It's a big storm, and it lasts a long while, but as quickly as it started, it's over. Mid-afternoon Thursday, and suddenly the wind has dropped and the sea has flattened off.
We manage to increase our speed dramatically, virtually fourfold. Suddenly the prospect of our arrival in Guatemala leaps forward from Friday "some time" to Thursday night. We've passed through the Golfo de Tehuantepec, the birthplace of many tropical storms and hurricanes, and which is renowned for its rough seas even in good weather.
"Always a good sign when you see fishing boats out," says Alan as we approach the Guatemalan coastline. "Means they're either starving hungry or the weather's good." Whatever it is they're fishing for, the spoils must be excellent. We see masses of shoals of fish - and at times the surface of the water is positively seething with them.
By the time we arrive in Quetzal, it's well and truly dark. We motor tentatively into the large harbour, looking for signs of a marina. It's not where we think it's supposed to be. We tie up for a while next to one of the harbour tugboats while Alan makes contact with Quetzal's Port Captain. Unfortunately, Lionel, our agent, isn't contactable. He'd be able to tell us where we should go.
Suddenly we think everything is solved. A pilot boat beckons us to follow, and we steam across the harbour. He takes us around to the naval base. Whilst here, we're invited to spend the night tied up for a mere hundred dollars. We try to explain we have a berth booked at the marina, but no one seems too sure where it is. We discover subsequently the reason for that is because it's so new, still under construction.
We untie and set out to try and find it ourselves, scanning the dark shadows at the edge of the water with a high-powered spotlight. Eventually we find what looks like a marina - but we assume it may be somewhere for small fishing boats. It's difficult to see in the dark. Somebody even hops aboard and points on our chart plotter to what we assume he means the marina. In fact, he's telling us to go to an anchorage in the main harbour.
So we consider mooring up to a buoy, increasingly frustrated that we don't seem to be getting anywhere, when suddenly a pilot boat comes along, and we follow it round to the marina - the place we'd just been sent away from!
We can't refuel until the morning, so we tie up here, quickly noting the presence of a security guard dressed up in pseudo-SWAT gear with baseball cap, flak jacket, and a mean-looking Arnie Schwarzenegger style short-handled double-barrelled shotgun slung over his back.
We're not sure first of all whether we're confined to our boat, but after we break the ice with the security man and others loafing on the jetty, we find we can at least use the toilet block. Next day we're told that Quetzal by night is a pleasure best enjoyed only if you have a gun bigger than everyone else's, so in retrospect a quiet evening in doesn't seem such a bad idea.
Steve cooks up our evening meal, which we enjoy with one of Choy's bottles of Chardonnay - all the way from Singapore. It certainly seems to have travelled well, especially when you consider the state of what it's been travelling in!
Friday morning, our agent Lionel arrives, and the formalities are completed with stunning speed and efficiency - no forms at all to fill in. So quick, Alan finds himself asking "is that it?" Lionel takes him off shopping for provisions, while Steve refuels the boat.
"It's a poor place, without a doubt," says Alan on his return. "But you can't help noticing the way everybody smiles. They're not unhappy people." Ultimately we're struck with the friendly efficiency of the people we've dealt with in Guatemala, even charmed by the way Lionel almost apologises for some of the port charges - "it's not too much, is it?"
So now we're making good progress to Panama. We may have one or two odd spots of bad weather along the way, but nothing as bad as the previous storm, so we're hopeful we can arrive in Panama Sunday night or early Monday morning. The plan here is to perform some essential maintenance to the boat on Monday, slotting in with the next northbound transit through the canal on Tuesday morning.
If you happen to be at your PC's on Tuesday afternoon BST, check out www.pancanal.com and click on 'live camera' among the buttons on the left. The camera is of the Miraflores locks, the first ones we go through, and with a refresh rate of every ten seconds, you should see us just about live - at least once we're in the lock and the water level rises. We'll probably be too low in the lock to be visible to start with.
Your browser does need to be up to date, and Java-enabled, so check beforehand and give yourself time to download any updates you may need. We won't see you on Tuesday, but you just may see us!
Clive Tully
FACTBOX
Acapulco - Quetzal
Time of leg: 2 days 4 hours 5 minutes
Length of leg: 555 nautical miles
Total distance covered: 18,978 nautical miles
Distance to go: 6,470 nautical miles
Average speed over leg: 10.67 knots
Time from Gibraltar: 74 days 15 hours 50 minutes
Fuel consumed: 1,045 litres
Average fuel consumption: 1.88 litres / nautical mile
Next stop: Panama Balboa
ETA: Sunday / Monday
Website: www.pancanal.com
Copyright Clive Tully ©2002
Picture and text transmitted by Iridium satellite network