Ship's Logs and Trip Diaries 

Detailed information on provisioning, checking in, marinas/anchorages, etc. is available at our SaltySailors.com website.

Mexico 2007

April 3 - 4:  Caye Caulker, Belize to Puerto Morales, Mexico

The overnight was uneventful.  With Michael on board I only had watch from 12:00 am - 3:00 am.  Not bad.  Thane however, had real problems with letting go of the reins ... I don't think he slept at all.  Guess we haven't done anything really stupid lately so he figured one of us was bound to go overboard or something!  Luckily the most eventful part of the evening was watching the cruise ships lit up like a major city on the water passing by. 

We caught up with the sailing vessel Beagle during the night.  The next day both Liberty and Corazon stopped at their planned destination of Puerto Adventuras & we kept going with Beagle. 

Just south of Puerto Morales the sea conditions are almost always awful.  It's like a conglomeration of things come together to make it choppy, rolly & no fun.  With Thane so tired, we decided to go into Puerto Morales for the night rather than try and make Isla and most likely have to enter at night. 

El Cid Marina is very nice and you can easily check into Mexico there.  So we spent the night, filled up the water tanks & just enjoyed ourselves.  Would have stayed longer and explored Puerto Morales, but a front is coming that will turn the wind north so it's leave today or leave in 3 days.  While El Cid is great, $31 a day at a marina is not in our plans.

April 4:  Puerto Morales to Isla Mujeres

A beautiful day to ... what else ... motor sail! 

We caught 2 fish on the way up.  A small tuna which we returned to the sea so he could grow up & about a 3 1/2' Barracuda.  Our first fish to kill & keep.  What a mess that was, but it was fun & we ate fish for 3 days.  We had fried fish, bbq fish, fish tacos .....  Lots of places you can't eat the Barracuda, but here it's okay.

We are back in beautiful Isla.  We do love it here.  Feels like being home. 

April 5 - 24:  Isla Mujeres

I guess I've had enough of no stuff, cause it is so great to go to the grocery store & buy stuff.  Bought about 8 avocados today for .77 (for all of them, not one!).  We are so eating a lot of guacamole.  We met up with our friends Scott & Shelly who own El Milagro Marina so we moved our boat into the marina.  It's nice place with new docks, hot showers, cable tv, internet ... and we've never been in a marina in Isla before.  The other night a freak storm blew thru with winds clocked at 51 knots!  We laid in our v-berth and listened to the boats at anchor in the harbor thinking how nice it was to be able to turn over and go back to sleep.  So I'm going to shamelessly give them a plug here!

We made a trip over to Cancun for a little WalMart shopping and stopped by the dentist on the way.  He worked a wonderful deal with us and I'm having 3 crowns done, Michael is having one and we are all having our teeth cleaned.  We have to hang around for a week to wait for the crowns to be made, but the my 3 crowns cost only what 1 crown would cost in the US. 

Yesterday was North Beach day.  Sarah & Ed, on Corazon, & Tom & Patty, on Liberty, joined us at our usual spot to sit in the water and enjoy the view.  Today they all went over to the dentist!  Chances are it's another North Beach day.   

Kim and Carl from s/v Querencia arrived from Lighthouse and we had a wonderful couple of dinners aboard Querencia.  Friends, Robert & Angela, from Port Aransas came to visit & we all had a great time together.  They rented at great house called Casa Mariposa (House of Butterflies).  Robert & Angela took us all out to eat at Casa O's one night ... fabulous.  We hated to see them all leave.

I guess it's time for us to head out.  The weather says Wednesday will be a little rough, but should calm down in the afternoon.  We'd wait until Thursday, but a cold front is predicted to come thru Florida sometime Saturday.   Waiting for weather can be frustrating.  We have to be back in the US before May 6th or pay another $300 for another month of Caribbean cruising. 

April 25 - 27:  Isla Mujeres to The Dry Tortugas

Weather says that it's 4-6 seas with about 15K of wind out there and suppose to calm down in the afternoon.  We decided we could handle a few hours of misery and would go ahead and leave.  (If you've never been in high seas & wind in a 31' boat that is very light ... it's NO fun.)  Plans are to sail with Corazon.  We've never cross the Gulf with anyone before, it might be nice to hear a friendly voice out there every once 'n awhile. 

We pulled out of our slip at 9:30 am.  Gonzo 2 had crossed the reef at the north end of the island an hour earlier and reported back that it wasn't too bad.  They reported 6' as their lowest depth sounded.  At that, Corazon, who draws about 6.5', decided that they would go around the south end of the island and avoid the reef.  We decided to go ahead and take the northern route across the reef.  It was extremely rolly, but we never saw less than 13'.  Unfortunately, the weather forecast was WRONG again!  Always expect more seas & wind than they say.  Seas were about 7-9 with a few bigger rollers thrown in.  Wind about 15-20k.  We were slammed.  In our boat that means...sit down & hold on!  Thrown everywhere, seas breaking over the boat and drenching us. 

First time the Sturgeron (our sea sick medicine) didn't work that well.  All of us were just a bit nauseous all day and night.  However, we did have a wonderful moon that lite up the night.  I have to say though ... we were flying!  We almost never get to sail across the Gulf and we sailed ... yep, not motor-sailed ... averaging around 6.5 - 7k.  We caught up to Gonzo 2 about 6:00 pm.  Corazon caught up with us and passed us by. 

The wind finally died a bit on Thursday, but it was still very rolly.  Of course, the wave are coming right at us from Key West so we decided to head toward The Dry Tortugas so we wouldn't have to slam right into them.  By Friday, it was like moving on glass and we motor sailed into The Dry Tortugas. 

We didn't put the dinghy down so it was just a night of rest before we headed to Key West.  Note for people getting ready to cruise:  if at all possible get your dinghy set up so it can easily be lowered into the water ... we have missed soooo much because it was just too much effort to raise & lower our dinghy from the davits. 

The terns were out in numbers!  They are so loud.  I dreamed about a baby crying all night ... it was the cry of the terns. 

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