Passed Puerto Escondido in the middle of the night. Passed Puerto Angel right after breakfast. At one p.m., we dropped anchor in the harbor at Hualtuco. This is the last place to hole up before entering the Gulf of Tehuantepec. We expected a tiny fishing village. Instead, we found the hub of a grandiose resort development that will take 30 years to complete! Already there are several first-class hotels and an inner harbor that is well-protected by two sturdily constructed breakwaters and has an attractive promenade all around it. There are a number of clean, sandy beaches. Thousands of Mexicans are here for the Holy Week vacation. If I were a Mexican, I'd a lot rather spend my vacation in Hualtuco than in that crowded, noisy, expensive Acapulco.
We ate lunch, and then Roy replaced the impeller, while I stayed out of his hair by going swimming and paddling. It was a very great sacrifice on my part, but I managed to bear up under it.
When he was through replacing the impeller, Roy got ready to go paddling, too. There was a lot of dirt and goop on the hull from Cabo San Lucas, so he went to get a brush to scrub it off with. I was still in my Royak, so I got out my sponge and began wiping off some of the goosh. There were a zillion pangas and jet skis and skidoos and whatnot zooming around, churning up the water. I was leaning over the side of my Royak, wiping Jofian's hull. A bunch of waves came along and flipped my Royak, which was fine--the water was warm, and I had my swimsuit on. I righted the Royak, got back in it, and continued washing the hull. A couple of minutes later, the same thing happened again. Unfortunately, this time Roy saw it. He got all excited and started yelling, "Turn your Royak over! Turn your Royak over!", which made me mad--as if I didn't have brains enough to know I needed to right my Royak. Anyway, I turned it right side up, got back in it, and paddled after the cushion. After I retrieved the cushion and bailed the water out of the back compartment, I turned back towards the boat and was delighted to see a Royak that had pulled its line loose and was drifting merrily away on its own. So I had the last laugh as I paddled after and retrieved Mr. Royak's Royak. Yuk yuk.
There were three other U.S. sailboats here, so we paddled over and talked with some of the people. They gave us a lot of valuable information, especially that we could get weather reports from Salina Cruz Port Control in fluent English. We could contact them on VHF channel 16 or 6, or on single sideband, 8242.8 transmit, 8792.8 receive. We haven't been able to get the nets clearly since we left Puerto Vallarta, so it's good to know where we can get weather information.
Paddled around for a while. Then ate supper and enjoyed the delightful evening breeze. Around 8 o'clock, we pulled up the anchor and headed northeast into the Gulf. As we were leaving, Roy shone the searchlight on the water, and a thousand fish jumped into the air! Amazing sight!
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