Hello Again
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| Arriving into Mexico |
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| SHAMAL at anchor Isla Mujeres |
Our second visit to George Town – Grand Cayman Island – is
over. We have re-provisioned, made new
friends with other yachties, all of whom seem to be heading for the Rio Dulce,
Guatemala for the hurricane season, had swims and given the hulls yet another
clean as a red/brown slim is growing. We
have now had our copper coat hull paint on for nine years with the odd touch
up, so we really can’t complain, and
lastly, downloaded another weather report. The 1st of June is
officially the beginning of hurricane season in this part of the world, so we
will now be monitoring the internet for them.
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| Isla Mujeres |
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| Latest sport for tour boats |
It is now Wednesday 31st May – we are all checked
out with the authorities by 0900. Back
on Shamal with everything stowed, we are off our mooring buoy by 0940. Sails up as we pass the last of the cruise
ships which were anchored just behind us, and we set a course for Isla Mujeres,
Mexico. This will be a two day two night
sail. The days are warm and sunny with
winds averaging 14kts. Seas are
following with a half to one meter swell so it is a very comfortable run. The nights are clear with star studded
skies. As we cross the Yucatan Channel –
which runs between the Yucatan Peninsula and the western tip of Cuba – there is
quite a bit of traffic about including cruise ships. They look like small cities all lit up at
night. We hit the Gulf Stream current 50 miles out from the Yucatan Peninsula.
Shamal was sailing along nicely at 7.5 kts before the 5 kt current hit. Shamal
now crabbing 50 degrees into the current and speed reduction is back to 5 Kts.
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| Tourist Street |
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| Isla Mujeres |
We arrive at Isla Mujeres on the Friday. The Island sits four and a half miles
northeast of Cancun on mainland Mexico.
It is five miles long and about a quarter of a mile wide, and has become
a VERY popular tourist destination with thousands arriving and departing each
day from the mainland. We make the usual
call to the Port Captain informing him of our arrival, but there is no reply,
so decide we will check in the following morning. Other cruisers have told us this is one of
the places where patience is required on check in. For some it has taken up to
three days !!! Also you will need countless copies of all your paperwork. The next morning after we have double and
tripled checked we have all the necessary paperwork, we tender in to the dock
to start checking in. The first person
to call on is the Port Captain. He is
not in his office today – it is Saturday – and we are told to walk down the
road to the Petrol Station and find the agent.
We decide no thanks, so return to Shamal and relax on board till Monday
morning when we try again.
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| Sunset Isla Mujeres |
Yes there was lots of walking between the different offices
and the bank a couple of times to pay our dues, but everything was close
together and we had completed the whole process in four hours. Well that was everything on the Island. We still had to cross to the mainland to get
a ‘Temporary Import Licence’ – which is valid for 10 years – from another
office. Don’t think we will be here that
long, but the rules are if you are here more than about 10 days, you need one.
We did that a few days later taking the fast ferry across, and again had all
our paperwork in order so had completed that process within 20 minutes of
arrival in the office. We then took a
taxi into the city of Cancun and found the office to buy a sim card for the
phone. The town is very ‘local’ unlike
the tourist zone a few miles down the coast.
Here there are over 20,000 hotel rooms with over 3 million visitors each
year. 140 Resorts and Hotels. Some
Americans call Cancun “ Las Vegas on the coast “ The Mexican Government developed
this area to raise hard currency from the tourist trade. We only saw that from the sea a few days
later as we sailed along the coastline.
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| Cancun Ferry Dock |
The anchorage at Isla Mujeres was again one of those places
where one meets a vast array of very interesting people from the yachting
community. Some stay here for the
hurricane season as the inner lagoon
provides shelter. Some arrive and don’t
leave though the intentions are there.
Others run short of funds and stay with their vessel while trying to
sell up. There is the usual adventuress solo sailor who has many a story to
tell, and others who like us, are just passing through. We had a meal out one
evening with other yachties catching up on the stories of their adventures. The
anchorage does not have the best holding, but with the advice of an Australia
couple on board their monohull, we put out 50 meters of anchor chain and found
a good patch of sand which proved very good holding. We also made sure we were away from the main
group. When the blows came through at around 30kts we sat tight. Three boats did drag, which means others were
lifting their anchors and moving position to avoid being hit. We did have one case where a boat did drag
into another completely entangling each other’s chains causing chaos for a time
while they sorted it out.
