11/5/2000. Hal took off from Long Beach at 1055 for the six day non stop run to Manzanillo, Mexico. A small amount of anxiety was caused by the fact that he had only met his two crew members the day before! Several qualified friends had expressed interest in making the journey, but at the last minute the last few maybes became nos. An announcement on the Trawler World List advertising for crew brought two responses that seemed highly qualified. Robert Owens, from Louisiana, was a former Pan Am pilot with lots of experience in boats, and a thorough knowledge of navigation and weather. Wayne Almquist and his very understanding wife own a contract sewing company in Los Angeles and he was an experienced boater but without much offshore passagemaking under his belt. As it turned out, both crew exceeded my wildest expectations and we had a generally good trip. We set up a watch schedule of 4 hours on and 8 hours off. I took the 8-12 watches, Wayne took the 12-4s, and Bob the 4-8 cycles. At around 8 p.m. the first night we entered Mexican territory. Wind for the journey was generally around 15 knots from behind us, but we had several hours of NE 25 gusting to 30 with heavy spray. By the 8th the water had warmed up to 72 degrees, and the next day it was 79! It was on the 9th, just off of Cabo San Lucas, that we had our little problem. The main engine raw water pump impeller decided to disintegrate. We shut the engine off while Hal searched for the spare, which he *knew* was on board. After an hour of searching it became apparent that a spare impeller had been overlooked in the inventory. We fired up the emergency drive, a hydraulic pump on the 20KW Northern Lights generator which turned a motor on the main shaft. We limped into Cabo San Lucas and anchored off the beach around midnight. The next morning Wayne and Hal took the tender to shore and asked the Marina for assistance in checking in to the country. As luck would have it, the annual Baja ha ha fleet of 200 or so sailboats had arrived the day before and the Marina was unable to assist us in clearance. After several microseconds of thought, Wayne and I took a taxi to the Cat dealer, bought their only impeller, hotfooted it back to the boat, installed it, and took off for Manzanillo sans clearance. If the Mexican Navy had chased us, we intended to plead "emergencia" and throw ourselves on their mercy. That afternoon we were 80 miles from land with the wind calm and the sea mirror smooth. The next morning, the 11th, we caught a 20 pound yellowfin tuna, known to the Japanese as Ahi, the best sashimi in the world in my opinion. Unfortunately, we were without Wasabi, so we lightly stir-fried about a third of for dinner in a teriyaki style sauce. At 1245 on Sunday the 12th, almost exactly a week from departure, we were moored stern to the quay at Las Hadas, Manzanillo, famous as the set for the Bo Derek movie "10". We had a nice shoreside dinner at the resort and the following day my crew departed. I spent Monday doing general maintenance and on Tuesday Linda flew in with Manchu to begin our actual cruising life. However on Monday I discovered that the air conditioner, which had previously only been tested in Seattle weather, could not handle the heat of Mexico. It ended up that we were without air conditioning until we got to Acapulco, where the factory was able to ship me the necessary parts to fix the unit. This was rather uncomfortable for us Seattle Gringos as the weather was in the high 80s and low 90s the whole time. We spent until the 18th touring Manzanillo and enjoying the resort atmosphere of Las Hadas. We found a nice Supermercado, the Comercial Mexicana, which was stocked as well as any California supermarket. We even found Pedigree dog food for Manchu. We spent time with the sailboat "Pretty Woman" and the Grand Banks 42' "Angel Gate". Angel Gate ended up cruising with us as far as Acapulco so we made four nice friends in the bargain. We left early on the 18th for the ten hour run to Bahia Maruata, a small bay with a fishing village and not much else. The next day we were under way by 0700 for a 14 hour run to Isla Grande, just outside the marina at Ixtapa. We anchored in the dark around 2015 and the next morning we moved into the new marina at Ixtapa. Angel Gate arrived later that day, having stopped short of our destination the day before. We spent two days touring Ixtapa, a new resort town, and Zihuatenejo, an older town that until recently was a charming fishing village known only to yachters, but now is overrun by tourists from Ixtapa seeking a "real Mexico" experience. We anticipated an 18 hour run to Acapulco, so we left at 2030 on the 21st for an overnight passage in order to arrive during the middle of the day. Linda and I traded naps all night and we found ourselves again stern to the quay at the Acapulco Yacht Club around 1500 the next day. Thank you Linda for insisting that our Paserelle (Italian for stern-to gangplank) was installed before we left Seattle, as it came in very handy both here and in Manzanillo. We hired one of the local workers who spent three days detailing the boat at $6.00/hour. After five nights in Acapulco doing the usual tourist stuff as well as relaxing at the very nice facilities at the yacht club, we took off on the 27th for an estimated three day passage across the Gulf of Tehuantepec to the Port of Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. Six years ago when we brought Utopia to Seattle from Florida, we bypassed most of Central America, crossing directly from Costa Rica to Mexico. The publication of a new cruising guide "The Forgotten Middle", covering Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua, as well as an article in a summer issue of Latitude 38 magazine describing two very new marinas in El Salvador prompted us to decide to see these countries. All had undergone some degree of civil strife during the '70s and '80s, but had been generally peaceful since about 1992. 24 hours out of Acapulco we were abeam of Puerto Angel with very light winds. Walt Hack, our weather advisor, predicted nothing worse than 15 knots in the Gulf, so after a few hours of following a 62 Nordhavn, Elizabeth, up the coast towards Salina Cruz into short steep head seas, we turned right and headed for the Guatemala border directly. Unfortunately Walt's prediction turned out to be optimistic as we had several hours of 25-30 knot winds with 10 foot beam seas, but the heavy displacement of Que Linda handled the conditions well and while we were uncomfortable for a time, we never felt in any danger. By 0200 on the 29th the wind started veering aft and moderating, and by 0600 the seas were down to 3-5 feet and the wind back under 15 knots. At 0700 I looked at the GPS and was surprised to notice that it showed we were coincidentally EXACTLY at 15N, 94W, with no minutes showing on either latitude or longitude. Later that afternoon we were boarded by the Mexican Navy -- They launched an inflatable from their cutter with six heavily armed men. Three came aboard and one stationed himself in the bow and one in the stern while the third walked through the boat, looking around but not opening any drawers or lockers. After courteously inspecting our clearance from Acapulco and passports, etc. they departed. They say they inspect all boats they run into apparently heading to or from the Guatemala border. On 11/30 at 0900 we entered port at Puerto Quetzal, Guatemala. This is a new dredged deep water container port with a side branch which houses the Navy base, the fishing fleet, and any yachts that happen by. We anchored off the Navy Officer's club and were able to use their dingy dock for going too and from shore. There was one yacht in the harbor when we arrived, a French catamaran, and during our five day stay no boats arrived or departed. Guatemala is truly undiscovered as far as yachts are concerned. Watch for the December newsletter for news of this stop and more. Hal & Linda