Salty Podcast #35 | 🌊 Island Packet 35 Takes on Central America Sailing! ⛵

Capn Tinsley chats with Dean Porter about his incredible journey on S/V BseaChamp to San Salvador and Central America's wild coastlines.

#SaltyAbandon #SaltyPodcast #Sailing #IslandPacket #SeaChamp #CentralAmericaSailing

Chapters

• 0:00 Sailing Adventures in Central America
• 13:17 Navigating Challenging Waters in Central America
• 18:03 Exploring Mexico's Diving Paradise

Transcript

Capn Tinsley: 0:00

to start over. Okay, welcome to the Salty Podcast, episode 35. We just had a false start, so we're starting over, sorry about that. Dean, this is episode 35, and welcome back. Tonight's guest is Dean Porter of Sailing Vessel BC Champ in Island Packet 35. And he is currently living in Portland Oregon and his boat is in El Salvador. So sorry, dean, I'm gonna have to ask you to repeat that you want to explain the name of your boat.

Dean Porter: 0:35

Yeah, I worked for a company in Canada. It was a Fortune 500 company and I was a salesman and we always competed against all the other provinces in Canada for top sales and I always end up being the top salesman in British Columbia most of the time. So my fellow workers nicknamed me the BC Champ, meaning the British Columbia Champ, and then I named my boat. Instead of the letter C, I named it S-E-A, like the ocean or the sea, and that's how I came up with BC Champ.

Capn Tinsley: 1:04

Okay, and I appreciate you doing that twice, that's a good practice. Yeah, okay. Well, let's just jump into the questions that I have here for you, since I've interviewed a couple of people from the West Coast. Well, let's just go ahead and start with Central America and Mexico. Your boat is currently in El Salvador.

Dean Porter: 1:28

Yes, correct.

Capn Tinsley: 1:29

I would love to take my boat down there. So tell us a little bit about what initially inspired you to sail from Oregon down to Central America, and how did you prepare for such a long voyage.

Dean Porter: 1:41

Oh, that's an interesting question. So I kind of got into sailing just four years before I left. I always wanted to sail. It started by reading the book the Dove, which I don't know if many people have read that book about. It's a young man that takes his dad's sailboat and he goes to Hawaii and I read that book and was always intrigued as a young kid. And then, you know, 40, 50 years later I got it, I got got. Oh, that's a robin, I should, yeah, yeah robin yeah, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 2:09

And and when did he do the 60s, 50s?

Dean Porter: 2:11

yeah, it has had to be in the 60s because I was probably a teenager when I read it. So yeah, I've seen the movie, but it's been a long time yeah, yeah, national geographic picked him up and then he ended up sailing around the world, as far as I recall.

Capn Tinsley: 2:26

Yeah, and just a comment about that. I remember in the movie he stopped and met a girl and he was having a good time, you know, relaxing, enjoying, and his dad came out there and said didn't he say you need to get moving, was that?

Dean Porter: 2:38

Yeah, yeah, that was the movie. He had a couple of cats.

Capn Tinsley: 2:45

Yeah, yeah, yeah, that was the movie. He had a couple of cats. Yeah, lost one of the kitties. That was a very disturbing a short guy.

Dean Porter: 2:55

Yeah, so I didn't really plan on going to El Salvador. To be honest, my goal was to sail to French Polynesia last, probably this last spring actually. But you know, when you start sailing and you kind of hang out in different cities and anchorages, and you know, I left San Diego with the Baja Hog Group and I sailed down with that group and I met a handful of people, a bunch of amazing other sailors, and then I ended up hooking up with a boat called Wanderer and a boat called Voyager, which are my friends now and they've been that way for years.

Dean Porter: 3:31

Drew and Ingrid and Vinny Canadian Vinny, we call him, and he's from Vancouver Island as well, ironically and so we all just started to hang out. We all had the same kind of goals and where we wanted to go. So we kind of buddy boated for over a year together and, you know, we went through Mexico very slowly and we stayed at so many amazing places. You know, mazatlan was fantastic believe it or not beautiful there. And then we went further south to Zihuataneo or Ixtapa, and Zihuataneo became kind of a return location because they in February of every year they have a big sail fest event and it's where fellow sailors like us spend two weeks there. Where fellow sailors like us spend two weeks there and we take all the tourists from in that location out to watch the sunset and they all pay, they donate thousands of dollars or $25 or $10. And we take them out to watch the sunset, all of us sailors, as a volunteer. And then this whole committee makes thousands of dollars for the young ninos and ninas in El Salvador, right in Zihuataneo.

