Shipwrecked!

We are very excited to have reached Mexico and the land portion of our travels. But one of those first encounters with land was a little more abrupt than we would have hoped. You’ll have to keep reading to find out what happened.

Crossing the rest of the way to the Yucatan was a little less exciting than the first crossing of the Gulf Stream, but in a good way. Another sail that went overnight, but this time with a beautiful full moon and waves that were big, but not too big. Donny did not feed the fishes, the current did not fight us quite as much, and all sails were in their right condition upon entering Mexican waters. We entered at Puerto Morelos, a small town with a beautiful new marina where we went through the usual customs checks and were finally cleared. After one night being there enjoying being attached to land, we disembarked for Puerto Aventuras, the home of Lars and Inger and the (not-so-)final resting place of Cinnabar- at least where she’ll be calling home for a while until she’s all fixed up and headed for Europe. That last day sail was beautiful with the crystal clear blue and turquoise waters, good winds, no current against us, more good conversation and waving at the people all along because we were that close to land (now this is what sailing is supposed to be like!).

Then we went to enter the harbor. Just the narrowness of the entry way was enough to make us nervous, and then the all too familiar beeping of the depth meter began to signal trouble. What was supposed to be a channel of 13 feet did not have that much water at all, especially at the entryway. We ran aground- hard. It wasn’t just a matter of getting stuck in the sand/mud and trying to back off as it had been the 10 other times (not an exaggeration) we had hit ground this trip, this was boulders and there were lots of them. If that was not bad enough, we also had the waves that continued to hit from the back and throw us deeper onto the hard ground. As the boat was tilting and the surface of the water was sometimes up to the gunnels on one side, it was an exhilarating feeling. We all knew we would be fine- the shore was only meters away and the sea was calm inside the channel, but the question of Cinnabar and all our belongings could have been a different story.

Brooke decided to take a swim- not so much out of wanting to bail on the boat, but we hit so hard one time that the anchor light on the top of the mast broke off and fell into the water nearby. When a fishing boat came by and snuck into the channel around us, they helped pull us off the rocks. Brooke rejoiced in the water as Cinnabar sailed away from her. Though she is a master swimmer, Cinnabar was too fast for her as Donny, Lars and Inger continued up the channel, hoping to reach her slip. Brooke got picked up by the fishing boat and was so happy to see Cinnabar afloat again she was about to crack open a beer offered to her by the spring-breakers aboard, when Cinnabar ran aground again. Luckily this time it was on sand and the water was calm, so she at least stayed upright, almost as if nothing were wrong, she just wouldn’t budge. Brooke sadly put the beer down and hopped back on Cinnabar to see what we could do to get her moving again. Some boats tried to help, but as we looked at the water line on the nearby rocks we could see it was a very low tide, and the decision to wait until high tide was made. We tried to keep the boat from going closer into the side of the channel where the wind was trying to push us, and waited. Eventually the waters rose, and the wind did push us almost into the next bank and so we were still stuck. Amongst many efforts to rock ourselves into the center of the channel in hopes of floating (it was like rocking a piano across a floor- now pull in the stern- which was tied to boulders on the far bank- now pull the bow- also attached to boulders, repeat), we finally got unstuck. But still, the channel would not let us pass, and we made a half exit to drop anchor and wait.

Next morning when we found out the exact time of high tide and after Lars and Brooke had snorkeled the channel to find the best path, we tried again. There was mostly one shallow area that was mainly sand, then it was rocky but deep enough, barely (assuming we got the timing perfect). We had one boat pulling us with two lines, as we had our engine going full blast as well, and with a few thuds through the sand we powered through and were free. We sailed her to a beautiful little spot (though not the slip where she was intended- it’s too shallow to ever get her there) and there she sits until Lars and Inger are able to get “floaties” to sail her back out of the channel and into a port that can better accommodate her.

Cinnabar is a great boat, but we’ve learned if we ever crew on a boat again, we think we’ll put a stipulation of it having maybe a 6 foot draft max! The solid land has been good to us now though. Our time in Puerto Aventuras with Lars and Inger after Cinnabar was safe was lovely, like snorkeling at Akumal and enjoying the ambiance of the community like the dolphins, manatees and sea lions in the center. We were sad to have to say goodbye, but it was an incredible experience and we have two new dear friends from it!