Ship's Logs and Trip Diaries 

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Mexico 2006

April 24:  Isla Mujeres, Mexico

We are back in Isla and it feels like home.  So far we have:

•  visited our favorite place to eat fried fish (Picus)
•  our favorite lunch spot (Loncharia Sammy's) for tacos and tortas
•  spent a day at North Beach
•  had several happy hours at Marina Paraiso
•  made several new friends
•  been to Cancun for a day of riding buses and visiting mercados

We are planning to stay in Isla for at least 2 weeks and then head down to Belize for a month.  More later...

May 8:  Still in Isla

Well maybe we will stay more than two weeks.  We've been enjoying seeing Kim & Carl, our friends from Port Aransas.  Carl's great cooking is keeping us stuffed and gaining weight.  Kim & I try to run a 2 1/2 mile circuit everyday to counteract some of the food & drink.  She does pretty well at it, but I'm a huffin' & a puffin' my way along.

We have made about 6 trips to North Beach so far this trip.  If you've never been here this is our basic North Beach day:  We pack our coolers & sunscreen then take our dinghy's around to the beach and anchor them right inside the swim area.  It's about 3' deep.  The guys stand around, drink beer & look for the booby show...North Beach is top optional.  They must not be skunked (go to the beach and see no boobies).  The girls tie our floats to the dinghies and we float about and enjoy the sun, talk & drink beer ... less frequently we get to look at the guys with the six-packs! 

We had a pig roast at our friends Charles & Mary's house, formerly m/v Chasmar, but now landlubbers who are building a beautiful home here in Isla.  The pig roast is always a treat.

We've met lots of great people here.  It's surprising how many Texans are out here cruising.  2nd behind Texans in this area has to be Canadians.  I find that usually it takes more than a week or so to make fast friends so I'm looking forward to our time on the Rio where a lot of the people we've met here will spend hurricane season.  It really is a small world & I look forward to renewing old acquaintances as we travel on. 

We went snorkeling about a mile off of Garrifon.  There are mooring balls there and there are several dive/snorkeling boats that come and go there.  Carl dove and took more video for the film he is making.  Thane, Kim and I snorkeled.  I haven't really snorkeled that many places so this was the best I've seen.  The reef was active with tons of different fish & plant life. 

Well, must go.  Time to hit North Beach again and then dinner on Querencia. 

May 22:  Preparing to leave Isla for San Pedro, Belize

Querencia left yesterday.  All of a sudden it's quiet here...those guys never stop moving for a second!  Figured we'd have a nice relaxing day and finish preparations to leave.  Relax, what's that?  After a walking trip to say goodbye to some of the people that live here, going to the grocery, putting up the provisions, pulling out the Foodsaver, roasting peppers to freeze, etc.  I'm exhausted!  Oh yeah & going to the liquor store to stock up for my friend Lynn on Griffin who asked us to bring her some supplies ... only mentioned this because I wanted to show the pictures of her stash!

Buying Lynn's Stash	Hauling it back to the dinghy

We were planning to just day hop down the coast of Mexico, but after listening to the radio last night & the dire predictions for hurricane season this year, which starts in just 10 days, I suggested that we just check out of Mexico in Isla and head straight for Belize.  Given what happened to us last June (we were caught in Tropical Storm Arlene & lost our mast), I'm a little terrified of the idea of sitting thru something like that at anchor.  Better to get closer to Guatemala so we could make a run for it should something develop.

Besides, we are looking forward to meeting up with Griffin in Placencia & then getting back to the Rio to see other old friends.    

May 25:  Isla Mujeres, Mexico

Yep, we are still here.  We left on the morning of the 23rd headed for Puerto Morales for the night.  Our autopilot decided not to work and by the time we got it recalibrated & all that stuff, we didn't have time to make Puerto Morales before nightfall.  Turned out to be a good thing as a large thunderstorm rolled thru and it poured for about 5 hours with about 25 knot winds.  Glad we weren't out in that. 

When we checked the weather fax on the 24th, it showed a a lot of thunderstorms down in the Belize area.  At 72 hours (when we would be arriving in San Pedro, Belize) the weather fax showed that it would be blowing 20 knots with 7 foot seas.  Can't cross the reef in that.  So we wait.  The dinghy is on the davits so we can't leave the boat without a great deal of trouble.  So we had a nice day on the boat reading, cooking and watching Desperate Housewives!

