November 2003

North 29 degrees 33 minutes, West 95 degrees 01 minutes

Well, OK....we haven't actually left yet. The crew is on DoodleBug at her slip in Portofino Harbor in Kemah, Texas.

We are fitting the last few spares, loading up the food and booze and plan to set sail in early January 2004. The first destination is Isla Mujeres (the island of women) in the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico. From there it is on to Grand Cayman and then to Panama. We do need to be in Panama early to mid-February in order to time our transit of the canal. The trick is to try to arrive in the South Pacific Islands after their cyclone (hurricane) season has ended in May.

 

When we get to Panama we will also have a feel for how well or badly we have judged our groceries. This will be the last "good" grocery stop for a while, although Galapagos is supposed to be great for turtle steaks...........

 

December 31, 2003

This morning we intended to leave the slip in Portofina Marina at 0400 hours - high tide. The slip is quite shallow with a mud barrier and we knew we would need to go to full throttle to plow our way through the soft mud and into deeper water. We then need to turn sharply to miss the boat in the slip directly opposite us. The engine was thoroughly warmed and just before we dropped the last mooring lines, I checked the engine compartment with a flashlight. Hydraulic oil spraying everywhere! Not a good start.

After breakfast, I worked on the hydraulic actuator rebuild for the next three hours. The first innovation was to take Annette's fancy copper pans and used one to heat hydraulic oil. Before you panic, I put the oil in a "throw away" plastic container and put this into the hot water in the pan. By soaking the plasticy looking seals, I was able to stretch the suckers enough to finally get them in place. Then the actuator wouldn't go back together. This was because of the necessary shape of the biggest piston seal. It was too big to go into a vice to apply force.

I asked Annette to add her 110 lbs. to my 160lbs. by pushing down on my shoulders when I tried the subtle approach. It worked! What a team! Everyone needs a good woman sometime......

 .......later that day.... 

North 28 degrees 27 minutes, West 93 degrees 16 minutes

 

 

We are finally on our way!  1:30 pm. finds us under sail and close hauled about 20 miles or so from the Flower Garden Banks.  It is cloudy and raining a little but slightly warmer than when we left Kemah yesterday.  As expected, it has been rough.  I expect a couple of days  of this and then we should warm up some and maybe get some sunshine!

 

January 1, 2004

...is our noon fix.  We are still slogging "uphill". That is the wind is against us and kicking up sharp steep waves. Should be better tomorrow.

 

January 2, 2004

North 25 degrees 07.1 Minutes, West 89 degrees 29.4 Minutes

 

January 3, 2004

North 23 degrees 58.1 Minutes , West 88 degrees 19.5 Minutes

The outside temp is now 82F.  It is definitely shorts weather! Everyone is fine. Annette is now up to chicken with her boiled rice. Attila has discovered that little flying fish come on board during the night and is very interested. Actually, she is interested in anything that remotely resembles food. We should be in Isla sometime on the 5th. I am now thinking about where I put the Mexico courtesy flag.

The only exciting thing I have done is to transfer 60 gallons of diesel from cans into the main tank.

 

January 4, 2004

North 22 degrees 13.8 Minutes, West 87 Degrees 19.2 Minutes

We are "heaved to" - that means stopped in sailor talk - this morning. We are about 100 miles from Isla Mujeres and if we keep on going at full blast, we will arrive in the middle of the night. We plan to arrive early Monday morning when customs etc. is actually open!  

We have microwaved our sausage biscuits for breakfast. Rather, I did the microwaving and Annette ate one. That is how well she is doing!

We are running the water-maker to top up our tanks before going into Isla M. We don't plan on taking on any water there. Last night was humid and everything was soaking. I don't know if it was spray or condensation but either way it felt damp and slightly sticky. This morning the first mate has washed everything in the cockpit down with fresh water - removing both the salt and a mistake I made a couple of days ago with a cup of cocoa.

I have printed up our crew lists for immigration while we are bobbing around here and after I have checked the sat-phone for e-mail and weather, we will be on our way again.

Never a dull moment......

.....later that day......

 

The noon position was 22 deg 13.8' N 87 deg 19.2' W.  We should arrive off Isla at first light tomorrow.   We think we will stay in Isla for a week.  I need to replace the seals on the Bow Thruster ( I have the parts) and also fix the pump on the forward head.  I have this part also.  We will then go thru everything and re-stow the stuff in the forward V-Birth.  Of course we will also need to rent motorcycles, go scuba diving and eat out at a lot of restaurants.  All this takes time.  The temp is 83F again today. What a difference 500 miles or so makes.

