10th November 2025
2 Months have passed and I’m back on the boat. As predicted, by prepping the boat for a hurricane, none appeared. The boat fired up almost as good as when I left. The fridge was out of refrigerant as expected, but the engine spun to life within a second of turning the key, which was nice. It turned out that when I flicked off the switch for the internal fairy lights as I left, I also inadvertantly turned off the Starlink, explaining why the boat was offline for the last 2 months.
Of course a return to Chiapas wouldnt be complete without me getting quite ill. I’m currently suffering from something that has affected my fingers and legs, and is also causing a bit of a fever. It’s weird to be putting a fleece on and getting under a duvet when it’s 35 deg C. If things haven’t improved by tomorrow I will have to find a doctor. Possible causes are a) Covid or similar, caught on long haul flight, b) Dehydration, caused by flight and lack of drinking when I arrived, c) one of the nasty Mosquito delivered diseases that are very common here. d) extreme hypocondria.
Most people here are planing to leave in about a week, currently we are at the start of a big blow in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, one has to cross this gulf to get north and it takes about 48 hours to do so. You can see how the wind, sometimes called a t-pecker, is currently funnelling through the gap in the Americas from the Caribbean to the Pacific. The gap in the land creates a venturi effect. For those not in the know, the venturi effect is an area of fluid dynamics studied once the ‘air lock’ effect has been mastered. 😉
The black line is roughly the route I need to take to start the trip north, I say north, It’s mostly west for the first few hundred miles.
Kathy is flying out to join me around the 18th December, giving her a week to acclimatise and cook the Christmas dinner 🙂 We plan to be in Barra De Navidad for Christmas and some time after, so it really should be ‘Feliz Navidad’, apologies if I have given you an ear-worm. I have about 4 weeks to get the boat there and moored safely. I’d like to be in the marina, but it’s going to be busy with a gang of boats who are heading south for a crossing into the South Pacific or into the Panama canal. Theres a loose rally called ‘The Panama/Ocean Posse’ who meet up every December in Barra where they have talks and workshops preparing themselves for their exciting adventures. We did a similar thing for the ARC back in 2006, and while I can see the benefit for newbies, I want to run a mile from that kind of gathering now. Fortunately there are many lovely spots in the area, close by where one can anchor. Tenacatita being one such place.
I had a great time back in the UK, despite summer having passed and it being decidedly chilly. A trip to see Tim and Asta in Galway was great fun, as was a trip to Milan to visit Kathy’s brother in law Bruno and family. I have a ton of very expensive Parmesan cheese in the fridge, which should last me some time.
The Galeón AndalucÃa, is a full-scale reconstruction of the iconic Spanish galleons that once crossed the world’s oceans between the 16th and 18th centuries. It arrived to the Albert dock and I enjoyed watching it pass through the same lock gates the we went through in our last boat Lady Stardust.
It was great to check out the Liverpool version of ‘The Ivy’ restaurant with my lovely family, well at least the Merseyside contingent.
Tim and Asta took me out to Cong especially to see Ashford Castle, once home of the Guinness family back in the day and featured in the recent Netflix drama. It’s a lovely setting but apparently us commoners aren’t allowed near the fancy hotel it now houses (some things just don’t change over time). Cong is also famous for the shooting of ‘The Quiet Man’, older listeners may know of this famous film, I think it starred John Wayne, not as a cowboy.
Flying back from Ireland I snatched this picture of the road and rail bridges at Runcorn/Widnes. This spans the river Mersey and Manchester Ship Canal.
So by 13th Nov, I have regained my mojo, the illness has gone and I’m fighting fit to get the boat ready. I replaced the water tank gauges as shown below, and fitted a new meter. I’ve decided to bite the bullet and spend a few bob getting the boat proper again.
I’ve decided to just replace all the bits that have given me grief. Some things I haven’t worked out how to get in Mexico yet, like a new dinghy and outboard, but that will happen soon enough.
So I headed of yesterday to top up the empty gerry cans with diesel from the local Pemex station that caters for road traffic and fishing boats.
