We Are In Mexico!

March 28, 2024

Getting to Mexico

We found a small weather window a week ago Tuesday and we set sail for Mexico at 4 in the afternoon. We had to cross the Gulf Stream twice, once in the Florida Straits and then again in the Yucatan Channel.

Here is the Gulf Stream this morning. It changes somewhat depending on weather and water temperature but this is close enough for now. We left Key West heading southwest until we reached the Gulf Stream and cross it. We then got a push from the little counter current off Cuba until we reached the Gulf Stream again where we headed straight west. Isla Mujeras is the little dot north of Playa del Carmen. You can also go to our actual track at https://sylviacrain.com/hoy/?page_id=36561. This shows all the routes and places we’ve stopped since buying Rincon Feliz color coded by year.

The Gulf Stream can be quite strong 3 – 4 knots (and we only go 8 knots) and you definitely want to TRY and not be going against the current. And, you DO NOT want winds against the current or you have a very rough ride with BIG waves. The winds were behind us the whole way which is very good for our boat, and they were not terribly strong, not more than 20 knots. There were some bigger waves in the 4 foot range, but all in all, it was pretty reasonable. Even the kittens did pretty well.

George did try a little fishing with a hand line on Wednesday. But, it was a bit rough. If we’d caught anything it would have been quite a challenge to land it and deal with it.
This was the biggest water we saw in our crossing. It was in the Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico. At points we were doing 4 knots and crabbing 30 degrees to keep on course. But, I actually though the water the first night during our first crossing was less comfortable.
We did have a passenger join us Thursday morning. She flew in the open door and landed on the console on the pilot house. Being quite tired she was happy to just sit for maybe 30 minutes. Nik did see her but we quickly occupied her otherwise with lots of pets. We were getting closer to land (but could not see it yet and she flew off.

With 4 of us, it was not a bad trip. We had teams with two on for 3 hours, so we really had 1 ½ hour shifts with the other on call in the pilot house. Total travel time from Key West to Isla Mujeras, 46 hours. One sail boat and about 4 or 5 freighters and that was it. We’d hope to see the Cuba coast but were too far off shore. We needed to be there no later than mid-day before the winds kicked up and we made it!

Landfall Isla Mujeras. There are only a few tall buildings on Isla and they are your first site. Rounding the point to the rights was rather crazy with lots of tourist sail boats going every which direction and ferries as well.

Checking In

Jim had done the paperwork ready to get Rincon, Rinconsito, 4 humans and 2 cats into Mexico. A bit of a grumble, but all in all, not too bad. We hired an agent to ease the way. Well worth it. We could not check in until the following day, but that did not stop us for checking out the local scene. The boat had a yellow quarantine flag, but we did not. I don’t think anyone really cared. Next day, Jim is off to visit the Port Captain, Immigration and Customs and comes back with Agriculture and Customs to inspect the boat and give the kittens pets. Chicha though it was fine, Nik did not enjoy it! We all passed and because we had a large crew of 4, they “allowed” our liquor stash. They had no worries about the plants in the least.

One does not take pictures of the immigration and customs officials, so you get a picture of a sport fisherman with his bait. Our first marina had lots of sport fishermen from the US. They had been there for several months. Not sure they were catching much as we never saw they cleaning anything.

Isla Mujeras

What a lovely place! Despite having so many tourists, Isla retains it’s Mexican character and sense of self. We rented a golf cart (very popular) and toured the island, making sure to visit many bars and food stops along the way. Isla is the farthest east piece of land in Mexico and we visited it at the tip of the island. Pretty spot.

The southern tip of Isla Mujeras. There are lots of iguanas on the island. They all seem pretty friendly as far as I can tell.

The water here rivals any we saw in the Bahamas. Very clear, even in the inner harbor, it was pretty nice.

At the norther tip of Isla. Look at that pretty water!

Cancun

George and Frances moved over to Cancun for a few days before they flew back to Virginia. We had so much fun during their visit. A very simpatico group. And to think we’d never traveled together before! We decided to take the ferry across and spend the day with them, visiting the Maya museum and a very small archaeological site right at the museum (or is that vice versa?)

A beautiful Mayan vase from 250 – 600 BC. Such a pretty, simple design.
I thought this was very unique. Can’t say I’ve ever seen anything quite like it!

More food was in order and drinks too! The high rises of Cancun are not to my liking but we enjoyed our visit. Our 1st time to Cancun.


We took a late ferry back to Isla Mujeras after a, get this, dinner in a French restaurant! Why not mix it up.

Yes, the ferry has these changing color lights in the water for the entire 20 minute fast ride across.

We really miss George and Frances but are meeting folks at the marina we moved to after George and Frances left and we were all checked into Mexico.

George and Frances enjoying their first visit to Mexico. They are welcome back any time they want to come!

Learning

It has not taken us long to understand some of the things we have not really been prepared for.

  • We have a watermaker which makes fresh water for us and puts it into our water tank. But, one does not want to make water in dirty water as it is not very good for the membranes which are quite expensive. One NEVER makes water in harbor as the water there can be VERY dirty. Here, the water is pretty darn clean but you don’t want to make water except when the winds are out of the north, blowing clean water in from the ocean as opposed to dirty water from the inner harbor. There is dock water that some folks use somewaht, or run through their watermakers. Jim is modifying our inputs to the watermaker so we can make water from dock water or sea water. We want to KNOW the quality of our water in our tanks. We have plenty of water right now, but this will arise again.
  • Remember that dirty water thing? Dirty water mostly comes from poo. There are NO pumpouts here. Not even at the few fancy marinas. Folks hang around for months in the same place so, their tanks get dumped into the harbors, not 3 miles off shore as is desired. At our marina (tiny), folks are (as best we know) good about using the marina toilets. But, there are lots of boats around and we know not all the anchored or docked boats are following such sanitary rules. Luckily we have a big poo tank and combined with their nice clean toilets, we are good for quite a while.

So we work on projects with very hard to find parts and try to figure out the next stops on our trip. It is much harder to find information, as charts are not nearly as good, marinas are few and far between if they exist at all and information on anchorages is a bit harder. One is more on their own down here.

We really want to go to Campeche, a place we have not been in our various Mexico travels. It is not on the typical boat cruising path which adds more challenge. But, we’ll figure it out.

This is our new marina. Very cure and homey. 7 other boats besides us (plus a small hotel). A typical size marina here. We are the only power boat, everyone else is a sailboat. All Americans (but there was a Polish group here for a couple days). The folks here have all been here for at least a month and many have been here every year for multiple years. We did help out a Swiss guy at anchor with a HORRIBLE dinghy waiting for his new one to arrive. The one he has now spring a leak and they were sinking. Plugged the hole with our spare dinghy drain.

Very windy today which has at least cooled things off. We are here for at least a few more days due to weather and…. no plan.