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After a week of Tehuantepecers, a weather window finally opened and we departed Huatulco, Mexico in the company of several other boats bound for Costa Rica. We crossed the infamous Gulfo Tehuantepec by-the-book—that is to say, by motor-sailing close enough to the beach “to hear the dogs barking”.

Thirty-six hours later, with the Tehuantepec safely astern, we sailed in light airs about 20 miles off the Guatemalan coast. We briefly considered a call at Puerto Quetzal, the only Guatemalan harbor on the western coast, but with night fast approaching, decided to press on.

At sunrise of our second day we tuned up the Panama Net on 8107 to see how the other boats were doing. One of the skippers said he had the GPS coordinates for an anchorage in El Salvador. We checked our charts and cruising guides but found nothing of the sort. He assured us that this new anchorage, an estuary named Bahia del Sol, did indeed exist and that it had excellent facilities for cruisers, including safe anchorage, fuel, and a resort hotel with swimming pools and restaurants. Tempting indeed!

We calculated that we could easily reach the entrance waypoint by morning of the following day and decided, along with three other boats, to go for it!

We arrived at the designated waypoint in the darkness of the early morning and hove-to get some rest before attempting the entrance at first light. Sunrise revealed a large south swell running. As the other three boats converged on our position, one skipper radioed the Bahia del Sol Hotel to let them know we wanted to enter the estuary. The Hotel responded enthusiastically, telling us that the entrance was just left of the “casita blanca” and that they were dispatching a guide boat to rendezvous with us.

As we waited for the guide boat, I scanned the shoreline, searching for the “little white house”. When I finally spotted it, I said to myself, “holy crap”. Huge breakers crashed high enough to completely obscure the shoreline, house, and I suppose, the entrance to the estuary.

After Belle Mowette’s attempt at entering the estuary we abandoned the Bahia del Sol plan but learned of yet another “new Salvadoran anchorage” just 30 miles down the coast. Go here to see and read the story of us running the bar at Bahia de Jiquilisco.

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