Since our last report, we sailed out of Bahia Del Coco, Costa Rica to Nicaragua . about 160 Nm - 1 overnight sail We left Del Coco and soon rounded the point at Santa Elena. This is where the Papagayo winds come streaming east from the Caribbean across a huge lake then down through the low land. We got our share of the winds and the ugly seas – lasting most of the day, but eventually settling down. We arrived the next day at a small marina, Puesta Del Sol that was developed few years ago by a very interesting man from California. He and his wife live here, in their 60 ft power boat. He had spent several years building power plants in Central America then did some development on his own. He tells me that all was going well until last summer when 400+ people were shot in the capital city Managua during a “political disturbance”. Since then business has been terrible. The marina has few customers. The resort is closed, the staff reduced to bare essential, with ½ time pay and even the electrical power shutoff during the day. We took a 2 hr bus ride into the nearby town, Chinandega to a nice supermarket. Lots of local people doing very little, with very little. Many riding bikes and pedaling rickshaw type taxis. Very sad to see! We understand that the present government has agreed to sit down with the business leaders and vote for a government. Hope it works out more smoothly than Venezuela.

Chiapas, Mexico -This voyage - 340 miles from Puesta Del Sol, Nicaragua, to Chiapas, Mexico, took us past Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. It took 2+ nights at sea constantly dodging fishing boats, some with lights. Saw one large container ship headed out from Quetzal, El Salvador. We left Tuesday at 6 AM and arrived in Chiapas, Mexico at about noon on Friday. We were planning to sail non-stop to Chiapas, but as we approached the harbor Thursday evening we were aware that we would certainly arrive after dark. I do not enter strange harbors after dark, so while it was still daylight, we sailed toward the shore where a river met the sea and anchored off the beach in 10 meters of water. Spent a very nice night at anchor – all getting a good night’s sleep. I believe we were still in Guatemalan waters. Woke at 5 am in the dark with a bunch of Spanish being spoken. It turns out that a local fishing boat had somehow?? found its long drift net tangled on the bottom of our boat. I had to go for a swim to get it all untangled from the prop and the keel. The swim was not as bad as thinking ”I have to go in there after dark”.

We spent about 63 hours making 340 NM = about 5.4 Knots average. During that time we spent 38 hours motoring and 25 hours sailing. Not good, but you take what you can get. Here in Chiapas, Mexico we should have telephone service and Wifi. A short bus ride takes us to Wal-Mart, and Costco. We hope the boat holds together, since there are no boat parts or marine technicians available here.

Finally got the boat documentation straightened out. The US Coast Guard sent an E-mail stating what our number will be when they get around to issuing it. Government shutdown held up 2 to 3 months. It required a 2 hr taxi ride to the border and a bit of groveling. The border with Guatemala had cars parked for a mile or more - a 4 day wait to enter Mexico with a vehicle.

Marina Chiapas has a 60 ton travel lift and we were hoping to have our boat hauled here for the summer and continue our Mexico cruising next winter, but it turns out that the lift will handle a maximum of 22 ft. wide and we are 22 ft 3 inches, so we will have to push on to Puerta Vallarta for a larger travel lift. We were planning to give notice for Tuesday sail, but just checked the weather report. They are predicting a Tehuantepec wind on Wed and Thursday. That is a really, really strong wind 30-35 knots and big seas coming from the Gulf of Mexico. We will not go out in that. Our next sail is also 2 overnights so maybe we will leave on Friday. Meanwhile all is well. We find Mexico pleasing. Our phones works as if in USA and the prices here are very favorable.