Quick Note

When we decided to start a blog we just started one the way we wanted it. A short story each week with two pictures. We will try to send one a week but it may be difficult if we are traveling. We hope we can write the story as if we were telling a friend about what we have been doing.

Now let me make a statement we have black friends but if you start talking outside your inter-circle about black people you need to place your words well. I worked in a plant once. I went in to work one day our press was down the operator said go get a special mechanic, I don’t know his name but he is the best, you will be able to find him because he is a midget but don’t call him a midget, he don’t like it. Being a man we all know what it’s like if you say anything about a woman’s weigh, so I just won’t go there. In writing this blog we hope we never describe anyone and make them mad that is not what we want.

Now with all I have said, let me say something about the people here they are as diverse as in the states, but most of the Maya people are small. I hope we don’t make anyone mad by saying they are small but some are tiny. It is not uncommon to be behind what you think is an eight year old girl and find out when she turns around she a sixty year old woman.We will be talking more about the Maya people in the future and hope this explains how we want our blog to be written and why we are sending a short one today. If you look at this picture it’s a woman shoe not a little girls. See what I mean.

 

Trip To Cancun

After we found a dock down here our next step was to find some wood to build a boom. We wanted to go to Cancun but we were not sure we could find our way around so we went with some new friends that have been traveling for years in Central America They wanted to go on the car ferry said it was cheaper. That was fine with us. It’s also slower and not as nice as the fast ferry but okay. On the Cancun side, they said we should walk out on the street the cabs are cheaper if you get away from the ferry docks. One cab wanted twenty dollars American to go to Wal-mart this was all right with me but our friends said no that’s too much. We ask a bus driver if he went to Wal-mart the best we could with our poor Spanish. He said “No” We will try something else our friend said “Autobus to Tulum Avenue. “See” the man said. “What are we doing “I ask we are going down town. We will find it from there It will be cheaper you will see our friend said How much we ask the driver two and a haft peso a peace that about ninety cents for all of us. This was our first experience riding a bus / van in Mexico. First thing you need to know is if you can get in you can ride there is no passenger limit here. It was fun to see Cancun this way, most tourist never ride the bus. When we got to Tulum Ave it wasn’t what I thought it would be I thought it would be sky scrapers not, So. There are a lot of small shops of all kinds there and places where you can set down and it’s very busy so we stopped there to take it all in. We were looking for a number six bus to Wal-Mart. didn’t see one. Our friends said” Something is wrong.” There was a man just opening up a very little shop wearing a sports coat. I was wearing just a tee shirt and shorts and burning up and he had the most pointed shoes on I have ever seen. He said we had to walk over to the next street for a number six bus but before you go let me offer you a free trip to Chichen Itza. Now let me remind you of something my Granddaddy always told me, there is nothing free. All we had to do was set and lesson for ninety minutes, eat a free breakfast at a luxury hotel that’s all we would have to do and we would have a free trip to Chichen Itza with a free lunch and we could go swimming in an underground natural pool. I held out but finally gave in and said “Okay we would all do it.

We walked across the street found a restaurant ate and early lunch took, the bus to Wal-Mart. We would go to that hotel first thing tomorrow. Wal-Mart was a little different not just the way they are in the US but close. But very different in the meat department they had some meat like the US but most was the way the Mexicans like it cut in chunks or sliced very thin. I found some snorkel stuff cheap and was looking for a Dremel tools when I saw a man that looked like he was from the US, so I ask him if he knew where I could find Dremel tools. “Not here” he said “That kind of stuff is not available down here.” Then he changed the subject and stared to talk politics, straight from his party lines so I tried to change it back. Where can I find some wood maybe some cedar? “That is another hard one doesn’t go to Home Depot. You can hall all the wood away from there in one old Chevy pickup. It’s more of a decorating center.” He said “I have been here for twenty years had, to get out of the states the place is going down the tubes. When he tried to go back to politics I said “Where is it I need to go?” You need to go to Tulum Ave get a cab tell them to take you to a lumber yard their on the North West side of town here. I will write it down and how to pronounce cedar. We left Wal-Mart and went to Home Depot. He was right there was some tools there really high in price. They had some Dremel cut-off wheels that cost three times what they are in the states and wood there was just a few pieces of thin plywood and some two by twos not enough to build anything I could think of. They build everything down here with cement. If you need doors you go to a shop that builds doors. I guess they get there wood from these lumber yards.

