HAWKEYE HAPPENINGS, May 2002

HAWKEYE NEWSLETTER May 15, 2002

HAWKEYE left Zihuatenajo on March 3 at 8:45 a.m. with great anticipation. This was the farthest south we had been. It was all new territory! We weren’t even out of the bay when Linda noticed smoke coming out of the exhaust instead of water. The engine was shut down immediately. John diagnosed the problem as the engine water pump sucking air via the water maker, which had an open valve. He closed the valve and we were back in business - for now. By noon we were able to sail under light winds. The wind quit at 7 p.m. and we motored until 1 a.m. We arrived outside the magnificent harbor of Acapulco at 9:30 a.m., dropped the sails and turned on the engine. Within a few minutes the “overheat” warning buzzer went off again! With the boat barely moving, and our “buddy boat” Karibu standing by to give us a tow if needed, John replaced the salt-water pump impellor (trashed by the air-ingestion earlier) and we were under way again.

We made the mistake of pulling into the storm-damaged and still run-down (but inexpensive) Acapulco Marina, rather than the elegant but pricey Acapulco Yacht Club. We found out later that John was entitled to a discount on the dock rates as a member of Seattle Yacht Club. Oh well, next time. By March 11, we had visited museums and forts (Acapulco was home-port for the Manila Galleon, and was very well protected from pirates), watched the cliff divers (spectacular), swam in pools (very little chlorine in the pools and Linda get a nasty ear infection), done the necessary boat chores and were ready to head to Huatulco, our port of exit from Mexico.

On the sail to Huatulco, our buddy boat, Karibu (it means “Andean Guide”), hit a large black unlighted buoy. They called us on the VHF and we stood by while they checked over their bilges to make sure they were not holed. Everything was O.K. except their nerves. Several nets were spotted on our trip to Huatulco and all cruisers fear getting their props and rudders caught on these nets. Sometimes they have lights at one end and sometimes not. It is very difficult to see them at night until you are on top of them and sometimes not even then. We sailed under mostly light winds with some motoring to Huatulco.

Ken “Deckboy”Allison flew in from San Francisco on March 15 and we were ready to check out of Mexico (Ken helped John bring Hawkeye down from San Diego to La Paz, Mexico, in 1994, and has crewed with us many times since then. We were glad to have him along for the next leg of our trip.) Weather is the most popular subject and was discussed at great length, as the next section of the trip is the 200-mile crossing of the dreaded Golfo de Tehuantepec. The Gulf boasts gale-force winds more than half of the days of the year, caused by high pressure over Texas and the Caribbean funneling strong winds through a narrow gap in the mountain ranges (the “venturi effect”) and fanning out into the Gulf. When a “Pecker” blows, you don’t want to be out there; boats have been blown many miles out to sea. We depended on Don of SUMMER PASSAGE, back in Southern California, who e-mails the weather forecast on a daily basis. His analysis along with “Tango Papa” on the Chubasco net and the Port Captain in Huatulco all gave the “go ahead” for Monday, March 18. There were 7 boats in our fleet, which included FALCOR (a large power boat), KARIBU, TIDES END, TRUE COMPANION, WASABI (Welcome in Swahili), BAQUILANO and HAWKEYE. We set out under clear skies with a brisk 15-knot southwesterly speeding us on our way at a steady 7 knots. This great sailing lasted most of the day. Later on, when the wind got light, we were ahead of everyone except, of course, FALCOR, who was still powering along at 9 knots. The trick is to be east of 95 degrees west when the weather window closes; in our case, this happened on Wednesday, March 20. We all managed to make it safely! We celebrated our crossing the imaginary border into Guatemala by putting up our Guatemalan flag on March 20 at 9 a.m. Once safely across the gulf, the next hazard was lots of fishing nets and lines; we tried to warn boats behind us by giving the Lat/Long whenever we came upon nets. Fred, on TRUE COMPANION had to get into the water twice to untangle nets from his boat. We were very lucky.

