Puerto Moroles Mexico

We had a short weather window and decided to sail down to Puerto Morelos (only about 35 miles south of Isla Mujeres). We had a great sail and along the way Bill hung a sailfish that striped about 300 yards of line off the reel. He managed to get the fish up to within 30 yards or so of the boat before it got off. Then he caught a large Barracuda (while trying to release the Barracuda the line broke, and we lost a new lure, leader and swivel weight). Finally we caught a nice size King Mackerel (At last, one that could be filleted and put in the freezer).

We arrived in Puerto Morelos just as a little squall passed through, so we dropped the anchor just off the town dock (there were three mooring bouys, but all three were taken). The next morning, we, along with Bob and Robin (from our buddy boat), dinghied over to the town dock and toured the town.

Since NOAA (the weather GOD) was predicting another front to blow through Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, we decided to get a slip at the El Cid Marina. We were glad we did, as the winds blew 25 to 35 knots throughout last night.

The El Cid is wonderful. For $20.00 US per night, you get a slip in an almost new marina with concrete floating docks, wifi, clean showers, a coin laundry, a great cash restaurant, as well as the use of the facilities at El Cid's all inclusive resort (located next door to the marina), which has a beautiful beach (with lounges, thatched shade structures, hammocks), a huge pool (with water slides & waterfalls), a large hot tub and even a gym (which we have not been in).



























They have concerts with Mexican musicians and even have Mexican cooking classes. Yes, Pat and I learned to make El Cid guacamole yesterday.

The wind is still pretty strong, so we might have to spend one more day here before moving on. Don't you feel sorry for us?

Leaving Isla Mujeres Mexico

After five weeks in Marina Paraiso, we finally left today. We left the slip and went down

to the fuel dock to top off with fuel and gasoline. We had to wait one and a half hours while they pumped fuel into a big sports fisherman. (I wouldn't want to pay his bill!) Then back, past our marina, and out to the anchorage. We plan to leave tomorrow and head down to Puerto Morelos Mexico (about 35 miles down the coast). We think there will be five or ten more boats headed down there in the next day or two.

Again, while we are ready to leave, we have had some good times here. We have met many cruisers from all over the world. If fact, we Americans were usually outnumbered by the Ozzies, Kiwis, Brits, Canadians, South Africians, Spanish (that's Spanish from Spain) and all the rest.

We have had many exciting happy hours and dinners at the marina bar and made many trips into town for shopping, tourist watching or just for the exercise. Also a couple of shopping trips into Cancun .... a bustling city (with Home Depot, Walmart, Office Depot, etc.) only five miles away by ferry.

We made one land trip down to Playa Del Carmel, Mexico to meet up with some old friends from Annapolis MD, that we met several years ago while cruising in the Bahamas. It was a great trip, although it involved four taxi, two bus and two ferry rides to get there and back. It was good to see them and talk about old times (while we ate tacos, drank Pacificos and watched US college football on the TVs at the Tequilla Barrel Cantina). We went New Year's Day, and the town and beach was packed, both with foreigners and Mexicans from inland.

The only bad time was the week we spent with food poisoning (although Pat still says she only had the flu). On the bright side, it gave us a reason to check out the local cemeteries ...... I thought I was gonna die there for a while!

We don't know when or where we will get wifi to update the blog again. We will update it as soon as possible.

Touble In Paradise!

One of the best things about the Caribbean coast of Mexico is the Food. On the other hand, one of the worst things about the Caribbean coast of Mexico is the Food. Pat and I, along with several other cruisers in the marina and around the island, have come down with food poisoning.

Symptoms for food poisoning include nausea, vomiting, abnominal cramping, diarrhea, head and/or muscle aches and fever. In other words, It ain't fun! I don't how long it last but I (Bill) am now in my third day. I think I'm a little better however, to be honest, I'm not really sure if I'm getting better or just getting used to the mesery. I came down with it a day before Pat. Right after I came down with it, she told me that she thought it was just a little 24 hour bug. Now that she has it, I think she is has changed her mind.

Yesterday, the local pharmacist (also known as the local druggist or chemist, depending on what part of the world you are from) suggested a drug called Mebendazol Diazplen (1 pill every 12 hours for 3 days) to kill the bacteria or whatever it is in our systems. The medicine only cost 20 pesos (that works out to about $1.60 US). We will see how it works.

For now, we are both staying on the boat and close to the Bano. We will probably leave Isla Mujeres in about a week (weather permitting) and head down the coast toward Belize. We will try to update this blog with some of the fun stuff we have done since we got to Mexico before we leave.

We've made it to Isla Mujeres Mexico

After a week in beautiful Marco Island, we finally left about 4:00pm on Sunday, December 6th after topping off the fuel and water tanks at the Marco River Marina. As beautiful as Marco Island was, we were ready to leave. We motored out the river and turned southwest toward the Dry Tortugas. The seas were 2 to 3 ft. and the winds were light and variable. After an uneventful night we arrived at the Dry Tortugas about 8:00am the following morning.