You can buy a tee shaped things here made with cement and a cement block that fit’s the tee bar thing to make a flat roof of concrete most homes here have cement floors wall and ceilings. Some of the doors are beautiful all hand made out of this wood they call jungle wood down here. It is red, very hard and heavy.

 

 

 

We left Home Depot and made our way back to the island there on the boat I thought about Slocum building a boat on the beach for his family. Going in to the jungle and cutting the wood making the nails out of scrap copper he found, building a fire melting the copper down for the nails. I knew I wouldn’t have to go that far but building down here is different.

I looked at our little pot-belly wood heater we installed into the Pamela Ann when we built her. There have been some very nice little fires been built in there from all kinds of wood but the best fires were from wood I collected from a bucket that I kept near the minor box saw when I worked in boat yards along the coast of the US. When the wood is just too small for anything else it goes in the bucket teak, mahogany, rosewood whatever and it’s made and even better fire if the boat was covered with snow.

Pam said that I didn’t need to talk politics with strangers. I said “He talked I listened.” For we both hope the best for our country and all the countries of the world. We hope we don’t stay long enough anywhere to get involved in politics.

Tomorrow we go to the fancy hotel. I am a little worried I am not a fancy hotel kind of a guy. Maybe we will find some wood soon and with any luck, soon we will get to see Chichen Itza.

Finding A Dock

Finding A Dock

Now that we were here and checked into Mexico our next step was to find a dock.  We knew that we would be leaving the boat for hours. We wanted to go to Chichen Itza, go to Cancun and we needed to build a boom.

When we were back in Alabama we would go to a famous old bar called Pirates Cove. We don’t drink but some of our friends do and its a fun place. There they said “If you ever get to Isla you need to look up and old hippie named Chic, he has a place down there.” Remember they called him  and old hippie not me.They said “Chic is a man who can help you if you ever have trouble.”

We went over to one dock and ask about a slip, it was new and they were still working on it. The owner said we could stay there, no power or water yet for two hundred American a week he said we could renegotiate when he had the power and water on, that he was building the docks for the big boys, sport fishing boats. It was nice but not our style we needed a cheap dock. So we went riding around in our dink  looking at other docks when I saw a man setting under a palapa reading a paper, he looked like a man who  would be called Chic so we pulled over to his dock and ask if he knew the  man named Chic. ” Yes that’s me.” he said.  I said “Greetings from the great state of Alabama.” We talked for a while he said he did not know of a dock but we could work on our boom there at his place.

The next day we loaded our dink Dumpling down with tools and the stump of our main boom we broke, off the coast of Cuba. We went back for the club foot boom we had built in Mississippi.The mainboom was originally built-in Southport, N C our homeport and it had carried us a long way.  My plan was to scarf the two together and make a new main boom then we would have to find some wood to build a new club foot boom or fly the jib free-footed. This way we could leave if we had to. I had cut a long scarf in the stump and club foot boom and was glueing them back together using a string to keep them straight when a man came up looking for Chic. I told him he had wandered off somewhere but by now the man was more interested in what I was doing. I told him I was about through with this but what I needed now was a cheap dock. The man said” I will be right back.” When he came back he said “Come with me I will show you a dock. “It might be just  what you are looking for.”

Pam and I jumped on his golf cart for what turned out to be a fine day of sight seeing  He rode us all the way around the island. I was not sure about the dock for one thing  the water was shallow and it was more than I had planned to pay but it was cheaper than the docks for the big boys.

So we went to get the Pamela Ann, bumped the bottom a couple of times, but we had  a dock.

we are home our new dock

I ask the owner if I could change some of the boards that were bad and covered with plywood.There was some better boards piled up at the end of the marina. He said I could help the night watchman the next day. The owner speaks fair English but when I went to help the night watchman he was Maya. I  don’t speak Spanish,just some words and did not know people here spoke Myan until a few weeks ago. So talking to one another was out. He was cutting down a board with a machete. I went and got a skill saw off the boat.  He wanted no part of that, so I cut the boards. We tried to pull the old nails out. no luck. I went for a grinder. cut the nails off tried to drive a nail, no luck went for a drill and finally we had the dock fixed and had spoken only  two words we could both understand, buenas and amigo. There are two boat there from the states and the owners nephew  that runs a charter boat speak English the rest speak Spanish. I thought this was great at frist but now I believe I will never speak Spanish so now I try one or two-word sentences.   A lot of Mexicans speck to us in English that way   A man on the dock ask me,  fix boatay?  I thought he was talking about us building our boat.   I said “Yes”  He took a towel of the rail of the boat he runs and there was a big hole in the side,  he was saying  two more words “big wind”   I  said back to him  “ayer see”   two words. There is a friend of the owners nephew  that fixes boats so I called out his name and he said     ”NO NO    he tell,   you fix    No tell.   So I did and got paid in fish.

