1 March 1996 Mario’s Marina to Caya Grande, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
Hangover this morning – I’m so stupid! I messed about until half past ten and then went over to Riotel. A lady in Guatemala City read two faxes from John Barrett out to me on the SSB. The first one said that they sent all the paperwork to Paul Preston on the 23rd but hadn’t been able to contact him. The second fax said that Paul Preston has refused to approve the papers and wants a solicitor to look at them – John Barrett is asking for further instructions! I’m so bloody mad! We’re sick of waiting so we’re going to Livingstone to use the Guatel office there to get more immediate responses.
I went and said goodbye to “Southern Cross”, “Filia” and “Boston Scrod” and we motored down river to Cayo Grande. We anchored next to “Gooseberry”, who were very surprised to see us because we said goodbye to them at nine o’clock! Glenys went ashore with Brett for a chat with some cruisers who have built a small house. I stayed on board and nursed my hangover, what a mess!
2 March 1996 Caya Grande to Livingstone, Guatemala
It was absolutely boiling last night, Brett and Glenys slept in the cockpit and I spent the night sweating and fuming about closing the Trust. At six o’clock, it started raining, so to make matters worse we had to shut all the hatches. We waited for most of the morning for the rain to stop – the good thing was that we filled the water tanks.
I wrote two faxes, one to Paul Preston asking him to explain his worries and one to John Barrett asking him to send me a copy of the documentation.
We motored up the River Canyon – beautiful! We anchored off Livingstone and I went to Guatel to send the faxes. It threw it down again in the afternoon, so we had a quiet afternoon. It’s nice to see the sea again, even if it is across the dreaded sand bar! The anchorage is amazingly settled considering that it looks so exposed.
3 March 1996 Livingstone, Guatemala
Back to listening to the weather. I listened to David on “Mistine”; “Good Morning everyone. This is David on Mistine, with the Caribbean weather. Mistine is currently located in Charlotte Amalie Marina where the wind is ENE at 20 knots …..“
He does a very good forecast, but he does get some nerds checking in. “This is Sea Hawk in Grenada looking for a weather window to go to Carricou”. There’s only 20 miles of unprotected sea between the islands! They must drive him mad (and he shows it sometimes!).
There is a stalled front in Belize and another front will be here on Thursday, which is when we hoped to be leaving – oh well! We did school work in the morning. I heard on the local Net that the official amount of Clorox to put into water is 2-4 drops per quart. Typical Americans using quarts as the definitive measurement of volume! We had a very quiet afternoon reading and playing the clarinet.
4 March 1996 Livingstone, Guatemala
I went to Guatel at half past seven and picked up two faxes. Paul and John still havn’t talked to each other. Paul was saying that John was asking about the name of a solicitor in the UK to de-register the loan at the Land Registry and he thought the same solicitor might as well look at the documents. John sent me a copy of the papers, which consisted of a letter clearing the loans and a “Deed of Appointment”. The deed looks like it basically passes the capital back to the settlor (me).
I went back to the boat and wrote three faxes, one to a solicitor asking him to look at the documents and the other two to Paul and John. When I got back to Guatel there was a fax from Paul saying that he had now talked to John and was happy with the papers. I modified my fax to John saying that I was waiting for a fax from him and explaining that I would sort out the Land Registry later. Chaotic, but things were happening.
I went back to the boat and wrote two more faxes, the one to John instructed him to close the Trust and one to Paul to tell him what I had told John. All I can do now is wait until it’s all been done! I finished at two o’clock and I was exhausted! Glenys did school work in the morning and took the boys out in the afternoon. In the evening, we went to a bar and ended up staying for dinner.
5 March 1996 Livingstone, Guatemala
We watched two yachts go out over the sand bar – we feel trapped! The anchorage was a bit bouncy last night, but not life threatening and it’s good for our sea legs! At eight o’clock, I checked for faxes – none. We did school work in the morning.
I checked for faxes at half past ten (1630 GMT) – none. I wonder what’s going on? We’re hoping that we’ll get a fax today, so that we can clear out and leave on the nine o’clock high tide tomorrow morning. The suspense is terrible.
We finished school work, had lunch and then filled up with diesel. Glenys and I then went into town. First stop was Guatel. The fax from John Barrett had arrived – I could see it sticking out of a folder. The woman in front of me was taking ages; the guy on the counter was typing one of his damn receipts. Come on! Was there a problem? Had it been done? Finally, I got my hands on the fax and they’ve closed the Trust – Yahoo! They’ve put £16,088.78 into our bank account and everything looks good.
We then went and cleared out and spent all of our quesales on food and beer. The wind had been picking up, so we went ½ mile down the river next to La Marina where it is a little more sheltered. When we went to the Port Captain’s Office we got a good view of the sand bar and it looked very rough – I hope the wind drops in the morning!
