Our trip from Isla Mujeres, Mexico to The Dry Tortuga's, Florida Keys? Well, basically sweet.
We left on Tuesday, April 14th, 2015 (around 9:40am) and after motoring around the island, we enjoyed a good 14 hours of fantastic sailing. We hooked a Tuna just outside Isla Mujeres, Mexico (21°28'.399 N:86°37'.964 W). The only problem, we were doing 7.1 knots, and we didn't want to slow down because we had 330 nautical miles to go! Three days and two nights if all goes well. And I have to admit; Steve and I hate these long distant passages. Ahead of us, we had the Gulf of Mexico, the Yucatan Peninsula, the coast of Cuba, the North Atlantic Ocean, the Straits of Florida and several opposing currents and wind chop from each body of water, and the effects of the Gulf Stream. We experienced mostly East winds until just after midnight when we enjoyed a show of lightning and thunder (my favourite) in the near distance. Unfortunately, we only had a sprinkling of rain (Lion's Paw was in serious need of a boat wash). Around 1 am. The winds started to die. Steve cranked up the iron sail. Steve let me sleep through my alarms for 4 am and at 5 am, I woke to a mill pond. Steve was pissed! At 8am Steve and I listened to Chris's forecast. He said there was wind. Steve called up and asked WHERE? Chris advised us to go East. We did, as instructed and the next night we enjoyed a motor assisted sail as we inched our ay towards the Florida Keys. Both nights, we had several tankers to maneuver around. They are quite pleasant to talk to although, Steve is such a light sleeper (who knew) and wakes at the drop of a hat so, he didn't get much sleep.

Yes, Mum, again, we were all alone. All the other boats had cleared into Mexico and were not willing to pass up the opportunity to drop some cash in Isla. I sound jaded, but really it was a lovely town and I'm sure they are having a blast. We sure did. We enjoyed a few trips to town to provision and dine, although we were illegally doing so. We had full intentions of clearing in, but circumstances, as they were, it didn't make sense to clear in and clear out the very next day. In countries like this (Spanish countries) it usually takes a day to do both. And the graft.. well that's another story for later.

(Side note: On Monday, the day before, Chris gave us a perfect weather window, leaving on Wednesday ... quote; "2 good days of sailing and the following day, while heading East, light winds and 2-4 foot seas. When we contacted him Tuesday morning, he changed the whole dam thing. But here's the catch 22.. we were going to clear in to Mexico on Monday, but decided not too, because we were leaving on Wednesday..right? And it turns out we should have left on Monday! We like to sail!! One look at each other after the new revised forecast and I knew we best get a move on... without a chance to say good-bye to our friends whom has accompanied us from the Rio Dulce ☹.) Quite true.. when you leave Isla Mujeres head to a "sweet spot" @ 23° 30'.00N : 85°00' W. We had favourable current pretty much all the way.