Capn Tinsley: 4:38

So and Zihuataneo is in which country?

Dean Porter: 4:42

It's Mexico, okay, yeah, it's north of Acapulco, okay, northeast, northwest. Sorry yeah, I'm turned around.

Capn Tinsley: 4:51

All right, if you can look it up.

Dean Porter: 4:54

Z-I-H-U. So we went there, and then how we ended up in El Salvador, I guess, is we. There was a woman, pamela, and her husband, henry, who have sailed up and down the coast many times, from Vancouver Island as well, came to my boat and said hey, you guys should, a lot of you, yeah, a lot of Canadian boats on the West Coast, from Canada.

Capn Tinsley: 5:15

Right.

Dean Porter: 5:16

Yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 5:16

I bet.

Dean Porter: 5:17

So this lady, Pamela, and her husband. They convinced us to be part of this sail fest because we were just there by accident. We didn't plan on being there for sail fest, we knew nothing about it, so they got us involved and we took some people out. We took people sailing and then Pamela became a really great friend, her and her husband, Henry, and every time in ZWAT she does a seminar for El Salvador at one of the local restaurants to help all the new sailors like ourselves understand where to go and where not to go. And so she does this great little PowerPoint presentation and that's where we learned about El Salvador, most importantly Bahia del Sol, Marina, or also Bill and Jean's mooring field where my boat is moored today.

Capn Tinsley: 6:06

Yeah, that's where you are. Let's go ahead and put up a picture of your boat.

Dean Porter: 6:10

Okay.

Capn Tinsley: 6:12

That's really pretty, yeah, I it's.

Dean Porter: 6:17

I miss it. It's been a few months since I've seen it, but in El Salvador it's really great because Bill and Jean are fellow Americans that retired from sailing and bought land there on an island and then they started the mooring field and it's been fantastic. So we stay with them. They have staff that watches our boat. They watch our boat. We get our hulls cleaned for $40 US. You know it's, I think it's around once.

Capn Tinsley: 6:48

Where we are is in an estuary. Yeah, there.

Dean Porter: 6:55

That's the Tawanapec south of Huatulco on the way to Chiapas, mexico. That picture is kind of unique.

Capn Tinsley: 7:03

I like to show sailors having a good time and relaxing.

Dean Porter: 7:07

That was my coffee at like 7 in the morning. That's my buddy, vinny, and I fixing my sails. He's got a Sailrite sewing machine so we're kind of learning how to sew. And where is that? Where this is? This is in all. This is el salvador, um, bahia, oh nice. Yeah, bahia del sol marina is actually a all-inclusive resort and what's great about it, as pamela would always say, is we. It's for 15 a week. We get full access to the dinghy dock, uh, showers, two pools, 30 off the food. We get to um, we get a dollar beer. So you know, we kind of go there for happy hour every day and sit in the pool and cool off and, and the hotel let us use their big conference hall to set our sewing machine up there and sail so our sales let's put that marina up.

Capn Tinsley: 7:57

Tell me the name of it again yeah, bahia del sol yeah, like bahia oh yeah, yeah yeah, it's fantastic marina okay I'm gonna put that up because this is info that people want to know.

Dean Porter: 8:15

Yeah, it's.

Capn Tinsley: 8:18

Is that it?

Dean Porter: 8:19

Yeah, that's it Perfect.

Capn Tinsley: 8:21

Now this is a trustworthy place that someone can leave their boat.

Dean Porter: 8:26

Yeah, so yes, because Bill and Jean are there every day. They host us every day for happy hour at their house. They have a little tiny pool and we go there for happy hour and then every Saturday night is papusa night. So all of us sailors go to their house and then we walk down on the dirt trail to this woman's house hut and her family cooks us papusas, or like a rice flour with cheese and beans inside, and sometimes some meat or sausage or something. But papusa is the Salvadorian meal. Their go-to is papusa.

Dean Porter: 9:02

So yeah, so our boat is watched all the time and we're all on WhatsApp together. I can call right now and I can say to my young friend, jose, go check my battery bank, and he'll be at my boat in five minutes and he'll be calling me back with a video showing me my battery monitor, showing me that it's perfect. So it's amazing. The people are amazing. Super safe, yeah, super safe. You heard it right here on the Salty Podcast.

