March 22 – April 04, 2025; 17828 nm and 2206 days after departure from La Rochelle

The main duties were organised. Now the fun part – at least for me- started. (Even though I’m pretty sure Norbert as well enjoyed a little Sabine off time.) I went off to Mérida to visit Eva who I haven’t seen since we had left Austin/Texas 2018. I was so much looking forward to see my crazy Mexican friend. On the 22nd of March, a Saturday I jumped on a ferry early in the morning to Cancún, took an uber to the bus station and within 4 more hours and one hour time difference around midday, I arrived in Mérida. From the second we saw each other it was as if we had seen us just a day before. We had such a blast, trying to catch up, not able to speak as fast as we would have loved to. After she spoilt me with traditional Yucatan Panuchos, I got to see her first super cute granddaughter Luciana including her young parents. (Panuchos are a traditional dish made of a fried corn tortilla that has been puffed up, filled with refried beans and then topped with various ingredients. The original version was topped with hard eggs red pickled onions and avocado and habanero sauce aside. Nowadays toppings include shredded meat like chicken or turkey and tomato. However veeeeery delicious!) Also she introduced me to her friend Micheline who was living in an absolutely beautiful house. Or better to say in an historical mansion, which they call “Casonas”. I was blown away! To be honest, first I thought what was crazy Eva showing me? We were standing in front of a not so well looked after door and some peeling walls. (Later she explained that the house owners were not allowed to restore the doors and paint the walls.) But boy, when Micheline opened that scrappy looking door we were transported to -I don’t know- historical royal realms?, roman palaces? It was absolutely stunning! Such a beautiful place!!!

I was immediately thinking how cool would that be having a wedding celebration here (why the heck did that pop up in my mind???). I was indeed very impressed. My mouth was half open the whole time. I was glad I managed to close it for the photo. But not only the house was impressive. Micheline was a very nice and fun lady who on top of that also spoke good English. Right at the beginning when I had just entered her mansion and saw the beautiful old furniture and paintings I guessed she must be super rich. She answered: “No dear, I’m only rich, my grandmother was super rich.” I liked that funny yet honest answer very much! The stunning house belonged to her family since they had built it ages ago. Micheline had not lived there her whole life but when she had came back a few years ago she started to restore the house to its old beauty. She still had many old furniture of her grandmother times which were in excellent condition. It was a pity that we had only a couple of hours and that it was already dark. I would have loved to take more pics and get more info of the house’s stories. I also should have asked more about the architecture. I think it was called Mayan style, with e.g. very high ceilings (7+metres), interior courtyard, large doors and windows which magically provided a nice cool climate within the walls of the house.

I was flashed already but the next day Eva introduced me to one of her cousins who happened to own the best hotel in town. It was the first house in Mérida which had a second floor and was built in the same architecture style. That as well was owned by his family since it was built. Lucky for me that Raul was at the hotel that day. It was a very fancy hotel and usually, unless you are a guest there no-one was allowed to visit. But as my dear friend Eva knew all the super rich families in Mérida we were allowed to see it.(The feature pic was taken there.) Functioning as a hotel it was even more impressive with its colonial/ mayan style architecture and decoration. The interior courtyard was impressive as well as the stairs leading to the second floor. Eva’s daughter had her wedding pics taken there. So so cool!
Well, the whole historical city was fascinating but as I had been in Mérida before, years ago and seen the typical sights I was more in the mood for normal life and shopping. Not only cloth shopping, no I also needed some things for sewing! And anyway it was sooooo much fun trying on dresses like crazy with Eva. (Btw. the reason for my urge to go shopping was Jana’s wedding next year. I know it does sound silly, …such a long time. But hey, how am I supposed to find something when we are more or less all the time at remote places?) She knew all the nice shops and took me from one place to the other. Girly shopping!!! Yeahhhh. No Capitano waiting on my coat-tails, just the two crazy women trying on clothes and running from one shop to the other😁! Even though Eva had planned the full sightseeing program if I had wanted to. She would have taken me to a Flamingo tour or visiting a Hacienda or Cenote. But we were both just happy spending time together and doing “normal things”. Eating, drinking (not too much) and laughing while chatting about our time in Austin as well as current times. When Eva had heard that the hospital in Cancun hadn’t done a mammogram she told off her doctor friend and organised within an hour an appointment for me just around the corner of her house. I couldn’t belief it! Just like that and it had cost only 15 US$! Can you imagine? Well, I couldn’t and was of course happy to only have to pay a few bucks and get the remaining last check up. And as the appointment was in the afternoon we still had the whole day for shopping and having fun. But then it was once again time to say good bye as my bus was leaving the next morning. Thank you my dear crazy friend Eva for being so uncomplicated and showing me the real Yucatan life. Muchísimas gracias querida amiga.

