Settled in at Hacienda Tijax in Rio Dulce

June 9, 2008

View from the pool - notice the masts behind the palapa









View from the bridge - Jupiter's Smile is above the center palm hidden by boats in front.

The suspended walkway through the jungle.











To a mountain stream's pool.

The hacienda above the jungle.




We had reservations booked at the Hacienda Tijax Jungle Hotel Marina, but Pearl had none anywhere. When I made our reservation via e-mail I had tried to make one for Pearl S. Buck and Tisha Baby at the same time, but the response was that they could not take either one of the other boats. Bryan and Dorothy went off in their dinghy to scout out Catamaran, Monkey Bay and the La Holla del Rio marinas. Barb and I dinghyed to Tijax, announced our arrival and picked one of two offered locations at the dock. Barb had not been too impressed by what she saw, but we raised the anchor and while towing the dinghy we headed to the slip. Just outside the entrance, Barb piloted the dinghy to the dock and I backed Jupiter’s Smile slowly into the slip. Five men appeared to help with lines, three on the docks and two in a launch. The fellows in the launch took my anchor about seventy-five feet out and dropped it. The other three swarmed about the deck of an adjacent boat, my deck and the dock, securing Jupiter’s Smile with what is known as a Med mooring – the boat is perpendicular to the dock with only the stern tied to the dock. The drama in this was provided by the men speaking only Spanish and me speaking only English, except when I said “Si” in response to a word I thought I might have understood. My understanding Spanish is based on our almost yearly visits to Puerto Vallarta and the vocabulary remembered from my high school Latin and French classes (I’m still sorry, Mr. Carlson and thank you, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Nielsen and Miss Koch and my parents!) By the time this act played out, Bryan and Dorothy appeared at dockside and had decided that they would take the other unclaimed slip for Pearl S. Buck. With some variations, the second act concluded with us being neighbors in Tijax. That pleased Barbie and me immensely.

Hacienda Tijax Jungle Lodge and Marina is an exotic place with docks along the river front and small cabins connected by boardwalks (some with bathrooms) spread throughout the jungle. The office/bar and dining rooms are all open to the air and the pool is in a lovely setting surrounded by some variety of bird of paradise flower that produces more blossoms per stem than I have ever seen before. The men speak mostly Spanish except for the office manager and owner and the women do pretty well speaking English generally. It is an enchanting place. They offer excursions by foot and by horseback into the jungle and we will be doing that later on. Meanwhile, the weather has been somewhat rainy with the passing of tropical storm Arthur last week and showers continue for part of the day almost everyday. We are catching rainwater since the recommendation is to boil the piped water or treat it with iodine.

We have taken the water taxi provided by the Hacienda to Rio Dulce (a third of a mile away) and that or launch, dinghy or canoe seems to be the way most people get around. The town has a bustling main street with banks, pharmacies, hardware, variety shops and food stands which spill out onto the street. The road is a two-lane affair and is the main highway to Guatemala City so the heavy truck traffic crawls along with the pedestrian traffic just inches apart. This part of the town used to be called Fronteras and was separated by the river from Rellenos on the opposite bank. An 85 foot high bridge connects the two towns and they are now united under the name Rio Dulce.

The plan is to make this our home for six months until the hurricane season ends. I feel like we are on vacation when I sit and read next to the pool. The people are very friendly and eager to help. Example: while we searched the other day to find iodine for water purification at a farmacia, a painter who was working on the other side of the parking lot walked over, paint and roller in hand and helped us as an interpreter. Smiles all around and mission accomplished eventually. The day-to-day activities of finding the necessities of life in a foreign land, with a foreign tongue and foreign money present their minor challenges, but as long as it remains a source of entertainment and not a crisis, it is all good. The quality of the experience is controlled by outlook, temperament and attitude. So far, so good.

We are having a full-length boat shade made by a local canvas maker. During this time we expect to tour the area by bus, visiting Guatemala City and the old capitol Antigua, visiting the various Mayan ruins and enrolling in a Spanish language school in Antigua for immersion learning so we may enjoy the culture at a deeper level. We may haul the boat out of the water and get the bottom repainted, the prop and stuffing boxes serviced and get a thorough cleaning and waxing. We expect to return to the US for a month or more to drive and see Barb’s “new” sister in the Seattle area, her godmother in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota and possibly, if time allows and we hold up, get to Springfield, VA/Washington, DC to see my parents and brother. Maybe we will be able to connect somewhere with Tom and Vickie as they travel by kayak.