To day we have a new word its  pronounced  “pr vo” and we are headed to the Xpress Super. With any luck we will be back with turkey for supper. One and two words at a time and we are getting along.

 

Checking In

Checking In

On our way down from the USA to Mexico just off the southern tip of Cuba we ran in to a little weather. We  broke our mainsail boom so we lowered the sail and  sailed on  making the anchorage in Isla Mujeres on the first Saturday of this year. We stayed on the boat until Monday to check in.

Being this was our first port of call out of the USA, we decided to hire and agent. We used Julio at marina el Milagro.

We left our little schooner Pamela Ann anchored just off the beach. Took our fat little dink Dumpling over to the dock and went ashore, to meet our agent, Julio. He explained he would take care of everything for one hundred fifty dollars  American. That is all it would cost No More that’s  it.    Now all we  needed to do was set back and take it easy. We had heard wild stories of it costing upward of five hundred or more so we sat down to watch it happen.

A Mexican came by and stared talking to us in Spanish. Now let me explain I don’t speak Spanish, I just know a few words. He was saying “desayuno”. I know that word. I ask Julio what he was trying to say.  He said he is saying come eat breakfast it’s free.  “But.”  There’s always a but. If you like it you might buy them some beer. So Pam and I went over to eat a Mexican breakfast. They had lobster soup made with just the lobster heads, fried  head on fish some  potatoes also fried.  There was crab in the lobster soup and we also had our first taste of “ceviche” raw fish, tomatoes, onion in lime juice. The juices supposedly cooks the fish. It was different but okay. We have been living here now for ten plus weeks and we eat a lot of fried hold fish and a lot of ceviche.

We watched as the officials came and went  finely our agent said we had records of our cat Rusty’s shots and his medical care for years but no where did it say he was healthy. We needed twenty more dollars for a vet to come by sign-off that he was healthy so much for that all you will have to pay. We paid the vet. The agent said we were now good for six months but we needed to go to Cancun and import the boat. He said this would allow us to leave the boat here for ten years but we had to leave or get an extension on our Visa in six mouths. Importing the boat would be just fifty more dollars and we would pay the Port Captain in Cancun. He did not do boat imports.

The next morning we took little Dumpling back to the marina walked to the ferry, about a mile. Paid fourteen hundred peso for the tickets to Cancun, walked another mile to the Port Captain’s office, all papers in order, well almost all. We were missing the numbers off our motors.  Need numbers, manana was all the woman would say. This was the first time I heard “manana”  remember I don’t speak Spanish but everybody knows  manana means tomorrow right. Not in Mexico. Believe me down here it means,  It is Not happening today. If you go to the store and they are out of eggs, if you ask when they will have more.  Manana is what they will say this don’t mean you can buy eggs there any time next week but for sure it’s not happing today. Another thing you will learn quick here if you see something you want in Mexico buy it for if you go back tomorrow you may never see it again.

  We went back to the ferry paid fourteen hundred peso for the trip back but the day wasn’t all bad the ferry ride was fun they have street entertainers that play music up on top of the ferries. We always ride up on top. The music is pretty bad but fun. They play old rock and roll and sing in broken English.  Like a lot down here its different.

Back on the island we decided to go to a store and try to buy some steak for supper. We got instructions at the ferry of how to find the Xpress Super. This is the local grocery store small no bigger than a handy mart in the USA. Inside we found it clean with very good produce but when we got to the meat counter we did not know how to buy meat. They sell meat here in chunks or sliced thin so we brought a whole chicken. Whole chicken here is feet still on.

The next morning back on the ferry. Fourteen hundred Peso and back to the Port Captain offices now we had another problem the woman said “What manufacturer?” I said “Homebuilt.”  She said ” I don’t know this homebuilt, need manufacturer. A man behind us said “Tell her your last name this is how we did it on the west coast.” But before I could say any thing she said “Fifty American dollars, please.” She was talking to another woman in Spanish maybe she was explaining homemade. So I did not take a chance. But I liked the idea of having a Pennington instead of a homebuilt.

