Note: The following trip report is the most recent and was posted January 15, 2010. Click on the Captain's Log link to the left to see previous trip reports. If you would like to receive an e-mail notification as soon as the web site is updated with new trip reports, enter your e-mail address in the text box to the right and click on the Submit button.

I. Introduction

When we left off in our last report, we were in Belize, sitting at anchor just off the beach from the town of San Pedro on the eastern shores of Ambergris Cay. We were waiting for a good weather window to head out of the barrier reef just offshore and turn to port so as to head northward on a non-stop passage to Isla Mujeres, Mexico.

Having had enough of the hostile weather of the northwestern Caribbean that season, I was determined to wait out Mother Nature. She’s a tough poker player, though. You really have to stay still and take a deep breath and just wait. Just about the time it seems that there will never be a break in the weather, Mother Nature will become distracted . . . I don’t know what happens . . . maybe she needs to pull up her socks, or heat up water for her tea, but she looks away for just a moment and we sneak out the door!

Local boaters in the northwestern Caribbean are quick to opine that it is impossible to get a decent weather window headed north out of the Yucatan and back to the U.S.A. until March or April.

But, we were lucky to be sitting in Belize in November and watching a weather window shape up that would be a “walk in the park” to Cancun and Isla Mujeres. And we were ready to move on, that’s for sure. Hurricane Season 2008 had been our least favorite by far. Significant security problems and friction on the Rio Dulce marred our good times in Guatemala, and unusually bad weather ruined our attempts to enjoy Belize as well.

As I watched the sunset the evening before our departure from Belize, I gave thanks that we were in great shape, all things considered, and finally making a major move northward and out of that region.

After three years in the Caribbean, we were really getting excited about the prospect of the Florida Keys and U.S. waters anyway. The “Good Old U.S.A.” was calling, with all its fantastic attributes dangling before us, including but not nearly limited to: affordable FedEx for parts and mail, no import duties on boat parts, readily available high-quality parts and materials for the boat, super high-quality food and pharmaceuticals, and many other priceless advantages, not to mention a return to a Rule of Law environment where cruisers seldom use locks and quite simply never, ever go to sleep with worries about pirates boarding their vessels at anchor.

Basically, after three years in El Caribe, the allure of high-end civilization itself was becoming irresistible.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Not so fast! We are not heading back to the U.S.A. just quite yet. We still have a stop to make in the Mexican Yucatan where we'll visit yet another famous tropical cruisers’ destination in the northwestern Caribbean: the “Island of Women” known as Isla Mujeres.

This island, situated at the very tip of the Mexican Yucatan, just off the beaches of Cancun, has historically been either the very first stop in the Caribbean experience for those heading south into El Caribe from the Gulf Coast, or it has been the opposite: the final punctuation mark of the entire Caribbean experience and the last stop before returning to the U.S.A.

As such, Isla Mujeres was naturally the very last stop for us as we headed closer to the Florida Keys.

So let’s get going to Isla Mujeres and check out this very famous cruising destination that we will surely enjoy exploring!

II. San Pedro, Belize, to Isla Mujeres, Mexico

As we departed the anchorage at San Pedro, Belize, the conditions were perfect . . . very light winds and ultra-calm seas would make for easy motor sailing upon cobalt blue waters.

After all these years in the Caribbean, motor sailing has become a prominent mode of travel simply because the best weather windows seem to require it.

We have discussed it before. As offensive as it sounds to the die-hard sailors and sailing purists, the most attractive way to transport your only home is in calmness, not romping along with full sails in five to eight foot seas or more and bashing and crashing with all your belongs being thrown about.

That is the paradox of the Caribbean. The wind is often binary by nature: blowing in the twenties or harder and kicking up big seas, or becoming very light with calm to smooth seas when the trade winds get momentarily interrupted by a passing weather system.

We will pick calm, smooth and motoring one hundred percent of the time over sailing in rough weather and picking flying fish our of our teeth.

People often ask us how much we get to sail. A fair estimate is twenty-five percent of the time we sail, twenty-five percent we motor with no sails, and fifty percent of the time we are using a combination of sails and engines. Many of our cruising friends report the same general ratios.