This season’s cruise is concluded. We have no set plans for more, but now we have the summer and fall to do land based activities and decide what comes next. That’s it for now.

Till next time, be well!

Entering Guatemala and the Rio Dulce

On Wednesday, May 28th, the wind is calm and the seas behind the cape are calm as well. As we hoist the anchor at 0800, the skies are darkening and on the radar I see that rain is advancing toward us from astern. We have a rising tide around 0815 and want that to cross “The Bar” about two hours away. We get some light squalls and as we approach the buoy I find that it is not where it is charted. Consequently I have to decide, do I follow the course in the cruising guide or some other heading. Jupiter’s Smile needs 4.33 feet of flat water and “The Bar” has a reported controlling depth of 5.8 feet at mean low water so I am not too worried for us, but I am guiding Pearl S. Buck and she needs 6 feet of flat water and I am worried for her. It is past mean low water on a rising tide so that is good, but the seas are no longer flat and that is not so good. I decide to head toward the river gorge opening, which is only two degrees different from the cruising guide heading, but it seems to compensate reasonably for where the buoy now lies. About 200 yards beyond the buoy the bottom rises to about 6.5 feet on my depth sounder and then less and less until I see 5.9 feet. I report this progression (recession) to Bryan on the VHF as we are both motoring slowly along. Yes, he bumps, but does not stop as he plows a shallow furrow across the bar and then we are back into deeper water. We line up the microwave towers per the cruising guide, then turn parallel to the city’s concrete dock about one hundred yards out and drop the anchor in the current of the river’s flow as it begins to rain harder.

It is 1030. We hail the Port Captain, but he does not answer. He hadn’t answered the catamaran captain who called earlier either, but Raúl did and arranged for the catamaran's clearance within an hour’s time, the captain told us as he was returning to his boat with his clearance paperwork in hand. We called the Port Captain one more time and Raúl responded, telling us to switch to channel 14 and there, that “the Port Capitan never answers the radio. Do you see any other boats coming?” We didn’t see any boats, just us two. Raúl would arrange for the boarding party to come out in about 20 minutes for their inspection. Then it started to rain very hard, and so we waited. Then in the rain I saw an approaching sailboat, so I took the opportunity to call Raúl to report this and he said, “good,” but that the officials would wait until the rain was not so hard before they came to the boats. In about an hour and a half the rain stopped, the sun came out; the boats had been well rinsed in the first rain we had seen in almost six months. The officials came to Pearl S. Buck first and took ten minutes. Then it was our turn, and I had all our paperwork and copies of documents for the Customs, Immigration, Sanitation and Health officers laid out on our saloon table; so they went below, picked up what they needed, asked a few questions, and left saying that we could pick up our stamped passports and permits from Raúl shortly. Then they departed. We lowered our quarantine flag as ordered leaving the Guatemalan courtesy flag flying and took our dinghy to the dock to find Raúl. A thirty year old “boat boy” said he would watch our dinghy, and a thirteen year old escorted us to Raúl’s office. Raúl said to return after lunch, and it would cost 1075Q ($145 USD) for our paperwork and permits good for ninety days. We found the bank and exchanged dollars for quetzales ($1 : 7.34Q) and walked around town, stopping to purchase some produce and some cold cervezas. We doffed our hats for a coffin-laden pickup truck leading a procession of mourners. Dorothy snapped a quick photo, and we went back to Raúl’s where we paid and collected our papers. Raúl explained that for 1100Q he could expedite the extension of our permits to a full year. We would consider that, but not now. We had ninety days to see how things went.

We returned to the dinghy, tipped the boat boy, and were underway at 2:45 PM up river with great anticipation!

The photos speak for themselves, but capture only a hint of the exotic beauty of the gorgeous gorge.

At 4:30 PM we were anchored in Texan Bay off the Marina at Texan Bay. At the marina, the crews of the two boats went ashore and celebrated our wonderful day and arrival with a good dinner; and we each had a couple of drinks, all for about $20 per couple. That Wednesday night it rained again and it rained off and on heavily enough that we filled our water tanks and jugs quickly and then read a few books, did some puzzles, watched some movies and talked. We got off the boat for a few hours on Friday and explored the area by dinghy before it rained again. On Saturday we raised our anchors; and we motored up El Golfete, stopping to eat lunch behind Cayo Juan before anchoring first near the marina at Hacienda Tijax, but too near Rio Dulce’s water taxi landing, and then finally back around the point in a quieter spot for the night. We had Bryan and Dorothy aboard for dinner and planned for the 1st of June arrival at Tijax Marina.

