Jim Cress, president of Nordic Tugs, and his wife Stephanie announce their intentions in giant letters on the flying-bridge fascia of their Nordic Tug 52���Big Fun, the boat���s christened name. To prove that they aren���t joking, they set sail from San Diego in December 2005, bound for Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, about 5,500 miles and 39 days away. Harbor hopping along the west coast of Mexico tries the skipper���s confidence like few other passages. Safe harbors, fuel docks and fresh supplies are few and far between. Often, the Pacific Ocean belies its name and smites the mariner who severs her surface.Wind blows consistently from the west to north of west, so the entire coastline is a lee shore.Aside from the obvious perils, the coastline from San Diego to the Panama Canal opens its arms from time to time, welcoming the voyager with stunning scenery, quaint villages, fascinating people and hidden treasures. In Penacatitas, the Cresses dropped anchor, launched the tender and explored the small river that empties into the harbor. The farther inland they motored, the denser the jungle became���trees and vines overarching the river. It eventually opened into a lagoon and a charming village. Huatulco, farther down the coast, is a small fishing village that has been remarkably unspoiled by the trappings of tourism���but not for long.

Work on a dock to accommodate cruise ships neared completion at the time of the Cress���s visit. Here, Big Fun refueled while the crew went ashore for lunch and to tour the community. The following morning, they cast off and set a course for Guatemala and El Salvador.

When Big Fun was tied up in Penacatitas, the harbor master warned the Cresses that conditions were severe in the Gulf of Tehuantepec, under the elbow of Mexican isthmus just north of Guatamala, between Huatulco and Bahia Jiquilisco. He was right.The Pacific had unleashed a furious storm that bullied Big Fun for more than 24 hours. She stood up to the storm and took care of her crew, who, no doubt, were happy to tuck into the estuary at Bahia Jiquilisco. Shifting sands of the barrier islands off this area require local knowledge, so Jim called the Barias Marina for a pilot aboard a ponga to lead Big Fun up the river.

The Barias Marina���fuel docks, restaurant, resort facilities and a mooring field for visiting yachts���stands as a 100-acre island of contemporary luxury in an area that doesn���t have electricity. Although the marina/resort employs some of the villagers, most of the population survives on fishing and agriculture. Here, the Cresses and their crew spent a restful night, then headed toward Panama in the morning.

THE NORDIC TUG 52 (BELOW) IS A WELL-FOUND LONGRANGE CRUISER. JIM AND STEPHANIE CRESS, FOREGROUND, ON BIG FUN.

During the passage to Panama, Big Fun and her intrepid crew ran into a Papagayos, a localized storm that had the power to stop a person���s heart���figuratively speaking. They weathered another storm as they steamed across the Golfo Nicoya off Costa Rica, headed for Los Suenos. This resort is another enclave of modernity, cut into a lush jungle. The government of Costa Rica has prudently guarded the sanctity of its natural beauty and has set aside huge tracts of land to be left untouched by developers.

Next stop���Panama. Transiting this legendary canal requires an agent, who guides each boat, recreational and commercial, through the entire process, from paperwork to locking through. Big Fun arrived at Panama in time to celebrate Christmas, a two-day respite from the responsibility of running the boat. As they headed north out of the Panama Canal, deteriorating weather suggested a stop on the island of San Andres, which is part of Columbia. The inclement weather kept them on the island for nine days, but the Cresses and their crew didn���t mind. Jim claims that this stopover was the high point of the trip. Thomas Livingston, the 72-year-old customs agent, is a native of altimajune06 the island. He told the Cresses that his father started the local Baptist Church on San Andres in the 19th century. Jim and Stephanie attended services there and came away impressed. ���Awesome experience,��� Jim said.���There���s hardly another way to describe it.���

In the town, dirt streets separate the shops and dwellings, and motor scooters, sometimes carrying an entire small family, darted about like ants on a mission. Dust flew, and the ring, ding, ding of the scooters��� two-stroke exhaust cluttered the air. From San Andres, they set a northwesterly course around the bicep of the isthmus, finally heading west to the island of Roatan off the coast of Honduras. Here, they stopped to refuel and soon steamed north along the eastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula to Isla Mujeres off the northeastern tip of this historic peninsula. They passed Belize during the night and had to settle for a radar image of the area.

In English, Isla Mujeres means island of the weeping women. In Mayan times, Isla Mujeres served as the sanctuary Ixchel, the Mayan Goddess of fertility, reason, medicine, and the moon. Her temple, located at the southern point of the island, was also used as a lighthouse. The light from torches shone through holes in the walls, reaching far out to sea to alert passing ships. The Mayans also harvested salt from the lagoons.

In March of 1517, Francisco Hernandez Cordova discovered the island. When the Spanish landed, they found many idols carved in the shape of a female and representing the goddess Ixchel. Historians tell us that these statues spawned the island���s name. Their expressions must have been uncommonly sad.

For the next three centuries Isla Mujeres was uninhabited, visited only by fisherman and pirates who used it as a refuge and left their women on the island ���for safekeeping��� while they sailed the high seas. Henry Morgan, Jean Lafitte and other famous pirates walked the shores of Isla and as legend goes, buried their ill-gotten riches under the white sands.

The next 550 miles took Big Fun across the Yucatan Channel at night and through the reef-strewn Florida Straits. In the open Caribbean Sea north of Cuba���s western coast, a squall moved in. Its high wind pushed big seas, which spanked Big Fun as though she were a misbehaving child of Neptune. Seas and wind combined to shred the canvas bimini over the flying bridge. Remnants of the bimini strangled the radar���s open-array antenna, so the crew had to navigate the tricky Florida Straits without its help.

Would Jim Cress make this voyage again? ���Oh, yes,��� he said. Next time, though, he would take at least three months, maybe six and do it right. He���d visit the many places his delivery schedule forced him to bypass. Nordic Tugs, Inc. (800) 388-4517; www.nordictugs.com.