All Change

Sarah Grace goes to sea
Chris Yerbury and Sophy White
Sun 1 Apr 2007 13:13
Sunday April 1st,2007, Isla Mujeres, Mexico.
 
It is dawn, and all the wind generators are whistling and whirring on the boats around us in the half light.  In a few hours Otti, Mimi, and I leave the boat.  We feel  a combination of real sadness, and excitement, to be seeing home.  To me it feels like a shocking upheaval, to leave life afloat, the sea, Chris, and my trusty solid boat, Sarah Grace.  I will be all at sea on land.
Chris will be sailing on with friends Iain and Karen, back across the Atlantic, whilst the girls go to school back in England.  
Chris is having clock trouble.  We have had so many clock changes coming west, added to which there have been two summer time adjustments, one in Cuba, and one last night.  This has left him incapable of working out what time it is.  He set the alarm last night for an hour early, and is now fast asleep again...!  We have given up on local time for organizing radio liasons, and use zulu, or GMT, as we kept missing people, as we were on the wrong time aboard.
Things I will not miss will be:   tasting of salt ALL the time;  cups, glasses, and objects generally taking off with a life of their own spilling stuff everywhere;  being hurtled around;  handwashing;  handpumping loos;  and seasickness..............
 
Mexico has been magical:  not the least the food has been met with real enthusiasm by the girls.  Caribbean curries have not been up their street.  The birds sound like hungry guinea pigs.  The folk, mostly Mayan, are very friendly.  We have spent three or four days with a hire care zooming around the Yucatan, looking at Mayon ruins at Tulum and Chitzen Itsa.   AMAZING.  We all swam in a cenote, a large hole filled with clear underground river water,  about fifty feet below the surface of the ground.  It was filled with six inch black catfish with no eyes all swimming around.  
Aaaarrrrrrgghhh!  Back to mud and motorways and newspapers!!! 
Hilarious comment of the month, emailed by Iain from England, soon to be crew on Sarah Grace:   'Do you really want a Sunday paper as it will be out of date when we see you?'. 
The last newspaper we saw in English was in February, dated 11th January, and it was an amazing read..........8-)
Otti says: I AM GOING HOME !!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSS
HA HA HA CANT WAIT  TILL WE SEE ALL YOU LANDiE PEOPLE!!!   Very upset and sad  about saying bye bye to dad for so long   *sad face* :-(   .
 
Mimi: No comment required.