Coco Plums 4/5/11

       While we were in San Pedro we had some trouble finding potable water to fill our tanks. The fuel dock didn’t have a water hook up and the other hoses on the docks belonged to the dive boats and they turned their water valves off at night--we checked. So, when our water tanks were at the “need to be filled” level Con suggested that I go by and ask the dive boat guys if I could fill up a few buckets of freshwater from the hose on their dock. I agreed, and while Con and Mike watched from the beach, I approached the dive boat captains and crew that were the guarders of the freshwater hoses. I was greeted warmly and respectfully and once I got the “go head but just this once” from the gruff manager of the dive boats, one of the captains assigned his mate, Jaime, to assist me. Jaime insisted that he carry all the water for me to my canoe (which was two trips, 10 gallons a trip). We got to chatting seeing as how I wasn’t out of breath because I wasn’t carrying anything and he mentioned he was from Caye Caulker and was only working in San Pedro. I explained that we were heading that way the following day and asked if he had any advice about his home town. He told me about a few “sweet clubs that stay open late” which I smiled at and quickly dismissed as probably not my thing and then he mentioned that the best thing about Caye Caulker is “coco plums.” I asked if it was a restaurant or a bar and he replied that it was a fruit that grew locally there and was delicious. Jaime couldn’t describe what the tree looked like, he left it at, “you will know when you see it.” A bit vague for my tastes, but he did describe the fruit well. They are about the size of a golf ball and can be picked when they are white, but they are best when they are pink in color. He said they grow wild on the island and as kid he use to gather them by the basket to eat. Sweet, I thought, I will keep my eyes open for them and impress Conor with my knowledge of local nature!
       A few days after we arrive in Caye Caulker, Conor and I went exploring with Penny and Bubby. We wanted to stay by the beach because the breeze was nice and the dogs could cool off when needed. We found a well beaten path that led us down the beach past the main area of town. The path looked like it led into a less populated area of town, and perhaps a more local fauna/foliage area. The path turned from soft, white sand, clear water, and the occasional shady area to a dusty path surrounded by mangroves that blocked the breeze and made the water brown and muddy. Not an ideal nature path, but we continued down the path for awhile, the spirit of exploring and the beautiful unknown that could be around the next bend urged us forward. We walked along for awhile, taking in our surroundings and just when the heat and the dust and the panting from the dogs were about to make us grumpy, Conor spotted a huge tree of coco plums! We were getting so hot from that Caribbean sun that we almost forget we were keeping an eye out for them! The coco plums grow more on a bush than a tree, but a large, tall bush so I guess that was hard for my new friend Jaime to explain. White and pink golf-ball sized coco plums were all over the tree/bush. We gathered a bag full and tasted our new found treasure. They were good! Not a mind blowing juicy deliciousness that cannot even be put into words but a slightly sweet, fresh taste. It is white on the inside and soft like a ripe fruit but firm enough to bite into. It’s consistency is somewhere in between cotton candy and a sponge, but in a good way. I am actually eating one right now in hopes that I could compare it to something I have eaten before but I can’t exactly match it. Its refreshingly good and different and like something I would have never tasted if I hadn’t been out of water in San Pedro!
M.

