secret spot

We finally got some surf footage. This was shot over a two day period at a secrete surf spot in the south of Costa Rica. The trimaran was built by the two guys in the video. They have been living in Costa Rica for the Past 20 years. THey decided one day to just build a crazy boat and go in search of surf and adventure along the Costa Rican Coastline. We spent some good times chilling with these crazy guys and they were good enough to share this sweet little gem of a wave with us!

El Salvador

Hey and Hello, We are in El Salvador now!. In the marina Costa Del Sol. We stopped off at a surf spot 2 km north of La Libertad. We became instant celebrities!!!





We surfed the wave and then went into shore. A guy who is a surf instructor and who lives in a little cliff type hostel on the beach came down and talked to us. He told us to pull the Dingy up in front of his spot and then we took everything out of the dingy and he tied it up. He told us he would watch it and then he basically checked out every crevis of it! Funny stuff.

We left the beach and went walking around and the town is a really neat little surfer community. We had some food and played on the beach. Then when we went back down the beach to find the dingy we came apon a little party and all of these El Salvadorians were sitting in the dingy and little kids were playing in side her. It was quite a little scene. The surf Instructor, who's nick name is Charlie Brown, asked he could help bring the Dingy to the ocean. They hemmed and hawed and asked if they could come and see the boat, so I invited them out to the boat. We all piled into the dingy, about 5 young kids ages 23-10. They were soooo excited. The 23 year old kid said that He has lived here all his life and a sail boat has never stopped where we were in his life!! It was pretty surreal. Then we went into shore later that night and pulled the dingy up under a bright light in front of a restaurant and it was fine when we got back a couple of hours later.


During the day, while I was surfing, people kept swimming or paddling up to the boat, where Mat was and he just spent the day talking to everyone... A couple of Canadians came over and invited us to come have a beer with them later. When we went in that night everyone was crowding around us. The tourist people all said that they took tons of pictures of the boat etc... We hung out in this little compound and talked to all of the excited people. Then we headed back to the boat, through the low tide rocks and surf. When we got to the boat she was rocking really really bad. We slept poorly and I got up about 5 times to find the source of some racket going on due to the rocking. It rocked so bad that Sean's beater board flew off of the boat! We found out the next morning!


Today we woke up to small waves. I went surfing and then the people started to come over. First it was the 23 year old kid, then all of a sudden 5 more kids paddled out. One guy brought his 4 year old son on his surfboard. Then 4 more kids came out. So there were 9 El Salvadorians on the bow all talking excitedly! It was quite strange really. They dove off the bow and swam around and climbed back on board. They spent about 30 mins with us and then they all said Buena Suerte en su Viaje! And paddled away, but not after I took a picture of them all!!!! I'll post it soon!...

After all of the excitement we hoisted anchor and headed south to THe Estuary/River/ Marina of Costa Del Sol. It is 30 miles away. We got a late start because of our visitors... So we rushed here, where we needed to contact some people and get a pilot to come out in a panga and guide our way into this deep lagoon type area. Keep in mind we have been at sea for 7 days, including our short but rocky anchorage at the surf spot...

If we didn't get to the river mouth by sunset we would have to anchor or sail around in the sea all night! Really uncomfortable. As we rushed towards our pre destined meeting spot, that we organized over VHF the weather began to change. The Volcanoes on the coast first disappeared and then a beautiful rainbow came out, it was raining inland. Then all of a sudden we were 10 mins from the meeting spot, the sun set and the rain came down with a vengeance!!! I donned my classes as the guys brought in all of the towels and clothes on the line. At one point we came within 4 feet from the keel! We rushed along behind the man in the Panga for about 15 minutes, then he took off and another panga with a light came in his place. We trucked along up this river until we came to an area where a bunch of lights were. The panga pulled up on us and an American guy said to pull up at the slip ahead of us. When we tied up a woman came up and said that the Navy and Customs would be down in a minute. By now it's 6:30 pm, dark no moon yet and the rain is pouring down. I said "really they are coming over tonight?" The first American guy says" They don't 'F' around in El Salvador. So that got me thinking what are we in for!

Well, ten minutes later this young looking lady say early 30's shows up in a yellow poncho, she's the customs. She introduces herself to us and then I ask her to come aboard. She gets scared of slipping so we all grabbed her hand and pulled her onboard. She came down stairs to the our musky and humid cabin. She sits down at the table and begins to examine our passports. She just seems to be thumbing through them and comments on the amount of places that Matt has been and all of the stamps he has. Then the Navy shows up. It's just one guy with a scar on his lip who has a nice trustworthy face. I'm sitting there thinking that I'll have the cavalry down here to investigate the boat, and the next thing I know I'm sitting here with rain pouring down all around us with these two nice officials. they are just talking to each other and I Sign my name on a document and hand over my “Zarpe” from Mexico. They continue talking about their work and that the Navy guy works 24 hour shift etc. They are just taking their time and relaxing...

