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Puerto Quetzal

Happy Holidays to you and all. We miss seeing you during this time, and are thinking of you. We hope the season is peaceful, and that Santa is generous. Following is the latest update on our travels..

We are now in Guatemela, anchored at Puerto Quetzal, the Quatemalan West Coast Navy Base. We were welcomed by the Navy and Immigration, who came to our boat in their panga and processed the papers on the boat. They were very courteous and spoke excellent English, and made us feel welcome. We are happy to be here.

It is a relief to have crossed the dangerous Gulf of Tehuantepec. Our passage across the Gulf took two nights and we completed it within the weather window, which closed behind our crossing by a couple of hours. We left the Huatulco anchorage on December 11, at 5:30 p.m., hoping that the engine repair was sound, which it was. We motored overnight to Salina Cruz, the first leg of the journey. This night passage with through confused seas, and Alcyone rocked and rolled ad neausum until we raised the main at 2:00 a.m. The rolling and the tension was very hard on us. We also kept a three hour contact with the other five boats crossing at the same time as us, and this kept everyone awake. The first day we motor sailed the second leg, a more comfortable passage with an afternoon sunny and a nice light breeze nice the Pacific. Our second night completed the second leg and passed the dangerous waters at about 1:00 a.m. still motoring through calm waters with not much wind. The crew was able to sleep a little, improving all our dispositions considerably. The third and fourth days of our passage were calm, with nice afternoon sails, and motoring about half the time. We left Mexico and entered Guatemala Tuesday, December 14th, at 7:00 a.m. We marked the occassion by lowering the Mexican Flag and raising the Guatemalan flag. The fifth night passage was a lovely sail, although we saw lightning for the first time, in the distance, thank goodness.

Our crew, Bev and Ivan, decided to begin their land trip from here, instead of going on to Panama. They are looking forward to visiting the lovely city of Antigua, and other Guatemalan cities, and travel north by land to Puerto Vallarta, where their boat is moored. They are leaving before making Panama because our trip is taking much longer than originally planned. We had originally planned thirty days. However, with the engine problems we experienced, and our two week down time in Huatulco, it has taken thirty days to make it this far. Ivan and Bev decided they were not up to another minimum two week passsage to Panama, 800 more miles. They were wonderful crew and made our journey much easier and more pleasant, and we really appreciate all their help.

We know now we won't make it to Panama by Christmas. We will go more slowly down the coast though we am still hoping to be there before January 1st.

Patricia and Colin
S/V Alcyone
Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala
Latitude 13:55.30
Longitude 90:47.70