The first morning of passage I leapt out of my berth at 0600, seeking an hour alone. I’d hoped to rise earlier for a full two hours of dawn and silence, but one will do. This one hour I will revel in, before the heat and my son Otis awakens.
The relief of the build up to our departure from Acapulco caught me off guard over the previous night’s fire sunset. It had been a long and winding day, at the end of six months of preparation for this passage. Work had begun in early September, when an AIS transmitter and IridiumGo satphone were delivered to our doorstep in Michigan. Today, departure day, was February 4, and every single day since had been dedicated to this, but Alekona is ready to sail to South America.
Our passage plan was 10-12 days, crossing perpendicular through the wind gap of the Tehuantepec, where wind accelerates through the Chivala gap in Mexico. It’s the shortest distance over land that air flow can pass from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean, and it’s not uncommon to see gale or hurricane force winds in the winter months 300-500 miles offshore, while satellites have tracked its leftover swell 1,000 miles into the ocean.
It is widely known as a precarious place for Mexican and Guatemalan fishermen who have a history of being perilously blown out to sea and it adds an element of challenge for sailors who are otherwise passing through some of the calmer rings of the globe. Timing the meeting between the force of Tehuano and is as important as not running a red light at a high speed intersection. Tehuano