Clearing Mexico and approaching Guatemala

We left with Tisha Baby at 1240 the next day planning to clear out of Mexico at Xcalak after we completed an overnight and two-day sail. A few hours out the wind turned contrary so Richard decided to head for Cozumel instead. We had heard that the weather might turn sour in a few days with a tropical wave meeting up with a low-pressure area, so we decided to keep heading south to beat it. Near sundown we heard that they were approaching the northern end of Cozumel while we, attaining over eight knots, continued on a close reach into the dusk. We reduced sail just before dark and through the night we sailed on. Each time we approached a cape or point we experienced confused seas as we were trying to stay somewhat close to shore to avoid the famous three to four knot Yucatan current. Our tactics allowed us to experience no more than a one-knot unfavorable current, but exposed us to an uncomfortable and wet ride. Twenty-six hours later we dropped anchor behind the reef in Bahia Del Espiritu Santo. In order to arrive in Xcalak with good light we lifted anchor at 0140 in the morning. Barbie’s note on the calendar spans four days – “Awful passage!” It was four days because when we got to Xcalak just after 3PM the next day the seas were very large and breaking across the reef-bordered entrance to the harbor. I used the VHF radio to contact any station that might advise us about entering and we heard from S/V Lyric that the port captain had had a heart attack and his assistant had cancer so the office had been closed for a week with no opening date planned. Furthermore, Lyric had planned to clear into Mexico, but failing that, they still supposed that they would be stuck there until the weather settled a week later. I decided to push on to Punta Gorda, Belize and beg for mercy for not having cleared out of Mexico due to the threat to our safety. By the time we neared Punta Gorda the seas were just as bad and now it was nearing sundown so the light for reading the water depths was poor. Again, I decided to push southbound and into our third night at sea. At about 9 PM, nearing Belize City I called Pearl S. Buck on VHF, but got no answer. S/V Spray answered advising us that they were anchored near Pearl off Caye Caulker so we asked them to relay our greeting. They also advised us to not try our planned route in the dark due to the coral heads that were interspersed along it, but to enter English Channel thirty nm farther south instead and then gave us the coordinates of an anchorage inside the entrance to the channel. It was not good news, but it was good information and we followed it. We anchored behind Water Cay at 0200 on the 22nd.

The next day, we awoke and played in the water before deciding to call a marina to clear into Belize. Cucumber Beach Marina was recommended in our cruising guide as a convenient location for clearance so we went there. It was convenient, but expensive. The next morning, officers from Customs, Immigration, Health and Agriculture and Sanitation all clamored aboard after coming from Belize City and charging $25 USD each for the expense of the trip. On top of that we were charged $20 USD by Customs and $30 USD by Health and Agriculture for a D-Rat certificate certifying that we had been checked for rats. They were not pleased that we had not cleared out of Mexico, but seemed to understand our situation. I guess they really didn’t like being called away from their air-conditioned offices to sit in our boat’s cockpit in the sweltering heat (even at 0900) so maybe they took it out on us in fees. Maybe not? The Sanitation Officer who checked the two houseplants that Barbie brought up from the saloon to him made the only actual inspection. Otherwise they all simply sat, checked paperwork and collected copies while making me fill out and sign and stamp some more. Then we had to go to Belize City ourselves to pick up the D-Rat certificate at the Health and Agriculture office later that day. We got a ride into the city from a car leaving the marina and they dropped us off within a block of the office. The certificate was ready when we got there so we decided we would tour for the remainder of the day. The downside of that was that it was hot. Barbie observed that where even children carry a washcloth to wipe their sweat – that’s too hot. We had a nice lunch in the breeze on a deck overlooking Belize Bay and as we ate we got some advice about repelling no-see-ums using a citronella oil fired lantern and where to find one. There are several hardware stores close together in downtown Belize City and we visited three before we found what we had been told to get. We spent $12 USD (cheap!) We rode the bus back to the marina $1.50 USD for the two of us (cheap!) and paid for the marina fee the next morning - $31.20 USD for two nights (very cheap!) E-mail, but not Internet access (I don’t know how they did that. Is it censorship?) (free!). We got caught up with our incoming e-mail and got a chance to answer a few. Several e-mails acknowledged Barbie’s birthday. Mike Nolen is sailing his S/V the Great Escape – our previous sailboat in the San Juan Islands of British Columbia. Dad is doing okay, out of the skilled nursing facility and back to the apartment after his hip replacement surgery. Even though my retired meteorologist brother was traveling with Vickie by kayak up the East coast (you must check his blogsite - http://turtletooblog.blogspot.com ), Tom saw fit to take time to e-mail us and warn us of a tropical cyclone possibly headed our way around June 1 – the official start of hurricane season.

