In the morning I was near Puerto Morelos, and the strength and direction of the wind, suggested me a great day to try a Downwinder from Playa del Carmen to Xpu Ha.
I checked on the forecast, and it said, ESE 13/15 around 1/4 pm , and 13/18 around 7 pm,
So I called a friend who was at the beach in playa car, and what I heard was really discouraging, he said the wind was really warm, and without punch, onshore, and totally the opposite that we needed to go to xpu ha.....
I called Diego and he told me the same, but he was going anyways to do some riding...
I look over my balcony and can see some kites in Coco Beach, so I go a little bit up north, all the way to Punta Esmeralda, it´s a sketchy take off point, due to the shallow reef, but great location, to get the most out of the wind....
The wind is actually pretty good, very steady, and the temperature was getting cooler, very beneficial for this kind of winds!, so I start going now upwind towards coco beach, rode for a bit with some people that were riding there, and I realized we have a nice angle just to cruise upwind towards Xpuha, also the current is helping now because its against us, giving us a couple of extra knots.... then I decided that Im going to do the Upwinder.....I continued going upwind cruising by Mamitas, pass the pier, now in Playa Centro, pass the 2nd Pier, and Arriving to Playacar I see Diego´s kite on the water, I approach him and told him my plan..... he looked down at his watch, and said yes!!!!
Then, the both of us, lined up, started cruising upwind, through the electric blue water of Playacar, passing to the next bay, where there´s no beach only rocks, we found some really nice waves in front of Xcaret due to the rocky bottom, now here comes the scary part, CALICA, where there´s nothing but walls of Rocks, and the biggest Boat ( Badge ) I have ever seen in the Mayan Riviera, they were loading it up with really large cranes, while we were just jumping and enjoying the waves....
finally we hit Paamul, where we also found very surf able waves, probably 3 foot tall, we stayed there for a bit, and continued riding upwind, as we approach the INAH bay, there´s no sandy beach, only rocks, and the wind started to die..... we started going towards a path of sand we saw upwind, while the wind was getting weaker and the current and waves stronger...... while I was riding in this bay, I saw 2 beautiful turtles, one the size of a frisbee, probably a bit bigger, and another one, perhaps the size of a supermarket kart..... the big one was just laying in the bottom, and gave me the opportunity to rode back and see her again!!!! :)
we hit the beach, and the wind is so weak now, that our kites were barely flying.....
we decided to wait a bit because according to the forecast ( after all of these years, we still believe on it.... ), said that the wind would pick up, also the temperature was fresh indicating the wind will pick up....
we start talking and making the decision of......IF the wind picks up..... going back and face those rock walls and no wind.... or wait for the wind, going a little bit further upwind towards Blue Venado Beach and call somebody to pick us up.....
Finally after probably 15 minutes, the wind started picking up enough to go up to Paamul again, play with the waves, and line up to continue upwind all the way towards BV.
we finally made it towards the Beach Club...... surprise!!!!! there´s nobody there!!!!!, OMG!!!! Diego looks back at me with a bit of disappointment on his face, and I was feeling a little iffy of trying to go back......we stayed there for a little while until the wind now filled in again, we studied the clouds in the back, and considering the temperature, we decided to give it a go.... we make a little plan, of trying to get as much of an angle, now downwind, as the wind is very on shore, with some angle from the south.... the idea is to get as far away from shore as we can, so we get the stronger and cooler wind, and if it dies down, we can still get away by kite looping on shore if the wind eventually goes down......
we kept going, I realize now we are riding in front of Calica and Xcaret, and the wind is pretty consistent, and we found some waves.... so knowing that now we can make it, we played a bit on the waves and kept going......
The South point of Playacar is showing up, and I go right to the tip, where I can see some really nice waves as well, and I saw something floating..... is another Turtle!!!!, I rode by it, and she didn't moved.... she was the size of a basket ball.... I come back and ride by it again.... and ..... nothing..... here I go again.... and stop right beside the turtle, and I realized it´s dead-----, seems very recently, because she still is warm, and alive-like..... I grabbed it, and started bring it with me.... why? I have no idea..... Diego is a Vet, I wanted to show it to him..... I got scared that if somebody would see me with it, might think I killed it, so I wrapped my shirt around it, at the same time that I lost my glasses.... :(, after all of this handling of the turtle, I realize IT STINKS!!!!!! so, I dropped it off, smelled my hand and my shirt, and it was nasty!!!!!, so I had to get rid of my shirt again....
we hit Playacar, Diego packs his kite and says bye, while I keep going towards coco beach....
I rode in front of Fusion Restaurant while listening to Live Reggae, and after 10 minutes, I kept going towards Coco Beach, rode it´s flats for like half an hour, and packed down and went home.....
Using google maps, I realized we did 25 km up and 25 km down, plus ALL OF THE ZIG ZAG, we had to do to make sure we had the right angle..... 4hours later, here I am, all bit up ....
it was a great day!!!!
David Morph
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