The Coco Plum Tree Bush

Con collecting the pink ones

Our bounty

Penny cooling off at the beach after our coco plum excursion

Con and Bubby resting on the beach after our walk

Bubby 4/2/11

       The dynamics in our boat right now are hysterical. Penny is claiming the whole starboard hull as her territory and Bubby doesn’t really seem to care. It looks exhausting trying to keep a constant eye on a curious, roaming puppy. Her new spot is at the bottom of the stairs, guarding the hull and the dog food.  Bubby doesn’t seem to be bothered by Penny dominance, he does his own puppy thing in other areas of the boat. I’m not sure if this is making Penny more adamant to show her alpha-ness or not. A good example of this is this morning Conor and I woke up to a jingling sound of a new collar and rabies tag and look up through the hatch above our bed to an adorable Bubby face and a thumping tail on the deck. Where was Penny?--sound asleep by the stairs. He found his own way into the “forbidden hull.” We didn’t pull Bubby through the hatch into bed with us because we didn’t want to upset Pen Dog too much but we had to laugh at the ingenuity of the newest member of Gualby Nation. Con’s story of how Bubby came into our lives is pretty accurate but I do have a small “editor’s note.” Although I was the one that formed a relationship with Bubby’s mom, there were definitely two people falling in love with the bug infested, funny looking, adorable pup under the pier. Anyone that knows Conor will back me up on the soft spot he has for all animals.
       We were by no means looking for another dog but Bubby came into our lives and it just seemed to work out perfectly. At first he was just a lil guy we said hello to each morning while we exercised Pen Dog on the beach and then it turned into he was looking for us each morning to run out to say hello and we were looking for him. Then, his mom said she wanted to give him away because they had too many puppies and when we checked at the humane society we found out it was neither hard nor expensive to adopt and take him out of the country with us; so the decision was an easy one to make. As for our loyal pup, Penny, yes she is a little put out by the whole situation but she is adjusting and we know she will love and protect Bubby as a member of the family soon. We think it will be good for Penny. She was getting a little bit of an “only child syndrome” and a new puppy in the house is taking her down on the rank ladder a notch or two which is good. Also, once Penny accepts that Bubby isn’t a mistake that will be re-delivered to San Pedro soon, we think they will play together and wear each other out a bit. And for those of you that are thinking we are crazy: In our defense, the small amount of extra work it had been taking Penny (which we are incredibly glad we did) we are already doing, so a few extra papers for another dog is not a big change or effort.
       We are not sure what breed Bubby is, muttly for sure. The vet didn’t give me much insight and on his paperwork under breed the vet put “small.” How about that for vague?! I think he has shepard, daschaund, and maybe collie or golden retriever, and some others in him. I’m sure there will be a plethora of Bubby pictures soon to follow so feel free to guess what kind of mix he is. His personality, well what we know of it at this point, is very chill and loving. He doesn’t have that high energy, can play for hours because I am a crazy puppy mentality. He plays for a little bit, with a few puppy-esque noises but then just wants to snuggle up next to you and take a nap. He is brave and sure of himself, probably from his street roaming days. He is funny, we think smart, loving, adorable, relaxed and we are very happy to have him on board; and we think he is happy to be here!
M.

Sun setting over San Pedro, we left for Caye Caulker, 12 miles south, the next day

Sailing to Caye Caulker, Penny trying to not notice our newest sailing

companion

Bubby checking out the water while we sail

Penny slowing warming up to Bubby

Sleepy lil guy

Trolling for conch on the way to Caye Caulker

　