With that in the back of my mind and our business completed, we pulled out of the marina to head about 20 miles north to Caye Caulker (Corker Key) to meet Bryan and Dorothy on Pearl S. Buck. They gave us directions on what to see and where to go on the Caye and we enjoyed a nice walk along the beach front and then back inland three blocks to the bakery to buy some fresh bread. Another two blocks inland brought us to the bay side and back to our dinghy. We returned to visit again with Bryan and Dorothy to report on the delights we found on Caye Caulker and to discuss the next move with an ear toward the weather warnings and an eye on the calendar date June 1. If a named storm occurred and we were not in a marina on the Rio Dulce, our insurance would pay nothing for loss or damage to our boat.

We left Caye Caulker Sunday morning and had a very pleasant sail to Colson Cays and did some snorkeling after we anchored. On Monday, we heard Tisha Baby getting the weather news from Chris Parker and the possibility of the tropical wave becoming a storm came up, confirming what Tom had sent us four days before. We headed for Placencias Cay arriving in plenty of time to walk through the village, enjoy a tropical drink at a beachside bar and to return to the boats along their famous and picturesque mile long sidewalk. On Tuesday, the weather news seemed to heighten the treat level so we decided clear out of Belize here at Placencias. Bryan and I dinghyed to shore at 0700, walked to the water taxi and bought a $6 USD round trip ticket. Arriving in the village of Independence we caught a taxi agreeing on a price of $12.50 USD to go to Immigration at the police station and then to Customs at the ship port and back to the water taxi. “It should take an hour tops.” The policeman/immigration officer was at his office early so we were able to get our passports stamped and drive to the Customs office by 0800. By 0830 the taxi driver was worried so while four other cruising boat captains arrived in a second taxi, our guy decided he would go to the officers house to see what was keeping him. We speculated that he had celebrated Commonwealth Day heartily and was now late for work, but he was not at home (or dead in the house.) We learned that he was on vacation instead and that a substitute officer was coming from another port “soon.” After treating our driver to some tacos and a juice at a roadside stand and getting some air in a tire we returned to the Customs office and began chatting with the other cruisers. At 1030 the substitute officer and the Port Captain drove up. We were happy to see the Customs Officer, but not so the Port Captain. If the Port Captain is not around the Customs Officer clears you out of the country with no fee. Being present, the Port Captain asks to see the ships papers, draws up a certificate that he hands to me, that I hand to the Customs Officer, that he stamps and hands back to me and I hand back to the Port Captain with $45 USD. Our taxi driver gets us back to the water taxi in time for the 1100 boat and we give him $20 USD. At 1200 we are underway in the direction of Rio Dulce. I was ambivalent about that decision because we had not really seen Belize and its beautiful cays, but with safety in mind we decided to avoid conflict with bad weather. The cays would wait until we emerge from the jungle in the fall and we will visit them then. We hear Tisha Baby on the radio intermittently and they expect to hunker down for the bad weather in Placencia and sail around, arriving in the Rio Dulce July 1.

As forecasted the winds are light, but as we approach the Gulf of Honduras the seas increase. Then Barbie catches a nice fish that we land and dispatch with a splash of rum in the gills. As Barb is filleting the fish the boat is pitching, but she manages to do a creditable job and we get several servings bagged and into the frig and the cockpit cleaned up as the seas and now the winds continue to build. We are approaching Cabo Tres Puntas and the current is opposing the wind, which steepens the waves. Once we round the cape and run a few more miles it will be dark so we anchor just beyond the cape, the surge of the swells and just before dark. The prior two nights we had been witness to some lightening flashes in the distant clouds and that night was no exception, but now we were within nine miles of our goal of Livingston, Guatemala with the last two obstacles facing us Wednesday morning. The fabled “Bar” and clearing into the country.

