Bill and Jean, organizers of the annual El Salvador rally on the coast of El Salvador, have been entertaining and inspiring cruisers for many years. The El Salvador rally encourages sailors who are heading South on the Central American coast to stop into the estuary to celebrate with other South bound cruisers. So it comes naturally to them to connect cruisers for a sailing holiday. They wrote in about their day of celebrating sailing:
‘Bahia del Sol, El Salvador is not known for its’ sailing opportunities, however the six boats from the last Cruisers Rally to El Salvador who are summering over in the estuary decided to make the best of it for Sailstice. We took our dinghies over to the seafood Palapa restaurants and ate and swam while waiting for a favorable tide. We returned to our dinghies when the tide turned and hoisted whatever makeshift sail we brought with us and sailed back (well almost back until we ran aground) to our mooring field. So, did we sail? Sort of… Did we have a good time?.. You bet.’
Looks like a decent breeze, a genuine effort to set sail and good time. It’s a far cry from the Clipper Racers who were crossing the North Atlantic but that’s the nature of Summer Sailstice – sail what you have, where you are and make sure you’re connecting in spirit with all sailors around the world.
If you want to sail down and join Bill and Jean make sure you join the next El Salvador rally coming March 16-April 30. A good place to start is in San Diego California with Latitude 38’s Baja Ha-Ha and then just continue South taking a left at the Bahia del Sol. Join them for Summer Sailstice 2013 and, if you hoist a little dacron it looks like you’ll win the sail shape award. Learn more about the rally here.
'Way down South in the land of cotton.........sails' Sail with what you've got, where you are. They succeeded in El Salvador.
Any sail shape will do - though, in this case, going downwind helps.
This is an invitation to celebrate in El Salvador in 2013.
El Salvador is a place where breeze isn't measured in knots but in ounces - 12 oz at a time. This looks like about a 48 oz breeze or is that beerze?