Sailing Into Freedom

On this episode I surprise Margarida and take her to swim with whale sharks. Get mesmorized by these gentle, majestic creatures.

Keen to explore Mexico we take a field trip to the mainland to visit the Cenote Fantasma (the ghost sinkhole) an underground cave and one of the 7 wonders of the world, Chichen Itzá an ancient Mayan city. But fun can’t be had all at once so back to the motor and fuel tank. Margarida needs a lift so I try to scare her back to her senses by putting her face to face with a shark or 2.

Now in Mexican territory – Isla Mujeres the crew gets to have some fun exploring the Island and the most important of all discover why our engine stopped working.

We twice try to cross the Yucatan channel where there is a strong 5 knot northerly current but both times get thrown back north into the Gulf of Mexico because of little wind. Our back up plans are Cuba and Key West since the current is already taking us there but some wind arrives and we push further south to counteract the strong current. Third time lucky? The wind fills to 12 knots, the best up until then was 8, and we hit the current hard and get to within 20 miles of Isla Mulheres and then the wind promptly dies. We begin to drift north and Margarida gets on the radio but it seems the only help now is the dinghy with a 3.5 horse power outboard.

We begin our journey on the day we are obliged to get out of the United States. We left with a crew of 3, me the beautiful Margarida and Tim the davit man. It is not the best time of year to sail across the gulf but there are no tropical disturbances in our path so we head out. We know there is going to be little wind for the first couple of days but we have plenty of fuel and an immaculate motor with less than 1000 hours so we believe we are ok. Unfortunately the motor dies and the fun begins.

On this episode we hit some uncharted rocks and we fight to save the boat in the most remote region of Australia.
For the sake of continuity and for those new subscribers that don’t know what happened some of the following videos have been repeated. However, at the end there is some reflection about the accident and future plans.

If you would like to watch the complete accident click on the link https://bit.ly/2x8SQB6

In search of more Rock Art we head to the Osbourne Islands. There we are surprised with mystery caves and “caught by the huge kimberley tide” where we are stranded high and dry. Art’s Creek follows with more amazing Art sites.