Crossing the Straits of Florida and the Yucatan Channel - Key West, FL to Isla Mujeres, MX

Am I the happiest person to report that we have arrived in Isla Mujeres, Mexico (328NM)? Well, yes I am! After all the wind & weather at Key West (and beyond) and with all of Larry’s watching and planning, planning and watching we finally decided to just get this crossing over with. It was a very intense 39 hours of nonstop cruising. The Independence did a great job of handling everything that came her way. The captain and the crew were stellar too. Leaving Key West at 4:00AM with the full ‘Snow’ moon shining on us, Larry did a great job maneuvering the turns in the shipping channel and timed it perfectly to avoid the incoming cruise ships. Beyond the channel the wave height was about three feet, ramping up to four and five for most of the next day. We took those waves mostly on the port stern of the boat so it was rolly but not terrible. The current was a bit stronger than we expected and that slowed us down a bit. We all shared our shifts at the helm and napped when we could. Gumby and Jim where awesome and we could not have done this without them. During one of Larry’s engine room checks he came up with a concerned look and told us that we have contaminants in the fuel. He and Gumby then proceeded to drain off the contaminated fuel several times over the next 30 hours and averted any need to change the fuel filters while underway. As night fell Larry again, had done a great job in forecasting that the wave height would drop to three feet at the stern and we would have a very nice night time cruise. That big moon came back up again and the sky was filled with stars. The autopilot and radar systems worked perfectly as we happily greeted our second sunrise. As we moved into hour 27 (around 8:00AM) the wave/swell height began to ramp-up when we lost our wind protection from Cuba. The next 10 hours were spent in confused water with waves coming from many directions at heights varying from five to seven feet. We were also back to fighting a current, now in the Yucatan Channel making slow progress in our seemingly never-ending voyage. Then conditions really ramped-up in the last three hours where the wave height occasionally reached eight feet and it was very difficult to move safely about the boat. We were losing daylight and a squall was moving in on top of the rough water. Larry decided we needed to try and make anchor into Isla Mujeres before nightfall so he put the hammer down on the throttle and did a great job of the final brutal hours of transit. We enter the harbor to Isla Mujeres as night is falling and the wind is blowing quite strong but we find our anchorage and set anchor quickly. Thirty-nine hours under our belts and so thankful to have this adventure behind us. We share a beer with our friends and thank them profusely for being such a great crew.

Larry’s homework never ended…this worksheet shows expected currents, wave heights and winds at specific times during our crossing

One of the many samples of the contaminated fuel

We rarely deviated from our plotted course except to avoid collision courses with these three ships…#1…