6 March 1996 Livingstone to Long Cay, Lighthouse Reef, Belize (Day 1)
We got up at half past six and prepared the boat for sea. High tide was at nine o’clock, so we pulled up our anchor at quarter to eight so that we could be crossing the sand bar in the hour before high tide. I managed to get the GPS working and put in the inner and outer coordinates. As we approached the inner coordinate, we had to wait while an 80ft cruise ship came in. Apparently, it only draws six feet.
Finally, the way was cleared and with a deep breath we started across the dreaded sand bar. We were a little worried because the tide was 2” lower and we were going out with our fuel and water tanks full. This time I knew where the channel was, so my strategy was to go out at 4 knots so that we would “skip” over any shallow bits. After about 200 metres, we touched bottom with a depth reading of 6.4 ft. but carried on. I was getting readings of 6.7 ft for most of the time. Glenys was down below reading out the GPS cross track error.
About 2/3rds of the way across, the depth dropped to 6.4, 6.2, 5.8! … We could feel the boat slowing down as we dragged across the bottom. I decided to go for it and put full power ahead. I could see the outer buoy only 300 metres in from us; it was like trying to push the boat through treacle. Black smoke was pouring out of the exhaust. 6.2, 5.8, 6.4, 6.0. The slight wave action was picking us up and dropping us down with a lurch. 200 yds to go. I started to talk to Glencora “Come on, girl! Come on!” Another violent lurch and that was it …..! The depth gauge was reading 6.8 ft – we were through!
I was too shocked to shout, my mouth was dry and my pulse was up to 150. We motored out to anchor just to seaward of the outer buoy. I deflated the dinghy, while Glenys made us a nice cup of tea and some toast for breakfast. We sat and pondered the trauma of the sand bar and eventually decided it had been worth it to see the Rio Dulce and Guatemala – the highlight of our cruising (so far!). We put up the main and motored into the light wind to Cabo Tres Puntas and then headed east towards the outside of the Belize Barrier Reef.
We had a beautiful sail, beating into a 10 knot wind with fairly calm seas. The skies were blue and the azure sea sparkled in the sunshine – life was wonderful! By three o’clock, the wind had picked up to NE20 and the sea was very confused. We were all feeling queasy after our 6 week stay on the calm Rio Dulce. Life was becoming less wonderful!
At four o’clock, we tacked north to skirt the Barrier Reef. The wind was coming from the north east, which was the direction we wanted to go – we faced a night of beating – Yuk! At five o’clock, we tacked east so that Glenys could go below to make dinner – she prefers to be on port tack, so that she can open her cupboards without everything falling out on top of her. She could only manage to throw together a one pot stew – potatoes, tinned carrots, tinned peas and tinned stewing steak. We were a sorry sight as we slowly ate our meal, trying not to throw up.
In retrospect, we should have heaved to on the port tack for an hour to relax, but when we feel ill, everything is too much effort. For the first time, we saw Portuguese man-of-war jelly fish floating by. They have 6 inch long, 3 inch high, crescent shaped, pink/purple floats that stick above the water so that they can drift with the wind. They look like odd shaped condoms as they sail by.
At eight pm, we tacked eastward again for Glenys’ watch, so that we could move away from the Barrier Reef. Unfortunately, the wind veered about 20° at ten o’clock, so we were heading 140° so she had to wake me up so that we could tack – I was a grumpy bear! At eleven o’clock, we were still 5 miles further south than we were three hours earlier and then the bloody wind died!
7 March 1996 Livingstone to Long Cay, Lighthouse Reef, Belize (Day 2)
At midnight, the wind was practically nil but we still had 6ft waves. After rocking and rolling for a while, I started the engine, and we pounded into the seas. At five o’clock, I managed to start sailing again, but only for a couple of hours. It was a horrible night – I felt sick all night (even in bed). All I could manage on my watches was to sit and stare into space.
We listened to the weather at breakfast, and found out that there is a front due tomorrow. We didn’t know whether Lighthouse Reef will be OK in a norther. It looks very shallow on the charts – approximately 8 or 9ft. deep. We were worried about hitting the bottom if any swell comes over the reef. We eventually decided to go and have a look. At half past eight, I went back to bed because I was feeling grim.
At about half past eleven, while we were still 8 miles from the Atoll, I could see a blue glow in the sky. The horizon was a little hazy and slightly pinkish. Finally, we spotted land – there is no finer sight to a seasick man. The entrance through the reef was spectacular – the water changes from deep blue to turquoise very abruptly – 500 metres to 8 metres in about 10 metres distance! We motored around the anchorage looking for a deep patch. The best we could find was a 3.2 metre patch of sand. “Khaya” is the only other yacht in sight.
We couldn’t wait to jump overboard into the beautifully coloured water. I snorkelled around the boat and checked the anchor, which was encouragingly buried. I spotted a southern stingray and a few reef fish - it’s great to be snorkelling again. I dived down and looked at the bottom of the keel. We have scraped away the paint for 3 inches up from the bottom of the keel. The bottom of the keel looks even worse with the green epoxy and some gel coat rubbed off!
