Isla Mujeres: Day 9 - Last Day

Today is our last full day in Isla Mujeres. We are trying to get everything done today, so tomorrow we can just get up, fuel up, and head out for Panama.

A cold front has come through, so it's been really cold the last couple days here. That means it's time to move more south!

Gary and I spent most of the day fixing up and replacing the wiring to and from the alternator (and regulator). It hasn't been working since half-way through our last passage and we haven't determined the problem yet. We have a work-around to charge our batteries using the generator, but we'd like to have the alternator working too.

Jan and Minnie took care of the provisioning.

We went out for a 'last night' sunset dinner here at a restaurant off of North Beach.

The drinks were huge. They were like monster fish bowls raised on a pedestal. I had a Pina Colada after my Margarhita.

I ordered the catch of the day, which was grouper. I wasn't expecting TWO fish to be on my plate! I finished it all though, like a trooper.

It is about 850 nautical miles to Panama, so this will officially be my longest offshore passage. It should take roughly 7 days if wind is decent for us. I am really looking forward to seeing Panama and all the exotic animals there (especially monkeys and sloths).

Isla Mujeres: Day 8 - Jury Rigged

Our jury-rigged boom vang pin is finally complete, after 11 hours grinding and drilling! This pin used to be a chisel. It has a cotter pin through the bottom to keep it from lifting.

We did a test run of the drogue in the afternoon.

This beast is deployed in extreme weather (hence needing to have mastered deploying it at port or in nicer weather) to slow the boat down when riding down huge swells at 14 knots and losing control of the boat. It is dragged about 300 feet behind your boat and acts as sort of an underwater parachute.

Isla Mujeres: Day 7 - Cohibas

Well, we have officially been here for a week. It is amazing the number of things that can pop up as a sailor that keep you at port.

We are still trying to get a replacement pin for our boom vang. Liam the Australian, that I think I mentioned in a prior blog entry, said his "friend" was going to make one for us. It is basically just a 4 inch bolt (5/8 inch wide) with a hole in one end for a cotter pin. Minnie and I walked all over the island today looking for a replacement. We went to 4 different hardware stores using limited Spanish to communicate our needs, but came up with nothing.

With no update from Liam the Australian, we decided to have a plan b "jury rig" incase we never hear from him again. We spent 7 hours today grinding down a quartz chisel so it would fit in the bolt socket.

It is still not done, but I think it will be pretty solid when it's done.

It was another crappy day weather-wise.

Minnie and I went out with some fisherman dudes for the night. They took us to a bar owned by three really attractive girls from Vancouver, BC. I have noticed a lot of bars with Canadian flags here. Apparently many Canadians come here.

My boy J.R. made my night when he handed me a couple boxes full of Cuban Cohibas for free because no one on his boat smoked. Cheers to not having a lighter!

Isla Mujeres: Day 6 - New slip

We got up early this morning an embarked on our second glorious sailing passage to a new slip a few hundred feet away. Some mega-yacht was coming in, so we had to move. Jan was on the dock and threw me the bow line at first, but no one was there to grab the stern line. So she threw that to me and I made an epic catch just as the coil came to an end at the last bit of rope (think Indiana Jones style whipping sound). I was then rocking both the bow and stern line like some sort of cowboy. I was the only one who noticed this awesomeness...

We are now surrounded by fishing boats.

The dock is lined with fisherman at the end of the day, drinking beer while cutting and cleaning their catch for buyers.

We got some more work done on the boat today. The rain kept us from doing some of our projects, but we still got a decent amount done. I had to swim under the boat to declog the A/C seacock. That was fun in the gross marina water. I kept looking around thinking there was a barricuda under me.

We went for another little walk in the rain afterward, just to get out of the hot-as-balls boat (with broken A/C). This time we walked along the east side of the island along some old rundown boardwalk thing.

We got the A/C working again in the evening! The pump needed to be re-primed. It's so nice in here again!

Isla Mujeres: Day 5 - Working on the Boat

I found out Gary has a nice set of resistance bands on the boat, so I can workout on the boat! I am developing exercises to replace what I did at the gym at home. I imagine they'll be much more difficult at sea.

After working out, we got a ton of work done on the boat. We first replaced the lifeline connectors as they were looking rather rusty.

The next job was not on the list, but we noticed the cotter pin on the forestay was angled so that it might tear the staysail when raised. Also, it look pretty rusty. So we replaced it and flipped the bolt so it wasn't an issue anymore.

Another ad hoc job involved finding a replacement bolt for our boom vang because the old one was rusted to the point that it was about to break. We have a temporary bolt in the picture here until we have a replacement custom-made.

After that, we figured we would have some fun and did a test raise of the staysail.

Then it was back to work. We found a leak in the foreward starboard port and had to re-caulk it. This was a really tough job as the port frame did NOT want to come off. You have to be super gentle taking it off because the frames bend so easily, but at the same time, it requires a ton of force to remove. Here is our beautiful completed job.

This took us all the way to sundowner hour, and we're not allowed to do any work after sundowner. So beer time!

We found out our 'free ride' is over. There is a mega-yacht coming in tomorrow that we have to give our mega-slip to. So we are getting up early tomorrow morning and moving the boat.

Isla Mujeres: Day 4 - El Centro

We spent the morning doing some more work around the boat. Gary and I took apart and greased up the windlasses while Minnie swam under the boat to de-clog a seacock for the forward head.

Afterward, we grabbed some lunch and beers at the resort pool bar. There were iguanas everywhere for some reason. One scared us as soon as we sat down, he suddenly came running full speed at us and stopped at our feet. We thought he was attacking, but I think people just feed the iguanas here and he wanted food.

We all walked to el centro (downtown) to find some fresh lobster or something for dinner. It is a really nice place with a ton of little shops and restaurants. Looks even better at night though.

We didn't end up finding the fish market, so we just went back to the boat and made a nice Italian dinner.

I really wanted to swim with the famous wild whale sharks here, but they don't migrate through until summer, so no luck there.

Isla Mujeres: Day 3 - Work Day

We've decided to spend today getting things done around the boat to have her all ready for our next passage.

It's a good week long trip to Panama, so we're looking at a potential stop along the way as a full week of good weather is unlikely. We're considering either Cayman Islands or somewhere in Honduras.

Here are a few shots of the high-end marina that we are staying in.

The first task of the day was to take apart all the wiring to the windlass and clean off all the corrosion. The windlass wasn't working properly and we thought it could be because of the corrosion creating resistance in the system.

We then sprayed everything with some anti-corrosion stuff.

Minnie and I went for another walk after all the work was done for the day. We saw some really nice beaches and I found a whole peso on the ground!