Mexico

hello all,

part two that i wrote yesterday got erased so i´ll try again.

xcalak was nice, very quiet, not many people, fun tag with the local kids, they seemed to be quite delighted to be chased by me, having joined in a game with three brothers aged 7 to 10, while waiting for the others to get off the bus. each morning a tropical wave would come through, which is a little less than a tropical disturbance. it would bring wind up to 35 knots, horizontal rain and nearby thunderstorms. the second morning, the anchor broke loss, which i was expecting due to the poor holding ground, so i enacted my plan and was on deck with the engine going barely able to see due to all the rain. finally managed to get the anchor up while turning back and forth through the wind to allow me to pull in 10 feet of anchor line at a time without the bow of the boat falling off which would head us towards shoals. very exciting, the engine did well, and i was happy to have managed the situation alone. lots of adrenaline going.

otherwise, i did a lot of reading, thinking and writing. contemplated living on a boat a lot, and i love producing my own energy, and being conscious of what energy i´m using, always aware of the weather, always aware of the other cruisers around me (the cruisers at xcalak monitor the vhf radio and have a common channel to chat on), love having a floating home that´s made for travelling and exploring.

the guys finally made it in on the bus, and we left soon after towards the tip of the yucatan. the passage was fine with good winds (15 knots) from the SE, close hauled all the way. happily made it to isla mujeres at 5am after two two overnights. explored town, got some resupplies and then later went to cancoon (10 minutes away by ferry) (SPRING BREAK `05 BABY!) not really but we wanted to go because we´ve heard so many people go there for spring breaks and such. wasn´t too spectacular and i don´t recommend it to anyone unless they really want the mtv grind life. happy to return to the boat, i was. now we´re in the process of checking out of the country and this afternoon we will head for FLORIDA!

yes, we´re coming back to the country, despite the fact that we´d hoped that by the time we got back , G.W. would no longer be in office. we are looking forward to returning, though will still have 1500 nautical miles to make to the north before we´re home. but it´ll be nice to be in phone range with friends and family, it will be nice to not have to bleach the water we get from marinas, and it´ll be nice to be heading home. we have had a wonderful international experience and we have all spent much time thinking about our future years, and now the time is drawing near to put those plans into action. we have 400 miles to go to key west, maybe our longest passage yet. the winds are supposed to be E SE and then S SE all about 10 to 15 knots so we should have pleasant sailing and hopefully little motoring, always my hope. strange to think of being in the states before the weekend is out. hope you are all well.

ben