Arriving in Cancun by Yacht

We arrived at La Amada marina at Cancun which is a separate interior basin located about 5 miles northwest of the mega-tourist area. You can carry 17’ draft into the channel (lined in giant concrete jacks) and turning basin which has alongside berths for megayachts on both sides. The two docking areas north and south of the turning basin have 10 foot depth. The marina is brand new and is owned by Spanish investors and you can certainly see the Mediterranean influence. The docks are high, non-floating concrete with partial fingers of about 20’ coming out to separate the berths. The concrete pilings have a small amount of vertical fendering, but unlike Florida marinas, this has no wooden pilings to secure lines to. Like in the Med, a tag line running alongside the hull connects to a chain running on the bottom to the dock. Dockmaster Miguel Angel said the bottom of each section of 5 or 6 boat slips contains a “mother” chain on the bottom, and individual “sister” chains branch off that.
The docking procedure is to back into the slip, and one or two of their uniformed marina staffers passes you the tag line, you walk the line to your bow and secure it. Meanwhile your deckhands are securing the stern to the dock. Brest and spring lines are secured to bollards on the short finger pier. Put the line’s eye on the bollard and adjust lines on your boat’s cleats. You can best disembark if you have a passarelle as many European boats do, or jury rig a stern plank.
The fuel dock and marina office are on an island-like pier just to the south of the marina entrance channel and adjacent to the turning basin. We lucked out because the dock master put us on the south side of the concrete island which constitutes the fuel dock and office and we therefore had an alongside berth. This enabled us to step off onto the dock from the pilot house boarding gate without having a plank. The 50-amp 220-volt service used U.S. style connections and was more than adequate and the dock security excellent.