Two days into our passage and just south of the Mexican island Isla Cozumel our auto-pilot stopped working. Yikes.
We hand steered up the west coast of Cozumel (20 miles) until we got to a bay that we could anchor in. Most of the Cozumel coast is a marine park with no overnight anchoring and we’d no idea how long the repair would take or what even the problem with the auto-pilot was, so we needed to stop somewhere that the officials would not chase us away.
Lots of hotels lined the coast and a few para-sailing boats quite close to Meshugga
No sooner than we’d dropped anchor a boat came by to tell us that the Port Captain was trying to hail us on VHF 16.
We switched on our VHF and as expected, the Port Captain wanted to start inward clearance procedures for Mexico. Him speaking little English and us with no Spanish, it was a difficult communication, however with Google Translate, we managed to relay that this was only an Emergency stop and as soon as our auto-pilot was fixed we’d be on our way.
By the time Nicholas had identified the problem, removed the part and fashioned a make-do repair it was dark. Tired, we decided on an early night and early morning departure.
I awoke at 4.30am with Nicholas hoisting the Main sail.
The expected north easterly came thru 3 hours into our trip. (Which is why we had been trying to get from Guatemala to Isla Mejures by Saturday night, 5 Nov). At least the NE wind was light and we could motor sail with not too big swells yet.
Motor sailing past Cancun, it’s wall to wall resorts.
We anchored in the bay of Isla Mejures along with 20 other yachts and a gazillion charter boats motoring past blaring music and people enjoying the Sunday afternoon sunshine.
Arrival Margaritas at Skulls Landing
Excellent Lobster Tacos
Four days of chilling and looking around on shore
Some sights on Isla Mejures
A last night out at Skulls for drinks and live music
It was time to leave using the back of Hurricane Nicole (which slammed into Vero beach Florida).
We upped anchor at 3.30am, and with a full moon it was easy to see the other yachts at anchor.
The winds was as expected NW and then West. We were able to motor sail the whole way. Light winds made for a slow passage and thankfully a small swell of the north setting current
Only one scary time, Nicholas dodged a huge squall, but the resulting sea state was huge 18 foot swells. Meshugga rode up and fell down these huge swells causing our number 1 reef clew strop to snap. We then hoisted full main and almost immediately had the full main clew, a 10mm shackle, explode. Yikes.
We reefed to 2 reefs and reefed the StaySail, waiting for the swell to abate.
Downside is that we were stuck with a max of two reefs in a dying breeze. Next day, with minimal breeze and almost flat seas we dropped all sails and gently motored downwind, and Nicholas went up into the boom to retie a new strip onto the Main clew. All good, and we could hoist full main to help our motor sailing. Cuba in the distance.
The rest of our passage was uneventful, lots of Cruise Liners on AIS, and we arrived in Key West to the noise and speed of the Fast Cigarette Boats (or whatever they’re called) National Championships.
Glad Nicholas is able to fix everything on-the-fly! Wow, those swells sound scary! Glad you're safe and sound.
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