After our “traditional” arrival lunch of bacon and eggs, Brett and I went over to chat to Rupert and Judy on “Khaya”. They went swimming with Honey the Dolphin yesterday afternoon – I’m really looking forward to it! Rupert and Judy came spear fishing with Brett and me. I speared a 12lb Grouper – wow!
Just before bed, we could see lightning storms over the mainland, 40 miles away. I was talking to Brett about how “Filia” was hit by lightning and they had $25,000 worth of damage. The sum of money was too big for Brett to comprehend, but he understood the value when I told him “it’s enough money to buy twenty Yamaha 15 outboards”! Gratefully, we collapsed into bed at half past eight – another day in paradise!
8 March 1996 Long Cay, Lighthouse Reef, Belize
Paradise has its price. I was woken at midnight by the whine of a mosquito. We were anchored about ½ mile from the Cay and I had foolishly left our mosquito screens off – idiot! There wasn’t a breath of wind. I put the insecticide heaters on and went to check on the boys. There were at least 10 of the little black buggers on Craig’s body. I was revolted and started to slap them to kill them, which was a bit of a rude awakening! I dashed back into the saloon and lit a mosquito coil and, in a frenzy, went back to killing the mosquitoes which were biting Brett and Craig.
Once I had killed about 25 insects, I left the coil to finish off the rest and lit another coil for our bedroom, where Glenys was also furiously destroying the evil creatures. I reckon that we killed 50 mosquitoes in 10 minutes. A veritable invasion. After liberally spraying myself with “DEET”, I fell into a restless sleep.
I was awoken two hours later by a 25 knot gust of wind and then spent the rest of the night, dozing and getting up to stare at the anchorage, while Glencora was buffeted by 20-25 knot winds.
I got up at half past six, (so much for a lie-in after our night passage). I listened to the weather and found out that there will probably be two fronts back to back, so we will probably have strong winds for 3-4 days. Fortunately, the encircling reef breaks up most of the wave action and the motion is not too bad. Glenys and I just get headaches if we stay below too long – the boys don’t care!
It was Glenys’ birthday today, but we decided to postpone it until 20th April when Ceris will be there. (Also, I haven’t bought any presents!). Glenys made a chocolate cake anyway. It blew 20-25 knots all day and, as night fell, we started to get 30 knot gusts with rain. We sat there at the saloon table, eating Grouper Chowder and listening to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.
The wind was howling through the rigging and rain was lashing into the cockpit. I can tell when the wind goes above 25 knots because the wind generator changes its whirring tone and the mast starts to vibrate. The sky was pitch black and I couldn’t see anything outside apart from the white tops of the waves as they swept past the light streaming through our hull windows. The motion was bouncy but tenable, the anchor had held in these winds all day, so why was I so worried? Glenys was also concerned about the night ahead, but the boys, in blissful ignorance, were completely happy.
I was clearing away the dishes, when there was a big gust of wind followed by a terrific bang. Rushing up onto deck, I found that the nylon snubbing rope, that I always put on the anchor chain, had snapped. Glencora had then shot backwards until the 5 metres of chain hanging in a loop had snubbed. Anxiously peering into the blackness and feeling the tension of the anchor chain with my bare foot, I checked that the anchor hadn’t been snatched out of the sea bed – at least we weren’t dragging!
I tied on a new piece of rope and screamed instructions to Glenys through the howling wind and driving rain. She started the engine and motored forwards, taking the tension off the chain so that I could let out another 5 metre loop. I wrapped a piece of old towel around the rope to prevent chafing then, cold and wet, we went back down to the relative comfort of our saloon. We now had 30 metres of chain out in only 3 metres of water. That’s 10:1 of scope and the maximum gust has only been 30 knots. It’s not as though it’s a hurricane. Maybe I should have put out two anchors, maybe we should have gone somewhere else, I wish I wasn’t so nervous!
9 March 1996 Long Cay, Lighthouse Reef, Belize
I got up at midnight – it was blowing 25-30 knots. Nothing I could do, so back to bed. I got up at half past two – still blowing 25-30 knots. Up again at four o’clock – still 25-30 knots.
At half past six, I got up to listen to the weather. I couldn’t hear Mistine through the radio interference. I waited to listen to WOM (Pennsuco, Florida) at seven o’clock on 8722 kHz. They transmit the weather via a computer generated voice. It is very difficult to understand at first and “it” talks very fast – I wasted my time and didn’t understand enough. I then waited until eight o’clock to listen to the Cruiser’s Net. Success!