Of course, all of that flies terribly in the face of what dreamers (including me) thought cruising would be like: “Oh, the majesty of it all! Can’t you just see it?! Riding the wind for free and sailing along wherever we go!” . . . well not in El Caribe you won’t be doing that very much. Maybe crossing the Pacific on long downwind legs doing four knots for weeks and praying for land, but you will not sail along peacefully and manage the Caribbean. It can eat your lunch for you.

But, I have long ago given up on explaining these things to weekend sailors and Sunday afternoon sailing purists. Also, there is always some true-grit sailor who will quickly come forward and claim they sailed everywhere in the Caribbean and prove you wrong.

And I can stipulate that: there are in fact a number of cruisers who, for whatever reason, do try to sail everywhere in the Caribbean and subject both their persons and their vessels to much longer time periods at sea (especially going to weather) to make the same passages that would be much faster with engines, or both engines and sail.

The die-hard sailors often require time periods that exceed weather windows, more-often encounter severe conditions that are not fun (and can in fact be down right dangerous), and by the nature of their habits visit excessive, undue wear and tear on the sails, rigging and their vessel in general.

Conversely, we personally enjoy the pure freedom to pragmatically and commonsensically pick super calm weather windows and relax and enjoy our happy home at sea, all without having to apologize for breaching some unrealistic pledge to always be sailors.

All that said, this leg from Belize to Cancun would be calm and smooth, as if made to order, with some wind, but not nearly enough to strictly sail, nor enrage the seas either.

The fishing lines went out. With lots of physical energy to spare at the beginning of passages, I always drag fishing lures for the first day. And it paid off this time with a nice little Mahi Mahi that would become grilled-fish tacos for lunch upon our arrival in Isla Mujeres the next day.

The passage itself is a little over two hundred miles, so that’s about a 28 to 30 hour trip under normal circumstances. We would be getting help, however, from the currents in the Yucatan Channel. So, we figured it would take a lot less time . . . more like 20 hours.

At San Pedro, Belize on our last night there, the moon rises over the reef and the Caribbean Sea beyond

Wow! It is not often that we have a nice big moon on night passages, but this one will surely be an overnighter with lots of moonlight!

The next morning, the sun rises as we make ready for sea

By mid-morning, we have a strike!

This will make a nice lunch

As enticing as the call of civilization is, it has its burdens too. While underway on the calm seas, I decided to spruce up the registration numbers on the dinghy in anticipation of once again plying U.S. waters where the U.S. Coast Guard and State waterway patrols require vessels, including little rubber boats, to comply with boating regulations.

By the way, keeping registration numbers on the bows of a rubber dinghy has always been a challenge for boaters. There are stick-on number kits, but those stick on letters and numbers just don’t stay stuck.

Some people make little plaques out of plastic and stick numbers onto them and tie that whole mess onto the dinghy.

I finally just started using a permanent marker to free-hand draw the information right onto the rubber of the boat. That can’t come unstuck or fall off, but it fades in the tropical sun and has to be spruced-up now and then.

Using a marks-a-lot to apply vessel registration numbers to the dinghy's bow

We had a wonderful day at sea. As usual, such a passage closes the chapters on previous cruising experiences and ushers in a hightened anticipation and excitement of brand new horizons and fresh experiences to come.

As the sun set, it was time to pull in the fishing lines and get ready for the overnight segment of the trip. Just another perfect sunset: we enjoyed the sensation of nightfall at sea. It’s a special time. Still, after five years of cruising, it is an experience that strikes emotion.

Think about it, for most recreational boaters, something is really wrong if they are still far offshore after darkness falls. Most of us have been conditioned that way, and seeing the sky go dark at sea while out of sight of land on your own little boat always causes a multi-layered emotional response . . . a mixture of cautious awareness that one is “crossing a line” coupled with an appreciation for the opportunity to experience the unusual.

It’s quite a “gumbo” of sensation that floods into one’s mind at sunset offshore.

Depending on the sea state and weather conditions when darkness falls, and the weather forecast for the next 12 hours, the overall emotional tone regarding nightfall at the helm can range from hopeful terror to cautious euphoria, and everything in between. Nightfall: it's a passage all its own.

Sunset offshore on the way to Isla Mujeres: looks like it will be a calm night

On this trip, we enjoyed a nice and easy night at sea.