Belize These Days 3/31/11

       Meg tells me if I want to critique her blogs so harshly that I need to start writing some entries myself. And its true, I haven’t been inspired to do so in a while. I don’t really have anything mind boggling to discuss, so I guess I’m going to spit out some things that I’ve been mulling over lately, things going on with me now, certain feelings I’ve been having, etc. So basically this will be about me. The shitty part is that I know this is gonna sound like a gay-o diary entry, and I hate diaries. But here goes.
      So we are in Belize now, which so far has been pretty good, but we haven’t moved much since getting here. We are anchored off of San Pedro, in about 5 feet of clear water over top of white sand, with Belikin bottles scattered across the bottom. I’ve been snorkeling around picking these up because A). its good for the environment, and 2). If I get 24 of them I can turn them into the grocery store for 6 bucks American (12 bucks Belize). Our finances aren’t really that bad yet, but it is something I can do while Penny swims in circles around me and burns off some energy.
       That leads me into two of the subjects I’ve been mulling over lately: Penny, and earning money. First things first: Money. We aren’t out yet, or anything serious but when we planned this trip we expected to have to work at certain points along the way. We also thought working would add to the experience. Earn a little supplemental income ya know. Or disposable, whatever you call it. We have a handful of somewhat pricey projects we want to do before crossing the Pacific, and instead of waiting for our houseboat to sell, I guess we are just gonna try and hustle up some money and start getting shit done. I don’t want to disappoint anybody or anything, but to cross the Pacific while avoiding cyclones you need to leave between February and June, so we are running out of time for this year. Working legally or illegally in Belize is apparently a large hassel, larger than living and working illegally in Key West, amazingly (half the hospitality industry is illegal aliens in Key West). In the mean time the thought crossed my mind to take tourists sailing in exchange for a donation into our travel fund. (which, although would be nice, probably won’t work the way we expect.)
       What else,….F-me. Oh,…. Meghan bought new soap from here in San Pedro. Its called “African Musk”. I’m not sure about the African part, but when mixed with saltwater I would say the “musk” description is pretty accurate. So I’ve got that going for me. While on the subject of body cleanliness I’ll admit that fresh water has not touched my body since February 2^nd. Actually its been in my mouth at least every morning, and sometimes at bedtime. I don’t really miss it yet. I’m thinking about seeing how far I can go without.
       Ummm,……Oh yeah: we’re pretty pleased with the hand pump water maker we got right before the trip. We have it down to a science: to fill one single well in an ice cube tray takes 12 pumps. Whole tray takes 170 pumps. 1 gallon takes 45 minutes or 1800 pumps.
       Top priority boat projects: replace the joker valve on our toilet. I guess its called a joker valve, nothing really funny about it. It’s a one-way valve in the exhaust hose that lets shit go out but not come in, and lately its been working a little two-way. And when I say “shit”, I mean actual shit. I tried pulling the nurse card on Meghan on this one, saying: “look you have delt with human shit a lot more than me, and are therefore desensitized to it, which makes you a better candidate for this job”. But she put the kabash on that pretty quickly. So I’m looking forward to that project. Even if it is our own shit.
       Back in Mexico I made a cockpit table from a pallet we found on the beach. Its pretty sweet, kinda sits on one side of the cockpit, and sits 4 people around it for eating, playing cards or dominoes. But I’m thinking it be sweet if we had another one that sat on top of the captain bench, that you could take on and off for sailing. That way you could still utilize the whole cockpit. But summer’s coming, and I’d like to get that done before it gets too hot-I suspect spending more time in the cockpit and less in the salon will become mandatory.
       What else?……….I’ve got a few Penny stories I guess. She has been her typical pain in my ass, and is really loving San Pedro. Very dog friendly town, tons of bars on the beach. Mostly just golf carts driving around the roads, very friendly people, and lots of other dogs. Gimpy is pretty much living it up here as well, but Gimpy has gotten heavy attention in every place we’ve visited. Maybe cuz she’s, small, cute, quiet, clean, or any combination of these reasons. Penny, not so much. In Xcalak Ted and Shannon had Gimpy, and we were walking with Penny, looking for beer. This is a very small town with all dirt roads, just a couple of stores and restaurants, and a dozen or so fishing boats. Well every little kid that we pass in that town wants to pet Gimpy, walk Gimpy, hold Gimpy, and every adult wants to buy Gimpy, or trade something for Gimpy, and every dog we pass comes up to her and flirts, sniffing butts and what not, then attempts to play chase, or tag or whatever dogs play. And meanwhile dogs and human alike completely ignore Penny as Gimpy prances around