Saturday afternoon we went to the bar for sundowners and came back to Morphie for dinner. As I was down below cooking Mike went by on his dinghy so Richard invited him on board for an impromptu evening…..was good fun!
During the night the winds picked up – as forecast – and we were rolling around even tied to the pilings…. Sunday morning and the winds continued to howl – we did a few boat jobs and checked our lines / fenders and listened to the early morning cruisers net with its reports of boats dragging and going bump in the night. Glad we are tucked up here in Marina Paraiso.
Later on we went to visit Island Sol – our Island Packet neighbours. These very generous people are giving us loads of information about diving in Roatan and some detailed waypoints for when we head off. Well – as we were sitting and chatting – the heavens opened and we had a horrendous thunderstorm. I got caught out as I’d just popped ashore to phone Mum so while I was soaked through I checked all the lines on both our boats…. We ended up spending the afternoon with Charlie and Saundra and had a lot of fun (and drinks)!
Sunday night we ended up having a quiet one on board……having watched a spectacular stormy sunset.
Monday morning we were up early – we planned to go into Cancun – but, when we got online over breakfast we realised that it was a public holiday in Mexico. So, although the big stores will be open the smaller chandleries will not be…… Hmmmm…..we’re heading off to investigate whether we can buy ablative antifoul as we’ve been told that it is possible to get this in Guatemala but it is very expensive. We didn’t buy it before we left the States as we thought we were going to be in Panama where this stuff is readily available – but changed plans mean we need to source this if we can before we haul now. So we decided not to go to Cancun today after all – and, as the weather was so nasty, we just vegged out on board.
Tuesday morning and we were up early again…..and headed off to the fast ferry terminal. We got our tickets and enjoyed the views of the island sitting upstairs, where we were surprised to find a guy playing live music for us. He was quite entertaining and pretty good with his renditions from Guns & Roses and the Eagles. Was a pretty fast trip and we admired the views of the hotel district along the way.
Arriving into Cancun we walked away from all the taxis at the ferry terminal as they are very expensive. It is much cheaper to flag one down on the main road so that’s what we did. We first went to Walmart and got everything on our list – primarily oil – of the transmission / engine and outboard / generator variety. Packed everything into our wheelie bag and got a taxi back to the chandleries. Well, they have no bottom paint apart from Seahawk Island 44 which is not legal down under so scratch that idea for now then!
We went back to the terminal and were surprised to see the queues – we didn’t actually make the next ferry that came in, having to wait for the second, which was absolutely rammed. Again we sat upstairs and had another guy playing music – but he wasn’t very good!
Back to Isla Mujeres and we got a taxi back to the marina and back to Morphie to stow all our goodies….not a completely failed trip! And that is where we stayed for the rest of the day.
Wednesday morning and we were up early and on the dive boat by 8.30. The first dive was a drift dive – across an interesting bottom with lots of vegetation and huge sponges with the occasional sandy patch and shelf. And as I’m going across the top of a shelf all of a sudden a large shark comes out from underneath me – not sure who was more surprised him or me LOL! Another superman dive again and we were going along at about two knots. Great dive.
Second dive of the day was on the Canyons – fantastic dive and our favourite of them all so far. Interesting topography and lots to see – including some eagle rays, some large specimens and a school of big barracuda – not to mention the sunfish….and the large groupers and schools off fish out there in the blue…… Totally amazing!
Back on board we had a rest before going bobbing in the pool for a while before getting cleaned up and heading down into town for the evening.
We went on a mini-pub crawl looking for live music and ended up visiting three venues and had a great time including a simple but tasty supper of fish tacos and chicken fajitas. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
This morning – Thursday – and we’re being lazy. We’re going out for dinner tonight with Charlie and Saundra, so looking forward to that. Friday we’re off diving again … In the meantime, we’d like to wish all our family and friends a very Happy Easter!
Bye for now
Jan