Going Places Where Most People Don't

We woke up Friday morning to a beautiful calm sunny day. Mind you we were tucked in behind an island protected from the wind, but the trees were calm and the bay was flat. So we took off on the last 90 miles to San Pedro. I wish I could say that it stayed calm and flat all the way, but alas it wasn’t meant to be. With in an hour of pulling anchor we were out in the sea with the engines off and the sails up and all was beautiful for the next five hours.
Nothing bad happened on this trip compared to the rest of the journey. There was the squall and then becalming. Still with only the 3-5 foot seas it was great. Then the Mexican Navy came to say hi. Quite friendly chaps. Seemed surprised that there was a woman on board. Then the wind picked up

. All in all it was a good trip. I had to slow down for a while so we didn’t get here before daylight. Since our chart plotter went out on us, we now realized that the charts we had for our back up were not complete. We did not have an electronic chart for this area. Fortunetly our Belize guide book had good details of the entrance through the reef and we were able to find our way to an excellent spot right off the beach to anchor. By excellent I mean a spot where we can launch the dinghy and go to shore. The dive and tour boats race by here both directions at full speed.
The officials here are great and we’re all checked in. We’ve gone out to eat, the quarantine flag is down and we’ve even had a nap. Now comes the part where we start to enjoy ourselves 🙂

The weather just won’t cut us some slack. We took off from Bahia de la Asencion in a pouring rain. Knowing it wasn’t going to be perfect weather, but expecting it to be tolerable. We just wanted to get to Belize We’re all tired of getting beat up by the strong winds and big seas that we’ve been dealing with since we left Key West. About 25 miles south is Bahia de la Espirito Santo. It’s pretty much the last place to duck in and anchor protected from the weather for the next 100 miles to Belize. For fear of a mutiny, I reluctantly (not really) altered course for here to wait for calmer weather

Unfortunately that’s not expected for a few days. We’ll wait.
Because we have not officially checked into Mexico, we can not get off the boat. Not that there is anything here but a small Mayan village on the other side of the bay, but solid ground does sound appealing. So Belize will have to wait for a break in the weather, because nobody on Stray Catz are anxious to head back out to sea.

Ok, yes, we were supposed to be in Belize by now. Not due to a navigational error this time, we are in Mexico. About midnight Saturday night we got hit by an unexpected gale and it was nasty. We were able to get the genoa stowed, but not before the sheet smashed a solar panel. The winds were blowing about 45kts and there was pelting rain. With a double reefed main(no,that’s not something you smoke) we hove to, which means we basically don’t go anywhere. With the strong winds and current we still made about 5 miles by morning. The waves continued to build and by morning we had 12 foot seas. When we next were able to get the weather we found out there were at least 3 more days of heavy wind and seas. We were only about 36 hours from Belize. Because of the coral reefs one should enter with the sun high and small seas. We decided it would not be prudent to enter in the rough conditions and standing off for an extra 24 hours or more is crazy. That is when we changed course and headed to Cozumel. By Sunday night we were anchored off the coast of Isla de Cozumel. On Monday morning I made a few repairs and we motored around to San Miquel to clear in. By the time we started to launch the dinghy it started to rain. It never got better

Prepared to stay on the boat and check in in the morning we kicked back only to have the winds continue to pick up. The anchorage is unprotected from the increasing north winds and this was causing an extremely bumpy anchorage. The waves through the anchorage actually increased to over 4′. At around 2130 the anchor bridle snapped in the 35kt winds and 4-5′ seas. We re-rigged it, but it was just too much for our ground tackle. We aren’t really sure how strong the wind was, but in the end the rode snapped, the cleat snapped in half and our anchor bent. So around 2300, before we lost the anchor, we raised it and took off down wind to try and ride out the storm. I’m sure it was a sight to behold with Anna and I in our pajamas and Kylan in his boxer shorts. Down wind we had a way better ride in the 40kt winds and 12 foot seas. We picked out an anchorage about 60 miles down the road that is protected from the north winds and geared up for the ride.
After all that we can’t even say we’ve been to Cozumel. We’ve been there, yet never set foot there. Kind of like landing at the airport and not getting off the plane.
Here we are tucked in behind Culebra Cays waiting out this storm at least through tomorrow. We are only an overnight ride to San Pedro, Belize so we should be there by Friday. We are all very excited about getting somewhere where we can get off the boat. As it turns out, we have not touched solid ground all year.