Chapter 2:The Many Faces of Tehuantepec

The Gulf of Tehuantepec. Her name alone conjures up images of high winds and heavy seas to sailors familiar with Central America. She has kept many a timid soul confined to cruising Mexico alone, for fear of what she might bring. Yet, if approached with caution and timed right, the beast can be tamed with little effort. Such at least, has been my ex-perience.
I’ve crossed the Gulf of Tehuantepec four times, traveled in both directions, and ex-perienced much of what she can throw at you. What’s more, each crossing has gotten successively easier as it as been approached with more and more caution. Now on to the crossings.
Round One—December, 2002. I was serving as deckhand aboard the 68-foot brigantine Atair en route from San Diego to Germany via the Panama Canal. The captain was a seasoned sailor with over a hundred thousand miles and a Cape Horn passage under his belt, and after weeks of windless motoring off the Mexican mainland he was anxious to find some wind. Forecasts for Tehuantepec called for near gale conditions, but as we mo-tored past Huatulco we had no wind despite the large swells pouring out of the Gulf. Cap-tain Klaus Kurz decided the hell with the popular route of staying close to shore, we’ll cut across the bloody Gulf. Within hours the wind arrived with a fury, sails were set, and in minutes we were scurrying along in excess of six knots. By midnight the wind was gale force and six to eight foot swells were crashing into the cockpit where I had a death-grip on the wheel. I was drenched to the core, shivering with cold, and cursing my cap-tain to no end. Thankfully daybreak saw the gale ease, and after one miserable night we sailed across Tehuantepec in one piece, though worse for the wear.
Round Two—February, 2004. I was serving as delivery skipper John Rains’s deckhand as we took a Nordhavn 57, the Knotty Dog, from San Diego to Costa Rica with her own-ers on board. We stopped in the port of Huatulco to await favorable conditions in the Gulf, and when they arrived shoved off, staying within a couple miles of the shoreline. The wind began to fill in before long, and by the time we passed abeam of the commer-cial port of Salina Cruz it was blowing in excess of twenty-five knots on the nose. Still, because we were so close to shore there were no swells to speak of and it was like motor-ing on a windy day in a small lake. Crossing the base of the Gulf, we saw wind nearing gale force, but there were no swells to speak of, and by the time we began exiting Te-huantepec the downwind, downswell run was exhilarating and very safe. The conditions in the Gulf were likely identical to those at the time I had crossed aboard the Atair, but we had passed through hardly noticing them. Such is the benefit derived from hugging the coast.
Round Three—April, 2004. A second trip with Captain John Rains; this aboard a 148-foot three-story party boat, the M/V Majestic. The boat was designed to host dinner par-ties and cruise around in a bay in California, but was built up the Mississippi River. Thus Captain Rains was hired to deliver her from Florida to California via the Panama Canal, and I was one of his deckhands. As we approached the Gulf from the south we pulled into Puerto Madero to wait for a favorable weather window. The unstable boat would need a quiet two-day weather window to even attempt the vicious Gulf; so we held out in Puerto Madero for four days until conditions began to abate. As we approached the base of the Gulf the wind started to fill in as lava flowed down the side of a volcano ashore. We stayed close to shore across the base of Tehuantepec where the winds reached gale force, but with no swells to speak of the party boat heeled over to port and carried on none-the-worse. After passing Salina Cruz we began to leave the Gulf and the conditions abated. Once again we had seen as much wind as I had aboard the Atair, but the passage had been comfortable and uneventful thanks to our hugging the coast.
And finally, Round Four—May, 2006. My first trip through Tehuantepec as captain of my own boat was as good as it gets. During my two-day stay in Huatulco I met another sailboat heading south, and on May 8 we decided to brave the Gulf together. For the past two weeks the weather forecasts had deemed Tehuantepec to be light and variable, but my past experience led me to be skeptical. Thus, despite leaving with a 12-knot southwest wind, we still hugged the coastline as we entered the Gulf. After just 90 minutes my cousin and I reeled in a dorado and a Jack trevally and the trip was off to a great start.
As darkness descended upon the Gulf the wind remained from the southwest. By 2200 I was sure there was no heavy winds in the midst of the Gulf, and realized that if I hugged the shore the entire way I’d likely be fighting a headwind the entire way out the other side. Thus we altered our course and began cutting directly across Tehuantepec. The winds began to lighten as we sailed further offshore, so we began sailing a course that was south of east, heading for the Gulf’s exit. A little after 8 A.M. the wind disappeared altogether and the drone of the engine began. We spent the day catching and releasing fish (we did keep another dorado for dinner) and chatting with our “buddy-boat” Slip Away periodically. A few hours of sailing broke up the monotony of motoring, but for the most part we fled Tehuantepec over calm, windless seas. The crossing was as benign as they can get, and I was glad to have that hurdle behind me. Onwards to El Salvador!

Postscript: Captain John Rains has long said that the best months for passing through the Gulf of Tehuantepec are those that border the hurricane seasons. The problem, of course, is most people don’t want to be anywhere near the area that close to hurricane season, and for good reason. Very few people head for Central America that late in the year because it is the region’s rainy season, which means lightning is a common phe-nomenon. The worst months tend to be the winter months when many people are making their transits (like my first three transits). The best advice I can give is to pay close atten-tion to the weather forecasts. Calm conditions near Huatulco or Puerto Madero don’t mean calm weather in the Gulf. When in doubt stay close to shore. The worst it can do is extend your transit an extra day.