Fourteen hundred peso and back on the ferry I tried to convince Pam we could tell people we live on a Pennington. She said “No not happing, not  today, not tomorrow, NO.

Well what do you think we paid to clear in I said, changing the subject for now. I knew I would have to work on the Pennington thing later. She said ” Can we count all these ferry rides or tips you gave the musician and you don’t even like rock in roll.  Maybe ,I said ” I feel a lot braver now we are all checked in. I think we will  get a long just find down here.”  “Just how brave do you feel?” Pam said. Brave enough to try the meat counter at the Xpess Supper again. I have learned a new word its “bistec”.

Finally Gone!

Finally Gone

Well it finely happen we have gone cruising outside the United States. We slowly sailed out of Key West Fl, Christmas day on our way to the Dry Tortugas. At first sighting Fort Jefferson is just a dot on the horizon but as you get closer it seams like the old fort just comes up out of the ocean.    Once you are there you feel like you are some where far far away it’s beautiful it’s big and magnificent with a little touch of magic. They are tropical birds there that go no father north it is the only place in the USA  that we know of you can see Frigate birds some with a seven foot wing span.  Being there you feel like you are back in time and for us we feel the magic of the place  because of our little boat.

We drew the plans for her from pictures of old schooners we found in books and old plans of schooner that worked the bays and oceans of the world.  At one time most of the work boats around the world were schooners but sadly now there all most all gone.

She is a fully rigged top mast schooner carrying seven sails with gaffs atop her working sails. Her wooden mast have a heavy rake and we rigged her with a long bow sprit.  Anchored there at the old fort she looked like she was home.

We left the Dry Tortugas the day after New Years day sailing for the coast of Cuba. We hoped we could find the one knot counter current just off their coast. What a way to start the New Year but before we left we were given a used but very good chart plotter by a wonderful Canadian couple that wanted to help us on our way.  We have been traveling for years with just a GPS and another friend we made there gave us a bag of M&Ms we found out later  had a little money for our cruising kitty and a note that said sadly he had to head back and go to work.

Before we left Key West in preparation for the trip we copied some old charts of Cuba just in case the weather forced us into Cuba. When we passed the southern tip of Cuba the weather was okay but there were large swells and the wind was more north than we liked. We decided to try and go on to Mexico. When the swells would roll under our little schooner the main boom would swing so I tied a perventor to the main boom with a one half inch line. Big mistake! Well into the night the wind picked up and went more north.  A big swell rolled under the boat at the same time the wind came around the boat jibed and broke the main boom half into. It jibed so hard it broke a fork on the foresail gaff.  The gaff slid off the mast into the ratlines. Findley our home made auto pilot drive unit got us back on course. We dropped the main sail. Tied the main boom and sail best we could.

Pam had wanted us to reef the main for hours I wanted to make time. Then Pam said what do we do now?  I looked at our old GPS. Our chart plotter our new treasure had quit we found out later had just a lose wire. The old GPS  said we were on course making four point three knots.  I said nothing she’s fine now but looking up at the sails with a flash light it looked bad. To make things worse it was dark not even a star just big seas and ships, always some where coming or going over the horizon.  Findley the moon came up and things seemed better. When day broke, things still looked bad and now we had another problem we were slowing down so I stared one of our motors we have two.

They are one point six VW diesel  motors out of old VW Rabbit cars that we put in our little schooner for power. By now you are probably starting to wonder how much of our boat is home made well most of it is home built. There is very little we didn’t build. We have never had money not the kind needed to buy a sound sea worthy schooner so we drew the plans and built her from kill up.

The reason we were slowing down was the three knot north setting current near Isla Mujeres.  Seventy seven hours from anchor up to anchor down was a fair trip for a old slow schooner. We turned up in to the wind all the broke parts came a way from the mast and came down with out any trouble.  We stared the other motor and motored past Anvil Rock into the anchorage, called the port captain on our VHF radio, no response so we made a plan of what we could do. Went to bed to sleep and never sleep better.  Monday we would check in take a day or two to settle in then we would start looking for wood suitable to build a new boom we would need epoxy and a place to build the boom. Just how hard could that possibly be on a small island in Mexico?