I was fortunate enough last year to compete in this race to Mexico, and it was the thrill of a lifetime. Stunning night skies followed by brilliant sunrises in the open ocean, it’s when heeling over on a sailboat eclipses all of the world’s problems.

This year, I’m stuck in foreign lands on tasks that are about as opposite from sailing as possible. So, with my computer and imagination, I’m with my crew from last year. I have managed to mentally escape and return to the open ocean, and life is wonderful during this brief respite.

Here is the race report so far.

Monday 26 April 2010 10 AM positions

The Elice II owned by Marlin Brigman departed St. Petersburg Fl on the 24th of April 2010 as part of the Regata del Sol, the race to Isla Mujeres Mexico. I’m logged onto the live tracker and have been silently cheering my old shipmates along.  If mental energy can cross oceans and push a sailboat along on a port tack, they should be cutting waves with precision and ease.

The Gulf Stream, which is a strong ocean current, arrives from the south passing between Cuba and Mexico, right along the race course. The current can reach upwards of 3 kts. which, can really slow you down if your heading straight into it. When the boat is traveling at 5.5 kts. and you are heading into a 3 kt. current, well, you’re only moving ahead at 2.5 kts. It can take a long time to get anywhere that slow. (but it’s a sailboat, one of the slowest forms of transportation around, so what do you expect)

http://cloud.iboattrack.com/r/google_view.php?r=2010_regatadelsol

Monday 26 April 2010 8PM position

Anyhow, the race appears to be on! There are several classes of boats, as all boats are not created equal. The class of Elice II is in is the ‘Cruising B’ class, which groups equal boats together. The Elice is running nose to nose with Nobility, a Morgan OI 41′.

Already in port is the American Spirit, a Beneteau 39OC, which appears to have taken first place in this class. The Elice, a 47′ Catalina, is fighting for second. (last year we took 3rd) I’m sending a lot of mental energy that way my friends…

It appears that the Elice has plotted a course that favors the crossing of the stream a little better than Nobility right now. Nobility took a more northerly course for the race. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

You can see the stream current indicated by the solid black lines running north with the speed listed next to them. If the wind keeps blowing, Isla Mujeres should come into view with the sunrise in the morning.

Yucatan Channel currents

Good luck my friends~

http://www.isla-mujeres.net/home.htm

My brain contains a rather odd collection of moments, most of them I truly relish.

I’ll share some with you, take a moment out and enjoy!

I woke up and stepped out to this view. The colors of the water are so vivid they are beyond the capabilities of my camera. Birds are stirring and hopping among the palms as the morning breeze begins to pick up, the smell of tropical oceans gently waking me up to another exciting day in paradise.  Sheree is rustling about and steps out onto the balcony to join the early morning splendor.

My brain starts playing one of my favorite songs…  Lucky, by Jason Mraz…

So we step out onto the beach. The waves have left a clean flat spot of wet sand for us to leave our mark. The footprints won’t last long, but they were there. However briefly in island time, it’s proof that we were here!

So now the discussion begins… is it a head or a coconut? What if it’s a real head, maybe crabs ate the face off and were having… steak for dinner tonight. How long has the head been here? If we report this and it’s just a coconut we may not be allow to order any more mixed drinks… It’s probably a coconut. Yep, just a coconut.

So lunch time rolls around and we find this non-tourist restaurant off on a side street. This is the kind of place I’m after. It’s going to be a place where I can practice my limited Spanish. My proficiency is gauged on what we actually ate for lunch -vs- what I thought I was ordering.

I did manage to discover that I had made a grievous error when I ate some of the ‘mild’ sauce I ordered. It was either that or our definition of mild is a bit different than the locals. In any event I suspect there were some folks in the kitchen laughing wildly as the Gringo ingested the ‘mild’ sauce…

Oh well, my contribution to world peace…

After eating the ‘mild’ sauce I could simply turn around and pray for redemption…

So we headed down the coastline and found this wonderful place. It’s a very nice and affordable hotel on the beach. We walked around and enjoyed the view. We were compelled to sit and enjoy a couple of adult beverages as island time slipped past.

Cool and refreshing…   now, back to the beach.

Island time, yeah  ~just lay back and relax~

I’ll upload some more photos as soon as I can get my brain back into civilization mode. It’s not an easy thing ya know…

After the finish line, our escort into Isla Mujeres

The day passed easily enough sans the big waves. We were actually looked down upon by a pod of dolphins in the crests of the waves above us as. Several large sea turtles scurried out of our way and a handful of Portuguese Man-Of-War jellyfish floated past. A small yellow and brown finch landed in the cockpit. We were 80 miles from shore. Blown away from land on a strong breeze no doubt, and he was very tired.

The sky and sea finally began to calm that afternoon. It had become so nice out that we actually had a hot meal. One of our crew broke out his guitar and made up a few new sea shanty’s for our entertainment. We accompanied him with a kazoo chorus as we all enjoyed the respite.

Taking a look at the beach on the way by

It was the kazoo’s that had angered the god’s, we were sure of it. The winds and waves returned with a vengeance. My midnight watch at the helm gave me new insight into why I really hate lightning at sea. It was not so much the fear of being struck as it was the momentary ability to see in the utter blackness. I was much happier not being able to look at the towering waves and only focus on the gyrating compass while I held course. Kazoo’s are forever banned on my boat.
Yeah buddy, were racing now!
Devoid of current weather information, we decide to stick to our original plan. The winds were forecast (three days ago) to become calm in the Yucatan Channel between Mexico and Cuba, at about the same time the fleet completed the last 50 miles. Coming up from the south through the channel is a strong current. If we head south along the west side of Cuba we can enter the Gulf Stream a little south of Isla Mujeres. While the fleet is foundered and drifting north, we will ride the current to the entrance of Isla and claim victory!

