Chiapas, Mexico to Bahia del Sol, El Salvador

Refreshing - Captain goes swimming under sail - this is not always a good sign!!

Cassidy doing international travel!

This was a nice crossing, saw some thunderstorms along the way.  We even changed course once to try to avoid the brunt of a storm.  Very spectacular to see thunderstorms out on the ocean. 

Valiant refreshing in pool.

Cassidy in hammock ready to catch Intrepid.

Cassidy and Loyal refreshing

Again, we used our little cockpit pool to cool down.  We were under sail, so couldn’t stop easily, so Courage came up with a great plan.  He rigged some ropes off the back of the boat and we proceeded to jump off the bow tube, then grab onto the rope as the boat passed by, then pull ourselves onto the back swim step.  Even Intrepid, now an old hat at it, was going in.  First with an escort to make sure he made the rope grab, then on his own with a watchful eye.  

They also lowered the hammock to water level across the back, so you could come in and grab the hammock and kick back in the shade for awhile before coming back up.  Uncle Loyal rigged up a rope rescue to lower Vitality in and out of the hammock to visit Courage.  We were at 2.3 knots in the morning for the swim and had some short, but successful attempts to keep up with the boat.  In the afternoon swim, we were going 3.2 knots.  This was harder to manage.  Grabbing the rope wasn’t too hard, but pulling up the back swim step was a challenge and keeping up with the boat a near impossibility.  Good exercise, fun and refreshing, so overall, great idea.

Cassidy dragging on the hammock.

Cassidy is all in.

Hanging on the bridle under the boat.

As we arrived at Bahia del Sol in El Salvador, we got ahold of the hotel “Bahia del Sol” by radio.  They guide you in over the surf on the sand bar outside the estuary.  They used to guide by jet ski, but today was a ponga.  There was another boat waiting, Dolce Vita.  They told him it was big surf and asked if he was up for it.  The ponga wasn’t going to come out of the surf since it was relatively big, so they said to just aim on the ponga as you came through.  We watched Dulce Vita take a few big waves and roll on in.  He later told us he got a big sideways while he was putting on his tether.  It was great to get to watch him go first.  And we are up!!  

The kids and I buckled in for the surf.

I sat with the kids on the roof so that if a wave came over we would be as high up as possible.  We strapped a rope over our laps and cuddled in.  It was a great spot!!  We headed into the waves.  We could see a wave coming and off we went surfing it in.  It was a great acceleration.  After a nice surf apparently we were overdue to turn to miss hitting the beach, so we took what felt like a 90 degree turn across the waves.  A little concerning, but that was the way to go.  Apparently our guides over the radio were indicating to “turn,” “turn,” “turn hard,” so we went.  We only surfed one wave, I thought for sure we were going to take a few as we went through, but it worked out perfectly and I’m looking forward to the exit over the waves!!  We are spending some time here waiting until the sandbar to open after a storm passes.  Looking like it may be passable Tuesday and Wednesday.

Welcome to El Salvador - flying the flag.

As we are entering a new country, we have to go through customs and immigration process.  The immigration officer was out for the day for a personal emergency, but may be back by 7:30 pm.  The port captain took our passports and did his paperwork.  Amazing how many times they can all fill out similar forms.  Much redundancy in the systems, no different than the US, just the way governments seem to function.  Loyal went and waited at the office for 1.5 hours that evening, but the immigrations officer did not arrive.  The hotel kindly offered that we could walk throughout their grounds, but requested we not leave the grounds until finishing our customs and immigration process.

Coastal village as you enter

The next morning they came and found us in the pool.  They brought a nurse and had to do a health exam.  I was starting to wonder what they may think since the children all had heat rashes and mosquito bites, so they were all spotted.  Turns out they only had to do it on the adults.  She took our blood pressures and temperatures and wrote them down.  She didn’t even take my temperature since I was in the pool, so she said I’d be cold.  So what do they do with this information?  What if our blood pressure was elevated?  I sort of understand the temperature so we don’t bring in some sort of infectious disease, but really?  And so we passed and got to stay, they were very friendly all of them.

More of the coast of the bay.

Next, they headed out with Courage to the boat.  Apparently they had to make sure we didn’t have any expired fruits and vegetables.  We had just been given some cans that were expired, but still good from our friends who were commuter cruisers on Blue Jacket and didn’t want to store it until next year.  Fortunately, we’d eaten what we could of it, but we had to open the cans in front of the officer and empty them.  Why on earth do we need them to tell us what and when it’s safe to eat these things?  I understand the fresh fruits/veggies because those can carry insects and pests, but really, canned goods??  Good thing we’ve got big brother looking out for us and helping us make decisions. 

Integrity has the best seat in the house.