like Queen of Sheba. I guess it was awkward enough that Ted felt he should lighten the mood with a funny comment or something and says: “Penny, maybe if you cleaned yourself up a bit you’d get a little attention as well”. So I look at Gimpy first, all clean, shiny coat, matching UF Gators leash and collar, all small and petite, harmless and cute, and then I look over at Penny and the hair on her back is all spiked up and oily-looking, almost as if it had hair gel in it, she has mud caked like black socks on her two front legs up to her elbows, she has stickers in her tail and dreadlocks in her chest hair, she has sand dried and crusted around her eyes and nose, she has foam on her chin from panting in the salt water, and Meghan is walking her on about a 3 foot piece of 1 inch 3 strand nylon that is green with mold from sitting in the anchor locker. Funny thing is I guess we got used to her looking all stanky. Every town we canoe in to in Mexico went like this: first thing she does is jump out of the boat, squat in the water and take a piss, run up the beach through the stickers and take a shit, run back down to the beach and roll in the sand or mud or both if available, then we put her on a leash which is usually whatever rope or line we find laying around the boat, and walk through town. When we’re ready to go back out to the boat we make her swim a few yards out to deeper water before pulling her in the canoe in an attempt to have her rinse herself off. But residual gunk is starting to build up, maybe she is due for a shave. That will probably happen soon.
       Another funny thing is that here in San Pedro there is a dog subculture roaming the town at all times, all these dogs just doing their own thing. And they all have their own street corners and stomping grounds. And when you sit and watch them for a while, its hilarious because you see them interacting on their little social level, scrapping over garbage, tucking tail as they cross another dog’s territory, running in small little dog gangs together, you can imagine. So as we walk Penny around town through all these different dog territories, the dogs run up to challenge her, but kind of turn off or stop when they see she is on a leash with us. She always gets puffed up but sometimes I can tell she’s a little nervous as they approach. I imagine it being a little demeaning for her to be on a leash and get walked through dog gangs, but its definitely keeping her out of fights. When we go into grocery stores or whatever we always tie her outside the store and she knows the routine, she just sits and waits for us to come out again, never tries to pull on the leash or bark or anything, just patiently waits. Well we tie her up in a corner in front of one particular store, go in, shop for a while, and we come out with our groceries to get Penny. When we see her she is sitting perfectly still, staring out into space, and looking very nervous and uncomfortable because between her and us is this big gnarly looking pit bull, about twice her size, huge sagging balls, all sinew and muscle, scars all over his face and neck from fighting, tail straight as an arrow looking straight at penny’s face. His face was probably six inches from her face. She won’t look at him though, or us, and he looks like he is just waiting for her to give him a reason to jump on her. Now she is tied up and cornered, and probably shitting herself. But as we start walking towards them the pit bull sees us, looks back and forth from Penny to us a few times, and finally wanders off down the road. Penny immediately relaxes and as we untie her she starts panting furiously, rubs her head between our knees, and keeps putting her foot on our forearms, like, “fuuuck that was a close one. You sons-a-bitches set me up”. We felt bad for her but had to just laugh about it.
       Lets see, what else….oh yeah, I’ve spent some money on engine work recently, which hurts because these mofo’s are only 6 months old, but I couldn’t figure it out and I needed it done. The starboard engine has always been a little bitch, even from the first day I installed it. It shifted stiff as hell, had difficulty going back into neutral, and in reverse, you would have to rev the rpm’s up before it would kick into gear, which can’t be good for it. The shifting has progressively gotten worse and worse, until it would go into forward, but wouldn’t switch gears, so you could give it more gas but the rpms would just rev up without getting any more thrust. This sounded to me like it could potentially be a big lower unit problem, so I was bighting my nails thinking about the worst case scenario. But I found a guy here in San Pedro who agreed to take a look. This guy Cesar, was totally knowlegable, had an outboard repair business, and didn’t seem at all shady, so I unhooked the rigging, took the engine off the bracket, and Cesar came and picked it up off the boat. Later that day I walked to his shop, and he told me he fixed the rough shifting, there is nothing wrong with the lower unit, and I had a spun prop hub. Turns out there is a tension arm on the shifting mechanism that was too tight, and 2 turns of the bolt on the arm loosened it up to proper shifting tension. This news made me feel like an asshole because 1^st: Had I known about this tension arm thingy I could’ve done that myself in two seconds without