Carnival, Crash and Leaving Mexico

It has been awhile since I have posted. I had to recover from getting hit by two motorcycles. And a golf cart.

I was sitting on a curb in Isla Mujeres drawing the Hotel Bartolome when a young girl backed her golf cart into two motorcycles which then fell on my right arm. Two guys jumped out to lift the motorcycles off me. They asked if I was ok. Thankfully I was. As were the bikes whose owners will never know that I cushioned the fall so nicely with my bicep and sat there instead of rolling out from under them and dropping them further.

Randall and our friend Grady were in the Port Captain’s office – Grady trying to get legally in the country and us trying to get the paperwork to leave. Grady saw the accident and to Randall said, “Some girl just got hit by those motorcycles.” Randall saw who the “some girl” was and came to check on me. Later, Grady offered the observation that I seemed to have “bad self-preservation instincts” because I didn’t move right out from under the bikes. I explained the fact that I was keeping the bikes from getting damaged by sitting there as a human cushion. “No,” he said, “that’s wrong.” “Well I wasn’t sure how they would fall. Like they might just hit some other part of me.” “Well ok,” he said but he didn’t sound entirely convinced. So now Grady thinks I have poor self-preservation instincts and no understanding of how to maneuver my way out from under a handlebar without using my leg as a lever.

Speaking of Grady, Randall and I had a great time at carnival with him. He has just arrived from solo-sailing Aquila from Roatan to Isla without an operable motor. Wow! We enjoyed hearing about his crossing. We checked out the street food, grabbed tacos and watched the beautiful dancers on stage at the plaza.

While enjoying carnival, I did have one unfortunate conversation with a Canadian lady who lectured me on tariffs and Trump. I wish I had taken her picture as she proudly tapped the Canadian flag tattoo on her bicep, calling Canada “the nice country.” She also informed me this was her fourth visit to Isla. She was full of smug self-satisfaction. She asked how long I had been here. “Since around mid-December,” I said. She lifted her eyebrows. Where was I staying, she also wanted to know. “On a boat,” I replied. “Ohhh,” she said. “Fifth visit,” I added. Haha Not really! It took me awhile to calculate and did leaving Isla for our inland trip and coming back count as a new Isla trip?? Of course it does because that would put me at five, one more than Ms. Nice Country.

We had such a great time in Isla but decided to get back down to Rio Dulce while we had a good sailing forecast. We got our passports stamped, our zarpe signed, went for ice and groceries, said goodbyes and took down our tattered Mexico flag. I drew my last drawing at lovely El Milagro. We went out to eat with Grady. He is considering a trip to Cuba after we head south. Intriguing!

We had a nice crossing. Well I had a great crossing and Randall had an ok crossing. He had to change a water pump underway when the port engine started overheating. Then, anchoring at Orange Point near Punta Gorda Belize, he had trouble with the same engine dying. This was troubling because he also knew it was going through gear oil during the trip. Then we saw pieces of tattered black line floating away. We got anchored and he dove down and cut and pulled a bunch of line off the fouled prop.

I took pictures. And keep missing these 4 or 5 dolphins jumping high in the air in front of the boat. So friendly!

We made the trip in six days, leaving on Wednesday around noon and arriving Monday at around 6 pm. One two-night passage to Colson Caye in Belize. An overnight stop. One overnight passage from Colson to Punta Gorda Belize. An overnight stop. A day sail to Livingston and then an afternoon of motoring up the Rio.

We are now back in our slip at Manglar. Happy to be back!