Just 30 Miles, But Making Progress

Puerto Morelos is a very small town, just a day sail south of Isla Mujeres. We gave ourselves 10 hours to go 30 miles. The math works out to be about 3 miles per hour, about half the speed we could make in good wind. The reason we had such low expectations is because for our entire trip south to Belize we will be fighting a 2-3 knot current heading directly against us. Instead of 3 knots, we managed to stay out of the worst of the current and averaged 5 knots – we were happy!

The seas were very confused and sloppy for the whole trip. This rendered the autopilot useless and made both of us a little woozy. Not so bad we got sick, just enough so we had to draw straws to see who would make lunch and neither of us wanted to fish or look and the chart much.

A week here and we have seen about all there is, the most important thing we saw was one of the most spectacular shallow reefs we have ever snorkeled on. The reef is just 600 yards off the beach, running parrell to the beach and people all around say it is some of the best snorkeling on the Yucatan coast. I think we agree. See some of the photos.

While we were here we found out the packages we asked Geri & Joe to send arrived in Isla Mujeres. Road Trip! We went from: dinghy to van/bus to coach bus to taxi to ferry; and in just about an hour we were back. We provisioned at some big stores in Cancun on the trip back.

Now that we are restocked and the weather looks good, we are heading to Bahia de la Ascencion (19 deg 45.65 min N : 87 deg 25.00 min W). There is a small town there (apparently even smaller than Puerto Morelos – how much smaller can they get?) called Punta Allen. After that we plan to go to the Chinchorro Bank for a few days. Google Chinchorro Bank (here is one web site: http://www.locogringo.com/past_spotlights/nov2006.cfm) and you will see why we are really excited that we may get the opportunity to see some amazing, unspoiled corals! After that we will go to Xcalak (Mayan work pronounced: ish-ka-lek)to check out of Mexico.

Check out these aerial photos of the towns we are going to: www.locogringo.com/maps/tour/171a-t.html

Back in the Saddle Again

We enjoyed being in Isla Mujeres again. Our first time was 3 years ago when we flew into Cancun and got to sail back with our friend Jeff Kieser. He was on the tail end of his Central American cruise. It was comforting having our first landfall on this cruise being a familiar one.

After Joe and BikeMan left we spent days cleaning and fixing the boat, snorkeling, diving and exploring the town. Mujeres is a small town and reminds us of what Key West might be like if there was no road, and it was Mexican... You run into the same people at the grocery store and internet cafe, you can walk and bike everywhere, and if your Spanish is as bad as Keith's, good news: just about everyone can speak enough English to help you. The key is to try little Spanish so they know how bad you really are and they won't think you are just being lazy.

A small boat systems crisis developed: it became apparent our batteries we not keeping up with our electrical demands even while anchored. After a quick inspection we discovered we had been too lazy with our battery maintenance and the water level in the batteries had dropped to a damaging level. Although we replenished the water, it appears that our main battery bank is now operating at a diminished capacity. This means no excessive food processor use, we can't leave our radio blasting all day and we may have to cut back on the vacuuming. In other words: life will go on (quite happily) until we have the time and resources to replace the batteries.

Most of our time in Mujeres we relaxed and got into the pace of cruising, perhaps we got a little too relaxed, it took us 3 weeks to leave!

Next Stop: Puerto Morelos.

Demented YouTube Video from Crew

One of our sick (mentally) crew members on the crossing (BikeMan) posted this to YouTube: DON'T WATCH IT - DON'T LOOK AT IT - DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK BELOW - YOU WILL ONLY ENCOURAGE THIS MAD-MAN!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nqsm3hRE9gY