taking the whole f-ing engine off, and 2^nd: same with the spun hub. In my defense it did cross my mind about the spun hub thing, but I figured the engine was just too new to have spun a hub and I know I didn’t hit anything with it, so I dismissed that possibility prematurely. Secondly, I knew the motor shifted too hard when I first installed it, and I questioned the guys who sold me the motor, and even hired a mechanic in Miami right before I left to try and get it resolved. Funny thing is neither one of these numbnuts (both certified Honda mechanics and dealers) mentioned a tension arm on the shift mechanism. They both tried to blame the shift cables, even when I told them that when I unhook the cables the throttle shifts perfectly smoothly at the remote end, and I can’t even shift the lever on the motor by hand; its that stiff. To this they both replied (amazingly) that this must just be how this engine shifts. Oh,…just a intricacy of the engine. O k . So it took me getting to Belize to find somebody who figured out the tension arm. One more thing about Honda that I think is bullshit, is the warranty. So they give a ridiculous 5 year warranty, but only if the motor stays in the country you bought it at. For most customers I guess this isn’t asking too much, but if they’re all the same engine, why should it matter what country you’re in when the thing breaks down. This is completely absurd, and I knew this when I bought the engines, but the general concesus was that they are Hondas, and you shouldn’t need to do much if you keep up with the maintenance. Punk-ass Honda. Anyway, enough bitching.
       And continuing on,…new member of the Gualby Nation is : Little Black Bubby from Belize. We first met Bubby in this manner: Penny was standing on a dock on the beach and underneath the dock a small animal was growling and barking at her, like some kind of little troll or something. You couldn’t see what it was because it was tucked way up underneath the dock where the dock runs into the beach. So Penny has a coconut in her mouth but is trying to peer through the cracks to see what is snarling down there. Finally curiosity got the better of us and we coaxed this thing out and it was Bubby. Penny was kind of on her guard at first but when she saw it was just a little puppy she kind of just shook her head and ran back into the ocean with her coconut. Meghan on the other hand had the opposite reaction, and was visibly falling in love. Bubby would roll over on his back for you to rub his belly and let out little squeaks and whimpers while you scratched him. He was full of fleas and ticks and scabs. Disgusting ticks the size of blueberries. Meghan was somehow able to see through all the nastiness and found him adorable. ( I don’t know if that is a gift that women in general have, or nurses, or what, but she’s got it.)
       We went about the rest of our business that day, and for the next few days we saw Bubby every morning come out from under his dock and get his morning belly rub. Penny started getting a little put off by this and would try to chase Bubby back under his dock before we could get to him. One afternoon a lady from the kayak rental hut at the end of Bubby’s dock came over to Meghan while I was throwing coconuts for Penny, and I’m not sure exactly what was said, but Meghan came back and said she wants to give us Bubby. First of all we thought Bubby was just a stray, so immediately I figured this lady was just trying to have us get this stray off her dock. But she told us his name was Bubby, and he did seem to know his name, so we slept on it. Next day Meghan saw the lady and told her that we wanted to adopt Bubby, to which the lady replied: Ok, go ahead and take him right now. Which was a little startling, but after finding out he was allegedly 6months-ish old, hadn’t had any shots, wasn’t fixed, had never been to the vet, but was wormed one time, we did just what the lady said. We took him…….straight to the vet. Over a 24 hour period Bubby got about 10 shots, wormed, debugged, and neutered. So now he probably hates us. But he has a funny tough little personality. Penny pretty much hates him right now, but Bubby doesn’t take it personally. You can kind of tell he spent some time on the streets, because he has no problem growling at Penny if she looks at him while he’s eating, and when we take him into town the other strays come up to him like they know him, giving props and pounds and hand shakes and whatnot. He goes to the bathroom in the cockpit, which is perfect and we hope Penny catches on to this as well. He doesn’t take to the water like Penny, but isn’t scared of it either. One last thought and then I’ll let Meg go into more detail on Bubby: I’m not sure if we are really doing Bubby a favor by adopting him. Sure we got rid of all the bugs for him, and we’ll make sure he eats twice a day, but would he choose that over still having his own testicles, being his own dog, roaming the streets of San Pedro, fighting punk ass dogs that don’t show him respect, banging all the finest bitches San Pedro has to offer? Scroungin for food scraps in the street, laying on the beach, letting tourists rub his belly? Or would he trade that for 2 bowls a day of dry dog food, a leash and a collar, being told not to bite, bossed around by humans and Penny, and a lot of Human Love. Who knows.

