Sailing Fast, Living Slow!
29 April 2008 | Puerto Aventura, Mexico
kurt
Hello all, finally an update from us. We find ourselves in Puerto Aventuras Mexico. This is a small resort/marina on the Mayan Riviera, right across from the island of Cozumel. We are happy to be tied-up for for a change!, and the kids are pool hopping around as if private property is a welcome sign! When we took a walk around the marina we found out that this is also a dolphin discovery place, so we sat back under a palm tree and watched our favorite mammals throw tourists through the air while savoring our long awaited ice cream cone!
To briefly back-track, we left Panama sailing along with my parents on "Maverick" end of March and sailed North to the island of San Andres, we really liked it there and couldn't believe that this small little Colombian spec in the Western Caribbean had so much to offer. We went horseback riding in the lush forest and ate more mangoes than our horses did! We hopped on a chicken bus and visited Capt. Morgans cave, drank noni wine and swam on the beautiful lee shore. With the winds in our favor we continued our journey North-North-West over the shallow banks of Nicaragua, were we anchored a few times to rest and walk our hairy friend "Henna". We then headed West with the trade winds to Roatan Honduras. This was an exhilarating ride! We had the biggest following seas we've seen, and do not want to see again! We got wet and yes, so did our laptop...fried!!! Again, Second one!! We locked Lisa, Jana , and Henna inside the cabin while Nadine and I were waiting for the next roller to break into our humble back yard! To top it off, upon our nightly arrival we turned into the wind to drop sail and the depth went from 100ft to 4ft in seconds! Welcome to Honduras! We made it off the next morning with minor damage to Crystals mighty hull! Roatan was great, especially the marine park on the West end of the island. There is a nice community there with plenty of eco-tourism and the water is crystal clear.
We will come back here again one day, we fell in love....again! When our weather window arrived it was time for us to do the opposite. We departed for Ambergris, Belize.
On the way we tucked behind the Turneffe reef for a rest and to walk our hairy friend on a cayo the size of a basket ball court! She was so happy to relieve herself and husk yet another coconut. (Henna can out husk any local islander when it comes to coconuts). We sailed through the cut into San Pedro and anchored behind (not on) the breaking waves of Belize's great barrier reef. We enjoyed the town and walked along the white sanded, hotel infested beach, and of course found the ice cream shop! We finally realized what a touristy place it was, there were Americans everywhere! And it occurred to us that we were getting closer to our destination...USA. But first... Mexico. We pulled up anchor @ 3 AM and made the daring cut transit at night out into the choppy seas in front of San Pedro. Then the fun started again.... The main halyard (the one to pull up the main sail) slipped out of my hand and ended up, were else? In the wind generator! Here we are, jerking around in the breaking waves @ 3 in the morning with no sail to stabilize us, what a great start!! My wife can work wonders! She balanced-wedged herself and using the boat hook untangled the spaghetti from the wind-gen. Now, as I am writing I can hear her moan from the pain of this daring task! Two days later and we are here! Now plan to rent a car and visit some of the wonderful Mayan lost cities and lisa, and Jana will try to figure out were they all went?! And of course we will have ice cream! Well folks, that about wraps it up for now. We are safe and happy and plan to go to Isla Mujeres next to wait for weather to make the trip to Florida's keys. But before we go, we all want to see those dolphins throw around those tourists again! Cheers!