After a cumulative year plus and 10 consecutive months in Mexico, we have finally moved on! No complaints about Mexico as we thoroughly enjoyed our time there. The Mexico we found bears almost no resemblance to the one most Americans have in mind. The people and culture are wonderful and we had some fantastic experiences. ¡Viva Mexico!
The night before we left we invited some friends over for farewell drinks and ended up getting an incredible tour of Uh-Oh, a 118’ super yacht. Over 30 years old, but still left us with the impression of, “oh, how the other half lives“.
We started the checkout process the morning before leaving. Rolf in the marina office filled out paperwork and sent it to the port captain on our behalf. Several hours later Memo, the manager of the marina, drove me and two others to the Banjercito (government bank) to pay 368 pesos for something; then to the army base/cruise ship dock where we paid 220 pesos for something else; then another 10 minute drive to immigration, where Memo proved his worth in arguing with them and demanding that they give the crew of a boat checking in longer visas than he was initially going to give them, 180 days versus 45 days; then a 15 minute drive to the port captain where we sat for two hours because their computers were down. We were supposed to leave there with ours zarpe, which is the all important document for checking in at the next place you’re going (the United States, and maybe Canada, are the only country in the world, as far as I know, that do not require or give zarpes.) We finally left and they promised Memo that they would show up the next morning with our zarpes (two of us were leaving).
They showed up the next morning, an hour later than scheduled, with the army dog to check for drugs and money – but no zarpe! Lots of unhappy, uniformed officials as they stood around for another hour waiting for the port captain guy to return with the zarpes. Many signatures and fist bumps later and we were on our way! They literally hang around and make sure you leave immediately.
Just before dusk that same evening, I noticed a long front of very black cloud forming directly above us and stretching off in both directions like one of those weather channel fronts that you see spawn tornadoes in the Midwest… We reefed sails, eventually completely furling, and I sped up to try to get to the sunlight in front of the wall of black cloud. We didn’t make it. Within 10 minutes the wind was blowing 180° the other way and immediately built to 37 kn. The wind was directly against the large but well spaced swells and within a few minutes we had 8 foot waves coming from the front of us while those big swells stacked up, grew and hit us repeatedly from behind. I turned us about 30° off the wind but we still were flying off the waves with probably 25 feet of hull in the air. Waves were crashing over the bow and port side enough to make me wonder if our large windows were going to hold up. We even closed all the seacocks as I was concerned about the pressure of hitting the water that hard. In the first minutes, Theresa frantically stashed things that we had never considered before to be potential projectiles. We donned life jackets and, for the first time ever, actually put on the leg straps and then tethered ourselves to the strong points in the cockpit. As it got dark the lightning started along with a little bit of rain. Honestly, not that much rain fell but OMG the lightning! The worst of it lasted about 90 minutes with us doing very little other than huddled on the low side with Theresa clutching the cat in her carrier. We had some discussions about what exactly would be entailed in recovering from a rollover or even having to abandon ship. Discovered lots of little things that are going to be changed going forward. The following 90 minutes it slowly died off as we got out in front of it, though the lightning continued for some time behind us. Not sure if it dissipated or moved off in another direction as it did not show up on the radar (presumably because of the lack of rain). Within two hours we were in mill pond-flat seas with no wind and a beautiful, half moon lighting the way. This was the first substantial tropical squall we have encountered and it was not fun in any way, shape or form. But the boat was fine and all is well. Moving a little faster to get in front of the forecast front coming this evening and fingers crossed we will be beyond it and into El Salvador waters before it forms.
As I write this, a fishing panga just approached us almost 30 miles offshore with three guys motioning for me to slow down. They seemed harmless and were very happy, so I obliged. One practically begged us for pictures of them in their panga and then asked if he could come aboard while his friends took pictures of him. We agreed and he was like a six year old at Christmas posing on the deck and at the helm as if he was driving. We got their WhatsApp number and emailed our pictures and gave them a couple beers. We understood enough to know that the last boat he asked to board greeted him with pistols and were a little less friendly. They have been out here for three days and nights and have no shelter at all. We know that they usually want to either sell you fish or beg cigarettes, water, and beer and almost never mean you any harm, but it is still rather disconcerting, especially when we don’t speak enough of the language. My cop friends are going to think I’m crazy for letting anybody near the boat and I’m told my mother-in-law is not going to be very happy either. Sorry Babs!
