Welcoming committee in Isla Mujeres
Marina Pariso (not my photo - from their webstie)
After 400 miles of open ocean sailing and battling the Yucatan current, the first sign of land we saw was the white lighthouse on the the northern tip of Isla Contoy. The island just north of Isla Mujeres. From here it was just a few more hours of smooth sailing until we were tied up to our dock at Marina Pariso. Just as Isla Mujeres was insight, with the large frigate birds greeting us from the sky, the sun began to set.
Entering any new harbour, much less at night, can be a tricky conquest but Stan had the authoritative sailing guide book on the area and all the waypoints correctly entered into his gps. We just had to track the line on the gps screen. The buoy lights marking the channels were hard to distinguish between the island's lights but we found the inlet with no problem and took a right to stay on course. Just had to get around the beach on our port side, turn left and we were there. The beach however did seem unnecessarily close to me with so much open channel to the right. I asked Stan and looked at the gps screen which indicated we were right on track. I went ahead, grabbed our big spot light and went to the bow. When I turned it on and shined it in front of us, all I saw was beach. The bearing the guide book gave us had cut the corner way too close. I immediately told Stan to turn hard right but no sooner had the words left my mouth than we felt the boat bounce of the bottom and then come to an abrupt stop. We were both in disbelief. So close and now this. We tried all the tricks in the book to get the boat off but were surrounded by shallow water. On top of that, the waves were ever so slowly pushing us to what appeared to be a rocky outcropping extending out from the beach.
We were on the radio as well trying to ask for help from the marina or anyone. Finally after an hour or so we got word that a coast guard boat was on its way. Once they arrived in their fishing boat with a deteriorating coast guard symbol on the side, the scene turned even more chaotic if somewhat humorous. Over a 2 hour period, the only thing their small boat with two 200 hp outboards managed to accomplish was add a few "Welcome to Isla Mujeres" tattoos on the side of the boat in the form of two holes and numerous scrapes. At the end we were just trying to save the boat more from the coast guard than the sea.
With the boat basically sitting on her keel and alternating between severely listing either to starboard or port, things weren't looking good. I told Stan to throw an anchor over so we would stop drifting towards the rocks and hopefully in the morning the tide would rise and we would have a better chance.
The coast guard came by one more time and asked if we wanted to stay on the boat. The captain of any boat is held by duty to stay on board until she goes down. However I was not the captain. I could see no use in my spending the night on this see-saw only to abandon ship at a later point without a rescue boat, so decided to take the ride ashore. Least to say it was an experience of it's own.
With my brief exchange with the coast guard who then transferred me to the Navy boat here is my impression of their application process and training:
Only one question on application:
Question 1 - Can you make sure to drink before coming to work and if time allows drink while at work especially it you are driving the boat? Must answer yes.
Training:
If someone yells forward - apply the engine at full throttle in the opposite direction
If someone yells reverse - apply the engine at full throttle in the opposite direction
If someone yells stop - apply the engine at full throttle
If someone yells - apply the engine at full throttle
I think the point of training is that yelling only makes things worse.
After passing this training you are handed the keys to a revamped fishing boat and a six pack of El Sol cerveza.
Enough about our first, and hopefully only, encounter with Mexican authorities. Just hope we really don't ever have to rely on them.
After 4.5 days on a rocky boat, one acquires what is called "sea legs". Once on land, this skill can become somewhat of a detriment and cause one to appear extremely drunk. However since I was in like minded company, although probably due to tequilla, I was not worried. Went through some customs/immigration papers. Had a medical, which I was told was routine for any "rescues". (Dave Beaver - no inappropriate comments please.) After the exam the medical officer asked if I felt ok. I stared at him blankly thinking about the last 4.5 days and mildly nodded in the affirmative.
I was told of a cheap hotel to stay at and while given directions at 2:30 am asked if it was safe to walk there now since I was unfamiliar with the island and had a single bag with all my expensive gear in it. They said it was very safe to take the main street....but it would probably be a little safer to take a back street. I grinned to myself and found the hotel a few blocks away.
In the morning I went down to the beach and to my surprise the boat was gone. I walked to the marina and saw it moored in the harbour. Stan said he kept motoring the boat, moving inches at a time and after 4 hours was in deep enough waters to motor to the anchorage. After talking to the harbour master at our marina once we got settled, he said the guide book we have is good but the one thing they have wrong is the north entrance into Isla. Really?! We told him we were radioing them for a while before entering to get some local knowledge on the area and he said "Oh, sorry about that. It was my night off and I was really drunk anyway."
So now safely tied up to the dock we decided to take a vacation and spend a week on the charming island of Isla Mujeres - the Island of Women.
JB
PS: To get folks caught up, it has been a week and we will be heading south in a day or two to Puerto Morelos near Cozumel. I have enjoyed my time here greatly and will write a few choice stories and download a bunch of pictures next time. Hope everyone is well. It has been great hearing from you.
