Location: Marathon, Florida Position: 24 42.371 N 081 05.706 W
Well, the decision’s been made. We’ll sail from the Florida Keys to Isla Mujeres, Mexico whenever we get a decent weather window. We’re excited and a bit nervous. Our route will take us around Key West, past the Marquesas and the Dry Tortugas, south across the Gulf Stream to within 20 miles of the Cuban coast, then around the western end of Cuba, across the Gulf Stream again (it’s named the Yucatan Current here) and over to the eastern tip of Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isla_Mujeres).
It’s a trickier trip than we usually do and we want to wait for fairly settled weather. We thought we may be leaving tomorrow but now it looks like maybe Sunday. Or next week. We are all provisioned and ready to go - we just have to stock back up on the foods we are eating and wait.
We left Miami just over a week ago in a flotilla of 5 boats. Four of us will travel together to Mexico and the fifth will spend the winter in Marathon. The trip took 2 full days travelling along the southern shore of the Florida Keys and was one of our best sailing trips yet. For both days we had 20-25 knot winds and because it was coming from the NW, the islands kept the seas from getting too high. For you non-sailors this is like having your cake and eating it too. We sailed, with no engine, for the entire 2 days. It was fun but COLD. I know you have no sympathy for us – you who are sitting there with snow on the ground thinking we are a pair or wimps. But!! Don’t forget even though the temperature was in the 50s F we were sitting outside all day with 20-25 knot winds blowing right on us. It’s not like sitting inside. We had our hats and gloves on, our jackets, foul weather trousers and …… our slippers. Still it was a great couple of days. It was very similar to sailing in Maine what with dodging the crab pots and the cold weather – except Maine was warmer!
At the end of December our cell phone will be disconnected and we’ll be back to staying in touch via ham radio. The radio is a godsend: using it we can send and receive small emails, download weather, and make calls around the world to friends that have ham radios. Occasionally we’ll have Internet access, so we’re able to use that to call our families, too.
Several of our boating friends have already headed over to the Bahamas and we’ve been staying in touch using our radio. There are a couple of “nets” in the mornings where we all check in and share our locations. During these nets we can hail friends and, after moving off the net frequency, we can have a nice chat. We have also set up some times and frequencies that we listen to and chat on in the evening, if we aren’t too busy socializing (and neither are they).
We are living a very simple life with few modern conveniences and our radio is our lifeline to civilization. Usually after dinner we turn on the radio and set it to our designated frequency. We either listen to see if any of our friends call, or we will initiate a call to them. Sometimes there’s a lot of crackling and interference and it’s hard to hear but other times it is as clear as day. We are reminded of our grandparents and parents sitting around the crackling ‘wireless’ listening to news and drama.
As we all are now heading in different directions this is our only way to stay in touch until we see each other again. This could be 6 months, a year or 2 years from now. However long it is, it’s already too long! We’re feeling a bit sad as we prepare to put more distance between us and our friends and families. We miss them, but we’re also looking forward to new experiences. We’re glad we’ll be traveling with some old friends and, as always, we’re sure we’ll be making new friends along the way. And we get to learn Spanish! “Ay caramba!!”
Khronicles – Keeping Kith & Kin Konnected!