Apparently, the cold front has stalled over the Yucatan Peninsula and hasn’t reached us yet. It is not expected to clear us until Monday the 11th, and we’ll probably have 20 knot winds from the N/NE until Wednesday. It’s blowing 20-25 knots and it’s another grey day! There is a deep low forming over the Bahamas which is going to cause 35+ knot winds over there – I’m glad we’re here! We did school work in the morning, which was a bit traumatic for the teachers, with frequent sea-sickness stops.
I spliced a newish length of chain onto our rope anchor warp, because the old chain has rusted so much that it’s useless. I’d made the mistake of leaving the chain in a bucket on deck without any holes in the bottom – what a mess! We then put out a second anchor as a back up – we’ll sleep better.
We mounted a major expedition to “Khaya”, compete with full foul weather gear and we needed it! As the dinghy ploughed upwind into the 2ft waves, we got drenched. We had a cup of tea, some freshly cooked scones and a good chat. Rupert has played the trumpet since he was nine, but amazingly doesn’t play jazz. He plays classical music in orchestras and bands. “Khaya” is anchored about 200 metres closer to the reef than us and their motion is much better than ours. The sight of 8ft waves breaking on the reef is very spectacular. Reluctantly, we went back to Glencora and battened down for another miserable 25 knot night.
10 March 1996 Long Cay, Lighthouse Reef, Belize
I was woken up at midnight by something. I went on deck and discovered that the 20mm snubbing rope had snapped again. Fortunately, I had put a back-up rope on and that held. Overnight the wind dropped and, in the morning, we had NW15-20 knot and, gasp! sunshine. I don’t know whether the front has gone, but the forecast is NNW15-20 for the next 2-3 days with increasing winds at night. By Tuesday it should be round to NE.
I couldn’t resist it and just HAD to go wind surfing. The wind was 25 knots at first, which was a bit much so I retired and went to help Glenys do school work. At midday the wind was 20-25 so I went and had another go – fantastic. I called in on “Khaya” to see how they were and Rupert asked if I wanted to use his Electric Rock windsurf board – course I did! At the same time they invited us to lunch.
I went for a quick blast while Glenys dinghied over and we had a pleasant lunch. Rupert hasn’t been windsurfing because he has hurt his back, but seeing as how it was just lying there he just had to have a go! We spent the afternoon on “Khaya” and the wind gradually dropped to 15 knots – very pleasant. Hopefully tomorrow we can do a dive. I was in bed at eight o’clock exhausted after windsurfing!
11 March 1996 Long Cay, Lighthouse Reef, Belize
As forecast, the wind picked up to 25 knots last night. I had left my windsurfer tied to the dinghy by a bit of 4mm line. At midnight, I just HAD to get up, in the pitch black, climb into the dinghy and tie a nice thick rope onto the windsurfer. I then passed out for the rest of the night.
The forecast is for the wind to start dropping tomorrow and come more to the north east. First thing in the morning it was NW20-25, with blue skies. We did school work in the morning. In the afternoon, Glenys and I went for a dive – yet another vertical wall dive. I speared two Grouper for dinner. “Khaya” came out snorkelling with us and got quite a few fish too. We invited them over for an evening beer or 3.
12 March 1996 Long Cay, Lighthouse Reef, Belize
A beautiful day today. I spent an hour repairing Brett’s spear and then Brett and I went hunting. He shot a 5lb Hog fish (took two attempts) and I speared a couple of fish and a 3lb lobster. We had a quiet afternoon and then went to “Khaya” to celebrate Judy’s birthday. Very peaceful evening, beautiful water colours and a fantastic sunset, but still no sign of Honey the Dolphin.
13 March 1996 Long Cay to The Blue Hole, Belize
Not a breath of wind and a cloudless sky. We decided to go with “Khaya” through the centre of Lighthouse Reef to the famous Blue Hole. We had to weave our way between isolated reefs while skirting the inside of the east edge of the reef. It was very interesting motoring along in depths of 3-5 metres over sand, grass and reef. We spotted lots of stingrays, barracuda and 3 nurse sharks. The fish were very easy to spot from the mizzen spreaders, where I spent most of the 3 hours.
As the morning went on, the horizon became mistier and by the time we arrived at the Blue Hole, it was difficult to tell where the sea ended and the sky began. In fact, the Blue Hole was a bit of a disappointment because it wasn’t as well defined as we expected. We motored through one gap in the circular reef which went from 4 metres depth to 100 metres! We then went through the other gap and anchored to the east of the Blue Hole.
After lunch (fish sandwiches of course), Glenys and I went for a dive in the Blue Hole – cold, dark, poor visibility and devoid of life. The Blue Hole was formed when a subterranean cavern collapsed. The walls are totally vertical from 10 metres to 40 metres, at which point we could see the roof of the cavern complete with 10 ft stalactites. These stalactites were formed over 12,000 years ago when the sea level was 50 metres less than it is today. Glenys was very apprehensive (wide staring eyes, rapid breathing and high pulse), so further exploration was vetoed! We swam along the edge for 5 minutes and then came back up. Short dive, load of crap, but “been there, done that!” I filled 4 tanks. We were invited to “Khaya” for dinner and had a very good time, getting back to Glencora at eleven pm.