We had all planned on going into Bahia del Sol in El Salvador. We timed our arrival to be at the entrance to the river at high tide (7 a.m.) on March 22 after dodging numerous fishnets. We anchored and waited for the panga to arrive to show us the way in over the bar. Up went the El Salvadorian flags. There was heavy surf crashing on the beach, and we could not see any obvious way through the breaking waves. Sure enough, at 8:30 the marina announced that the entrance was unsafe. The cruisers that were in there had planned a big party for us that night and we were all disappointed that we couldn’t go in. Everyone raised their anchors and sailed another 35 miles to Barillas Marina. We arrived at the entrance after a great sail, again dodging those dreaded fish nets, at 3 p.m. A panga met us and took HAWKEYE in first as we were the lightest and could surf the waves better (we were “test boat”, unbeknownst to us at the time). The waves come thousands of miles across open ocean and it shoals up pretty quickly outside the river estuary. We found ourselves in 15 feet of water surfing down a wave going as fast as we could motor to stay on the wave, truly a “white-knuckle” ride. Once they had us inside the sand spit, and protected from the breakers, we had to motor around in a circle rolling from gunnel to gunnel for 45 LONG minutes until the other boats got in. They were brought in two different groups. It was a little unnerving to say the least! But once we arrived and tied up to a mooring, all was forgotten. We had hoisted our yellow “Quarantine” flag, and within ten minutes the Capitan de Puerto and the Aduana (customs) were alongside to check us in. We were welcomed with big smiles and the whole procedure took about fifteen minutes and cost us $10 each for our 3-month visas. (A few weeks later, President Flores of El Salvador, who keeps a boat at the marina, came by, introduced himself, and personally welcomed each of the American and Canadian cruisers. Unfortunately, we were traveling in Guatemala at the time, and missed his visit.) What a pleasant change from Mexico, with its ridiculous, daylong check-in/check-out procedures and excessive fees levied at every port of call. Much as we love Mexico, we don’t miss that nonsense at all. We then headed to the pool and dinner at the little restaurant ashore where we talked about the highlights of each boat’s passage, congratulating each other on defying death once again!

We had met Dennis on KNEE DEEP over a year ago and knew he was here supervising the rebuilding of several homes that were destroyed by the earthquake in February 2001. Most of El Salvador has received funds from various organizations such as the U.S. Military, Habitat for Humanity, Catholic Charities, etc. There is, however, a small village on the side of a volcano that was not receiving any help whatsoever. Dennis gave us his pitch and we all volunteered to go up to the village and help out. Dennis needed a welder and John was roped in for that job (he didn’t tell Dennis it was 50 years since he had done any welding!) Ken, who is a professional video photographer offered to make a fund-raising video to show people back home what is going on and try to get more contributions to continue construction. As we all worked on the construction, Ken was busy interviewing and filming. The people from the village were all there working with us and it was a great feeling to participate in the project. The people are living under plastic drop clothes until they can get into their new homes. The homes cost $2,000 US to build; that is for supplies and material. Labor is all voluntary. Dennis is currently out of funds, despite buying a welder out of his own pocket. We will try to e-mail some pictures of the project when Ken gets the video completed. This is truly a worthy cause for some wonderful people that have very little.

Ken only had another week of vacation so we decided to do some exploring inland. We took the “Chicken Buses” to Usulatan, San Salvador, Suchitoto and Santa Ana. It was a real learning experience as we talked to people about the civil war and how it affected them. One fellow told his incredible story of winning a scholarship to a college in Wisconsin and the final papers not coming by the time school was to start. His father asked him if he would like to go to the U.S. and try to get into school thus he would avoid having to fight in a senseless war at the age of 16. His father gave him what money he could which was $100. He was to take 4 other young men with him and use the $100 wisely to get them all to the U.S. They bused and hitch hiked all the way from El Salvador to the Mexican Border at Brownsville, TX where they swam the Rio Grande. He is now in his hometown of Suchitoto with his American wife and 2 children running a small hotel. It was Good Friday when we were in the colonial town of Santa Ana and we were able to watch the making of the “carpets” for the procession to be held that day. The “carpets” are pictures made on the streets from different colored sawdust and flowers. People spend hours making these pictures that are very elaborate. The procession starts and the “carpets” are wiped out. This is a tradition of all Central America and very big in Antigua, Guatemala where we arrived the Monday after Easter.