The next day after being back on Altimate was my birthday. That was a nice lazy day for me. I had invited Derya and Orhan to come over for a bbq dinner, who had arrived only a day later than us at Isla Mujeres. Norbert did all the preparation while I was on the phone receiving birthday wishes. Just what I liked – a perfect lazy, being looked after, birthday! In the late afternoon Gypsea came over and we had a nice relaxing evening. El Capitano had made yammi chicken teriyaki and Derya had made a super pretty and delicious kiwi cake. Wasn’t I lucky?
As we did not have fallen in love with Isla Mujeres we were actually keen on leaving. All our duties and my fun play trip were done but as we had to purchase the new propeller online we had to wait for it to arrive. Unfortunately the chandler in Isla Mujeres couldn’t get it for us but they were so kind to let us use their shipping address and tax number for a smoother import. That was a big help as without a tax number we couldn’t have bought it. The shipment was not due for another week so we had a few lazy days. We organised a gathering with sailors from the anchorage at a beach bar one day, did a loooot of walking and went to the most southern point of the island. The latter was supposed to be a highlighted sight but there was not really much to see. A sculpture garden and the worn remains of a temple dedicated to Ixchel, Maya goddess of the moon and fertility. I read that various hurricanes have pummeled the ruins over time. That was true as there was now little to see other than the sculpture garden, the sea and Cancún in the distance. Well at least we had another destination to walk to.

On the 3rd of April in the evening, a Thursday, our desired and waited for spare part had arrived. Perfect timing! The weather showed a good window to leave on Saturday and we could do the check out on Friday. It was not possible to do the check out at weekends. So, very early Friday morning we went to pick up the spare part. But before checking out of the country El Capitano wanted to make sure that the part was fitting and working. A job which usually would have taken about 10 min turned out to be a tedious job. Thanks to the long screws into the shaft, which were necessary to keep the prop from slipping, the shaft was slightly deformed. It was not possible to just pull down the prop, it was completely stuck. The trouble was that we were ashore and El Capitano had of course only taken the necessary tools. Luckily some sailor friends who also wanted to check out that day came by. They tried to help and also brought us some more tools. Those two hours, while trying to get the old prop off was just nerve-racking. Once the old prop was finally off Norbert couldn’t get the new one on. ANGER! Now we needed to file the shaft, more tools were necessary. Slowly we were almost getting frustrated! Through drill holes, which Norbert had to drill trying to get the old prop off, furrows had been formed. Fortunately another sailor which we had met before was anchoring close by and saw our dilemma. He brought us a file and after another endless feeling time the shaft was smooth enough to get the new prop in place. And hooray it also worked!!! Just in case we had done a short test run. What a morning!

Then off we were to hurry to our beloved port captain office. We arrived there at about 11:30 am, hoping this time it would be a faster and easier process. A new crew list, again copies, more fees for the exit zarpe and a signature of THE only person who was allowed to do such important stamps. Without that stamp/ signature, immigration could not give us the departure stamp in our passports. If it wouldn’t have been so frustrating it actually could have been funny. Similar to the entry process this only person was not there. The port office lady kept telling us he might be back at…? The trouble was if we wouldn’t have gotten our check out papers we couldn’t have left and the nice weather window would have been gone for a long time. Actually we were not that amused but still tried to take the situation with humor. There was nothing we could do anyway. Our patience was truly tested as only at 3:45pm we finally got THE stamp. It was not even a signature!!!! Why was only ONE person allowed to give that f…ing stamp??? Well, hell we will never get an answer to that. At least we just about made it to immigration (they closed at 4pm) and got our check out stamps. Yeahhhhh. Tired but relieved we got back to Altimate and were more than ready to leave Isla Mujeres. One more night and we set sails to head back to Cuba.