Well unfortunately all good things must come to an end, after countless miles and many a great sun downers, excellent dinners, tall tales and wonderful times it was a sad day when we finally had to say adios to our amigos, John and Barbara, on Sam the Skull. They have elected to keep their boat in the Rio for hurricane season while they fly home to Scotland to take care of business. We on the other hand are headed back to the US to find some (bad word alert) Work to help out the old cruising kitty!! (Arggh Matey you have not seen the last of us yet!!!)
On our first day out headed to Belize we immediately “ran” into this freighter (not really)!! Reiterating the fact that we are not in (Kansas) the river any longer.
On our first day out headed to Belize we immediately “ran” into this freighter (not really)!! Reiterating the fact that we are not in (Kansas) the river any longer.
We did not stop in Belize except to catch some shut eye so we did not get any good pics. However we did have our share of engine problems. The day that we went to leave on passage for Isla Mujeres the engine decided she wasn't going to start. After much investigation and tearing the boat apart, it was determined that we picked up some bad fuel in the Rio - even though we ran it all thru the Baha filter. The captain changed filters and "polished" some fuel and finally we were ready to go. Our early morning departure turned into a early afternoon departure. It shortened our weather window so we decided to give Cozumel a miss and head straight to Isla Mujeres. Which just happens to be one of our favorite places!! We arrived in the early morning, just before the winds settled in.....this we found was to be a trend!! We would love to come back to Belize to explore more on Echo as she is the perfect boat for this area.
Upon entering the waters between Cancun and Isla Mujeres we were once again astonished at the beautiful clear water, some of the prettiest we have seen.
The entrance into Isla is pretty well marked for Mexico....but it was even better because the race from St. Pete to Isla started arriving the day after we did!!
Little did we know that we would get “stuck” with weather and not be able to head off to Key West for almost 10 days. Everyday it blew a steady 20-25k out of the East - just so happens that the direction we needed to go!! The up side was our wind generator kept us fully charged and we were able to watch season one of Rome!!
During the day we did what every good cruiser does and enjoyed Isla!!
One day we took a beach tour....
Next a ferry ride over to Cancun......
Where we ran into this friendly Iguana!!!
A tour around Isla proper.....
We found a Mexican watering hole where we took a break and had a Sangria or two!!!
We even took a dinghy tour thru the Chute the Chute pass, an alternate entrance to the anchorage. Mucho charter cats do this pass so many times daily that you can’t keep count!!
The island has not escaped hurricane seasons unscathed and you can still see evidence of this here and there.
This hotel overlooking the Atlantic was once a beautiful and happening place before the storm.
The Mexican police/coast guard take their job seriously and keeps this fleet of boats at the ready to chase any smugglers!! It made us a little nervous the day we actually left because we could not check out of Mexico. The government was shut down because of the swine flu scare which just happened to coincide with Cinco de Mayo!!
We managed to dodge the swine flu but it was pretty freaky seeing people in town wearing masks and what not. Even the admiral decided we better scrub the decks clean of any left over swine….and many wonder how she became known as the “deck mop”!!
After studying the grib files and countless weather forecasts we finally had a weather window to head to Key West. In my next life I want to come back as a weather forecaster.....Why is it one of the only jobs that you can often be so wrong and still have a job???
The forecast was for ESE 10-15k.....
We hit the gulf stream with 20-25 knots (gusting to 30k) out of the North East…which meant wind against the stream….we were airborne going 7k off some of the squarest waves we have ever seen. On one we hit so hard it felt like we hit something…..we even managed to move a bulk head!! The captain has a little work to do......
With the wind staying strong out of the North East and the crew miserable, even the admiral cried uncle, we headed for the Dry Tortuga's instead, 3 out of the 4 boats that took this window put in here and all suffered some damage. Misery loves company but you could not stay blue for long as the Dry Tortuga's turned out to be just what the Doctor ordered……more on them next time!!
We hit the gulf stream with 20-25 knots (gusting to 30k) out of the North East…which meant wind against the stream….we were airborne going 7k off some of the squarest waves we have ever seen. On one we hit so hard it felt like we hit something…..we even managed to move a bulk head!! The captain has a little work to do......
With the wind staying strong out of the North East and the crew miserable, even the admiral cried uncle, we headed for the Dry Tortuga's instead, 3 out of the 4 boats that took this window put in here and all suffered some damage. Misery loves company but you could not stay blue for long as the Dry Tortuga's turned out to be just what the Doctor ordered……more on them next time!!