Antigua is another colonial city that was once the Capitol of Central America. It was built in the 1600’s with many ruins due to earthquakes. Antigua is probably the most picturesque city in all of Central America. It is surrounded by volcanos, one of which is active and at night you can see the lava flow. Ken only had a few days to see Antigua and then was off to San Francisco. John and I enrolled in language school and spent the next 3 ½ weeks living in Guatemalan homes. We attended school from 8-12 and did some tours of the city, took Salsa and Merengue dance lessons, climbed an active volcano, visited and hiked at Lake Atitlan, visited a coffee and macadamia fincas (farms), a Mayan music museum, several ruins and museums, concerts, visited a water park and did a lot of studying. John’s instructor was a former engineer in the Guatemalan army who fled to the U.S. with $10 in his pocket when warned that his pro-peasant views were very dangerous. He returned 15 years later, when the civil war ended, but still fears for his safety. He just wants a quiet life teaching Spanish.

After 3 ½ weeks Linda’s brain could absorb no more. It was time to see more of Guatemala. We took a shuttle to Guatemala City and a luxurious bus to the island town of Flores where we stayed a few days with a beautiful view of the lake. We visited Tikal, the former capital of the Mayan Empire, and climbed the 140-foot towers until we couldn’t walk any more! Tikal is a real wonder. How could those Mayan Indians do so much and know so much 2000+ years ago?

From there we went to the Rio Dulce as we do not plan to visit the Caribbean on HAWKEYE. We would have loved to have found a boat going south and through the canal back to El Salvador, but everyone was hunkering down for hurricane season. We took a long panga ride to the town of Livingston on the ocean and spent a night there. Back in Rio Dulce, we found a resort with little A frames build right over the water with the jungle just outside our back door, $21 per night. We relaxed in the pool and decided to take a hike one morning with a German girl to a rubber plantation and small pool in a creek in the jungle that was part of the resort. We had just gotten out of the pool and were heading up a small trail towards the owner’s house when a young fellow came down the hill towards us. Linda started greeting him in Spanish when he suddenly pulled out a knife and started demanding “dinero”. John pulled out a small pocketknife and Linda was thinking this isn’t going to work! John then pulled a whistle out of his pocket and started blowing it like crazy. That did the job! That guy took off like a scared rabbit into the jungle. We ran up to the owner of the plantation house and told him what had happened. He set out with a gun and had someone call the police, promising Linda he wouldn’t shoot anyone, just scare him. Ten minutes later, four grim-faced, rather overweight policemen showed up in a truck. After listening to our story, they took off up the hill with side arms and an assault rifle. We could see them running up on a ridge and suddenly we heard bursts of automatic rifle fire. Then, silence. Finally, they re-appeared, without a body, and soon were in their truck and heading presumably to the nearest restaurant to “bulk up” after their expenditure of energy and bullets. John thought all the shooting was for show, but is sure had us all worried.

We are now back at the compound of Barillas Marina waiting for things to develop in the states. Linda is in the process of selling her condo and John’s tenant is moving out June 30. This is a safe place to leave the boat for a trip to the states so we will stay put until things settle down. Besides, everyone that has left here heading south has been hammered in the “Papagayos”; gale-force head winds that blow off the coast of Nicaragua. Waiting for better conditions seems like the sensible thing to do.

Days are spent doing a few boat projects, going by air conditioned, guarded bus twice a week to Usulatan for groceries, and most of the afternoon in the pool here at the marina. Those are the highlights for now other than John’s computer took a dump and we lost all our e-mail addresses so this goes out to all those we could remember or had written down. If you know of someone we missed, please have him or her e-mail us with his or her address. E-mail on the boat is kj7ok@winlink.org. This is through the ham radio and must be kept short. If you have pics, attachments, or a long letter, please send to Linda at hawkeyeljk@hotmail.com or John at hawkeyejsk@hotmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you. Linda & John de HAWKEYE