So we are finally officially stuck in Mexico since all the borders of the countries we intended to travel to has closed. We wanted to leave for Cuba and Bahamas on Tuesday the 24th of March but are now stuck here for a while till we know how the worlds is gonna react further on.
Mexico and Isla Mujeres is a pretty good place to be stuck. It is fairly cheap with food and after you are checked in we can stay for a long time for free at least. The only problem is that if you stay more then 10 days in mexico you will have to temporarily import your boat in to Mexico which sounds okay but can be quite a mess. The check in process here is the worst so far in any country but it was mostly waiting for people and standing in line so not to bad. When we started out with the T.I.P. it got worse. You have to travel in to Cancun on the ferry to visit a office there and they want all sorts of different papers on the boat. So far so good we thought. We made copies of everything we knew about and happily presented them to to girl at the desk. We even brought Michelle from Pili Aloha to help with the translation since she speaks Spanish. So we did not have all that we needed from our check in with the port captain. Somehow the forgot to give us some papers. And she was not to happy about our boat registration either. So we got instructed that if we go make another copy and write a letter and sign it that this were in fact our registration on the boat she could accept it.
So we were of to a nearby hotel where we made our first copies an hour earlier but this time we needed a computer as well to write the letter. But the manager was really helpful and let us use an extra computer they had in a storage room. So far so good. Another Swedish boat were also in Cancun this day trying to Finish their TIP and they also got a complaint on their registration even though he had the original one from the government. But he had to get another one where the engine number was on as well. It worked out fine for him and he got his tip and could enjoy himself in Cancun for the day. This was however a bit unlucky for us. Because the lady behind the desk now had seen how a Swedish registration could look like she forced us to get the same paper and come back another day. She also showed us which papers we were missing from our check in. So we just had to get back to Isla Mujeres and try another day. But at least we got some epoxy from the Chandlery. Lucky us, we thought.
So back on Isla Mujeres we went to the port captain and said that we never got all the papers in the check in but of course that was not to popular but after some nice arguing, or maybe more like pleeing, we got 2 copies that we did not have but we were still missing stuff. We then went home and ordered another registration from the Swedish cruising association and payed some more fees to them as well. We then booked a new appointment for the next week in Cancun. When the new week arrived after some well earned rest after quite a wet Friday Isla Iujeres and Mexico started to catch up with the rest of the world on Corona restrictions. I got a fever on monday quite bad for maybe 24 hours and then pretty much okay. So for respect of everyone we decided to self isolate so i called and changed my appointment with the tip and we started hanging out on the boat with only ourselves and some boat work as company. When we were feeling better Isla Mujeres were in full lock down and it got harder and harder to get in to Cancun as well so we newer made a new appointment and never got the tip. Hopefully they will let it slide when we check out.
So now we were in full on lockdown on Isla Mujeres, actually the lockdown was harder on Isla Mujeres since the municipality tried to implement tougher rules earlier on then the rest of Mexico. So we settled in for at least a month of Corona lockdown. Pretty much the only thing we are allowed to do is go shopping in town. Not even at the good supermarket and only one person from each boat at a time. So we spent the days chilling out doing some boatwork, trying to make more and more strange food stuff. For example we now make sourdough bread, made our own schiracha sauce, fermented a lot of veggies and even built a drying box for curating our own meat.
Even though now we are technically not allowed to meet with other cruisers of course we had some smaller get together´s with some other cruisers. We had a few really nice dinners and cigar smoking nights with Maik from Seefalke a very nice German guy. And we have had several nice game nights with Pili Aloha who also have helped us a lot with everything you could think of. From receiving packages to translating into spanish.
We have not been the most effective when it comes to boatwork but we got some stuff done. Anders and me tried to finish our Kiteboard but the epoxy we got in Cancun did not cure properly. It took over a week for it to be hard enough so that project got put on hold for the time being.
After being stuck on the island for over a month Boats started to get fairly dry since there still is no alcohol sales on the island. Shaula a Italian boat in the anchorage were leaving soon and they managed to source 3 cases of beer from Cancun when they where provisioning for their departure. But on their way back to the boat the unimaginable happened. Their Dinghy de-laminated and the beers went down to the bottom of the sea. They where more concentrated on saving the outboard and themselves than the beer, strange people. They were leaving soon and was unable to retrieve the sunken treasure. Long story short after several attempts by a lot of different boats Chibidarra and Maik on Seefalke made a late attempt and lucky as we were we successfully managed to retrieve to whole treasure. But in some strange way only 31 of the 72 to beers made to the next day. Strange how those things work out. You can read the whole story on Maik’s website, https://sailingistruth.com/2020/04/27/island-of-tears-and-treasure/
SV Chibidarra 