It had been about 20 years since Pat had been to the Dry Tortugas and about 15 years since Bill had been there. Man, how things have changed! That old laid back park with a staff of 5 or 6 people is long gone. Dry Tortugas National Park is now surrounded by a Marine Research Natural Area (with all it’s rules and regulations). The first day we were there we dingied over to the fort and sat out on the dock while 5 law enforcement officers (park rangers, marine sanctuary police and, we think, Florida Marine Patrol, all dressed in full assault gear including guns, handcuffs, batons, handcuffs, tazers, boots, etc.) harassed 4 guys in their brand new 41 ft. open sport fisherman. Apparently, the 4 guys had been scuba diving and were on their way back to the fort when one of the patrol boats had attempted to stop them (because they thought they might be fishing). No one in the sportfish noticed the patrol boat or its blue lights, and the patrol boat was unable to catch the sportfish, which is capable of speeds up to 65 mph. Once they docked back at the fort, they were boarded and inspected by all three agencies. They had all the approprate gear and easily passed all inspections. After being inspected and talked down to a for quite a while, they were allowed to return to Key West. In the old days, when there were only 5 or 6 park service staff living on the island, only a small part of the historic fort was dedicated to park housing and maintenance. Now it seems that about half the fort is used for park housing and maintenance with only the remaining half open to the general public. While we were there we were never approached by a park service interpreter (that’s the smiling park person who usually tells you all the history, guides tours or gives campfire talks), however, we were required, by a park ranger, to fill out a permit request form and given pamphlets with all the new rules and regulations. In spite of all these changes, the Dry Tortugas and Fort Jefferson is still a beautiful place to visit.

By Tuesday we were ready to leave, and the weather looked like it would cooperate, so we put the dingy up on davits, tied everything down and prepared to leave early Wednesday morning. After one last check of the weather, we left the Dry Tortugas about 7:00am Wednesday morning in route to Isla Mujeres, Mexico. The winds were expected to be around 10 kts from the east and south. We got winds from 5 to 14 kts mostly out of the southeast.. The trip was pretty uneventful except once when Otis (our autopilot) decided to go on strike. We were in the gulf stream when it decided to steer us first go one way then the other. Bill finally decided that the flux gate compass was sticking, so while Pat steered the boat, he removed the compass from the bulk head under the aft cabin bunk, made sure all wires were connected, shook it a few times, then wedged it between the mattress and a bulkhead. After that, the autopilot has worked better than it ever has in the past. We saw very few boats or ships until we reached the Yucatan straights, then there were lots of ships to watch out for.

We arrived at Isla Mujeres about 4:00pm Friday, set the anchor and got a good night’s sleep. On Saturday morning, we took a slip in Marina Paraiso, then went into town to clear customs etc. Since it was Saturday, the doctor was not at the clinic, and no one else there spoke English. Someone called the doctor and was finally able to communicate that she should be there in one hour. The doctor, a young woman, showed up as promised and stamped all of our papers and sent us to the immigrations office. When we got to the immigrations office, it was closed. Not knowing what to do, we went down to the Port Captain’s office and told him that we could not clear in because the immigrations office was closed. The Port Captain called someone at the airport and told us that the immigrations people would show up in one hour. We went back down to the immigrations office, and sure enough, someone showed up in one hour. Things were going pretty well until the immigrations man who spoke no English, suddenly said ..... "Problema!" The bank was closed for some sort of celebration until the following Tuesday (all fees are paid at the bank). The immigrations man went out on the street and found a nearby shopkeeper who spoke some English. With the use of the new found interpreter, it was decided that we should come back Tuesday when the bank is open, and in the meantime we are not to leave the island. With the clearing in process put on hold, we walked around town and went into a little restaurant for lunch. What did we eat in this quaint little Mexican town? Cheeseburgers in Paradise - Naturally!

Waiting for Weather in Marco Island Florida

We had about given up selling the truck in St. Pete Beach, because we had only gotten one phone call about our Craig's list add, and that was from a guy all the way over in Lakeland. Pat was planning to drive the truck to Atlanta to spend Thanksgiving with the her step-son and family. Since Curtis had agreed to sell the truck for us, she had already purchased her return airline ticket, when that one guy from Lakeland called back and wanted to know if he could still look at the truck. To make a long story short, he bought the truck, and we hurriedly drove up to Tampa to pick up the life raft and epirb, while he went back to Lakeland to pick up a cashier's check to pay for the truck. The Mack Pack finally arrived and fits and works great. We said our goodbyes to Ted, Peggy and Nevada ..... It's always hard to leave friends along the way.

We left St. Pete Beach for Marco Island Saturday morning about 10:00am. We went out the Pass-A-Grille inlet and headed south. The predicted 10 to 15 kt. north winds turned out to be 2 to 6 kt. east winds for much of the trip, so we motorsailed down to about Sanibel Island, where the winds picked up about midnight, and we had a great sail the rest of the way. The only thing, it was cold, so we had to wrap up in sweatshirts and foul weather gear. (We are ready to get to warmer waters!) Since we were just off the beach, we had TV, so Bill got to watch his "DAWGS" whoop up on Ga Tech. (That was certainly the highlight of the trip for Bill).

We Arrived at Marco Island about 10:00am Sunday and motored into our favorite anchorage (Factory Cove) and dropped the anchor. This is where they had a lawsuit over anchoring rights, but so far, no one has said anything to us. Since there is a big storm predicted for the end of the week, we decided to wait it out here (where we have, TV, wifi internet, grocery stores and resturants) rather than go on to the Dry Tortugas NP, where there are no services, what so ever. Yesterday, we played tourist .... put the dingy down and went out to the beach and went shelling. We found some sand dollars which we gave away to the other tourists. After we returned from the beach, we cruised (in the dingy) up and down some of the canals in search of a quicker way to the Public's Supermarket. No Luck! We'll just have to walk the mile or so there and the mile or so back. Oh well, it's good excerise!