Capn Tinsley: 9:26

That is great info. You heard it right here on the Salty Podcast. That is great info. Yeah, that comes up a lot. Where can I leave my boat in a safe place, whether it's in the Caribbean? Now we have a place that we're talking about on the West Coast in El Salvador, so that's great, go ahead.

Dean Porter: 9:47

Yeah, and part of the reason why when Pamela did her seminar with us she talks about that that it's very safe and they've been leaving their boat there I'm in a ballpark, but I think around 10 or 12 years. They've left it there every year for the winter or our summer and go back to Canada do their thing at home. Then they come back in November and then they take off back up to Zewat now to do the Sail fest thing again. But they've been there forever and um the other great thing, is that the you can get work done on your boats.

Dean Porter: 10:17

Like I had a bunch of cracks on my seat, you know, on my outside by my tow rails and down on my cockpit, and I hired the guy to come and scrape all, scrape them all clean, fill them all. He painted it to the best he could with the island packet color and I think it was 350 dollars for like multiple days of work. Like they work very inexpensive there, um, and that's the other thing that's really nice they'll clean your stainless, they'll. They'll wet, sand your hall in the water, cut, polish it, wax it, wax it and it just is beautiful and there's a crew that does that. I mean you can't get too much canopy work done, but most everything else you can get there for, you know, extremely inexpensive, and it is the US dollar there as well which is nice.

Capn Tinsley: 11:07

So no canvas work.

Dean Porter: 11:10

Very little is nice. So no, no canvas work, uh, very little. Gene, the lady that does the mooring field, she has a sailwright sewing machine and she does some. The problem is getting the material is the problem because you can't get the material. This you know the sun, I can't remember the name exactly, but the oh, yeah, um, I can't think of it either.

Dean Porter: 11:28

Yeah, the can the canvas that we use for our Bimini's and Dodgers et cetera. But other than that, you know there's so much more you can get done. Like I say, they clean my hall for $40 a month. I can't beat that.

Capn Tinsley: 11:41

you know so pretty impressive Mine's $110 a month, yeah, exactly.

Dean Porter: 11:48

That's US and, like I said, they do gel coat work. They'll even build you a dinghy down there. I mean, it'll be fiberglass, it'll be a little heavy, but they'll build you a dinghy down there wow, they're just super talented. You know they're not super high quality, but it's darn well worth the money. All of it and the people that do it all are super nice, like mexican people are fantastic and super nice, and El Salvador people are just a tad bit above, which is really amazing.

Capn Tinsley: 12:16

Really I've had great experience in Mexico. Lots of good experiences in Mexico, yes, yeah.

Dean Porter: 12:21

Mexico is fantastic. I mean, I probably shouldn't say this, but as soon as I got to Mexico I didn't even lock my boat anymore. I mean, I haven't locked my boat for a year. El Salvador even lock my boat anymore.

Capn Tinsley: 12:33

I mean, I haven't locked my boat for a year. El salvador, I never locked my boat. You know, it's all that. That's what I'm saying.

Dean Porter: 12:36

There's not much to steal on there because you know it's, there's not much to steal. But you know food and clothes, I guess.

Capn Tinsley: 12:42

But but yeah, it's super safe that's why we love it there well, when I was doing my research, when I started sailing and I started reading because I didn't grow up sailing um the book I read, said he didn't he's lit. He, you know, travels in the caribbean. He doesn't lock his now he goes. He doesn't go to real touristy places, because that's where you get ripped off yeah, but he'd rather him come on in and help themselves than bust in the uh the companionway right.

Dean Porter: 13:10

Yeah, it can't get that fixed easy, yeah so true, so true all right.

Capn Tinsley: 13:17

my next question for you is can you share some of the most memorable or challenging experiences you've encountered while sailing along the west coast of central of Central America?

Dean Porter: 13:28

Is it?

Capn Tinsley: 13:28

rough. There Is it like different winds.

Dean Porter: 13:32

Yeah, you know, I have to say I'm more of a motor sailor than I'm a sailor down there, because you've got to watch the wind in certain areas. There's an area called the Tawanapec, which is south of Huatuco, mexico, and it's where the narrowest part of the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean are.

