Hurricane Ivan - Part 1

By Monday, September 6, 2004, the day most Americans were celebrating Labor Day, we were becoming aware of Hurricane Ivan. The internet had it tracking in a somewhat northwesterly direction. This could put it on a track for us. We checked it off and on all day but were not really too concerned. All the rest of the hurricanes this season had started out on the same track and ended up moving on up to Florida. When we checked again on Tuesday morning, the projections were getting just a little too close for comfort.

Later that morning we stopped at our carpenter, Mateo’s, shop. We asked Mateo if he would take his truck to Cancun to the wood store and get us plywood for our windows. He laughed and thought we were just silly Americans. But a peso is a peso so he agreed to go that afternoon. Meanwhile, B and I made a list of what we thought we might need to survive for any period of time should a hurricane actually hit here. It was a very through list but we never actually thought we would use it.

Wednesday morning found the two of us on the 6:30am car ferry to Cancun. It takes almost an hour to cross the bay and this time we did not stop in Cancun for breakfast. Normally we take advantage of the trip to go to our favorite restaurant and have a really good breakfast. Quite the treat for us! We had many stops we wanted to make so we just headed out on our errands. With the Jeep loaded to the gills, we were back at the ferry in time to catch the 2:30pm ferry back to the island.

I was really glad that we got on that one because the next one wasn’t until 5:30pm! There is only one company that runs a car ferry to our island and they have quite the monopoly going. I don’t know why they don’t run more often since there are always gobs of cars and delivery trucks waiting to cross. Since we had gotten in line fairly early, we were among the first to be loaded. Which means a front row parking spot! Oh goody. This means that you are about 2 feet from the front of the deck and sitting in your car it looks like you are riding on the water. Normally I get out because I just get the creeps, thinking that my parking brake is going to fail or something and I am going to slide right into the water and under the ferry. This time, I was so exhausted that I actually fell asleep and didn’t wake up until I sensed the ferry slowing down to dock! Now that’s a good crossing!