Well I’m gonna cut this off now, cuz its getting a little long winded. Peace and love
Conor

Two great tastes that taste great together

Monster Burger from "The Butcher" $7USD

Bubby's reaction to us adopting him

Penny tries to hide her excitment

San Pedro, Belize

        We left Xcalak and headed 25 miles south to Belize the day before St. Paddy‘s Day. It was a beautiful sail, wind beam to and a little aft, sun sparkling on the ocean as Gualby speed along at 7-8 knots. One of the best days of sailing we have had in awhile! We spotted the entrance through the reef off of the town of San Pedro around noon. It is a pretty narrow pass but is marked with a big yellow buoy so that was nice! The water is ridiculously clear and beautiful here. We dropped anchor off the town of San Pedro into deep, white sand and took in our surroundings. The town looked awesome, the water was gorgeous, the sail had been great, the reef pass no stress; we were already loving Belize.
        The check in process was no big deal. The offices were a little hard to find but immigration, customs, and the port captain were all very friendly and excited that we were visiting their country. We paid $140USD to the port captain and had to bring the custom guy out to our boat to be fully cleared into the country. He was a nice guy but was strangely concerned with not getting splashed in the dingy ride out. So much that he stood up in the dingy so the seat of his pants would not get wet. Ted was nice enough to dingy the officer to our boat. I don’t know how it would have gone over handing him a paddle and pointed to our canoe as our means to get him to Gualby. All the officers we encountered barely acknowledged Penny, even though she had her scowl face on, accompanied by a low growl. Belize required no extra fees or hassle for the Pen Dog. We soon found out San Pedro is the most dog friendly place we have been to yet.
        After checking in to the country, we checked out the town. The town is small and friendly, full of little shops, deli’s, restaurants, and beach bars. Most of the bars have at least one side on the beach, overlooking the crystal clear water. There are street vendors here selling tapestries, jewelry, and wood carvings but they seem more interested in saying hello and welcoming you to Belize than selling you any of their items. We have found some good, not too expensive little places to grab a taco/burrito/wrap type food. Penny usually comes with us into town which she loves. Bringing her is the easiest it has been so far.  She is allowed in almost all the bars/restaurants and if she gets hot walking around town with us, no matter where we are on the island is less than a five minute walk to the beach where she swims, cools offs, and gets her picture taken by tourists that miss their dogs at home.
        We are starting to acquire a small fan club in San Pedro. We beach our canoes at the same spot in town, which is usually at least a daily occurrence, and a crew of local kids have taken a liking to us. The braver ones like to throw the coconuts for Penny and the shyer ones love on Gimpy. They all scream and run when Penny shakes off near them. One of the boys calls it “the sprinkler.” The kids tell us they keep an eye on our boats for us when we‘re gone. Usually when we get back from our errands in town, our paddles are in different places in the canoes and there seems to be an extra amount of sand on the seats but with mischievous smiles on their faces they claim they don’t know how that happened.
M.

Penny being a good girl while we shop inside

Penny cooling off as we enjoyed some juicy watermelon



Pen Dog keeping an eye on Mike paddling back to the boat

Two of the braver members of the fan club



Xcalak, Mexico

        We saw the small town of Xcalak right about noon and in true Mexican fashion, we spotted the reef with breakers and dry parts sticking above the water. This reef pass was harder to see than the previous ones we had gone through. Conor hailed “local knowledge of Xcalak reef pass” on the GPS and almost immediately a friendly English speaking voice answered us and gave us precise, accurate info on how to navigate through the pass. After we confirmed the information, a small Panga boat with two young Mexicans drove up and waved at us to follow them through the reef pass. What a friendly place we thought! The Panga boat sped out the reef pass after we made it through with big smiles and waves but our buddy on the VHF introduced himself as Don and chatted a bit with Conor about the town. Don, as helpful as he was, did continue to monitor our VHF channel long after we and the Salty Dog were anchored safely. Later that night he even offered the internet at his house for us to use after hearing Ted say he couldn‘t pick any up on his boat.
        The next day Con and Ted, after doing some captain things, did go by his house to say hello and thank him for the VHF assistance. He’s an older guy who use to sail competitively and had some good, salty stories to tell the boys. Xcalak is an even sleepier town than Punta Allen but full of friendly people and a few stores to buy some, uh, essentials. (beer).   We made an attempt to check out of Mexico and visited the port capitan, although we already knew that this was unlikely.  We still wanted to make an effort, in case things had changed.  But just as we suspected, no one could check us out.  We were told the appropriate thing to do was to check in and check out of Isla Mujeres, although the port captain there didn't offer that option when we asked.  Whatever,....we tried.   The second day we were there the wind really picked up so Conor decided to dive in and check the anchor before it was dark out. I said thanks and thought nothing of it until he was banging around on the scoops getting back on the boat. Penny and I went out to check on our boy and we were greeted by four large delicious looking conch! What a lovely windy afternoon surprise! We had delicious cracked conch for dinner that night. Perfect meal to get us ready for the next passage to San Pedro, Belize.

