Spoke Too Soon

That tiller isn't going anywhere today.

As it turned out, we did not leave yesterday, and as it turns out we will be staying put today. Yes, there was the usual hullabaloo with Immigration (Immigration: we need to stamp your zarpe. Us: but the port captain's office told us to check out with you first. Immigration: no, the zarpe comes first. Us: but we wanted to make just one trip to Cancun to pay for the zarpe and our exit fee. Immigration: there is no exit fee. Us: why does no one know how this works!!)

But in the end the port captain advised us to stay due to high seas and winds coming from this strange place called the zona inestable, which seems to be a really crappy band of weather that forever hovers just off the coast of Venezuela and Colombia, and not being one to argue with the most disarmingly pleasant official we've ever met we decided to take his advice.

And indeed, the wind has been a'blowin' and the seas are choppy even behind the reef. I don't see it on any weather report, but it's true. In fact, it's been blowing enough that we decided to break out the outboard yesterday evening because rowing was quickly becoming some sort of sick, twisted endurance test.

Funny thing about rowing the dinghy in this town, we get a lot of strange looks. Mainly they are looks of amusement - a sly smile here, a suppressed giggle there - but sometimes we got outright laughter from the locals hanging out or fishing from the pier. We could tell we were the subject of some humor, but it wasn't until Vlad put the outboard on last night and motored up to the pier that the full mockery burst forth. He said that all the fishermen were cheering and clapping for him, saying things like "good job" and "about time you found a motor" and "mas facil." One of them even called him Arnold Schwarzenegger. This puts Vlad in a rare class of people who can say they've been thoroughly mocked by Mexican fishermen. Definitely a trip highlight.