Main thing to remember here is not to go at low water. I parked the dinghy in some horrible oily slime surrounded by dead fish and then risked life and limb getting ashore with the gerry cans.
All went well, except the dinghy had deflated enough on the trip there and back that I decided I really must try to repair it while I had a dock to haul it onto.
Now here’s a story I feel I may come back to. Dinghies come in two types historically, ones made of PVC and others, considered better for the tropics, made of Hyperlon, another plastic, but tougher and more UV resistant, also no longer manufactured. Experts say you have to use exactly the right kind of glue and patches to fix any holes.
I have the hyperlon patches but not the glue so I have decided to use cheap basic contact adhesive (Think evo-stick) for a few pounds from the supermarket as apposed to the ‘Marine’ glue which can cost £50 for a small tin.
I’m not too bothered if they fail, better than nothing for the first trip or two. The dinghy has many abrasions from sitting on coral encrusted docks and it’s really time for a replacement, this one cost around £3000 but has lasted over 9 years now.
In looking for the glue, I reached deep into the starboard ‘glue/chemicals’ locker and found a few goodies I had completely forgotten about, like a roll of Sunbrella marine fabric. But mostly I found tubes and tubs of glue and sealers that are many many years old. One of today’s jobs will be throwing most of this away.
On Saturday I cleaned the boat and started a long list of tasks that needed doing.
I noticed the little microcontroller I built to monitor the engine temps had failed, on closer inspection I found that the power supply was shot. Another failure. I don’t think they like the boat life. They convert 12v DC to 5v and I had to conclude there’s some nasty voltage spikes going on when I start the engine or run the bow thruster and they perhaps need some protection. I didn’t have any replacements, but it dawned on me I have a load of old cigar lighter-USB adapters like the kind shown below.
These guys are designed to work in cars, and taking it apart I found a fuse and some fancy regulation bits. I find that the salty life does for the cigar and USB connections in no time, however with a bit of careful soldering I managed to get one working just lovely and now I have my temperature sensors working again.
I heard noises from over the water and saw that Lee, a fellow Brit on a nice Moody 40-ish boat was checking his rigging. He is leaving the same time as me and heading to the same destination tomorrow, so should one of us get into dire straights, possible the other will be called on to help.
I had the boat hull cleaned and as a consequence there was a lot of fresh food for the bigger fish around. I took a little video to show how many rays turned up for a ‘eat all you can for free’ feast
So it’s Sunday evening now, at 7:30 tomorrow morning I will pay my bill in the marina office and they will call the navy/harbour master/customs and immigration, who will all turn up at my boat with a drug sniffing dog and do the formalities to clear me out of Chiapas as I head north. This is way over the top. In all the other Mexican ports I have visited, a simple visit to the harbour master will suffice, in La Paz, a call to him over the radio does the trick. But here on the border with Guatemala, and floating next to a major naval base, they do things differently.
I’m very apprehensive about this trip, it’s 18 months since I last did a passage, I’m hoping I can remember everything, I’m hoping the boat works ok, and I’m hoping the weather stays as predicted.
Sailors like myself know how easy it is to get stuck to the dock, life is so much simpler here, yet once we get out on the water for a while we soon remember why we have a boat, and the idea of a dock life becomes less attractive again. Swinging at anchor is where it’s at, or ploughing through dolphins with whales breaching around you. Yet until I’m out there, having had the engine run for 24 hours without issue, batteries staying charged, no leaks etc etc, then it’s a little scary.
I have a 48 hour passage, the weather has changed slightly, and I should have left today to get some wind, however tomorrow and the next day is going to be very calm, not much of a sea, so mostly motoring. Time to get out the fishing lines and catch some Tuna.
I did a massive shop today, I bought a Dutch oven (Cast iron pot) and following Tim’s instructions, I plan to make bread. Even if the autopilot fails, which I would say is a 30% chance, I’m going to push on, even if I just have to Heave To and drift a lot. Heaving To is a nautical term to describe a way to make the boat safe and slowly drift while you get some rest. I estimate I have food and water for about 3 months, before I have to hit the pot noodles we bought in Japan 8 years ago.
My next post will be from further North I hope.
Paul Collister
Sun 16th November 2025