05/08/2009, Gulf of Mexico
We got out of Isla at 10 am this morning and are having a great sail. We were able to turn the engine off right away and are currently sailing wing on wing with the pole on doing 8-9 knots. The computer says we will be there Monday but I expect it will end up being sometime on Tuesday.
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05/07/2009, Mexico
Isla Mujeres is quite nice; it reminds us a little of La Paz, Mexico (on the Pacific side). We are perhaps on the friendliest dock we have ever tied up to, every other night there is huge fish being cooked up as well as fresh ceviche for everyone to enjoy from the sport fishing boats that stay at El Milagro Marina long term. We have spent the last few days getting the boat ready for our passage and getting some meals cooked in advance that will be eaten underway.
Tuesday we took the ferry over to Cancun to meet our crew for the trip to Texas and then also catch my sister, Laura for a night. Laura is doing some volunteer veterinary work at a nearby island over the next week and somehow we managed to coordinate all meeting up in Cancun for Cinco de Mayo (which really is not celebrated in Mexico). We all enjoyed a nice dinner out and breakfast the next morning in our hotel before going our own ways.
Departure is set for Friday morning and we are heading toward Galveston, Texas (Seabrook to be exact). It will most likely be a 5 day trip. Kent will post position reports and brief updates along the way. Hard to believe we will be in Texas in less than a week. Once we arrive we need to hurry to get the boat in tip top shape as it will be in a small local boat show 2 days later. Everyone keep your fingers crossed that the boat show will draw in some interested parties and a new owner for Hiatus.
Photo above is from Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville restaurant in Cancun.
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05/01/2009, Mexico
We landed at Isla Mujeres (which is just off of Cancun) shortly after 9am this morning. The predictions for E winds did not come true and we spent most of the journey bashing into NE winds and swell. This made for a rather uncomfortable ride but that is how it goes sometimes.
Excitement along the way included 20 or so dolphins playing in our bow wake for a good 15 minutes, a boarding by the Mexican Navy and then a Mexican Marine helicopter almost capsizing us. The boarding by the Navy was routine and done very professionally. We are used to their process from our boardings on the Pacific side and despite the language barrier we know most of what details they are most likely to ask us. We saw 2 other large naval ships along our route; it is reassuring to know that the waters are being watched so heavily. To our surprise, a helicopter came straight at us within a half hour of our boarding, circling us twice at way to close of a distance. We are sure he was just getting our name and port of call off our stern but those blades generated a lot of air movement against our little sails! No radio contact was made so we figured we passed whatever mission was given.
We will stay here at Isla Mujeres for almost a week, avoiding the swine flu.
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04/27/2009, Belize
After Kent dove the Blue Hole we did 6 dives (including a night dive) at Half Moon Cay and Long Cay, both of which are areas within Lighthouse Reef. Highlights included seeing nurse sharks, grand eagle rays, turtles, a HUGE 6' green moray eel , a school of dolphins, lobster, small cleaner shrimp, giant tarpin, groupers and of course a lot of small colorful reef fish. There were also lots of swim throughs along the walls to wiggle through. Huracan Diving, who we chose to dive with, is run by a fantastic young Belgium couple and they were absolutely wonderful hosts - we would recommend them to anyone who finds themselves out at Lighthouse Reef.
Another day we headed out with friends on their boat to Half Moon Cay, which is a protected park within Lighthouse Reef. On the small island is a frigate and booby bird rookery. We had only seen blue footed boobies in the Galapagos so it was wonderful to see the red footed ones here. I even got to have a domesticated one perch on my arm! The park is also home to large hermit crabs the size of baseballs which walk around with their colorful bodies protruding every which way from beautiful tan and black shells. The palm trees on the small island produce far too many coconuts, so the park actually encourages you to take some with you. We were a sight to see - 6 gringos trying to hack down a few coconuts to take back to our boats (see Photo Gallery). Kent successfully shimmied up the trunk of one and hacked down a few with a machete.
We also did some fishing that day to and from Half Moon Cay, outside the protected park limits of course. We caught a lot of barracuda, but we did not plan to eat them so we through them back. Since we did not catch dinner the boys also all went searching for conch (pronounced "conk"). Conch is a mollusk or sea snail but it takes a lot of work to dive down to collect from the ocean floor, then it is a challenge to remove them from their shell and then finally you have to tenderize/beat the meat before cooking. But prepared with a little butter and garlic it is really worth the work. There is a series of photos in the Photo Gallery showing the process of just separating the meat from the shell.
Lighthouse Reef has been pretty spectacular, there are few cruisers anchored in the large anchorage and with nothing ashore except the dive shop it is a wonderful location to just relax. The only downside is that mosquitoes decided to hatch while we were here so going ashore to get to Huracan Diving was always a ΒΌ mile of sprinting along a sand trail while swatting at swarms of biting and buzzing mosquitoes. We got devoured so badly the first day Kent would only set foot back on the island wearing fleece pants, a long sleeve shirt, work gloves and his Mexican wrestling mask to keep as much of him from being bit as possible. Mind you it is 85F outside. Using bug spray was useless so the rest of us made do with long sleeve shirts and pants and suffered from bites on the face, neck and hands. Guess we should have bought a few more wrestling masks while in Mexico.
We will stay here at Lighthouse until Tuesday or Wednesday when the weather looks good to head up to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. Should be a 35-40 hour trip.
If you get a chance click on our position on the Google Map feature and you will be able to see just how amazing this reef system is at Lighthouse.
Hang tight! Photos from our time at Lighthouse will be posted when we get to Mexico as we do not have internet access right now to update the Photo Gallery.
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