14 March 1996 The Blue Hole to Long Cay, Belize
Glenys was feeling very rough! We decided to motor back south, because clouds magically appeared when we were ready to go. The Blue Hole was like Piccadilly Circus with about 4 dive boats coming and going. We came out a lot faster than we went in – we knew there was a way for us. “Khaya” followed us out and then sailed off over the horizon. We anchored on the west side of the reef. I then went for a dive while Glenys tried to recover. The boys went snorkelling with Brett’s spear gun, but came back as soon as they saw a barracuda. We then went back to the anchorage at Long Cay.
After lunch (fish again), Glenys and I went for a dive. We caught a small lobster and then I speared a large (6lb) Hog fish. It wasn’t a very good shot and I had a bit of a fight. I finally got hold of the fish and turned to Glenys. She shook her head and refused to put the fish into the bag that she was carrying. Puzzled, I signed “why?” With her hand she then made a sign of a snapping mouth and stretched her arms wide.
At first I thought she was worried about a barracuda, and tried to give her the fish. More wild gestures followed and adamant refusal to take the fish. Slowly, I realised that she had seen a SHARK!! I confirmed this by miming a shark’s fin on my back with my hand. Glenys nodded vigorously and mimed a snapping mouth with her hand. Amazed, I took my regulator out and shouted “SHARK?” More vigorous nodding – I dropped the fish, and looked around – nothing. I mimed “no more spear fishing”. Vigorous nodding of head!
We carried on the dive just looking for lobster. Apparently while I was fighting the Hog fish, a 7ft reef shark had appeared from the depths and had passed about 5ft behind me. It then swam between Glenys and me and off into the depths again. I think that we were lucky it didn’t attack the injured Hog fish. It certainly gave Glenys a scare! We saw another one a bit later in the dive, but it just ignored us.
When we arrived back at Glencora, we had a visit from Honey the Dolphin. She is a full grown bottlenose dolphin, about 10ft long. She swam close to our dinghy for a while then swam about 30 metres away and stayed there. Brett, Craig and I swam over to her, but she chased us off by butting me in the chest with her snout. It was really worrying because there was nothing I could do to stop her. I tried to put my hands out, but she just ducked past them and hit me in the chest. (Quite hard as well.) I told the boys to swim back while I lagged behind, keeping myself between them and the “crazy” dolphin.
We returned to Glencora and got out of the water. After a few minutes, Honey came back and was very docile. She seemed to like hovering under the dinghy and occasionally scratching her belly on the bottom of the dinghy. We got back into the water and swam with her for about 15 minutes. She tolerated us taking pictures and occasionally let us touch her skin, which felt like a tuna’s skin but seemed to move when you touched it.
It’s strange how she reacted earlier. We think that she was trying to get me and the boys to go back to the safety of our boat, because she was very gentle with us when we swam with her next to the boat. Fantastic experience – I’m so glad we stayed today.
15 March 1996 Lighthouse Reef to Isla Mujeres, Mexico (Day 1)
We got up early and prepared the boat for sea. There was a 15 knot wind from the East, so it looked like we would have a good sail. I couldn’t get the GPS to work again – it kept resetting itself. We had a great sail along the west edge of Lighthouse Reef. ENE 20 and no seas. We kept 100 metres off the edge of the reef so that we could see the beautiful colours. At midday, we cleared the reef and steered 030° into 6-8 ft seas – yuk! Actually, it wasn’t too bad once we settled down - we were sailing about 50° to the wind and the seas were fairly benign.
We hove-to for an hour at five o’clock, so that Glenys could make one of her fabulous 3-tin, 1-pot stews. Glenys decided that my normal watches of 11-2 and 5-8 were better than her 8-11 and 2-5 because she had two dark watches whereas I only had 1½! We decided to swap to me doing 7-10 and 1-4 and she did 10-1 and 4-7. I finally got the GPS working by forcing it to do a sky search using AUX.
16 March 1996 Lighthouse Reef to Isla Mujeres, Mexico (Day 2)
We had a fairly pleasant night. The wind was steady and we roared along. I decided that I liked our new watches. The 7-10 wasn’t too arduous and I only got woken up once during the night instead of twice. I felt much more rested in the morning. Glenys on the other hand was more tired, but she had enjoyed watching the sun rise. We decided to keep the same watches tonight.
We had a beautiful sail during the day. Blue skies and a 15-20 knot wind which veered to ESE as the day went on. At four pm, we were east of Cozumel with only 50 miles to go. We hove-to for two hours and had dinner. I then dropped the main and rolled away all but a tiny sail area and we set off, trying to slow down. The trouble was that we had a 2 knot current with us and, even with a tiny scrap of sail, we were going at 6 knots over the ground.
