We cleared out of Mexico on Monday after arriving Sunday afternoon (We always seem to arrive in ports on the weekends...why is this?) You must check in at every port with the Port Captain, but because there is no all weather harbor to check out of the country south of here, we decided to do it in Cozumel. Now if we stop at any other Mexico Ports, it must be for a reason since we aren't suppose to be in Mexico anymore. Engine trouble, hunger, tiredness, whatever.

For us it will be hunger...hunger for fish...to use that Mexico Fishing license that we spent $100 USD to buy. SO far we have caught ONE Spanish Mackeral...so that fish was a $100 fish. We cant let it be that way, so BOTH of us will be spearfishing in the next port- Punta Allen in the Bahia De La Ascension. Don't buy a fishing license if you come to Mexico on a sailboat on the East Coast. Its all protected, so the only fishing we have done thus far is trolling off the back of the sailboat...not worth $100. Actually the license is good for one year, and is $42 per person. But everyone on the boat must have one if even one person is fishing...so we had to buy 2. If anyone even checks...but want to keep it legal wherever we can.

So Cozumel...upon arriving on Sunday, we anchored north of all the cruise ships and ferries. There were a few other tourist sailboats anchored with us but no other cruisers. It was a short ride in the dinghy to shore but no where to lock the dinghy. SO we were forced to just anchor it. We checked on it frequently and it was always OK, although once we came back and there was a lot of sand and water in it...kids playing with it maybe? Checking in was a bit of a fiasco. We went to the port captain, and he gave us some paperwork. He asked for our insurance for the boat, so the research that I had done finally came in to play- they want to see our boat insurance CHECKING OUT of the country?- strange... but I had copies with me so we were OK. He told us our next stop would be immigration at the airport. SO we began walking to the airport but then caught a cab for $3.00. We spoke our best Spanish to find immigration in the airport only to be told we need a different immigration office for the boat stamp on our Zarpe...we had to go to the other side of town. We asked if there was a bus, were told there were none, but that if we walked to the end of the airport driveway the taxi would cost us half. So we caught a cab at the end of the driveway- not the first one that stopped that wanted to charge us 8$, but another for 5$. Good thing we got a taxi- it WAS way on the other side of town. The man in this office didn't know what to do with us. We explained in our best Spanish that the port captain wants their ink stamp on the bottom of our zarpe. SO he asked us where to stamp it, we showed him where we thought it would be best, and we got our stamp. No ID, no passport, do boat paperwork- just went in and asked for the stamp. We then had a very hot walk back to the port captains office but the office was closed for afternoon siesta or lunch. They would be back at 6pm. So exhausted and thirsty, we went back to the boat for a short siesta ourselves and some cold mango juice. At 6pm we hiked back to the port captains office, and after she shook her head dissapprovingly, she signed our zarpe, and we were on our way. We aren't quite sure what she didnt like, but she said we were done...So we picked up our bags and went out to dinner to celebrate our first foreign country check out. Seemed like a lot of running around and paperwork for nothing, but I guess you have to respect the procedure unless you want to find yourself in the next country without a proper zarpe to get in!

Dinner out for a change was nice. We actually ate lunch and dinner out that day! Lunch was chicken fajitas with a free GREAT Margarita for 6$. Dinner was tacos with a mango sauce and guacomole and sour cream, and a free Muargarita for 9$ which wasn't half as good (OR BOG) as the one at lunch. The one at lunch made me wobbly all afternoon! It was oh so delicioso!

The next day the wind was out of the north so we decided to move to the south of the ferry and cruise terminals. We anchored and Patrick dinghied me to shore so I could get some fruits and vegetables and a few other things before departing for more remote parts. There was no good place to land the dinghy - all hard coral and rocks near ladders, but he managed to drop me off at a dock of a hotel that had 2 Mexican men working on it. There were 2 guests at this hotel it seems. The men showed me maze to get out to the street, and the guard in the front showed me where to go for the supermercado. It was a great market. I came back with hot tortillas from the tortilleria, 10 cent loaves of french bread, Big 10$ bottles of Kahlua, and lots of great fruits and veggies, some of which I've never seen before but we are going to try out. The food prices in Mexico are the same or less than the USA.

When I carried the 10 heavy plastic bags of groceries in my backpack in both hands back to the hotel, all doors were locked, security guard gone ( no lobby). My VHF radio batteries had died to call Patrick, and these groceries were killing me, and it was HOT HOT HOT. I hid the groceries in some bushes, and scoped out how I would get through to the other side. I found a fence and a ladder to crawl over so I hiked the groceries down to the ladder. I was going up and down, bag by bag when the security guard intervened. He took my groceries and led me through a different maze and we were back out on the dock. Muchos Gracias over and over again... now to get Patricks attention to come get me....Over at the next hotel was another dock and a dive boat was dropping off some guests. But I couldn't get there- there were fences to climb with a wide water hole in between. So I yelled over to someone at the pool and acted more desperate than I really was. I asked them to ask the boat driver to use channel 13 and annouce "Brick House, come get your lady" after explaining my predicament. The dive boat driver motioned to me that he would drive out there to get Patrick. He did and before long Patrick was on his way to get me. Groceries stowed away, we decided to move the boat again. Constant boat wake was shaking the boat every few minutes. SO we sailed south to see what we may find. We were departing that night anyway for Punta Allen, so any old anchorage would do. There were none in the books, and our chart showed a marine reserve about 3.5 miles south of the the cruise ship docks. SO we sailed until we saw a calm place in front of some smaller hotels, and we dropped the hook in to sand. We were in the water quickly to cool off and check out the bottom of the boat. There were a few small fish, but not much to see. The swim was nice and refreshing, and I needed a bath anyways!

We relaxed the rest of the day preparing for departure at about 9 or 10pm. I woke up Patrick at 10pm, and we decided to give it a try. There wasn't much wind. We got about 1/2 mile out, and decided that indeed it would be too much of a motor. We went back and anchored in the same spot. At 3am I woke up again - about the latest that I would want to leave to be sure we got in during daylight, and still not enough wind, so I went back to bed and resigned myself to a day at anchor just hanging out, and trying again the next evening, At 4am the anchor alarm went off - we had swung on the anchor so we weren't dragging..but the wind had picked up to about 8 or 10 knots. We could sail...but it was a little late to be leaving - we would need to sail fast! Within 5 minute we were gone.

So here we are, 6 hours later, south of Cozumel, approaching the mainland. The wind has died to about 5 knots, and there is 2 knots of current against us. We have the spinnaker out on one side and the job poled out on the other side and we are motoring at high RPMs. We are going but 5.2 knots. I am worried that we wont get there in light, never mind with the sun behind us to see the reef we are entering. There are no other anchorages to go to nearby. I know Patrick wont want to heave to until tomorrow morning. The other alternative is to maybe anchor off of Tulum- a day anchorage about 30 miles north of there, and hope that it stays settled like this...and then continue on tomorrow morning? Better go talk to the captain....