From Nueva Gerona we set sail for Islas Mujeres across the Yucatan Channel in Mexico. However, Cuba needed their last crack at us before we could leave the country as we had to ‘clear-out’ at a small beach resort called Maria La Gorda in Western Cuba. Clearing-out entails getting immigration to stamp your passport and the Port Captain/Harbour Master to provide you with an official internationally recognised document, known as a ‘Zarpe’, that confirms that you are free to proceed from their national waters. This document is the one thing that you are required to present at your next port as it proves that everything is above-board; one is therefore quite keen to get it before you leave. The locals, being aware of this, look forward to the $$$ opportunity which in Cuba is achieved by buying official stamps that are the stuck to the departure document and their copy. Maria La Gorda however, being a no horse shack on a beach, had all the right forms but no stamps for us to buy,,,,big problemo!
We sat out the night at anchor, while the officials thought about this monumental problem but we were keen to leave early the next morning for Mexico. The sun rose with a 30 knot wind blowing into the anchorage and a big sea making us pitch and roll very uncomfortably – for the first time in ages we both felt a bit queasy. It was too rough to get the dinghy onto the beach but as it was getting quite dangerous – lee shore and all that; Mark swam to the beach holding all our papers above his head wrapped in lots of plastic bags and confronted the guards. After ceremoniously stapling damp bank notes to their forms they were happy to give us our Zarpe and we were on our way – the fishing line, soap and the dreaded Venezuelan Rum incentives must have done the trick as usual!
The Yucatan Channel provided quite a ride with currents both in our favour and, more normally, against. At one point we were making 8.5 knots through the water with full sail but the GPS showing us progressing at only four knots towards our destination into the current that becomes the Gulf Stream a little to the north. It felt quite strange thinking that if we pulled down the sails, sat and read for a couple of months we would end up off the Scilly isles! We did have 3 Cuban stowaways arrive as the sun went down, the bedraggled ‘swifty type’ birds, settled in a row on a rail at the back of the boat (or stern as most would say - nautical terms still a challenge for L), tucked their heads under their wings and stayed the night – only taking off when we tried to take a photo of them when the sun came up in the morning!
After an overnight sail we arrived in Isla Mujeres (Moo-hair-ers) which is an island just off Cancun (package holiday hell) but the island is actually quite nice. It’s very touristy but for us, this was actually a good change from Cuba. We unintentionally did a tour of the huge hotels in Cancun by failing to get off the bus at the right stop – quite an eye opener – don’t rush there for a cheap holiday! Paperwork however, took a turn for the worse with ‘clearing-in’ taking a full day to complete, 4 different offices having to be visited even entailing a ferry ride to Cancun (hence the bus ride), piles of forms to be completed, lashings of paper to be stamped and far more $ than any other country so far!
Eventually once the paperwork was completed we caught up with ‘Sarah Grace’ and ‘Makai’, a Norwegian boat we had met in Cuba, over some cold Margaritas and decided to club together to hire a car and go on a road trip to visit some of the Mayan temples in Yucatan. We set off on 4 day trip staying in hotels for 3 nights – what a treat! The sites we visited were amazing, each site very different, some more restored than others, we tried to arrive either early or late in the day to avoid the beating heat and the crowds. Therefore good lunches had to fill the down-time. Chichen Itza is simply extraordinary for it’s scale and what they got up to; strange to think that they would quite happily sacrifice 10 or 20 thousand on a particular day to appease a god! It’s also the place where they have a games court where their vanquished enemies heads where used as the ‘ball’ that had to be lobbed through hoops – nice game!
Whilst waiting for the wind to change for the right direction, so that we could sail back to Cuba, we spent a few days pottering about, catching up on laundry, internet and going to the supermarket, very exciting after Cuba, a food shop with a) food in it & b) food that you wanted to buy! In fact when we arrived in Mexico and first visited the supermarket we both started salivating – sad but true!
After the isolation of Cuba it was nice to be back in an anchorage with lots of other boats, so that you can listen to the cruisers net on the VHF radio every morning, this is run (mainly by Americans) in places where cruisers congregate and can be a useful source of information but also can be unintentionally fairly amusing. We met up with a couple of other British boats and had some very jolly good meals ashore exchanging sailing tales and even securing a drinks invite to a posh hotel in Havana.
A favourable weather forecast was received, and we started the paperwork nightmare again of checking out, we were eventually given our Zarpe and set off on 19 April sailing back in company with Sarah Grace on a 2 day and 1 night passage to the north coast of Cuba – we can’t miss a trip to Havana.
Weather forecasting, always proves to be an inexact science, sadly the promised winds did not materialise, so we ended up doing quite a lot of motoring. However, we had lots of feathered visitors on the journey to help us pass the time. At one point we had 6 different types birds on board all hitching a lift (quite a lot of bird s**t too). Alfie (the dinghy) on davits at the back of the boat, became a squabbling arena as the birds jostled for the best position out of the sun & sea spray. One small thrush type bird even came down below and settled down happily in our cabin of a pile of fresh washing – happy as Larry! We had to shoo the last hitchhiker off when we arrived at customs, back to Cuba, we didn’t want them to think it was a pet! Sorry we can’t be more specific about them, they all remain Shite Hawks to Mark I’m afraid.
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