Hasta la Vista, Mexico

9.5, enough said (would have been a 10 if the toes were pointed)

Espirtu Santo

          From Punta Allen we sailed to Espirtu Santo, about 25 miles south. Dry reef and breaking waves surround this bay as well but we were starting to get the hang of it by now and we entered with no problems. We anchored behind a small island right before a nasty storm was rolling in. The storm ended up being more of a visual show with dark clouds and lightening and not so much rain and wind; but we were glad we were anchored in a good spot anyway. The next day we paddled the canoes with Ted and Shannon around the island to check it out. We saw remnants of Hurricane Ike, kept an eye out for square groupers, and gathered fire wood for later that evening. We had a nice sized bonfire on the beach that night, a spectacular sunset, some boxed wine and lots of laughs.  We hung out in the calm waters of the bay for a few days and then started to think about the next place we wanted to explore.
        We left Espirtu Santo with an unknown destination in mind. Our plan was to get ourselves out of the reef passage and see how the wind and waves were behaving and then decide whether we wanted to head to Chinchorro Banks or Xcalak. Chinchorro Banks is a coral atoll located 30miles southeast of us; one of only three in this hemisphere. The Gualby crew was definitely leaning towards this destination. The snorkeling was predicted to be awesome, tons of reef and ship wrecks to explore and fish for us to spear. Xcalak is the southern most town in Mexico and would be our destination after Chinchorro Banks if that was to be our decision first. Our starboard engine has been acting, well to be honest, shitty. It doesn’t shift into gear smoothly, if it shifts into it at all. It sounds way louder than the port engine and the trim/tilt only occasionally works. It’s our problem engine. We pulled anchor at 4:30pm, thinking we were giving ourselves enough time to make our way to the reef with enough daylight to see the breaking waves. We no longer trust our GPS to tell us where the reef lines are.  At times I want to turn it off because it gives me a false sense of security. The wind was about 7-10 knots stronger than projected and our one good engine just couldn’t push us as fast as we would have liked. So going through the reef pass we had less than ideal light and more wind and seas than expected blowing right at us. We got ourselves safely past the reef but the seas were all confused and we had 20-24knots of wind blowing out of the E-SE . Headed South, against the current, we could barely make 2-3 knots without the engine. We couldn’t believe we were going that slow with all that wind. The Salty Dog couldn’t stay over 3 knots either and they were getting tossed around by the disorganized seas as well. Considering these conditions could last all night or worsen, we made the decision to head to Xcalak, which was a slightly nicer ride straight south and a more secure anchoring situation once we arrived. The seas and winds stayed strong and confused for about half the night and then the weather started to progressively get better.  As the sun was rising the next morning we looked out over settled 2-3 foot seas and we were sailing along beautifully with just the code zero out averaging 5 knots.  We definitely thought, “Damn, wish we were in Chinchorro Banks right now!” But if we could see the future, it would certainly dim our spirit of adventure! So, Xcalak here we come!
M.

The sky just as we were dropping the anchor

Ted, Giimpy, and Shannon (in that order) exploring with us in the red canoe--They have their "Team Traynor" matching outfits on--Gimp Dog's mini shirt should be arriving soon

The other, much windier side of the island

Meg thought these trees looked like they were posing for a picture

Gualby at sunset on the less windy side of the island

Conor tending to the bonfire

Mike and Meg finishing up Mike's first overnight passage--He did awesome at the helm!