The marina at Isla Mujeres

And it was a fine plan too. Mother Nature had her own agenda however, and decided to let the winds blow for another 12 hours past the scheduled cut off time. Unaware of this bit of weather change caused us to give away most of the time we had greedily procured during the race. The sea givith, and so shall the sea taketh…
We found ourselves crossing the finish line entering Isla Mujeres, Mexico on Monday at 11:57:57, which garnered us third place in our class and eighth place over all. There were over 30 boats in the race. This was pretty darn respectable for a vessel designed to cruise in comfort staffed with an unfamiliar crew at the helm. We were proud of ourselves with good reason. We had cast off our bow lines and set sail from safe harbor. We had explored, we had dreamed, we had arrived.

The marina

Okay I goofed… you have to go to the main webpage and double click the photo there for the larger version, I don’t think you can do it from your email version. (Too much Sol) Stay tuned for part 4…

Heeling over and sailing along

The Elice II is a regular cruising boat, not a racer. The fastest this boat had ever seen in the past was a bit over 9 knots. We laid the Elice II over on her starboard side under full sail. Sitting at the helm you could reach over the lifeline and drag your hand in the water as we were heeling over somewhere around 35-40 degrees. We were being propelled through the water at over 9.5 knots. Combining our speed through the water, and adding in the speed of the current our navigator had found, rewarded us with numbers the GPS had never shown this boat before. 12.4 knots, we were very well pleased with ourselves.
With that much wind however, comes the downside. Waves. Lot of them, lots of very big ones. My turn on the helm that night was both exciting and concerning. I could lean my head back from under the bimini and see the most incredible view of the sky. This is what everyone saw before the light pollution of mankind occluded the night sky. The Milky Way galaxy, I could actually see it with the naked eye. A pulsating light showed me a rotating satellite transiting from one horizon to the next. Shooting stars, I had lost count early on. I had thought celestial navigation too difficult as you do not have enough stars to plot your course by. There had always been plenty; I could see that now that I was away from civilization. I was in awe of the sky.

One of the smaller waves

The waves had increased in size. The tops glowed with phosphorescence as they were blown off by the night winds. By sunrise we were surfing the backside of some of the larger waves. I was happy to be relieved of duty as I wanted to go below for some shuteye. I decided that by being the newest member aboard was how I was able to draw the middle of the night watch. My stomach was growling as I arrived in the galley, my official station aboard. Hanging on and surveying the possible food choices I had decided upon a sandwich. Nothing that required too much preparation or thought as my brain was about as worn out as my body at this point.
I reached into the galley sink and wetted my hands to get all the salt off, and applied a dab of dish detergent to wash up with. About that time the boat departed my small little part of space and time. I did some kind of floating human magic trick. My body departed the port side galley, twisting 180 degrees around and landed upon the starboard side navigation station table. I could hear a loud crash and thud. It was an easy sound to identify as it was I who had made it.

Captain Marlin hanging on

Scratch the sandwich. My main goal was to get to the aft stateroom, lay abeam the bed with my feet halfway up the starboard bulkhead for support. I needed to lay there a while and lick my wounds. I now had some major bruising developing which added to a previously cut knee, (lifeline cotterpin) cut toe, (companionway ladder) bruised shoulder (fell into the binnacle – twice) and a slightly twisted ankle (unknown origin).

Part 3 in a day or two! Stay tuned-

Marty at the helm

Remember, when you subscribe you will get an email from this website. You need to click the link to verify your address to start receiving updates. It prevents us from getting spammed to death…

Oh yeah, double click the photo for a larger version.

Good morning all. For those of you that were following the race via the internet, you saw how well we did. Our arrival, just under one week ago, began a long list of events related to the race. We have also enjoyed all that the island has to offer. Fine dining on authentic food, to diving in some of the most pristine waters I’ve seen in quite some time.

Hard at work on the beach

Tomorrow morning we have to leave this little slice of paradise and return to civilization, assuming it’s still there. I’ve been without news from the outside world for the past 12 days or so. No television, no newspapers, nada. It has been kind of nice leaving the world and all its troubles behind. Maybe I still have a job, maybe not. If unemployed, I could get used to this real easy. Sheree can make beaded necklaces for the tourists and I’ll sell cervesa on the beach. Maybe I’ll just sail around ‘el Carib and see what pops up…

It does not take much to envision life here. I’m looking out between two coconut palms and into the stunningly blue waters of the western Caribbean. The hues are breathtaking. Yesterday Sheree was snorkeling in front of the hotel. Her main complaint was that the water was so clear, and the sun so bright, she needs a dive mask with a polarized lens.

Drinks and dinner!

I’ll be updating the blog regularly after my return to civilization and detail the race for everyone. It was a blast and I’ll go again given the opportunity. I’m off to find an internet connection and send this to the blog. Not an easy task when the other priority has an ice cold Sol (cervesa) while sitting under a beach umbrella… (did I mention that this is a bikini top optional island?)

Don’t tell me how the world is or what has been going on during the last two weeks, I don’t want to spoil today…