After about 15 minutes the women says, "Okay time to go to the office" In spanish of course. Meanwhile the guys are up top talking to the America women who is treating them like little children and telling them all sorts of nonsense and gossiping about everyone in the little 15 boat marina...

I come up the stairs with the Customs women and the Navy man says "Buena Noche" and sonders away down the dock.

By now the tide has started to go out. The water is rushing like a river past the dock. It's really swurling and churning under the boat. If we would have been 10 minutes later in our arrival we would have not been able to enter or else would have had to fight our way against a 3.5 knot current rushing against us. We were very lucky!

Well, I leave with the Customs lady and we walk up the small gangway into the Hotel of the Marina. There is a small restaurant and bar on the water and then a vast wooden deck. Beyond that is a big pool with an Island in the middle. We are in Paradise!!! I go into the air conditioned office of the hotel and the customs office is a little room off to the side. I pay the 10 dollar per person fee and our passports are stamped... I check into the Marina hotel with my credit card and everything becomes 50% off. We are only paying 22 dollars a night to keep the boat tied up to the slip with electricity and water, a good deal.


We are all tired out now and i am ready for some sleep in a boat that doesn't try to throw me out of my bed!!!

Crossing the Tehuantepec From Mexico To El Salvador

Hello there,
We are currently crossing the famed Tehuantepec! Yesterday evening we loaded the boat full of 5000 pesos (approx. $370.00) worth of groceries from the Super Che in Huatulco and shoved off. It was sad leaving the odd little marina. The governing authority is Enrique and his attendance seemed to be a guest appearance at times rather than a full time presence. The marina is truly the last refuge for sailors heading south past the Tehuantepec. It also acts as a final southing point for many sailors. The mixed group of people present in the marina was quite intriguing.

A German couple arrived shortly after us from the south. Their Dilapidated vessel seemed to have been to the far reaches of the world So we invited them over for a drink and some story swapping. It turned Out that they had left Germany 3 1/2 years ago. They headed to South
America and then decided on a whim to round Cape Horn. They did so and at times faced 80-knot winds. Once they reached the horn they found about 20 boats “holed up” waiting for a weather window to
Cross into the Antarctic! A wild and cold world indeed down there.
From Tierra Del Fuego they headed north to Peru, then launched across to the Galapagos. Once there they headed straight for Costa Rica. From Costa Rica they skirted the coast past El Salvador and ended up in
Huatulco.
The man had a serious case of a superiority complex. The woman was more humble and I had a pleasant time swapping information about the north route with her knowledge from the south, Costa Rica etc...Their Website is: www.world-sailing-ultima.blogspot.com
Another man we met, who was on a beautiful 51-foot ketch next to us, turned out to be a delivery captain. Captain Pete Peterson was a strange old bloke from Kentucky who retired at the age of 49 to become a
delivery captain. He logs on average 20,000 sea miles a year all over the world delivering yachts of all shapes and sizes. Yesterday, he went to refuel the giant beast he was charged with and nearly crashed the thing into our boat and the dock next to us. Despite the fact that the
vessel was equipped with bow thrusters... definitely left me wondering a bit. His crew consisted of an older woman, who was somehow affiliated with the owner, and two older gentlemen who showed up the day before they left. None of them had ever met and they were planning on leaving the same day as ourselves and to head straight for Costa Rica, refuel and then head directly to Panama and on to Florida where the boat had to be delivered before the end of January! That’s over 3000 miles with a completely unknown crew on a strange and unusual vessel! Quite a ride they will have for sure.

Checking out of Mexico-

Well, this was quite a chore. First one must see the Port Captain, after an hour of paper work you must go across the street, luckily, and negotiate with Immigration. Then I was told to go back to the port Captain. Once there they told me I must go to the airport to clear with Customs. A $30 taxi ride! Here is where the controversy comes in. Two other boats had left the prior day, each of them had gone through the laborious and costly process of traveling all the way to the airport. I spoke with Enrique, the Marina owner and he said that I should not go to the airport and that everyone should come to him in the Marina. So, I made an appointment with the immigration agent to show up on the boat the following day to do his ritual. He actually did show up on time. I, then, had to go back to the port Captain and magically they signed me out of the country. So, I never went to see Customs at the airport and everything worked out! It is really very bizarre how mixed up things are here, but we are in a 3rd world country. The delivery captain said that most of the time he doesn't bother with checking into the different countries and when they get mad he just throws his hands in the air and says, “I'm sorry-- I didn't know any better”... That's one way of working through these foreign bureaucracies. Delivery Captain’s web site www.captainpete48.com

So….. back to the T-pecker. We left yesterday evening, despite Captain Pete's belief that we should wait until morning. We motored all night through calm seas. It began to feel a bit weird, but nothing too strange.
We passed our night shifts as we hugged the coast until 3 am. Then, we aimed southeast and began to cross the Tehuantepec. At 8 A.M. the wind finally kicked in and I awoke with a throbbing sore throat and a fever.
Perfect timing. I clambered up on deck and Sean and I hoisted the main to the second reef point and the jib in an appropriate balance. As the morning wore on the winds increased. We found ourselves 20 miles from land in 25 knots of wind!!! The books all say that one should traverse the T- pecker within one mile or less of land, but the people we spoke with said that the region was completely fouled with fishing nets and hugging the coast would increase our crossing time by 6 hours.