Pto. Morales & Tulum

Puerto Morales Lights


Tulum Ruins

In Isla Mujeres, May 9th on the morning net we heard of a “non-emergency boat watch” for S/V Pearl S. Buck and S/V Destiny. We were waiting for Bryan on Pearl S. Buck to arrive ourselves and were startled to hear of this inquiry so we answered the call with “info” of our own. We learned that Destiny had had engine trouble and that neither boat had been heard from recently. Barbie remarked that even without engine trouble we didn’t expect Bryan for a few more days anyway. It turned out that Cathy, the wife of the captain of Destiny had the concern and was searching for information. We told her that we were friends of Bryan’s and that while we did not know about her husband we would at least meet her and provide moral support. She appreciated that.

When Pearl S. Buck arrived on the 10th, Bryan told us that they had left Galveston the day before Destiny and they were not in contact as they traveled. Meanwhile, Kathy heard from her husband and that they were safe in Progresso, MX on the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula and that had gotten their engine fixed. We met Dorothy who had committed to crew with Bryan six weeks prior to the trip and Georgie who had committed to crew just days before the trip. Luckily they had enough crew to hand steer the boat after the autopilot quit 250 nm into the 700 nm trip. It was great to see Bryan again and to meet his crew and Kathy joined us all on Jupiter’s Smile for a reunion.

Having left their boat in Progresso, that evening the crew of Destiny arrived in Isla Mujeres along with some friends who had not been crew. They invited us to dinner at the house they had rented so the five of us found a cab and squeezed in for the agreed upon 50 peso ride, but we had not agreed to get lost. By the time we got there the hosts had stirred up some turmoil between them, but we had a great dinner just the same. And the house was a three-story, cliff-side-sea-side, Architectural Digest cover photo palace! Flush from their adventures the crew of Destiny had stories to tell. It had been their first offshore passage. Bryan had been aboard Pearl S. Buck for over four years and had crossed the Gulf five times, sailed to Connecticut with us for several months and then to the Bahamas with us. Dorothy had all but circumnavigated the planet for ten years and Georgie had owned her own boat for several years as well. We sat and listened politely to the exploits of the crew whose boat was still in Progresso and all kinds of sailing advice they had for us. It was a surreal evening and like nothing I had ever experienced before. At nearly midnight there were no longer any cabs at the taxi stand so we started walking. Fortunately, Dorothy and I, having lagged behind the trio in front of us, were able to flag down an unsuspecting cab driver that was only a little perplexed when the couple he thought he was picking up turned into a quintuple. We returned to our boats and have not heard from Destiny since, but we think that Cathy and Len are sailing down the coast by themselves toward the Rio Dulce.

Georgie’s husband is undergoing cancer treatments and the plan was to sail Pearl S. Buck to Belize City where either he would fly from Texas to join her for a land tour if he were well enough or she would fly back to Texas to be with him if he wasn’t well enough. Bryan and the women sailed the next day.

On the 16th of May, Tisha Baby arrived from Key West. Barb and I accompanied Richard and Pam to help them check into Mexico and we completed the process in 45 minutes! We were able to buy some groceries, tour the town and have lunch at our now favorite beachside restaurante, Mimino’s followed by our seventh happy hour at Marina Paraiso. The next day we sailed for Puerto Morelas arriving in time to snorkel the reef and enjoy happy hour at a beachside cantina. For Barbie’s birthday we traveled with Daniel and Josianne from S/V Gone and Michel and Brigitte from S/V Epsilon by classe primero bus to Tulum to visit the site of the Mayan ruins overlooking the sea. See photos. We six returned to Puerto Morelas to dine with Pam and Richard to celebrate Barbie’s birthday. Pam made a great chocolate cake with a rich chocolate icing and Barb heard happy birthday renditions in English, French and Quebecoise.

Richard & Pam

Heading to Mexico

When I returned to the boat Barbie had accomplished several tasks. Barb had the water tanks full and the leaking dinghy repaired. We took two weeks to order and receive charts, visit Key West by bus (50 miles, $1 each way for persons over 55!) repair a leaky diverter valve and prepare the boat for sea again. Among other things, that included a dive under the boat to clean the hull. Our bottom paint is just over two years old and the water in Marathon’s harbor seems to be especially challenging. I took two days to clean the bottom in water so turbid that I could barely see my hand brushing the hull at the end of my fully extended arm.

