20100417 Belize City to Isla Mujeres

20100405 Well, it's just me and Rita again, after a week of great company. We depart Caye Caulker early for San Pedro, the northern-most port of entry/exit from Belize, in preparation for our voyages north. San Pedro is a very busy small town, with ferries, water taxis, tour boats etc zooming at full speed through the sailboat anchorage area. Very wavy, but tolerable in a catamaran. Our guests did a great job of cleaning their cabins and head, but there is a ton of laundry to do, and other general boat cleaning. Laundry ashore, explore the town, arrange a dive trip for manana, some provisioning.
Rita finds Chinese masseur for me who claims to heal everything from aches and pains to mental illness. I have what I believe is a pinched sciatic nerve due to a muscle spasm in my lower back that has been very painful for 4 weeks now. He massages and stretches me so hard he causes more pain that makes me forget the original pain. He gives me some Chinese compresses to put on (don't know how that helps with a nerve problem), and tells me to soak my feet in hot water and use my toes to mush up some ginger root. Weeks later am still recovering from the bruised muscles he caused. The compresses did not help, and I did not soak my feet.

20100406 Scuba diving at 2 dive sites. Great diving. We petted and wrapped our arms around and hugged nurse sharks! Amazing experience. Massive deep canyon and cavern structures to explore. Lunch ashore, some liquid muscle relaxers, then a nap on board. Saphira arrives, and we briefly catch up on things, and have dinner ashore.

20100407 After clearing out with customs, immigration and the Capitania del Puerto, we depart San Pedro for Xcalak, Mexico, the southern-most port of entry for Mexico. The sail is a great ride in 20 knots winds and 10 foot seas. As we cross the border into Mexican waters, a Mex armada patrol boat, with big guns on the deck, pulls up alongside us. I wave hello to them from the aft deck, then realize I don't have the VHF on. Turning on the VHF, they want to know about passengers on board, last ports, destination port, cargo, etc. They seem satisfied, and head out to sea chasing some other boat.
Once again, 2 boats that departed 2 hours before us, are passed as we approach Xcalak. So we get to be the first ones to find our way through the reef into the harbor.
The pass through the reef is only 150 feet wide, and the waves are breaking in the pass. We try to call the port captain on VHF for local guidance to make the pass- once again the sailor comraderie comes to the rescue, and a sailboat in the harbor helps us with visual landmarks to line up for the pass. The other boats follow us in on the same line.
Within 20 minutes, the Mexican armada comes to aVida, with 6 uniformed soldiers carrying M16s. 4 of them board aVida. They inspect our papers, and ask to search the boat. One of them goes through almost every cabinet, drawer, and floor boat, but it is a casual search- not really the nightmare "rip the boat apart" searches we have heard about. The leader of the group is more interested in having his men take his picture in various poses at the helm, in the cockpit, with big smiles. They are very impressed w aVida, and repeated say "bueno barque". We offer them ice water, and they all accept. We ask them for a signed inspection document, and they say there is none- so I ask to take their picture on aVida to prove we did have the inspection. They leave with big smiles, on to the next boat that arrived after us.
Xcalak is a tiny town. We go to the tiny immigration / customs office to get cleared in, near the end of the day. The printer and copier are not working, and it appears we are stuck until they get their systems working- in a place like that, it could be days?? Fortunately after an hour or so someone brings one from somewhere else on the island; the helpful staff is willing to work after hours, and we get cleared in.
Walking the town is a bit depressing, but the people are very friendly. We find a small resto-bar overlooking the beautiful shoreline, have a few cocktails and back to aVida for dinner.

20100408 Early am departure. The waves outside the reef have increase to 15 feet, and the breakers in the pass are 20 to 25 feet. Using the track line on the chart plotter, we know exactly how we came in yesterday, and we ride that line back out. aVida is bucking like a bronco in the pass- Rita is scared shitless but handles it well.
Once out to sea, with 1 reef in the mainsail, we close reach NE on the rhumbline (did I spell that right?) with 15 to 25 knots E winds. aVida is doing 10-15 knots- great ride!
Far out to sea, we see a shark fin and tail cruising near us- don't want to swim right now.
When possible, we try to avoid sailing at night by doing day sails with overnight anchorages. We arrive mid afternoon, having covered 97NM. We enter the reef through a wide and easy opening to Bahia del Ascencion, and anchor in the open behind the reef for protection from the big seas, but not the winds. The anchor(s) hold well, and it is a fairly comfortable night sleep. In any case, I usually set a GPS marker point on the boat position and watch a few times through the night to make sure we are not slipping- that is part of life on a boat.

