It seems like a pretty good bet right now that Hurricane Dean is going to spend itself on the lower Mexican coastline, somewhere around Veracruz (Hey...another "V" word....for any "V" word fanatic out there....). We aren't slated to get much, if anything from this chubasco.

However....

Preferring to err on the side of caution, I moved 'Div over to the Port Isabel fingers yesterday evening, far back and away from most everything else. It is an ideal spot, there are several other sailboats in the vicinity, all well attended, and I will probably leave her there until we are sure that this thing is well dissipated and not worth any more worry, at which time I will return to the Island for the remainder of the month (or the next threat, whichever comes first) and then back to Puerto Isabel for the fall and winter seasons.

My friend Jim from Island Time, accompanied me on the trip across, which we did under power.

Island Time is an elegant Island Packet 37 that Jim frequently singlehands throughout Guatemala, the Honduras and Belize, island to island, reef to reef, dive spot to dive spot, bar to bar. Jim is 64 but is in better shape than most people half his age. A connoisseur of the finest rum, Flor de Cana, he strictly ascribes to the Rhumswigalot, the ancient pirates precipt (somewhat similar to the German purity law of 1519, the Reinheitsgebot), which mandates that this superb elixir cannot be adulterated with anything other than perhaps a single cube of ice.  Jim is the architypical sailor, one to be emulated and imitated, one of my living heros. He keeps Island Time in Rio Dulce Guatemala year round, only returning stateside for a couple of months at a time so his wife can get her fix of the US and cool off a bit during the hot season.....

He calls it his "sentence".

So, the trip across was basically another Q&A session, with me being the "Q" side. I have assembled a picture in my head, but you know how that works...

"Studied the language tapes, and I've read all the books / But nothing prepared me for my very first look." (Jimmy Buffett/First Look / Floridays).

Believe me, I am already formulating an escape plan.