Sailing Across the Pacific Ocean (Part 4)
I took watch at 6am this morning, Minnie warned me about some big sketchy cargo ship that kept changing course aft of us when we switched off. A half our later it was 400 feet to our starboard and leeward of us. I started getting worried and had to do an evasive maneuver to avoid potential collision.
We arrived in the Isla Mujeres harbour at about 10am and could not get ahold of the marina to find a slip. We had to anchor in front of the marina, which proved to be much more difficult than we thought. We must have tried a dozen times, and our anchor just wouldn't catch. Oddly, the wind was blowing our STERN to wind. Normally your boat naturally goes head to wind, but this boat goes stern to wind...? We were finally able to find a decent sand bottom to drop our anchor without it dragging.
Gary and Jan took the dinghy to land and found us a nice slip (at a really nice marina resort with a pool and everything).
We had some arrival drinks and then dinghy'd to a lobster fisherman we saw on the way in to find some shellfish, octopus, and other fish to fry up for lunch.
The place seemed pretty sketchy, so we decided to just go out for lunch.
We scooted around in the dinghy and found a small restaurant not too far.
They had a "shark pit" in the water that had captured reef sharks in it.
We had some Mexican Margaritas and rum punches,
and some food. I had grilled grouper, and we all shared nachos. They gave us some complimentary tortillas with it.
Oddly, they were playing Katy Perry and Kei$ha when we arrived, but then switched to more 'islandy music'.
It feels good to be here. I am looking forward to a shower!
Minnie and I went for a walk in the evening, Gary and Jan were tired and stayed back. We walked along the Playa del Norte (North Beach) and it was beautiful. They had cabanas, beach beds, hammocks, and massage tables everywhere. The sand went right up to and in the beach-side tiki bars. I might rent a hammock ($2/day) and just spend an entire day in it.
We also walked to el centro (downtown), which was a really narrow street that had hundreds of little shops and restaurants on both sides with tables spilling out into the street. The restaurants also all had little samples out front for you to taste.
Sorry Bermuda, but I think Isla Mujeres is my new favourite island. It is the perfect mix of island life and mainland Mexico.
No comments:
Post a Comment