We arrived at a waypoint to the north of Cozumel in a gap between two, 20 metre deep banks. My original plan was to heave-to in the 10 mile stretch of water between the banks and the main coast, but the wind was blowing 25 knots with biggish 3-4 metre waves. I decided that we would be better off if we went back to the outside of the banks and heave-to there. We put the main up with two reefs in and spent 20 minutes beating back east. It was hell and I wanted to go to bed, so we turned back downwind, ran between the banks and hove-to about 6 miles offshore.
17 March 1996 Lighthouse Reef to Isla Mujeres, Mexico (Day 3)
It was one hell of a night. We were hove to for about 5 hours waiting for daylight. The wind blew at 25 knots and we had 3 metre seas with an occasional monster wave which would come roaring out of the inky black night and crash against the side of the boat, just to make sure that we weren’t becoming blasé.
At dawn, we were about 3 miles from the shore and in 40 metres of water, so we decided to start sailing again. We had a good romp to Isla Mujeres, and sailed right up to the outer buoy. We motored in, anchored near “Kalida” and went to bed!
At midday, I went over to an English boat “Barkis” and got some local knowledge from Dave and Pauline. Their last name is Howarth – small world! We went into town, changed some money and had lunch in a beachside restaurant – burritos, tacos, and tostadas – great! We then had a stroll around town. We expected it to be a sleepy little place, but in fact it is a bustling little tourist town with hundreds of souvenir shops. We like it, but it’s a bit of a shock after spending a week in splendid isolation at Lighthouse Reef. We went for a beer on “Cortisa” with Debbie and Dave.
18 March 1996 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
I went into town and cleared in. It was very painless and quick. I was amused and grateful to the Immigration Official, who told me that I should pay “nada” to the Customs. In fact, the Customs guy was very nice and didn’t try to extract “mordida”. I did have to pay $20US to the Port Captain – he didn’t offer a receipt and I didn’t dare ask! I got off lightly compared to Honduras and Guatemala!
We walked into town and had lunch out again – I love Mexican food! We did a bit of shopping and returned to the marina in a taxi (4 pesos = $0.60US). Some of the cruisers in the marina were having a “happy hour”, so we joined in. Quite a lot of boring, old Americans.
19 March 1996 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
The wind switched from S20 to N20 during the night and there’s a front around somewhere. We did school work in the morning. I filled 3 tanks. I spent an hour or so cleaning my dive compressor because someone was interested in buying it. He came and looked at it and said that he’d buy it for my asking price of $1500 US – you could have knocked me over with a feather – taking into account all the filters and oil I’ve bought for it, it has only cost me $960 US. For the first time in my life I’ll make a profit on selling something. Is this a good omen for the future? I’ll wait until I’ve got the cash in my hand before I gloat!
In the afternoon, Glenys and I walked up the road to some wholesale warehouses and bought two cases of beer and two cases of sodas. It was hard work carrying it all back. “Cortica” were letting the boys watch a video, so we stopped on the way back for a beer.
20 March 1996 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
School work in the morning. Still blowing NNE 20-25 knots, blue skies, but fairly cold. In the afternoon, Glenys went into town and the boys and I stayed on board. I entertained myself by playing my clarinet with Band-in-the Box. Good fun! We had a quiet evening in.
21 March 1996 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
We decided to have a day out. We caught a ferry to Puerto Jaurez and then a bus into Cancun. We made a slight mistake and got off the bus at the main bus terminal, so we had a long walk back to the centre of town. We hadn’t got a map, so we didn’t know where we were. It’s more of a trauma dragging the boys around when we’re lost!
Cancun is very spread out, so when we arrived at the centre, we still didn’t know we were there! Brett spotted a McDonalds and then sulked for an hour because we said we weren’t going to have lunch there – what a prima donna! Eventually at half past ten, Glenys suggested we call in at McDonalds for a coke and a Breakfast McMuffin. That cheered Brett up, but hacked me off because we’d pampered to his whims.
We wandered aimlessly around the shops for a couple of hours and then went to a restaurant for lunch. Pretty boring place! The highlight of the day was seeing a machine for making tortillas in the supermarket. Glenys bought 1kg (about 3 inches high) for $0.20!
22 March 1996 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
School work in the morning. The wind has finally switched from the north to east, but we decided to stay here for another week – we don’t want to get to the States too early. There’s another front due on the 26th so we’ll go after that. We spent the afternoon pottering about doing small jobs and tidying up. Rolf from “Schlampe” came and bought my compressor for $1500 US and a BCD and regulator for $200 US. I was quite pleased with the price, but sad to sell it. It’s the start of the end of our cruising!
23 March 1996 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
I listened to the weather again and I think that today would have been a good day to go. I’m going to keep an eye on the weather to see if I’m right.