20100409 Up early for the sail north, heading for Isle Mujeres. We cover another 95 miles by mid afternoon, and contemplate going all the way, but we would arrive in Isle Mujeres at or after dusk, and night entries through reefs and shallows are a bit more risky, so we head for Puerto Moreles for the night, on the Mayan Riviera coast, by mid afternoon, leaving time to explore the town before finding a good dinner ashore. Puerto Moreles is a combination of a quaint fishing town, with a tourist destination with great beaches- but seemingly for Mexicans, and not many foreigners. This is the peak vacation week after Easter, and it is very busy for a small port.

20100410 A nice easy sail to Isla Mujeres, still beating on the rhumbline most of the way. Passing Cancun to port, and a lot of fishing and ferry boat traffic all around. Hundreds of flying fish leap from the water together and fly hundreds of feet, apparently running from approaching aVida, the monster that might eat them.
On anchor by noon in the harbor. Lunch, vino and a nap. Then we walk the town- we know it fairly well We visited here 6 years ago for several days, and it was much less developed or busy then. But this is peak Easter vacation week also.
Ferries and fishing boats zip back and forth to Cancun. The beaches are packed with sun worshipers. This is nice island, but we like it better when it is quieter.
Remembering from our last visit, we walk to the north beach in the evening, and find the Sunset Grill, with table right at the edge of the beach with gentle surf lapping against the shore, and tiki lamps in line, for a romantic dinner. They charge extra for the premium beach tables, and Rita announces it is our anniversary (it is not), and several patrons turn and congratulate us, but the staff still charges us for the table. Dinner and vino are great, service is great- this is probably one of the best restaurants on the island.

20100411 More boat cleaning. Laundry ashore. Finally have internet again at a restaurant ashore. The dilemma is the weather window to Key West. In a few days, the winds in the passage will build to over 30 knots NE, directly beating against the gulf stream going NE, causing very big and steep waves. If we don't leave this afternoon, we will probably hit stressful conditions before we get to Key West. If we don't leave, we probably cant leave for a week- and we have a deadline- my brother Norm and Connie are coming to Key West to be with us for a week.
We have a professional weather routing service we consult on occasion, and they tell us the same thing- go now, or wait at least a week. I double check the weather forecasts, our route plan, and our expected progress, and determine that into NE winds, we will like motor into a headwind- not sail- reducing our speeds to 7 knots possibly, extending the voyage time into the bad weather coming. We need some time to catch up, un-wind, and relax. We have been so busy with guests and voyaging for a long time. . Decision is to not go, and wait for the next weather window.
We do lunch and internet ashore all afternoon, and back to the boat for dinner and a movie, after making arrangements for scuba diving manana.

20100412 The dive boat picks us up at aVida about 9am. It is just me, Rita, the divemaster and the captain. The divemaster, captain, and the guy in the shop are all brothers and run a family dive business. Small, but comfortable and friendly.
First dive is lots of large schools of many fish, many sharks, sting rays, etc. good dive. 2nd dive is "sleeping shark caves" where there used to be hundreds of sharks that collect in caves where the constantly flowing current can ventilate their gills. Recently, the fishermen heard about this, and they fished out all the sharks. Just this morning, the divemaster said the fishermen had 20-30 sharks they caught on the dock. This is a crime against nature- it is very upsetting. It seems even more so since we hugged and petted sharks just days ago (we wouldn't do that with just any shark, or without local divemaster experience!).
Back aboard, the macerator pump on the port head doesn't seem to flush. So I disassemble the shitter pump, clean the impeller, etc, and it seems to work ok for now. Rita rinses, cleans and dries the dive gear. Lunch, vino, and nap aboard. Then back to Sunset Grill for an internet afternoon, doing blog updates, business, dinner, vino, etc... same old routine.

20100413 Errands in the am. Internet lunch and vino back at Sunset Grill again. Seems to be the only place with good internet. A working day.

Departure weather window for Key West appears to be this Friday or Saturday, 4/16-17.
Probably do a dive day Thurs, fuel up aVida, deal with customs, immigration and the harbor master. Then go.
Next update, Key West, with brother Norman and wench Connie. (that is a most respectful term among pirates. arrrgh)