of armed craft such as these with strange sails, rigging and some magic way of moving without wind to arrive in Golfo de Fonseca, we would clearly be out maneuvered and defeated. I respectfully request military assistance to this region.

Your Humble Servant,
Sir Francis Drake

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A nice breeze from the E allowed us to sail upwind for about 6 hours yesterday, making the 58 mile run much more pleasant. We rounded Punta Amapala where we met some nasty current waves that slammed into the hull and rolled and pushed us around. It was a naughty little stretch of water but we made it around into this nice bay that few people know about called, surprise, Amapala. We have a bit of a NE wind, but according to all the weather predictions I've managed to find it should just be a thermal effect and not a papagayo (strong gap winds that would make this anchorage dangerous).

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Well we watched the swell go down over the past few days and we were hopeful that a high tide around noon conditions would be good enough for us to escape. Murray and Collette our helpful guides over the bar gave us the go ahead to raise our anchors and proceed to the entrance.

So I started cranking the windless, careful not to loose the handle again. When we had about 25 feet left to pull up it tightened and pulled the bow down towards the water. The anchor was stuck on something! Damn! Sherrell drove the boat around like mad. We did circles, we backed up, we rammed the thing. About the only thing that seemed to happen was our bow dipped towards the water with all the tension of us pulling on that anchor. About 10 minutes into this struggle I decided I'd better dive down and see what's going on and get it free. We're not going to miss our exit window!

Sherrell told Murray and Collette we were having trouble while I put on the snorkel gear. The other boats were already underway, so we felt the panic set in. I dove down into the murky black water and once I got my face up to where the anchor was supposed to be (visibility was about 1 foot), I saw the anchor was really buried deep. After some digging I found the shackle, so I new I was getting closer. A few more dives on it and I had dug a small pit. Now the only thing we could do is use the boat engine to really try to crank it out.

I climbed back in the boat and Sherrell gunned it again. We dipped the bow down and puuuullled, but no joy. So we tried again at a little different angle. Suddenly we were free! I cranked the sucker up, tied everything down, closed all the hatches, and we floored it to catch up to the group.

Fortunately the swell was small and we climbed a few 3 footers on our way out, but no waves broke on us. Man were we glad to have made it out! Bahia del Sol was a great place and we had a lot fun there, but we were ready to go.

We had a great sail for about 14 miles to some unknown beach. The next major anchorage is too far to arrive in daylight. So we are at this VERY rough roadstead and in the morning we'll bolt out of here for somewhere nice.

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Well, it’s been a struggle to find some time to put together a cohesive story of the past 6 months of traveling.  It’s hard to exclude photos and stories, but I think you’ll agree it’s long enough!  You can find it on the home page under “Our Stories with Photos” as “Southern Mexico to El Salvador 2007”.  Or follow this link

http://www.sailsarana.com/mexico/mexico.htm

If you have subscribed to our newsletter but didn’t get a notice of this update it’s because I’m having difficulty getting through spam filters.  In fact if you have an AOL email account, you’ll probably never get a message from me.  They’ve decided that we’re just a domain for spam and I’ve been unable to get them to unblock us.  So all our friends using AOL, feel free to email us with an alternate account or just to say hi.  It’s not that we’re ignoring you!

We would love to hear back from you!

We took a trip into San Salvador, that place you used to hear on the news all the them about 15 years ago. It was surprising how Americanized that city was. Most of the products for sale have English labels. There was a hardware store unlike anything we found in Mexico, which had all sorts of stuff at normal prices.

As time marches on we decided to put our Guatemala trip on hold until the summer. Ocean Lady is going to explore the Mango Coast for surf while we wait for our mail to arrive to do our stupid taxes.

Here's a shot of Ocean Lady anchored in Bahia del Sol. It's a cool spot, isn't it?

What a fantastic trip down the coast of Guatemala! We had over 2 knots of positive current and many hours of great sailing at 7 knots! I was thinking it would take us probably 3 days to arrive in El Salvador, but we did it in less than 48 hours! The harbor we were thinking of entering called Bahia del Sol has a famous entrance that is only passable at high tide and small surf. We we arrived we found two boats who had been waiting for 5 days for the swell to calm down enough to get inside. One of those boats was Sonrisa with our friend Ryan on board. He'd been stuck out there waiting and waiting.

And so we did what we swore we would never do: enter Bahia del Sol. The last couple of years we heard some scary stories from about 5 other boats about getting broached or knocked down in the entrance, several sustained damage. We watched the surf roll in and pound the shore and we figured there was no way we could get in. Ryan said the surf was a lot smaller and we would probably get in with the help of Murray (the local gringo business owner) piloting us in a panga.

So we prepped the boat and waited for high tide while watching the waves thunder. We got a call on the radio to prepare to enter and for all boats to up anchor. Two boats were coming out, but the four of us on the outside were coming in first. A catamaran, who was anxious to get in, was the first to head in towards the pilot (Murray and our friend Chad from the "Panga to Panama" fame). Not following or hearing the pilot's instructions they quickly ended up inside the breaking surf. Three waves pounded their boat sending spray about 15-20 feet in the air -- above their spreaders. Their pontoon came way up out of wave and I thought they were going to loose the boat. However the set of waves stopped and they were able to turn back out and then managed to get into the entrance and follow the pilot in.

After that, we thought ok, we can make it. Just stay in the channel. So we headed into what looked like an area of all breaking waves but turned into a narrow channel. We rolled heavily in some of the swells but they weren't breaking. Chad's calm voice on the radio was great as he talked us along. With waves breaking on both sides (but not near us) we managed to enter safely. Sherrell actually said is was fun "let's do it again."

Amazingly we are in El Salvador and happily anchored in Bahia del Sol's lagoon. It's beautiful, calm and well worth surfing the boat through the bar. We can even use the pool for free at the nearby hotel. Our next adventure involves an inland trip to Guatemala with our zoo!

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