Well, we decided to reef down the main to the 3rd reef and doused the genoa in exchange for the cutter/storm sail. We, then, proceeded along through the increasing maelstrom. I worried that we were in store
for a wild and wet ride. Water was beginning to splash onto the deck, so all weather side ports were closed quickly. Our speed was between 5 and 5.5 knots on a beam reach. As the morning turned into day the waves began to increase coming at us from the shore side direction, which was very odd indeed. At about this time I crawled below to try and sleep off my fever.

I woke an hour later to the gentle slapping of waves against the hull. The wind had dropped to 10 knots!!! I leapt up the stairs and promptly hoisted all the canvas we have on board.

Now, it is early afternoon and the wind has dropped to 6 knots, we have switched the sails around and hoisted the spinnaker. We have 400 more sea miles to go to get to La Libertad, the famed long right point in El Salvador. We hope to see the volcanoes that are reported to be visible at night off of the coast of Guatemala. Our speed is 3 knots and at this current rate we won't be in
El Salvador for 4-5 days.

Well as the days wore on Sean started to get bored. Here he is and his exploits with a harness and the spinnaker pole, luckily we have plenty of food, water and fuel because we will be out here for a while!!!

Mainland Mexico

Yesterday we motored along the coast all day looking for surf, a random old lady with a 20 something year old Norwegian kid on a sailboat came up to us in a harbor. She asked if the kid could hitch a ride with us south about 75 miles. They were looking for a fellow sailor who had left with them five days ago, but strangely disappeared the second night out. He seemed like a nice kid so we agreed to take him south in search of the lost sailor. We decided to depart from the harbor that night to try to get to a surf spot by the following morning.
The night passed un eventfully and by morning we randomly came across a beach nestled in between tall rocky cliffs covered in lush green foliage. Down the center of the beach a dried riverbed wound its way to the beach. Lining its sides a multitude of swaying green palms trees seemed to beckon us closer.
When we pulled in to investigate we noticed that there were surfers out and the waves were really good. Basically, overhead, crystal blue barrels. The surf spots name turned out the be Las Brusas, or the witches, Kinda freaky. We surfed until our arms almost fell off, then headed back to the boat for a triple-decker prosciutto sandwich.

Once our meal had digested we headed for a good over night harbor 2 hours south. Once there, we launched the dingy, loaded it up with cold beer, guitars and cameras for the mission ahead.
The bay is called Tenacatica, where a really amazing river winds through dense mangrove swamp. We took the dingy into the river mouth and navigated through the 3 miles of winding river cloaked it mangroves, which created a natural tunnel that shaded us from the tropical sun.


As we neared the end of the river a small town can be found where we discovered a weekend fiesta was winding down. Buses were pulling in and one nearly missed our little dog Debo. The buses were being loaded up to ferry the throngs of Mexicans back to their inland habitations and work commencing the following day.

We pulled up a chair in one of the many beach side restaurants. After ordering whole coconuts we sat back to enjoy the scene while sipping the cool juice with long pink straws. As the evening progressed the once thronging beach and restaurant became eerily silent as we found ourselves to be the sole customers left, besides one drunk Mexican. His forlorn ambitions culminated in an attempt to dance with anyone who was unlucky enough to pass his general vicinity.

By the time we had finished our delicious meal that totaled 5 dollars each it was quite dark. We donned our headlamps and headed back to the riverbank. A Long the way we discovered the reasoning behind the many smoldering fires the seemed to only create billowing plumes of smoke. Mosquito madness! We ran as fast as we could to the dingy and launched it into the now pitch Dark River.



Navigating through the maze, now with the sole aid of a headlamp became the game of hit and miss. After a bit I honed my methods and we pushed on through the night. About 45 minutes in we notice fire fly s were all about the place. Bats then began swooping in and gobbling them up. It was a quite a feeding frenzy. We then rounded a bend and Kim let out a yell.
Right in front of us a small crocodile was idly swimming in pursuit of a little panicked frog. We shone our light on the 1-foot long reptile. He didn't even mind our watchful gaze.

Over the next 30 mins we wound our way through the now alive jungle, where the once silent mangroves now seemed alive with all sorts of creatures emitting screeches and whistles. We finally reached the river mouth and then punched our way through the 2 foots surf, after some careful timing.
Once back to the boat I quickly fell into a deep and much needed sleep.

The Banyan is a 43 ft. Mason Sailboat

Hello all and welcome to the log of our travels. We set sail from California on November 1st 2008. Our first leg took us southbound through Baja, Mexico and into Central America. From Panama we plan to set sail for the Galapagos and on across the Pacific towards Polynesia. We will end our first year of travels in New Zealand, where we will wait out the Cyclone season.