There was a lot of light from the moon and very good visibility. Also, there was a bit of traffic to contend with in the form of shipping and also one mid-size cruise ship.

While on watch, I passed within two miles of the cruise ship and gawked through the binoculars at a HUGE, seemingly three-story tall television screen that faced the middle upper-deck section where vacationers surely lounged in the pool and Tiki Bar areas and enjoyed a movie on a multi-story LED screen.

What an odd sight it was to have my usual sense of nighttime remoteness on the vast sea interrupted by such a massive display of light, color and what seemed to be alien technology passing by.

As darkness eventually surrendered to the sunrise, we were already passing between the island of Cozumel and the mainland of the Mexican Yucatan, catching the rushing northward currents and keeping an eye on several cruise ships. At one time there were five in view. Cancun and Cozumel are very busy cruise ship destinations and there was quite a bit of chatter between them on the VHF radio.

Now we are doing 10 knots; a little less than six miles ahead, that red blip is a cruise ship

More cruise ships are coming in now that it is daylight

By mid-morning we found ourselves turning to port, into the channel between Cancun and Isla Mujeres. The waters were with very busy with a good number of charter catamarans underway. Some of these boats were huge and loaded down with tourists on half-day trips from the beaches of Cancun out to snorkel and swim near the small reefs of Isla Mujeras.

Charter catamarans at Cancun are full to the brim with vacationing tourists

After about forty-five minutes, we made it into the channel at Isla Mujeres and anchored out behind the inner reef for lunch. I grilled up every scrap of that fresh Mahi Mahi we caught the day before, and Melissa made the fixings for tacos. We enjoyed a huge lunch of first-rate decadently-appointed fish tacos. As the saying goes, they were “made for pleasure, not for profit.”

Not long after lunch, Tom Boylan, manager of Marina Paraiso, came out in his outboard powered launch. I had hailed him on the VHF, looking for dock space. Tom came out to greet us and said he would have a spot for us in a couple of hours. Another boat was pulling out and we would be able to come in to the docks after that. So we kicked back, enjoyed our lunch, and relaxed.

By sunset, we had our spot at the marina and were tucked in under the bow of a big steel fishing trawler.

And it was a good place to be! A frontal weather system was due in and we were in a good spot to be protected.

III. Isla Mujeres

Now, before we go further, I know that most of us know a lot more about Mexico than other countries south of the boarder (at least the “man on the street” in the U.S.A. can probably locate it on a map). But in keeping with our format of providing a little history, and considering that most people probably do not know where Isla Mujeres is without some clues, here is a little bit of information (I found it at http://www.isla-mujeres.net/history.htm):

“Isla Mujeres has a long and colorful history. In Mayan times the island served as the sanctuary for the goddess Ixchel, the Mayan Goddess of fertility, reason, medicine, and the moon. The Temple was located at the South point of the island and was also used as the lighthouse. The light from torches was shown through holes in the walls, which could be seen by the navigators at sea.

The Mayans also came to the island to harvest salt from the salt lagoons.

In March of the year 1517, Francisco Hernandez Cordova discovered the island. When the Spanish expedition landed, they found many female shaped idols representing the goddess Ixchel, thus Isla Mujeres (The Island of Women) got its name.

During Lent of 1517 Francisco Hernandez de Cordova sailed from Cuba with three ships to procure slaves for the mines... (some say he sailed to discover new lands).

For the next three centuries Isla Mujeres was uninhabited. The only visitors were fisherman and pirates who used Isla as a refuge and left their women on the island "for safekeeping" while they sailed the high seas.

Famous pirates like Henry Morgan and Jean Lafitte walked the shores of Isla and as legend goes, buried their stolen treasure under the white sands.

After the Independence of Mexico, a small village began in what is now downtown Isla Mujeres. Over the years, many Mayans took refuge on Cozumel, Holbox and Isla Mujeres. Mayan fisherman found the waters around the island to be a fisherman's paradise and the village slowly grew.

