It’s your vacation – the break for which you have been saving for months. The cold of winter is well upon you and now is the time to enjoy that well deserved cruise. This year you’ve decided upon the Pacific Coast of Mexico as your destination for surf, sand and fun under the glorious Mexican sun, right?

Beware the Tehuantepeckers! No, this is not a joke with a raunchy twist; Tehuantepeckers have plagued unsuspecting sailors along Mexico’s coast for centuries!

During the winter high pressure in the Caribbean creates strong winds that race south to the Pacific through a lowland saddle in the Sierra Madre del Sur along the Isthmus of Tehuantepec (pronounced Tey-WHAN-tey-peck). The wind can whip up in minutes and broad side ships with sustained winds of over 70 mph! It’s no wonder the tall ships carrying passengers from Panama to California cautioned green skippers about the dangers of the Tehuantepeckers!

I know all about Tehuantepeckers, having sailed through them many times including, yesterday!

At midday the Captain made his usual announcement pointing out that the sea had been so calm and clear during the morning officers on the bridge could see large sea turtles swimming at the surface. Within a few hours of that tranquil weather update under blue skies we sailed into a veritable wall of winds and waves that pummeled the ship relentlessly for hours subsiding quickly once we were in the shelter of the rising mountains. I verified on the ship’s chart that indeed we were due south of the infamous Gulf of Tehuantepec. No one believed me that such a thing existed until I asked the Captain to legitimize my claim in his next noonday announcement. Yes, ladies and gentleman feel honored you have experienced the legendary Mexican Tehuantepecker!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 4th, 2007 at 11:11 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.