CEVICHE TOURS
Fishing and the friendship made in Isla Mujeres. La historia de dos pescadores: la amistad de Luis Ráadigo “Cuco” Sánchez y John Yater en Isla Mujeres.
OUR STORY
2007
ON THE LAST DAY of March 2007, as the sun began to dip in the sky, a group of 6 Isleño fishermen, their wives, and a few American friends waited anxiously on a small beach of Isla Mujeres Bay as the artist's steady hand finished painting the name, CEVICHE II, on Cuco Sanchez's brand new 29-foot fishing boat.
The launching
had to take place before sunset because Cuco's friend and collaborator, John Vater of New York, was leaving the next day after months of planning the transformation of a bare hull into a first-rate fishing excursion boat. “We simply cannot put the boat in the water without the name on it: that would be bad luck,” John explained. Finally, as the picture-perfect, pink and orange sunset glowed on the horizon, friends heaved the bright yellow craft into the sea amidst splashing champagne and cheers of good luck.
A typical isleño scenario
This was a typical Isleño fishing scenario, but the story behind it is anything but typical because this launching was only a chapter in the 19-year friendship between two men who say they are bound by “a shared passion for the sea and the marine environment around Isla Mujeres.”
Cuco Sánchez
has acquired an intimate appreciation for the sea by earning his livelihood as a scuba diving guide, commercial lobster fisherman, and sport fishing operator since he arrived on Isla at age twelve. John Vater also learned to love the sea while growing up in Massachusetts, the bayous of Louisiana, and later serving in the U.S. Navy.
A shared passion
Even now, as a busy fashion photographer and entrepreneur in New York, he keeps his boat close by, the Ceviche II (named for John's favorite Isla Mujeres seafood specialty). The two seamen met by chance during John's first sport fishing excursion to the Yucatan in 1988, and both men agreed, “We clicked immediately.”
Hurricane Wilma — 2005
When John returned to Isla Mujeres after Hurricane Wilma in 2005, he saw the damage Cuco's boat had suffered, and the two friends began dreaming about building a better-equipped boat that would allow Cuco to compete for a share of the sport fishing and shark tourism.
Building more than a boat
In November 2006, Cuco picked up his 29-foot bare fiberglass hull in Cancun, plus two new 60-hp motors. During the following three months, Cuco and twelve talented Isleño craftsmen proved their ingenuity acquired from years of working within the limited resources of a tiny island.
Science and friendship
In March, John and Adriana arrived to join Cuco and friends for the finishing touches and to be on board for the launching. “Science proves that destructive hurricanes are also known to generate new life beneficial to the marine habitat,” John reflects. “It was auspicious that our friendship began just before hurricane Gilberto in 1988, and our collaboration on the Ceviche II was born out of the damage caused by hurricane Wilma seventeen years later.”
