I ended my last entry encouraging the armchair sailors to brave the waters. Dave told me that after this passage he is ready to buy a Lazy-Boy. We waited in Providencia for a weather window. The wind howled around the island, but up North the weather was perfect. How to get past the first 100 miles? Then the weather talk turned to a big cold front coming down to the Gulf. Nothing gets cruisers talking more than the potential for a big weather system. Would it really happen? What about the weather until then, could we get an early window? On Tuesday it looked like our next break in the weather would be a week from Thursday. On Wednesday it looked like the next Wednesday. On Thursday we decided Tuesday was the day. Friday came and it looked like the waves would abate early, so we could go on Monday. We noticed a pattern, so on Friday I bought all of our passage supplies, and began prepping the boat, and Dave started our check-out procedure. On Saturday Chris on Marine Weather Service said Sunday things would calm down, and anyone wanting to go north should do so soon. I began to cook. Our original plan was to sail to the Cayman Islands, but with this big weather system coming we wanted to get as far North as possible, plus this big weather system would make the Cayman’s ugly. We set our sights for Isla Mujeres. Ahh Mexico.
The first 24 hours were fine, and just what we expected. We sailed most of it, but had to motor between two reefs, because we were heading dead downwind, but had no margin to jibe back and forth. Day two brought worries that we would not reach Isla Mujeres before the weather front. It was blowing 18 from behind, but the genoa wasn’t holding the wind. We decided to put up the shoot. What we put up, God took down. We knew the spinnaker was on borrowed time, but we hated to see her split. The second night got interesting, as in 30 knots of interesting. The waves became confused. I had opened some ports down below – we are in the tropics and without air movement things get sauna like – and Dave was sleeping in Kara’s bed, when a wave surprised me from the side. It really surprised Dave to have a few gallons of the sea deposited on his head. The rest of the night was a toboggan ride, with about as much success for missing the bumps. All the next day we were watching the winds lighten, wishing we could have kept the 30 knots for one more night. By nightfall we were motoring, and looked longingly at the ripped spinnaker. I got to sail for an hour, but it wasn’t very comfortable. The next day Dave found out that his mother was in the hospital, so suddenly getting in meant much more. We were told that we would have a 2-3 knot current with us at Cozumel, but we were still bucking the current. It was only later we learned that we had to be between the mainland and the island to get the free ride. We set our hook a half hour after dark. Dave called and learned that his mom was having angioplasty the next day, and then would go home. Since then we have talked with her and all is fine, she is recovering quickly.
Now we sit in Isla Mujeres, waiting for another weather window. For this next leg we will not have Brandt to take some of the watches, but it shouldn’t be too bad, just 300 miles. Who knows maybe this time we will find the Gulf Stream.