Tehuantenpec crossing, Ixtapa and Chahue

After Chiapas we had to cross the dreaded Gulf of Tehuantenpec.

It is a 260 mile stretch of open water where the winds can blow real, real hard.

Our weather window was closing rapidly, so we went for it, even with the ailing oil pressure sensor.

We were told to hug the shore, so of course, we went straight across.

All was good until the last 50 miles of so when the wind started blowing 20-25 knots and the waves kicked up.  We slogged it out for 50 miles in 4' wind waves that were incredibly tight.  The Henriques was incredible.  This boat never ceases to amaze me.  We slowed down to 20 knots and she never slammed. My 48' Viking would have beat us to death in the same conditions.

We ended up in Chahue Marina.  Small, empty, and boring.  The only excitement was them putting us in a 35' ft slip.  There was not enough room to turn the boat around in the fairways, so I had to nose into an opposing slip and then slide out and back into our slip.  Lots of fun, but no gelcoat was harmed.

After a couple of days on dry land we headed to Marina Ixtapa.

Like many places in MX, I am sure Marina Ixtapa used to be nice.  Right now it is falling apart.  The head did not work (bad pump-out pump) and the marina had no pump out, so we decided to find a hotel.

We ended up in a very "authentic" MX hotel.  We were the only gringos.  It was sort of clean and pretty run down.  We could not leave quick enough.