Barb began to notice tenderness in a tooth so she went to a dentist who scheduled a root canal for the 1st of May. The procedure went well and Barb gave me the okay for a departure the next day. We filled our jerry cans with fuel (35 gal), topped off our tank (1/2 gal) and left the harbor sailing only a short way to New Found Harbor and dropped the hook. It was time to get out of Marathon! Having visited Key West by land already, we sailed past it to anchor on the leeward side of the Marquesas Keys for the night before sailing to the Dry Tortugas and an anchorage in front of Fort Jefferson the next two nights.

We toured the fort and planned our passage to Isla Mujeres, MX. With route planning from Chris Parker at the Caribbean Weather Center, we decided to leave after 10 AM on May 5th and proceed west from the Dry Tortugas to the looping Gulf Stream and then to ride it south past the tip of Cuba, Cabo San Antonio, and onward to a point about 30 nm (27 as it turned out) south of the latitude of Isla Mujeres along the 86oW longitude line. We then turned due west and rode the current directly into the south entrance to Isla Mujeres Bay about an hour before dark on the 7th of May. We had mild seas, but we also had mild wind so while we had sails up, we also ran our engine. We saw almost no traffic, but kept in touch with another boat that had left a few hours earlier than we did, S/V Stolen Child (from the poem by Yeats.) We shared information about our routes and what ships, currents and winds we were seeing. It was a comfort and a diversion to talk with them even at a distance that required using the SSB radio instead of VHF. We both arrived safely and met for the first time in person aboard a neighboring vessel the next morning, the 8th. Jack and Jo on the M/V Bodacious suggested we visit for coffee to go over what they knew about “checking into Mexico”. Patrick and Nancy from Stolen Child joined us. Bodacious had been a support boat for the St. Petersburg to Isla Mujeres sailing race the week before and had been assisted in their check in by staff at the sponsoring marina so they told us what they knew about being assisted. I wanted to see what the procedure was first hand and being parsimonious by nature I preferred to pay no agent for help. Patrick agreed that we would provide moral support for each other as we set out to brave the seas of beaurocracy before us. The cruising guides said to call the Capitan de le Puerto and we had done that last evening as we approached the harbor and again this morning with no response. So we thought that the Capitan de le Puerto would be a good first stop. We dinghyed ashore and walked through town to the Oficinia. The official asked if we had been to “Sanitation” and we said “no.” So off we went to “Sanitation.” We were told at Sanitation to go to the clinic to find the officer there. As we were walking, a man on a motor scooter called to us. He was the Health and Customs officer and would help us. First he needed to see our paperwork. He gave me a form to fill out and did some looking at my documents. Reading the crew list he said, “do you have a notarized copy?” “No.” said I. “You must have the crew list notarized,” said he. “Where may I do that?” I asked. “Do you have anything notarized from the US?” he asked me. He saw my Bill of Sale and saw the notary stamp saying this will do this time, but next time, no. Now he said, “Where is Barbara?” “On the boat,” I replied. Stamp, Stamp, Stamp, Stamp. My crew list is certified and I think we just cleared customs. Patrick is next. Same steps are repeated. We are told to go to the boat and return with Barbara and Nancy to Imigracion next. We do that. Finding that office about five blocks away we show that our crew lists and papers are checked by Sanitation. We fill out more forms and are sent with one for each of our crew to the bank (5 doors down) to pay the fee. We wait in line, pay 474 pesos for the two of us and get more pesos while we are at it. We return from the bank with more paperwork, copies of which have been faxed to who knows where. We are talking with the official who mentions that he owns an internet café up the street. We leave and I decide return to get recommendations for lunch from him. His assistant declares that it is a good thing that I came back because we had not finished the paperwork. I called the other three back off the street into the office and we conclude our official business at Imigracion. Now we head for the Port Captain’s office, which is around the corner from the lunch recommendation. We hand over all our paperwork, answer several questions, pay another 277 pesos (based on tonnage), get more stamps, a very official printed, stamped and signed statement on the back of our original crew list and we told “Bien venido a Mexico.” Lunchtime! Lunch was pretty good and pretty cheap and after the rigors of the morning behind us and a meal with cervesa inside us we were decidedly more relaxed. Isla Mujeres is a busy little tourist town with a certain amount of charm. Did I take photos? Nope! Sorry. We have learned from the cruiser’s radio net that there is a daily happy hour at the Marina Paraiso – 10 peso beers and we decided that there would be a good place to learn about Isla Mujeres, etc. We found our way to Marina Paraiso and enjoyed the company we found there. Some cruisers we had already met in Key West or in the Dry Tortugas anchorage days before.