The Cruisers Net continues to amaze me. It’s basically run by American cruisers, who need the security of knowing where everyone is. The opening statement by the Net controller is a hoot “Welcome to the North West Caribbean Cruisers Net. The purpose of this Net is to facilitate the dissemination of information amongst the cruising community” – they actually talk like this. They give the weather which is very useful, but then they go into a prolonged “boat check in” where a large number of boats call in and say where they are “located”. Very boring and it’s always the same boats. Some of these people must spend 2-3 hours a day on their SSB radios – yawn!
Glenys did school work in the morning and I dug out the old, rusting ballast from under the locker on the aft starboard quarter. The iron in the ballast has expanded as it’s rusted and has pushed the woodwork out of shape. I removed as much of the damaged wood as I dared and I’m leaving the woodwork loose in the hope that it will settle back to its original position. After lunch, Glenys took the boys to the town beach and I followed them a little later to help with the shopping.
In the evening, there was a barbeque party organised by “Cortica”. Despite valiant efforts by Debbie, “It just didn’t happen, man.” There were too many old fogies with too much intense conversation (disseminating information). The highlight of the night was Brett and Craig attacking a Piñata bear with a cricket bat. The bear was about 2’6” high made of papier-mâché and had loads of candy in it, which they got after the boys knocked its head off!
24 March 1996 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
A quiet day. Glenys took the boys to the town beach at midday. I sold all my remaining PADI stock to a local dive shop and then worked out that our diving has still cost us £2,600 – not too bad considering we’ve got £1,200 worth of equipment and have done 344 dives between us. I had a quiet afternoon and then met Glenys and the boys in town, where we had a meal in a local restaurant. I had Pollo De Mole – chicken in chilli chocolate sauce. Not too bad - definitely an acquired taste!
25 March 1996 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
The forecast is for E to SE winds at 15-20 knots for the next 3 days. There is a front coming south, but it is forecast to stall over Texas and then go back north. The winds are due to increase in three days’ time so we decided to go tomorrow. We went to the fuel dock and filled up with diesel and water. The water is said to be drinkable, but has so much chlorine in that it tastes awful. We will be scrubbing the tanks out in the States, so it’s not too big a problem.
Dane off “Cortica” gave us his Dad’s telephone number in Cocca, Florida in case we want to look him up. We cleared out, bought food, four cases of beer and got ready to go. “Flow” turned up today and Horst came to get some cases of beer with us. We ended up on “Flow” having a rotisserie chicken meal and catching up on the past two years. The boys were itching to have a go on Horst’s Nintendo and played Super Mario World until half past ten when we dragged them away.
26 March 1996 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
We both got up at six o’clock this morning. The wind is E25 which is a nuisance because we want to head north east. We went back to bed. I got up at half past six to try to listen to Mistine – too faint, so back to bed! I got up again at seven o’clock to listen to the computer voice of WOM. There’s a stationary front lying E-W across the north of the Gulf of Mexico. A low has developed near Louisiana (wherever that is!) We are expecting E25-30 today, going to SE15-20 tomorrow. There’s a cold front due on Saturday 30th.
We decided to wait until tomorrow and did school work instead! In the afternoon, I wrote an advert to put in June’s Yachting Monthly to sell “Glencora”. We had a quiet day and evening.
27 March 1996 Isla Mujeres, Mexico
I got up at half past six. The wind was ESE20-25. WOM says that it will be SE20-25 but dropping to SE15-20 tonight and S15-20 tomorrow. It was blowing hard and I don’t trust them about the wind direction tomorrow, so we decided not to beat our brains out and did school work.
In the afternoon, Glenys and Brett went into town to do some food shopping, Craig played Lego and I played clarinet. We invited Horst from “Flow” to come over for a beer and to “make ze music” and he ended up staying for dinner – meat and potato pie that we were going to eat en-route. Pleasant evening.
In a flash of confidence in the weather forecast, I took the dinghy down and stowed it on deck. I hope we don’t have to stay another day – I’ll be very cross if I have to put it up again.
28 March 1996 Isla Mujeres to Key West, Florida (Day 1)
We got up at half past six and started to get ready for sea. We had a SE15 wind. The forecast was for SE15 becoming SW1-15 tomorrow – time to go at last. As we motored out of the anchorage, Horst blew a conch in farewell, which was very nice of him.
We motored around the north end of Isla Mujeres, which has a reef stretching North to South with a gap that is at least 5 metres deep. As we approached the place where we thought the gap was, we were confronted with 6ft breaking waves coming straight at us. We bottled out and motored parallel to the reef. I checked the chart again and decided it was the right place, so we clenched our cheeks and slowly motored east. I stood at the bow which was plunging 12ft up and down - I could see reef below us in the incredibly clear water. We made it out OK, with depths no less than 5 metres but it was scary!