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| Cancun |
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| Mango stand, Cancun |
We visited the town along with the thousands of
tourists. Alec took me to snorkel on the
reef which was fun. The waters were
clean and clear, but not much coral though plenty of fish. Then it was time to move on again. Our next stop was the Island of Cozumel a
lovely 45nm run south. It was on this
leg we saw the tourist zone along the beach of Cancun. High rise hotel and
apartment block line the beach. We did
encounter the very strong currents here one is warned about, and at one stage
were only moving along at just 3kts. We
dropped anchor to find within minutes we were under the flight path of the
local airport, so upped anchor again and moved further south. Cozumel is touristy
but nice. Again the cruise ships have a
port here. Maybe because the island is bigger one does not notice the hordes of
people so much, or maybe we are just getting used to it. The island is 28 miles long and 9 miles wide. It is Mexico’s largest Caribbean Island. Here we found a Starbuck house and I was able
to indulge in my favourite coffee each day.
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| Cozumel |
After downloading yet another weather forecast we could see
we were in for some unpleasant weather to pass through our area in a couple of
days from the south which would mean strong winds on the nose, something we did
not want to encounter, so decided we
should check out of Mexico and keep moving.
There were a couple of big bays to the south of us on mainland Mexico
where we could shelter while it passed through.
Along with a solo sailor Charlie off his catamaran we went in to check
out. This turned into a rather difficult
and frustrating process. It was Friday
and the customs office closed at 1400.
We missed that. Saturday morning
we called into the Port Captains office to be sent out to the airport – without
all the necessary paperwork as she held onto it, which meant a return trip to
the airport to finish proceedings. Four
hours later and three taxi fares we were cleared. Charlie decided to stay put, but we wanted to
move on. Sails up and we moved Shamal to
behind a reef at the southern end of the island for the night. Next morning we were on our way before
0600. The winds were light, the current
was strong and against us, and this turned out to be one of our slowest legs
yet. Our speedo is now not working properly but we think the current was
running between 3-5kts. It took us
11hours to cover the 46nm !!!! but we eventually dropped anchor behind the reef
at Punta Allen in Bahia de ls Ascension.
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| SHAMAL - Cozumel |
You are given the usual 24 hours to leave the country.
Five days later and we are still in Mexican waters – in the middle of a jungle
swamp infested with bugs waiting for a bloody wind shift so we could continue
south. Still hold up at Punta Allen while the weather did its thing. Totally
out of contact with the world apart from our son Murray on the “ iridium go”,
and the jungle swamp bugs !!!! We anchored just over half a mile off
shore in winds of 15-20kts – up wind of the shore, but still out they came in
squadrons, to suck the life out of us. Actually Alec’s blood was more to
their flavour than mine. We had to live inside the whole time with the
doors closed. The temperature was well over 30 deg.c. We opened all the
hatches and put in the screens, and put tape on any gaps, then happily sat down
and read all the diseases these creatures give you – oh such fun !! We
wanted to swim but the lagoon also contained creatures. A couple of
unidentified fins swam by, so that along with the idea of crocs inhabiting the
area also put a dampener on that idea. We had been told that they mostly
inhabit the inland waterways – Yeah Right !! We were not about to check
that one out. But we did have more gentler creatures about like turtles,
pelicans, dolphins, stingrays, manatees, cormorants and gulls to keep us
company.
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| Alec & Friend, Cozumel |
Then the forecast came through that we had been waiting
for. Winds moving from the south to the south east. Great, Alec
decided enough is enough and we were out of here. I think lack of blood
from those carnivorous Bugs really affected him. Winds at the anchorage
were 20 – gusting 24kts with white caps pounding the hulls, so what was it
going to be like outside ?!? Up anchor girl we are out of
here. First on a tack to Jamaica as that south easterly had not yet
kicked in. Finally we rolled in the jib, reefed in the main, turned on
the engines and headed down the coastline. It was not until mid-afternoon
once we had rounded the headland at Punta Herrero, that we got the easterly
component in the winds we were looking for. As day progressed to night
the winds shifted around more and at long last we were away under full sails.
Doing 5-7kts in winds of 15-20kts. The seas dropped from 3 – 4mts to 1-2
mts. We had a lovely beam reach. The 130nm leg took 24 hours.
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| Sitting behind reef at Punta Allen |
Then there was the reef entrance at San Pedro on Ambergris
Cay to negotiate. This was our entry
point into Belize. The cruising guide
warns not to enter this pass in rough seas, and enter only in good light. It is just after 0900 as we approach the
pass. The break in the reef is less than
100mts wide. To add to that there is
another reef directly in front of the entrance with a yellow marker buoy in
front of that reef. One heads directly
for the yellow buoy – in our case with the breaking waves behind giving us a
push in – on reaching the buoy one turns sharply north running on the inside of
the outer reef and with the beach on our Port side. We are now in 2-3mts of crystal clear
waters. It is a relief when we anchor
just off the town.
I will finish this posting here and continue in Belize
shortly.
Lots of love
The Admiral and The Commander
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