Long before Cancun was even a glint in developer's eyes, Isla Mujeres open it's arms to tourists from around the world. Some older residents of the island tell stories of tourists signaling from a make-shift dock near where Puerto Juarez stands today. Son's of local fisherman would take small launches over to the mainland and pick up visitors for their stay on the island. Eventually, Isla established a regular ferry service, making runs to Cancun’s Puerto Juarez once or twice a day and in the last few years, every half hour.

Isla Mujeres is the easternmost point of Mexico, the frontier of eastern Mexico, and the Mexican Navy base was established in 1949.

Fishing was still the main source of income; it wasn't until recent years that Tourism became a large part of the island. In 1967, the Mexican Government and its water department (C.A.P.A), with the help of many local divers, install an under-the-sea purified water piping system, the first in the world. The 6" pipes were replaced with 8" pipes in 1988 the same year Hurricane Gilbert hit the island, which partially destroyed the Mayan temple on the south point.

The last few years have seen tremendous improvements to the island including an extensive drainage and sewer system, electric and phone service and paved streets.

If you are lucky enough to be vacationing on Isla Mujeras on December 31st, it is a tradition for Isleños to greet the first rays of the sun at the dawn of each New Year at the south point, the most eastern point of Mexico.

The people of Isla Mujeres are proud of their history and hold in their hearts the magic of their island and the promising future."

Here is a map of the island:

Now that we have our bearings, let’s look around and enjoy the experience of Isla Mujeres! What better place to start than the Marina Paraiso.

In the morning, Indigo Moon at the docks

Nice pool

The locals are very laid back . . . no worries here

View from the sun deck over the bar area

It did not take long to feel an incredible difference between this area compared to Belize and Guatemala. Unlike Belize, there were no rude people in general to deal with in Isla Mujeres. And there was a total absence the scores of shotguns and pistols always on bristling, public display in Guatemala. In fact, I went days without seeing a single firearm anywhere, even at banks and ATM machines. The contrast was striking.

From a safety and security standpoint, arriving at Isla Mujeres was the cultural equivalent of coming out of the other side of a bad thunderstorm for us . . . the skies cleared, the sun came out, and once again we had not a care in the world.

At Marina Paraiso, Tom and his Man Friday, Miguel, were obscenely accommodating . . . need the golf cart to go to town? Just take it, “the keys hang right here on the wall all the time.” Need to check in? “Miguel will take you and make sure it goes properly.”

It was indeed a fantastic feeling to have such a fabulous “homecoming” to a place we had never been before. In fact, we kept declaring how surprised we were that we liked Isla Mujeres so much. We even considered spending a whole season there.

In the midst of our glee, we did have a little weather move through soon after our arrival, and it brought a brief period of rain and strong winds.

There was really nothing whatsoever to complain about, except one thing: every morning at 5:00 a.m. sharp, an old diesel powered ferry cranked up right next to our cabin and it sounded like a Sherman tank until the exhaust system primed with seawater and quieted down. It was an alarm clock that shook our whole boat!

This ferry cranked up right next to us everyday at 5:00 a.m. and shook out of the bunk!

And while we visited Cancun and did other things by day, Tom was always plotting something for cruisers by night. One night he just decided to up and BBQ some ribs for all the cruisers in the marina. Not for sale, mind you. He just felt like cooking ribs.

Tom serves up the ribs

Enjoying the company of folks who live there and cruisers passing through

Let’s go on a walkabout (well, a golf-cart-about) and see some of the island! One day Tom took us all the way around the island just for fun. We also did some walking and riding on our own. Here is the photo journal:

Dinner entertainment can be pretty loud

The Navy still has a school here on the island

Confiscated boats!

All these boats pictured above have the same attributes: very fast, equipped with radar, and easy to steal. They were all stolen in South Florida, where thieves then used them to swing by Cuba and pick up refuges (along with gasoline) and then cross to Isla Mujeres or Cancun with the illegal aliens.

The boats are abandoned here and are eventually sold dirt cheap to local Mexicans who bid on them (allegedly within a “good old boy” system as to who gets to buy a one hundred fifty thousand dollar boat for a few grand or less).

Cuban refugees allegedly have, by law, 30 days to leave Mexico and by that time they blend into the landscape and make their way to the U.S.A. easily enough. It’s quite the money-making industry, we were told, and the stolen boats are simply disposable goods in the process.

