TUESDAY 9TH JANUARY 2007
POSITION: 16 06N 098 25W 10 MILES OFF COAST OF MEXICO, 110 MILES FROM
THE NOTORIOUS TEHUANTAPEC BAY
DISTANCE TRAVELLED: 277 Miles in 24Hrs
WIND: Light Land and Sea Breezes
WEATHER: HOT! Few clouds.
NEWS:
Whales, dophins, lots of turtles and birds everywhere. We are motoring
along with full sail in flat seas surrounded by sealife. On my watch alone
this morning I must have seen at least 20 to 30 turtles just floating along
on the surface. Quite often they have one of the birds standing on their
back which looks quite funny.
The high mountains of the Cordillero are clearly visible and there are a few
ships around plus two yachts headed north this morning. Progress is good but
we are nearing the Bay of Tehuantapec and there is one of their gales
forecast for the next three days. These winds usually get up to anywhere
between 40 and 60 knots, howling across the narrowest part of central
America where the Atlantic Trades are squeezed and accelerate across the
land into the Pacific. Fortunately the wind is offshore so this means we do
a detour into the 200 mile wide bay staying about a mile offshore. Many a
yacht has got into big problems by thinking they can sneak across the mouth
of the bay when everything looks quite docile at first. A nasty place to be
caught out!
Right after I wrote the report yesterday we caught another good bull Mahi
Mahi of 25lbs this time. Mick is learning fast how to gut and clean fish! As
soon as we caught that one we pulled in the lines until breakfast time this
morning but not even a hit today despite all the sealife around. This keeps
Penny happy as the freezers are fairly full at the moment. We changed the
lures for red ones in the hope of catching a tuna. We believe that Tuna
prefer red lures and Mahi like yellows and green…. who knows?
Meantime I can confirm that the Atlantic satelite is working well for us
here so the 874 code is good for Satcom calls.
Everyone is in fine fettle.
PHil