Dean Porter: 13:50

And if you look at windycom when and it's it's where the narrowest part of the Caribbean and the Pacific Ocean are, and if you look at windycom, when you watch that periodically during the week, you'll see that there's big winds that come south through there southwest and it becomes very dangerous because it gets up to 30, 40 knots and the waves become very big, and so you really have to time it to go through there, and it's a it's a 48 hour passage, basically, and so what we do is we wait until there's almost no wind, just to be safe, and then you end up motoring um across, you know, for for two days or 48 hours.

Capn Tinsley: 14:23

Tell me again the, tell me the starting point and the ending port.

Dean Porter: 14:27

Uh, starting yeah, the starting point would be what? What to go? Mexico? So h? U a t and then the you could go. You would. Then you would carry on to chiapas mexico, where there's a marina at chiapas marina and uh, and there's also a hall out there and that's also where you check out of Mexico okay yeah, I'm seeing a few difference.

Capn Tinsley: 14:56

How to go yeah.

Dean Porter: 14:58

Santa Maria, I don't go yeah, it's right on the water. Well, look for Playa Selena Cruz.

Capn Tinsley: 15:13

Okay, playa.

Dean Porter: 15:14

Selena Cruz.

Capn Tinsley: 15:16

That's the one you gave me right.

Dean Porter: 15:19

Yeah, yeah, I think that's where you'll see the cruise ship dock there, if you can see it on Google Maps.

Capn Tinsley: 15:29

Is there a beach there?

Dean Porter: 15:38

Yes, I think it's Selenaena cruz playa selena cruz okay, try that.

Capn Tinsley: 15:46

Not sure I'm finding it. These are all new places to me.

Dean Porter: 15:52

Is it okay for me to touch my Google Maps and look Well, I won't lose you.

Capn Tinsley: 15:55

Yeah, and you have a little present button. You should have a little present button down there at the bottom.

Dean Porter: 16:01

Yeah, okay, what do I?

Capn Tinsley: 16:03

do with that? Well, once you find it, then you can try to present it. I'm going to try to find it. In the meantime, let me pull up this first anchorage you talked about, isla Partida yeah, isla Partida, yes wow oh, I'm sorry, let me show this let me come back to you. I'm going Okay, let me show this. Okay, go ahead, let me come back to you.

Dean Porter: 16:31

I've got to find you here. There you are. Okay, yeah, this is an amazing anchorage. Yeah, if you can pull it up. Yeah there you go. So if you zoom in, you can see there's actually two islands there, yep, yep, yeah. And you can see where the zoom in row.

Capn Tinsley: 16:56

No, I'm just going to show where it is Okay. Yeah, give me some idea.

Dean Porter: 17:01

Yeah, and then we sailed up to La Paz, and then we went there for a week and hung out with my fellow boaters.

Capn Tinsley: 17:12

And where's the anchorage right here?

Dean Porter: 17:14

Yeah, right in there. Yeah, yeah or right. Just. There's another anchorage just south where the two islands split. Right, there's another beautiful anchorage. If you just move your mouse right, you're right up in there, right. Not there, but just to the left a bit more, yeah.

Capn Tinsley: 17:26

Not that's in there.

Dean Porter: 17:28

there's a beach there. We hung out and partied and fires. And more to your left. No, up and more to your left. Come out of that. Yeah, straight up now, pull it down. Yeah, just to the left, more, a little more. Yeah, right up in there. You see there's a big like an anchorage right there, right there, anchorage right in here yeah, beautiful.

Dean Porter: 17:47

Ah yeah, yeah, beautiful, really really nice, yeah, and all around that whole island there's all sorts of beautiful. You can see them all just anywhere where there's a gap. There's a big beautiful beach in Anchorage and there's hiking there. Yeah, tell me about this island um, I just know I think it's part of their national park for mexico and, uh, quite a ways at the top there's a lot of diving up there. I think there's a lot of, uh, sea lions etc. Up top there. I can't get on this island.

Capn Tinsley: 18:18

I was going to try to see if I can get on the island, but it's not letting me diving up here yeah, diving all up around there is really good, supposed to be fantastic.

Dean Porter: 18:28

I never got up that far, but other friends did and they just loved it. And also that's kind of the same area where you can go swimming with the whale sharks is in La Paz area.

Capn Tinsley: 18:41

in this area, Now, how long did you stay here?

Dean Porter: 18:45

We stayed there a week.

Capn Tinsley: 18:47

Wow, tell me about it. How was that experience?