Hi David, thanks for the info. I’m currently in New Zealand at the moment, I work on boats and just arrived from Fiji so I’ll do some investigating.
yeah the sail down to Mexico, Isla mujeres from the keys was a solid 6 days as not much wind and took the long way around to avoid the Gulf Stream as much as possible. I took an extra 25gals of diesel as back up but had plenty of fuel left over. Isla was a great spot to hang out and refresh, a bit wild getting in and out due to all the local tourism traffic but the inside anchorage was great and holding was fine, we stayed for a week after clearance procedure, provisioned and then moved outside to a sand spot for the evening before sunset so we had a easy escape for our 3am departure to a port which was no longer a anchorage due to coral conservation, we got told no anchoring permitted now and had to leave (only local boats allowed to anchor) so we decided to press on to Cozumel.
From then on we fought the Gulf Stream to Cozumel which was a epic sail very sporty and lots of wind on the nose, I feel like the boat handled graciously, I ended hand steering most of the way as I hadn’t configured my auto pilot to tackle the wind + the large sail area I had up, full cutter style! we ended up running full sail and motor to beat the Gulf Stream that day, we did the crossing in around 6-7hours if I remember correctly. Arms were hurting and very tired when we arrived in the dark to the anchorage.
we hid in Cozumel for a week and half as there was a large blow 30+ coming in from the east in a few days and i decided to let it all pass as Cozumel has a great amount of land mass and created a good Lee for us, until our next leg to punta Allen, as it got closer a few more boats pulled into the anchorage. Always nice to know you made a good decision when others come to join.
after there we went down to punta Allen, we left at 10pm and arrived around lunch time, can get quite shallow, lots of current to fight but I always allowed for a average speed of 3kts, the first few hours are always rough fighting back across the Gulf Stream back to the main land, leaving at night tend not to notice sea state as much again I think we had full sail and motored, but thanks to ai we got some nifty info about where the Gulf Stream tends to slow down, 500ft Contour so we headed for that at, this trip was a little less exciting and slower but All went well. AI also explained how to find Eddies From small sea mounts to get little turbo boosts. - sadly didn’t find any of those.
we got to punta Allen and rested for a few days to let some weather blow through as entering and leaving can be difficult. This was true, easterlies blow straight into the pass when exiting and can have big head seas with outgoing tide. Unfortunately for timing but we had to go as more weather was moving in and needed to stay ahead of it or be stuck for days.
We made it out ok but as we got out we saw the black clouds moving in and as powered up the sails shortly after a huge squall hit us, I had reefed and small headsail but still we were fighting the wind and seas for about 30 mins. We tacked through as the wind shifted as we were also getting pushed onto the reef but just rolled with it behind us heading back north until it passed. Not the most favorite part so far but we got through it shaken but ok!
after that we started our next passage to Belize. Fighting all the way down. we met some friends from chile on the boat in Cozumel and we followed them a few days behind. they said the weather was terrible so we expected the worse and we got some of it. We came in at English Channel got to the marina in Belize city just before the storm we were running from came in for the next 3 days it blew but we made it just in time, again mostly full sail and engine, not the most pleasant of experience at times but it was a hell of a adventure!!
Belize was fun inside the channel, I didn’t go to wild into the cayes, at 5ft draught personally didn’t feel comfortable eye navigating through reefs but we mostly skirted the outer cays, we did go into the inner part briefly for one stop of at a mooring facility / bar / hotel place called hideaway cay. Some hotels are friendly for cruising boats and allowed us to come have dinner and use the island for enjoyment.
we finished up clearance out from placencia on the mainland and then enjoyed a downwinder on our way to the Rio, we used a cruising guide waypoint for entrance into the rio as there is a mud bar and at 5ft we had 1ft under and sometime less for about a hundred or so meters at mid tide incoming the boat in front of us used a different course and the were aground until the locals pulled them off - very common. Once we got cleared in and motored through the fresh water side to the town where we got hauled out, first choice yard couldn’t haul me because the shape of the keel, so luckily the next day the yard opposite hauled us with the travel lift. The end of a 2 month journey and an even Happier ending to a great trip down. I attached some photos of the way hope you enjoyed the read!
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