Kate and Squeak cuddling below decks
Captain Kate at the helm
Squeak spent the next week looking around the boat in all the nooks and crannies for his sister. He still looks around for her from time to time. We are not sure how much he understands. However, he must have a sense of what happened, because he has expressed zero interest in going outside since Kate disappeared. We have decided that if he starts wanting to go out again, we are going to throw him in the water and teach him to climb back aboard with some netting thrown over the side.
We stayed in Dry Tortugas for a couple of days waiting for the strong winds and seas to dissipate. Dry Tortugas is a US National Park in the Florida Keys that can only be accessed by boat or by plane. Dry Tortugas was much different that any national park we have ever visited and would be much better classified as a national monument. The island has an old civil war era fort called Fort Jefferson, which is built out of crumbling brick made from coral. The fort is not nearly as solidly built as the other forts from the same era up in Casco Bay, Maine, since Florida lacks granite. We enjoyed exploring the fort and snorkeling around the outside of the moat.
arriving at Dry Tortugas
Chandrika at anchor at Dry Tortugas
On Dec. 3rd the winds had subsided and were coming out of the north at 10 knots. We left Dry Tortugas and 07:30 and headed out to sea. Once out to sea, the winds quickly dropped to 0-2 knots. We spent most of the day attempting to sail before finally deciding to motor. We motored through the night. Part way through the evening we hit the strong east bound current of the Gulf Stream. We ended up fighting the Gulf Stream currents almost the entire way. The current varied in places from 1 knot to up to 3 knots. Much of our trip the wind was too light to allow us to make significant headway under sail against the current. We ended up motoring and motor sailing much of the way. However, the positive side was that seas were calm much of the time. We did have a few days with some excellent sailing. On our second day, we watched a wall of clouds approaching as a cold front moved southward sending us 15 knot winds from the NW with gusts of 20 knots. We sailed at a beam reach the rest of the day. The wind also kicked up the seas and we had 5 foot swells from the side. Chandrika handled the seas beautifully until part way through the night when the winds stopped, slowing down the boat so much that the swells began to knock us broadside. Again, we were back to motoring. The following day the winds picked up again and we were able to sail once more. This time we had a headwind straight out of the SW. We close hauled under full sail in 15 knot winds with 20 knot gusts. It was exhilarating sailing. While we felt as if we were over canvassed for 15-20 knot winds, because we were fighting cvurrent we could not make headway and actually lost control of the boat under reduced sail. Chandrika sailed wonderfully and pretty much sailed herself with only occassional corrections at the helm. Along our passage to Mexico, we had dolphins swim alongside our boat 3 times. One evening as the sun was setting, we had a school of about 100 dolphins swimming alongside us, playing, doing flips and twists, and enjoying the gorgeous reds and oranges of the setting sun. On December 6th, after spending the day motorsailing and pushing our was through 2-3 knot north-bound current, we finally exited the Gulf Stream. That evening the winds increased from the South at about 15 knots. No longer fighting current and having favorable winds, we were able to sail at a close reach in the dark. We had only 20 -25 miles left until we reached Isla Mujeres and we were able to sail almost the rest of the way at 5 to 5.5 knots. It felt great to be out of the currents so we could finally move at a decent pace again. About 2 miles out from the flashing green light marking the North entrance to Isla Mujeres, the winds stopped. We decided to drop sail and motor the rest of the way. As soon as we dropped sail, a huge squall hit us unexpectedly and out of nowhere. Blinding rain and 40 knot winds destroyed visibility and made steerage of the boat difficult. We could no longer see the flashing green light, which according to the GPS was less than 1 mile off our bow. We decided it would be crazy to make our entrance into Isla Mujeres at night in such conditions, but at the same time we did not want to go back out to sea. Using the GPS to guide us, we motored to an open area to the NW of Isla Mujeres where it was shallow enough for us to drop the hook. The area offered little protection from the elements, but it provided a place where we could sit still and not worry about hitting something in the dark. Soon after we anchored the rain and the wind eased off. A fishing boat with 2 Mexicans pulled up to make sure we were okay. We told them that we were fine, planned to stay there through the night and would make our entrance in the morning. We did not want to risk another squall hitting us if decided to go further. We managed to get a couple of hours of sleep before the winds switched kicking up swells that were hitting us broadside. The boat was rolling so uncomfortably, it was impossible to sleep. In the morning of Dec 7th at first light, we saw 2 sailboats anchored 200 yards away from us in the lee of Isla Mujeres and therefore out of the swells. One of them was our friends Mark and Lori on Aeolus, who we´d met at Dry Tortugas. We had been unable to see their anchor lights the night before. Wishing to get out of the rolly seas and to finally get some sleep, we quickly weighed anchor and motored into Isla Mujeres´ somewhat protected harbor. Overall, Squeak did very well on our passage. Sue gave him one-twelfth of a tablet of Bonine (similar to Dramamine) for motion sickness two times on our passage. Sue gave it to him early to prevent sea sickness. It seemed to have worked. The only trouble was trying to get Squeak to eat. We fed him 2 cans of wet cat food mixed with chicken broth and tuna juice, as it was all we could get him to eat. Later that day we cleared into Mexico, which involved a random hocus-pocus of meaningless paperwork and beaurocracy, where we had to travel between multiple buildings spread out all over town. Watching other cruisers wandering around town trying to clear through, made the whole process more entertaining. The whole process took us half the day. Afterwards we headed back to the boat and ate and slept. Isla Mujeres is a touristy Mexican town with some Mayan ruins on its Southern tip and lots of restaurants and shops in the town center. The anchorage has poor holding ground and lots of Mexican boat traffic that flies through sending big wakes. We´ve seen a number of other boats drag anchor, some of them repeatedly. But fortunately, our anchor has been holding well in winds of up to 40 knots. We luckily chose a good spot to anchor. We plan to spend a few more days here before heading south, while we wait for the seas to subside from the strong Northeasterly winds that we´ve been experiencing. December 12th, 2007
