Jan’s Excellent Adventure

Jan and I have been to Mexico once before. Thanks to our niece, Jada, getting married there, we visited Playa del Carmen about 20 years ago. Our first day there, Jan, our Dad and I decided to ride a banana float pulled by a jet ski. This ended with Jan getting a broken nose when we all fell into each other on a sharp turn. She had to spend a long night in a Mexican hospital with our parents keeping her company. And because Jan always tells funny stories, she manages to make this mishap into one of her hilarious stories.

Even though she has this great story, I was looking forward to her coming back to Mexico to visit on the boat and have a fun and injury-free trip. We have had sailboats for 20 years but Jan has always been working or busy with her family and many friends. Finally, this week, she made it to the boat.

We didn’t have much time but wanted to make sure and do the highlights. We rented a golf cart on Tuesday for an island tour. She enjoyed the Pointe Sur walk and was not as concerned as I was about the waves crashing over the path making it slippery. “They wouldn’t let us down here if it wasn’t safe,” she said. “Umm Jan, this Mexico! They don’t say “hold my beer”; they say, “finish your tequila and do it!” We had delicious fish tacos and fancy drinks at a beach restaurant Blue Ballyhoo.

On Wednesday, we took the boat out for a short sail and then anchored out on the west side of the island. There were a couple of fancy motor yachts anchored too but they left at sunset. We had a gorgeous evening eating tacos and drinking micheladas and watching the sun go down.

The next morning, we got up to pull up the anchor and return to our slip. When I hit the button to bring up the anchor, it acted sluggish and then quit. Jan got to experience what happens when the anchor windless doesn’t work right. She offered to come help drag up the anchor by hand but we got it onboard without making her do manual labor.

After our anchor hauling workout, we headed back through the cut and got back in our slip early in the morning. This was also a taste of some of the challenges of sailing because the wind was blowing a bit and it was a line-handling rodeo while we got secured in our slip. We made it fine though because Captain Randall is always great getting Nyango situated. We took a break and then headed to our favorite restaurant for lunch, Rinconcita de Frida.

Lastly, Jan had heard that one of the challenges of our boat life is getting around everywhere by dingy. She was game to get in our dingy and take an island tour by water.

We had noticed a huge three-masted tall ship come into the harbor about the same time as us that morning. We decided to go check it out. It is called the Thor Heyerdshl, a German-flagged tall ship which takes students on a semester of learning and exploring. Their website is https://www.thor-heyerdahl.de/ and, if you Google the name, there are lots of other pics of the beautiful boat under sail. We took her up the lagoon to see the other marinas and little resorts on the water.

This morning, we had to say goodbye. Jan assured me she could make it on the ferry, catch a cab and get to the Cancun Airport by herself. I wanted a little bit to go and not send her off all alone. She kept saying she was fine with this last bit of adventure. As we waited for a cab outside our marina, we met Freddy who crews on a big fishing boat just down the end of the dock from us. Freddy was headed to the ferry and then to the bus terminal. Because of the wind, the fishing boat can’t go out so he was headed to Puerto Aventurus to see his family. He agreed to make sure Jan didn’t need help finding a taxi once she got off the ferry. She had been practicing her Spanish to negotiate with the Cancun cabbies but didn’t end up needing it. We had such a great time, we are already planning for her to come back and make sure Jeff, Lisa and Jerry are with her for the next Mexican adventure. They are going to take a lot of convincing but Jan can do it.