You must click on this photo to see what must be the largest flag in the world. That has got to be a symbol of national pride if there ever was one.

Dad's Situation-Hip, Hip, Hurrah

The trip began as soon as we arrived in Miami on March 28th. The shock of being in that much civilization made us want to leave as soon as we reprovisioned. On the 30th we had sailed south and were anchored off Pumpkin Key near Key Largo. We motored and sailed to Sunset Cove and went ashore for dinner at Snook’s (not bad, but pricey -welcome to the Keys.) Next day we stopped at Buttonwood Sound off Islamorada and had after dinner drinks at Loralei’s. A very good guitar-playing singer entertained us with oldies and very oldies and many couples joined us dancing. This was a fun night out.

On the 2nd of April we reached Marathon and elected to round the point and enter the harbor from the west instead of using Sister Creek because the wind produced a swell that may have had us bouncing the bottom as we entered the creek. When Richard on Tisha Baby reported depths of just four feet we knew we had decided correctly (we draw 4 1/3 ft.) We stayed in Marathon exactly one month.

We had planned to leave the boat on a mooring and surprise my Dad by flying to DC and then going to see him on his birthday on April 14th, but he surprised us by falling and breaking his hip a week before we got to Marathon. I booked a flight for the 5th and Dad had surgery the same day. Barb stayed with the boat. When I got to Springfield that evening brother Tom picked me up at the Metro Station. He and Vickie had arrived from North Carolina the day before. Mom and Vickie were at home at the apartment at Greenspring Village. We poked our heads in Dad’s room to find him sleeping. The nurse said he was recovering okay after surgery so we left. We all (Larry came from DC) saw the doctor the next day and he had written orders to have Dad standing on Sunday(!), but not to expect that to really happen because the PT department is not well staffed on the weekend (there should be a weekend discount then – right?) and that Monday would be a good day to start standing. Meanwhile, Dad was not eating and Mom was worrying. He was still on an I.V. so he was getting fluids and some calories. He didn’t seem to be in pain, but the nurse gave him some pain medication for sleep and the next day Dad was seeing things and talking to people that weren’t there. Luckily, midweek the doctor released him to the skilled nursing facility at Greenspring and we were all happy to see the ambulance arrive five minutes early to make the transfer. I was not impressed with the care at the hospital. They seemed to be interested in mission statements and customer satisfaction instead of basic patient care. It seemed that there were more visits from many staff telling us that Dad was getting good care than there were visits from staff actually giving good care. Giving a man pain medication when he didn’t ask for it isn’t good care. Putting a tray of food on a bedside table out of reach of a man who cannot see what it is and who has dexterity and speech deficits from a previous stroke so he can’t fill a spoon to feed himself lying in bed isn’t good care. We had to struggle at times to understand what was being said by most of the staff. PT never visited him and so he never got out of bed at the hospital. He got through it, however, and Dad arrived at Greenspring’s Renaissance Gardens in one piece. But, he was still seeing and talking to things that weren’t there and we were all concerned. Betsy and Leona arrived from Maine and we all took turns staying with Dad throughout most of everyday leaving him alone to sleep at night. He was actually “working” harder with us there than with his regular routine before the fall. He almost always took a good nap in the afternoons before and he was not doing that now. Now he was getting physical and occupational therapies, eating three meals in the dining room and pretty good overall care. With us being there we were able to assist him eating his meals, attend therapy sessions and to remind him that when he was seeing the phantoms that they weren’t real. He didn’t get much daytime rest, but slept pretty well at night, he said. He stopped seeing the visions after a day and continued to progress steadily. On the 14th we had a very nice birthday celebration in a conference room down the hall. Dad has been working hard at walking, but the stroke of over a year ago has affected his balance so that he has to really concentrate on what his legs are doing and not doing. As this all seems to be turning out well it afforded us some time to visit with the entire immediate family (I include Aunt Janet) as Dad keeps improving. Tom and Vickie left on the 15th and I flew out on the 16th. Betsy and Leona left on the weekend so Mom is on full time with Aunt Janet’s support and Larry’s visits on the weekend. We stayed in touch on the phone and via e-mail and reports indicate steady progress. An appointment with the surgeon on the 17th will clear Dad for a return to the apartment before the moon is full on May 19th. Let’s hope so.