We set sail on an Easterly course and, by ten o’clock, we had caught two fish and had a visit by a pod of dolphins. Been there, done that... We went to windward all day again. It’s been the same since we left Roatan in January. We were sailing 090°, but our track over the ground was 050° because of the Gulf Stream pushing us north. Before we left, we attached our No. 3 genoa anticipating a beat, but now I wish we’d left the big genoa on because it’s slow going.
29 March 1996 Isla Mujeres to Key West, Florida (Day 2)
We had a slow night, averaging only 4 knots over the ground. At seven am, we seemed to have lost the 2 knot Gulf Stream. The wind has been backing from SSW to SE15 which has meant that we’ve been hard on the wind. The seas have been small so the night was fairly pleasant, apart from one close encounter with a tanker, (where I had to slow down) and a thunder cloud with lots of lightning that insisted on staying in front of us for an hour until it decided to head north.
The weather forecast is SE10-15 veering to S10-15 tonight, but I’m not counting on it. We managed to stay close to rhumb line but is it the best strategy? At half past seven, the wind had dropped enough that I started the engine. At half past nine, we swapped back from No.3 genoa to No.1 genoa and tried to sail – but we only had SE5 so soon gave up.
During the afternoon, the sea was very smooth - not much wind (N5) and no sign of the Gulf Stream. At six o’clock, the wind was NE10-15 so we set off on port tack and amazingly found the Gulf Stream. Unfortunately, we were doing 7.2 knots on a course of 135° instead of 060°. So we tacked and ended up 040° at 5 knots, much better! Nice calm seas as well. We did our 15,000th mile since leaving the UK.
30 March 1996 Isla Mujeres to Key West, Florida (Day 3)
Beautiful calm night with ESE10-15 knots. We sailed on starboard tack, hard on the wind all night and it was idyllic – if you like sailing at night and doing god-forsaken 3 hour watches. Myself, I just read a book and tried to get comfortable. After two days and nights, I’ve now got a sore bum and find it hard to find a comfortable position to sit and read.
The morning weather forecast says that it will be SE10-15, veering south tonight – they said the same yesterday but it didn’t happen. We had a calm day with E10 winds. I enjoy going to bed during the day for a couple of hours – I can catch up on some sleep and it helps to relieve my boredom.
At about six o’clock, as the sun went down, Glenys went down below to look at where we were before the night watches started. To my total surprise she found out that we were only about 15 miles south of the 100 metre contour, which runs along the Florida Keys (and I was just about to tack north for a few hours!). We bumbled along in light winds and slight seas. At ten pm, we rolled away the genoa and motored east at 3-4 knots with only 20 miles to go, trying to slow down – again!
31 March 1996 Isla Mujeres to Key West, Florida (Day 3)
Just after midnight, I was awoken by lots of noise from flogging sails. I jumped out of bed and dashed up into the cockpit (naked of course), to find that the wind was gusting 35 knots. We still had a full main and a full mizzen up. Glenys had released the main sheet, but was struggling. I decided to drop the main – after I had put on some underpants and my musto jacket. I then dropped the mizzen.
I went back to bed for my remaining 10 minutes leaving Glenys alone with the maelstrom! At one o’clock, we changed watches and by two o’clock, the wind had dropped to NE20 so I turned the engine off and wandered East with just a bit of jib.
By four o’clock, the wind was down to NE10, so Glenys turned the engine on and wombled east. The seas were quite big after the front. At five o’clock, I had to get up and have a look. I decided that we would motor straight for the Key West entrance buoy and set the auto pilot so that we cut straight in front of a freighter. (Well, about a mile in front, but Glenys sweated for 10 minutes while I went back to bed.)
Jimmy God got me back because at half past five there was a terrific bang. I leapt out of bed (I’d slept in my underpants this time) and rushed up to find that the stainless steel toggle at the bottom of the baby stay had broken and the baby stay was flapping about the mast. “Oh my God, the mast could fall down in these confused seas”. I dashed forwards and lashed the baby stay back to its chain plate fitting with a bit of rope. I then spent 10 minutes arranging the spinnaker pole up-hauls to act as temporary baby stays.
We motored into Key West in a channel marked by proper buoys, complete with bells and lights – the first we’ve seen since Europe! (They are, of course, back to front with the green and red buoys on the “wrong” sides of the channel – typical Americans, driving on the wrong side of the road, dates back to front and still clinging onto imperial measurements.) We anchored to the north of the main docks, and after breakfast, I went to bed.
At midday, Glenys woke me up and said that we ought to move. There was strong tidal current and it was causing us to swirl around (like Chaguaramus) so that we went close to another boat. Eventually, after a bit of motoring about, we decided to go to the west of the two small islands. The anchor rumbled a bit, but seemed to be well in. To be sure, we reversed hard to try to snatch it out but it held. We had a lovely calm evening and ate in the cockpit for a change before collapsing into bed at eight o’clock!