Sailing a Lagoon 440 in Cancun

July 2013

A Free Vacation

Cancun, Mexico conjures up images of crazy spring breakers and all night clubbing. And terrible stomach bugs; don’t drink the water! Not necessarily my vision of paradise. However, when my brother purchased a sailing charter in Cancun, was unable to attend, and gifted it to us – we couldn’t turn it down.

Arriving on a Lagoon 440

We had no idea what to expect when we arrived. Would we be on a Gemini – Matt’s dream catamaran? Imagine how blown away we were when we stepped onto a Lagoon 440 sail catamaran! This thing was like a floating city! We were immediately served welcome cocktails and soon thereafter set sail for Isla Mujeres, stopping for a snorkel (and an amazing post snorkel fresh made guacamole snack!) along the way.
We arrived just in time for a stunning sunset – is this real life?

Javier cooked an amazing breakfast – complete with fresh fruit. We wandered Isla Mujeres for the morning and then set sail. The water was incredible – bright luminous blue and crystal clear.

We sailed to a secluded anchorage. Javier and Fernando free dove for hours for lobster and octopus. I became more and more horrified as lobster is neither mine, nor the boat’s sensitive plumbing systems, favorite. How am I going to eat 9, 10, 15 lobster?
Imagine my relief when I realized the guys were freezing the lobster to take home to their families. Matt was highly entertained by the poor wretch who pretended to be thrilled while eating a cockroach of the sea. Its cold dead eyes were trained on me! (The plumbing system was not entertained by the results.)

Sunset

After another great breakfast, Captain Fernando whisked us and a honeymooning couple from Texas who anchored next to us off to an old Spanish church. Now, this church was very far away, through a maze of mangroves. Are we part of Survivor Mexico: unwitting vacationers abandoned in mangroves; who will survive? No one!

Maude

The honeymooning couple were the first to succumb. They looked cute and were upbeat in the morning, then got sunburned, then a swarm of hungry mosquitos attacked and feasted on them. By the time the dinghy engine didn’t start for the return, they were mere shells of their former selves, only able to mumble humble appreciation for Maude’s foresight.

Bats had overtaken the church

Yes, this was horrible. Yes, he got eaten :-(

Luckily Fernando and the dinghy engine lived to navigate back to the boats, and then we were off in search of whale sharks.

We went out into deep water, out of sight of land. Javier was looking for a change in water color that would indicate plankton.

Sadly, I’m sad to tell you the sad news. The whale sharks were saved from our exultant cries of joy; they were left to enjoy their plankton without interference. Gutted, crushed, destroyed, we picked up the pieces of the ruined vacation and tried desperately to re-find the meaning to life. Through bitter tears of disappointment, a pod of dolphins appeared to frolic in our bow wave. Whale sharks – now you’re just somebody that I used to know.