Leaving Mexico on our way to the Galapagos
Now that we’ve arrived in the Galapagos and started to settle in, it’s time for a quick recap of our passage from Mexico to the Galapagos. The straight line distance from Zihuatanejo, Mexico, to Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Isla San Cristobal, is 1321 miles. Because of the wind direction and arrival timing, we ended up sailing about 1600 total miles in just over 12 days.
The passage had four distinct phases:
Phase 1 – Escape the coast. The coast of southern Mexico is a giant wind hole, so this was the part of the passage that Mike was most concerned about. Would we have enough wind to get into the sea breeze without having to burn too much diesel or miss our timing for the high wind part of passage (see Phase 2)? All the worrying turned out (as usual) to be wasted energy – although we had light wind, it was from the perfect direction for an easy close reach, Madrone’s best point of sail.
The heron that hitched a ride with us for part of Phase 1
Phase 2 – Gulf of Tehuantepec. The Gulf of Tehuantepec originates at a gap between Mexico and Northern Central American mountains that funnel very strong winds from the Gulf of Mexico into the Pacific. Crossing this area was the part of the passage that Angie was most concerned about. When really blowing, the waves that these winds generate can be dangerous, so we wanted to do two things. First, we planned to cross the Gulf between 300 and 400 miles from shore – that far from the mountain gap, the wind has lost some of its power. Second, we hoped to cross this area at the beginning or end of one of the strong wind events. That would give us a decent sailing breeze, but it would let us avoid the worst of the wind and the waves. Because of the how fast we were able to sail away from the coast, our timing turned out to be perfect. We caught the tail end of one large wind event, and that kept us moving as the start of another gale spit us out the other side. Besides the strongest wind of the trip (occasional gusts to 30 knots), crossing this area turned out to be a non-event.
Forecasted gale in the Gulf of Tehuantepec
Phase 3 – Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone. The ITCZ is the area where the weather systems of the northern and southern hemispheres come together, and this convergence generally creates very light winds, very confused seas, and lots of lightning. This area can be up to a couple hundred miles wide or it can nearly disappear, depending on the local weather systems. The evening before entering the ITCZ, Mike spent his watch amazed (and worried) by the amount of lightning in the distance. Our luck held, though, because when we arrived at the ITCZ it only took us about 4 or 5 hours to sail across. We didn’t even see a single bolt of lightning, and for sure we didn’t miss it!
Phase 4 – Beating to weather. As is typical with our sailing trips, we spent all of our energy worrying about the wrong things. What we should have been concerned about is the last 500 miles, which was more or less straight upwind. The first couple of days of this stretch were not the most pleasant – the wind was a steady 17-22 knots, and the waves were driven into steep peaks by the current flowing directly into the wind. We reduced the sailplan to a double-reefed main together with our small staysail, and that provided just enough power to make good progress to windward through the chop without increasing our speed enough to launch the boat off the top of the waves. After 48 hours or so, the wind slackened and conditions improved, but it was still a long way to sail upwind.
Taking down our Mexican courtesy flag
When arriving to the Galapagos by private boat, it’s necessary to obtain a permit called an Autografo. We’d arranged for this before leaving, but due to a misunderstanding the permit was not scheduled to start until a week after we arrived. The agent we used for the permit asked us to delay our arrival by a day or two, and we agreed – after getting into the rhythm of a passage, an extra day or two turns out not to really matter. Without this delay, we likely could have completed the passage in eleven days or a bit under.
Before leaving Mexico, we spent a fair bit of time researching what to expect on the trip. It turns out that the route we took is not common – most folks who leave from Mexico first harbor hop down the Central American coast and depart from Panama in order to shorten the offshore passage by about 30%. For us, the extra offshore miles were an easy price to pay in exchange for avoiding many hours of likely motoring down the largely windless coast.
We’re happy to be here in the Galapagos, and happy that the passage from Mexico worked out so well.
