Crossing To Mexico

We set our departure time from Key West based on our desired arrival time in Isla Mujeres using a range of speed assumptions. We wanted to arrive during daylight, preferably in the morning with the sun behind us. We were at our first waypoint just off  Key West at 9 am exactly as planned after topping off the fuel on the way out. We rolled out the sails and turned off the engine and spent a fantastic day sailing to our next major waypoint 12 miles south of the Dry Tortugas. We saw several turtles along the way, get it, turtles - tortugas. We then turned south toward Cuba for a nighttime gulf stream crossing. We shorten sails at night so we rolled in the jib and started the engine, running at low RPM's. A shark checked us out with his fin breaking the surface. We saw several ships during the night as we were running perpendicular to the shipping lanes. It was really dark until 1 am when a half moon finally made its appearance. The gulf stream was pretty rough making it virtually impossible to sleep when not on watch. With dawn, Cuba was visible on the horizon.

Our plan was to be out of the gulf stream and catch a counter current which usually runs along the coast of Cuba. Unfortunately when we reached the 12 mile limit, still in international waters we were still in the gulf stream. We had little choice but to turn west directly into it. For the next 24 or so hours we pushed against a 2 knot current. Approaching Cabo San Antonio at the western tip of Cuba, we finally found a counter current but it was less than 1/2 knot and didn't last long. Crossing from Cuba to Mexico we had a period during the night with 5 plus knots of current with very high seas. Needless to say we were very happy to finally get out of the gulf stream. Our total trip on the GPS was 401 miles from our Key West mooring to Marina Pariaso in Isla Mujeres, but the knotmeter recorded 488 miles which means were traveled an extra 87 miles due to adverse conditions. Good sailing conditions (very fast) and changing our route to shorten it by 20 miles let us still arrive at a favorable time. We were tied up at the marina at 10:45 local time (11:45 EST) and that was after waiting about 30 minutes for a boat to vacate the slip they had for us.

Neither of us are prone to sea sickness but we were concerned about the length of time at sea and the potential rough conditions. Linda put on wrist bands which place pressure on an acupuncture point. I took Stugeron, a drug known to combat seasickness, but not approved by the FDA or available in the US. Neither of us was at all seasick, so who knows. I was able to carry on all normal activities including reading with no ill effects.

They recommend having all the paperwork ready before arriving to includes 6 copies of our passports, 6 copies of our crews list and 4 copies of our ships documentation. I did, and it was a good thing because Jose, who became our agent, jumped aboard to help with lines and as soon as we had the last line tied he wanted our documentation. Within minutes I was up to the office to meet with Health and Sanitation. Our first obstacle was explaining why we did not have Zarpe. When leaving the US they do not clear you out of the country. Almost all countries will clear you out and you show this to the next country to clear in. I provided the fuel receipt from Key West, when we topped off and this was enough to get by. Within the hour we had 8 officials aboard Ariel representing Immigration, Customs and Health and Sanitation. Interestingly these were all women. I wrote a letter addressed to the Port Captain explaining again why we did not have Zarpe. They know this but it is a ritual I guess. Jose did the running around in the afternoon to pay the fees and get the final approval from the Port Captain. The agent fee for all this was only $30, but I tipped Jose generously. We were exhausted and were delighted we did not have to negotiate the clearing in process on our own. We stayed aboard the rest of the day even though we were cleared and went to bed right after dinner.