 

January 5, 2004

North 21 degrees 15 minutes, West 86 degrees 44.9 minutes

 

 

Well we made it!  Isla Mujeres!  We passed by the Cape in Northern Yucatan "Cabo Catoche", near 2200 hours on Jan 4th.  There is a strong current (the Gulf Stream) that sweeps near this Cape and although the forecast was for light winds, they were anything but light; 25 to 30 knots giving confused "big" seas.  It was very dramatic with DoodleBug crashing though big waves, occasionally taking "green" water on board.  I expected that the seas would die down on the Caribbean side of the Cape, the wind direction would be favorable to sailing and we could turn the engine off.  I was mildly concerned since we had been burning far more diesel than I had expected.  I still had another 40 gallons in the stern locker but the thought of transshipping this to the main tank in the dark, with waves as high as 12 feet, was not exactly appealing.

Needless to say, the strong winds stayed firmly on the nose.  We arrived off Isla in more big seas, a strong current and now a lee shore, all at around midnight.  We needed daylight and calm seas to get into the harbor here.

This meant that we spent a miserable night "heaved to" or slowly motoring against the current, dodging huge waves that you can't see at night.  Dawn was a wonderful sight.  I couldn't raise anyone on the radio to find out if there were "breaking" seas over the bar at the north end of the island, so I revised the navigation to go into the south end of the island.  We set off at first light.

We anchored safely at 0900 in Isla Mujeres harbor at 21 deg 15' N 86  deg 44.9' W on January 5th.

We then had to launch the dinghy (and get the outboard motor to start) and go into town to begin the clearance procedures.  This involved visits to the Port Captain, Immigration (twice), Bank to pay for permits etc., Copy shop to copy some of the many forms we now had, the hospital to get medically inspected (he didn't even look up from his rubber stamp) and then back to the port captain.  We might be cleared in now at 1430 hours although we haven't seen customs (how much wine did you say!!???) or agriculture (Its a dog! Que?).

At 1500 hours we finally got to bed and got up just long enough to write this, eat and head back to the bunk.
Tomorrow we will come back to life and get to clean up the boat etc. etc.  No more than half days allocated to work though.
Will find an Internet cafe tomorrow.

 

January 6, 2004

 

Our arrival in Isla Mujeres yesterday possibly concluded the "shake down" portion of our cruise. After some sleep, a full tummy and several beers in me, it doesn't seem quite as hard. After all, we got here without breaking ourselves or the boat.  The entry into Isla was not too much fun, as we got some bad weather and arrived at night. We had to "heave to" - sort of like putting it into neutral - for the night and wait for dawn's early light to make the entrance to the harbor here. What has been interesting, is the number of people who have asked us if we have seen the sail boat on the reef. It seems some poor guy was sailing up from Guatemala and arrived here at night. He was tired and tried to make the harbor entrance in the dark. Needless to say, he didn't make it and his boat is now part of the reef. The Mexican authorities want to fine him for damaging their reef. 

 

I remember reading a sailing book from 40 years ago that recommends carrying pick axes to hack away at the reef and to buy dynamite locally to blast a hole in the reef, so you can get your boat off. Would this be construed as environmental damage?

 

January 7, 2004

We are still here at Isla Mujeres. The first day we were here we spent checking in with the port authorities and sleeping. The second day (yesterday) it bucketed with rain. I took the dinghy to see if we could get into a marina (we are at anchor right now). I had everything in water proof bags but when I got to the marina it was all soaked anyway. The marina was full, with 30 on the waiting list.

 Forget that! Next back to the boat to collect the First Mate and into town to look for an Internet cafe. 30 minutes to clear out all of my old e-mails. Then fish tacos and beer for lunch. Our Santa Fe friend Roger Sprague had suggested we look up one of his friends who lives here - Jay Fletcher. All we knew was that he works in Real Estate and has two dogs. We struck out with the phone book. They don't seem to be big on phone books here. Then we walked into a small Real estate office and asked if anyone knew Jay Fletcher. The girl there said, "Yes, I know Jay". Now we know where he lives, etc. but not his phone number, so we still haven't contacted him.

Annette is repacking the boat as hard as she can. Ed is tearing into the bow-thruster today, to replace the seals on the sticky-down part. At least we don't have to worry about washing off the boat after yesterday's rain.

January 9, 2004  

Friday and I'm logging on to get the weather. We have been working again this morning doing boat chores. This afternoon, if it stays sunny, we will rent a little golf cart thingy and go play.

January 12, 2004  

We started the day with Attila excitement. First she fell off the side bench in the cockpit to the floor. We were sitting there and the boat was not rocking. There was this tremendous thump. She looked like she had been dropped from the sky. Not hurt but definitely embarrassed. Annette then decided to trim Attila's nails on the assumption she had got a nail caught in the seat cushion. She bled everywhere (Attila that is). I think she stopped bleeding when she ran out. Interesting breakfast....

We begin the departure procedure today and will probably leave early tomorrow morning. The crossing is around 350 miles and should take a couple of days. We hope to be in on the 15th.,otherwise we will have to hang around until dawn on the 16th.