Punta Allen

        After our morning at Tulum we set sail for Punta Allen and the Bay of Ascension. It was a pretty nice sail and the strong northerly current seems to becoming a little bit weaker. The Bay of Ascension is surrounded by a reef, with a small break about half way down the reef. We were keeping an eye on the GPS and where it told us the reef lay as well as a sharp eye on the water for breaking waves. The GPS was scarily inaccurate but thankfully with the whole flotilla communicating and keeping good look outs we safely made it through the reef pass into the calm waters of the bay. The holding was excellent and a nice breeze blew through the open hatches in the boat and the phosphorescence were incredible. Con, Mike and I were on the sugar scoop running our hands through the water and talking excitedly, so much that Penny got all rallied up and jumped in. We could see her whole body outlined by the green glow of the bioluminescence as she gracefully swam around the boat.
        The bay is surrounded by mangroves and has a large turtle and dolphin population. Coffee and dolphin spotting in the morning is not a bad way to start the day. The trade off I guess of the pretty surroundings and animal spottings is there really isn’t much to snorkel here and Conor’s blood thirst is starting to grow. We will have to find a good snorkel spot soon!
        We took the canoe and did some exploring in the mangroves. There were some very cool pathways deeper into the mangroves with lots of birds and fish. I couldn’t help but think that this looked a lot like a nice place to live if you were a crocodile but I kept pushing that thought out of my mine and besides I wasn’t swimming, I was sitting safely in a canoe. The town of Punta Allen was on the other side of where we anchored and we were able to get to it through the mangroves. We ran into a friendly Mexican in his Panga boat while exploring and he showed us where to leave our boats and nicely assured us that there were no crocodiles in this area. Well, that was good news. We walked around the sleepy town of Punta Allen and saw its beautiful beaches and interesting yet simple architecture. The houses are built on stilts and made from local wood and palm fronds as the roofs. I took a bunch of pictures because I hope to have a “Swiss Family Robinson” style house someday in the future.  
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Mini Voltran Formation

Penny makes a lovely canoe hood ornament also

Local Architecture

The beaches on the other side of the peninsula

Mangrove Dead End

        A few days later we discovered a public dock closer to where our boats were located and paddled our canoe there when we wanted to go into town. The local Mexicans keep their Panga boats there. The Panga boats are awesome. They are similar to a large canoe and a 25 foot Panga planes out with a boat full of people with only a 40 horse on the back. Conor loves them. I foresee one in the backyard of our tree house! We were surprised by one of the passengers in one of the Pangas. 



The pictures don't do the size of this croc justice-he was at least 10 feet long!






This beast leaped over 24 inches of gunnel to sun himself in the boat, so I guess our 8 inches of canoe gunnel aren't much protection

Gimpy buffers herself against possible croc attacks

Tulum

        After a few relaxing days in Cozumel we set sail for Tulum, the town and the Mayan Ruin. Tulum is surrounded by a reef, ranging from dry reef sticking out of the water to a few feet beneath the surface with breaking waves.  There is a safe break in the reef but it is not marked with bouys or anything helpful like that.  Entering into the pass in the reef with breakers crashing all around us was a bit on the intense side. Mike and I (and Penny) stood on the bow and shouted to Conor where coral heads were and areas that looked shallow and dangerous. We made it safely through with no problems or close calls; all of us were surprisingly calm and collected.  We were very proud of ourselves to have weaved around the reef and into an area we could anchor safely. We turned around to give the celebratory fist wave in the air to the other flotilla boats following us and saw a huge charter sailboat following them through the reef break. Where was he twenty minutes ago? It would have been a little less stressful following a boat that probably does that route several times a week. Oh well, we were still proud of ourselves and the captain of the charter sailboat filled with tourists gave us an enthusiastic wave and what we perceived as an impressed look on his smiling face.
        The next morning we got up early and walked to Tulum. We had the advantage of being anchored practically in the shadows of its towers so we wanted to get to the park as soon as it opened to avoid heavy crowds. Tulum is located on a state park so there were no street vendors and because of the early hour, not a lot of noise in general. We walked around the ruins and whispered to each other because the silence of the morning, with the dark rain clouds overhead, was too beautiful to break. Tulum is a smaller Mayan Ruin compared to Chichin Itza but no less amazing. We walked around and read the informative templates and learned about the Caste War and the sadness and exploitation of the Mayan People. How the structures were still standing despite the invasions from Europe and the diseases, superior attitudes, and guns that came with them, seemed to echo the very strength of the Mayan People.
       Ted and Shannon and Mike and me explored for several hours and then made our way back to the boats.  Con had actually visited Tulum several years before this trip and since the anchoring was poor and the wind was starting to pick up, he stayed and kept Gualby company.  We left for Punta Allen and the Bay of Ascension later that afternoon.
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The sky the morning we left the boats for Tulum

Our boats are anchored in the distance