Melissa enjoying the day

Rugged beauty that would spell disaster for boaters

Making cages for rocks, these wire boxes keep riprap together and protect the island from the relentless surf

The color of Mexico

Wow! A Hobie 16! My first sailboat was a Hobie 16!

The beach on the northwestern end of the island is protected and perfect

Are you stressed out? Maybe a massage on the beach will loosen you up!

Are you too relaxed and need some excitement? Try the zip lines at the south end of the island where you glide over the reefs and waters like a bird!

At the very south end of the island, there is a large, modern art display and the Mayan ruins of Isla Mujeres

Lighthouse

This house is famous and has been on television shows like “Extreme Homes”, shaped in the form of a conch shell, it is one of a kind

Vacationers rent bikes and ride in bikinis and bathing trunks

There is yet another very interesting feature of the island and that is its old graveyard. It’s a look into the culture of Mexico with the importance of family and the use of bright colors on anything and everything . . . it’s the one place you’ll see an electric-orange Jesus watching over a family’s deceased.

Here is a look around a very compact and very old graveyard that is one more facet of the personality of Isla Mujeres

Hot pinks and brilliant turquoises sets this graveyard apart

Shussssssh! The angels want quiet! A loved one is resting at peace here.

Wow! Jesus can’t be ignored on this grave!

The more we walked around little Isla Mujeres, the more we liked it. Quaint, tropical, relaxed, carefree, fun, picturesque, safe, clean, friendly . . . the best adjectives just kept bubbling up to the surface.

And remember, our impressions at the time were set against having been to almost every top destination in the entire Caribbean. The oddest thing about it all is that Isla Mujeres is so isolated geographically, and such an anomaly in its region, when viewed through our eyes as cruisers on the go.

To the north of Isla Mujeres lies the entire Gulf of Mexico . . . a long and often rough ride of a week or more offshore from Texas or Louisiana, or a few days going against the current and the Gulf Stream if you head there from the Florida Keys.

To the South lie Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua, which present a gauntlet of either significant piracy and Rule of Law issues and/or challenging sailing grounds.

As we have articulated before, way back in 2007 in Bonaire, we deeply struggled over whether or not to go to the Western Caribbean at all . . . it was plain to see that there was a ludicrous amount of mileage involved . . . hundreds and hundreds of miles . . . to reach a tiny number of cruising destinations that were truly attractive to us.

Well, after being in Isla Mujeres for a week or so, we finally had all the information to draw a conclusion on whether or not the western Caribbean was a good destination overall for us in the end.

It’s still a very close call if we simply ask ourselves “was it all worth it?”

Nonetheless, we are glad we saw it all for ourselves. It was a happy time in Isla Mujeres and we knew very quickly that we were in probably the coolest overall destination in the northwestern Caribbean. We made the best of this great location.

And more: it happens every year in November . . . Melissa’s Birthday! Again, in what is uncharacteristically wonderful family-type behavior for Marina staff, when Tom found out it was Melissa’s birthday, he bought a cake, ice cream, and invited other boaters! Since when does any marina do that?!

Also, our great friends Steve and Sue O’Connor aboard the Manta 42 Evensong put on a great dinner party for Melissa.

Here are some pics:

Aboard Evensong for a dinner party

Chicken and shrimp kabobs

Melissa opens gifts

After dinner, we head down to the marina office to find this!

Melissa blows out the candles quickly, before the fire department needs to be called

In the lounge area, enjoying cake and ice cream with friends both old and new

We had a lot of fun at the marina and on sleepy Isla Mujeres. But there is so much more to the region that makes the stop so great.

Just a fifteen minute ferry ride across the bay and you are in Cancun, a world-class resort destination with major developments. There is a Super WalMart, numerous franchise restaurants like Outback, Bubba Gump, Hooters, Hard Rock, and all the “usual suspects” are there.

In fact, it is hard to fathom that poor Belize and even poorer Guatemala can be located next to a country with these types of billion-dollar developments.

That is part of what makes Isla Mujeres so cool. It has all the charm and rustic feel of an undeveloped Caribbean island, but when you need a “fix” of modern amenities, Cancun is “just right there” across the bay. It’s a perfect combination for cruisers.

So, let’s take a ride over to Cancun and check it out!

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