Got up today and Thane is feeling bad.  He has a terrible headache.  Weather fax still shows that we shouldn't leave so I guess it's another lazy day.  Our only real worry is running out of propane.  We carry 2 tanks onboard.  Our first tank ran out of propane right when we got here, so we are on about a month on the 2nd.  I don't think it will last much longer.  We may be eating cold stuff out of the can on the way to Belize as propane is very difficult to get here in Isla (requires a trip to Cancun on the slow car ferry and a taxi ride all the way across town). 

May 27:  Isla Mujeres, Mexico

HELP!  I'm stuck on a 31' boat in Isla with a sick man.  Thane is still not better.  Pumping him full of Nyquil now in hopes that he will sleep instead of whine.  With the dinghy stowed, I have been stuck on the boat since Monday.  Today Anita from s/v Conch Quest came by in her dinghy and picked me up so I could go to town and send emails to the moms before they sent out the Coast Guard.  Also picked up a few supplies since we are going thru them fairly quickly. 

I wonder how long you can stay in a country after you have checked out...we are pushing a week and haven't even started our trek down to Belize.  In the US we would probably be in jail by now. 

May 29 - June 2, Isla Mujeres, Mexico to San Pedro, Belize

I HATE PASSAGES.  THE ONLY REASON I DO THIS IS FOR THE TIME IN PORT.

Day one, Isla to Puerto Morales:  Yea, we are finally underway.  No autopilot troubles, no motor troubles which is a good thing cause there was not much wind.  Arrived in Puerto Morales at about 4:30 pm.  Looked for the boat that was suppose to be up on the reef, but didn't see it.  Puerto Morales has 6 yellow mooring balls for sailboats and we were the only boat there. 

I hate our dinghy davits.  I thought the point of having davits was so you would have your dinghy available.  The way we have to strap ours down, it's too much trouble to take up and down.  No visiting Puerto Morales.  We are checked out of Mexico so I guess we shouldn't anyway.

Day 2, Puerto Morales to Cozumel:  Went across the gulf stream to Cozumel.  Not a particularly good anchorage, but no weather expected.  I looked at the town from the boat and thought that it looks like a fun place to visit.  Thane looked at the town and thought looks like a place to spend money.  Ugh. 

Day 3, Cozumel to Bahia de Ascension:  Left Cozumel at 3:00 am so that we would make Ascension well before dark.  Back across the gulf stream, but we caught a good counter current once across and arrived at 4:33 pm.  Anchorage was a little bumpy but okay.

Day 4-5, Bahia de Ascension - San Pedro:  We woke up STUPID today.  We managed to hit the freakin' reef.  Fudged on Raucher's waypoint by 20 degrees south (in a hurry again).  There was no wind so you couldn't see the reef at all.  To the North we had spotted the reef the night before and it was a good mile away.  Thought we were out of the reef so I went down to start breakfast.  Next thing I know I hear us land upon the reef...that, by the way, is a really, really bad sound.  It was just a little reef, stuck in the middle of nowhere & if we were just 5 degrees North we would have missed it!  Thankfully God was listening this morning when we had our daily chat and looked out for us.  We were able to back off the reef.  After many, many looks in the bilge for incoming water, we determined that we had no leaks.  No harm done, but we feel pretty darned stupid.  After inspection in San Pedro the only damage is a little bottom paint missing.  Hitting a reef shakes your confidence.

No other excitement, just the routine 3 hours on, 3 hours off watch schedule for the rest of the trip.  The worst part was that Thane decided that the only other stupid thing we haven't done is fall off the boat into the water so he wouldn't let me go fully into the cockpit while on watch.  I even said I'd wear my harness, but no all I could do was stand up on the companionway stairs and look around.  That was very uncomfortable for me when I saw boats close by, we don't have radar so I always keep in visual contact until I am certain we are not going to collide.

Arrived about 6:30 am in San Pedro.  Very glad to put the hook down.  Checked into Belize and then it didn't take long until we were catching up on lost sleep.

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