Greeting
from beautiful Belize! We are on a 7 day bare boat charter with 6 crew
from the Bay Area. We arrived at the Sunsail Base in Placencia on
Sunday afternoon. After a 3 hour shuttle ride and provisioning in
Placencia, we were ready to board the boat. She is a 38 foot cat with
all the amenities. After loading the boat and getting settled were were
all very tired after a long red eye flight from California. Sleep came
quickly and we all rested comfortably.
Monday morning we had a few boat issues to sort out with the biggest
being the oven/stove. A very nice gentleman came out and replaced the
solenoid which had failed. Next we were off to the chart briefing. The
pictures of the cays we would be visiting got us excited and ready to
hit the water. At 11:30 we shoved off for our first stop at Wippari
Cay. It was a 3 hour motor and we were feeling groovy. We snagged the
mooring ball and everyone jump into the Belizian water for the first
time. Temp was about 85 and perfect. I went for a long swim towards
the island and loved it. Back to the boat for some hammock time in the
bow and then I prepared dinner for the crew with prep help from Ali. The pasta primavera was
great as was the red wine. We finished the night on the trampoline
talking and listening to some great tunes. A dip before revealed
phosphorescence in the water, which I love as it looks like fireflies in
the water, same color too.
Ed. note: the pronunciation of cay is key.
After some coffee and more swimming, we are now headed to South Water
Cay on a broad reach at about 5 knots in some mellow winds! We continued our beautiful sail
thru lunch. We had a great auto pilot and once we set our course in the 15-18 knot winds, it was a dream. The boat held the course and off we went at 5-6 knots. I turned the helm over to Wayne and went below for a
glorious 1 hour nap. Our destination is South Water Cay (pronounced
key). A question came up what is the difference between a cay and an
island. Our skipper answered that a cay is built up from the reefs and
is mostly coral. We anchored about 3 and put out two anchors just in
case. Soon we were on our way to the island and looking for ice and
cold beer. We found the beer but they were out of ice. Had a nice
conversation with the bartender and I felt the warmth of the Belizean
people. After a few, we headed back for dinner. A refuge official
came by to collect fees for anchoring. He asked if we needed anything
and we told him ice. He took off to find some for us and in a short
time he was back with a bucket full. He said he would give us more but
he needed the ice to preserve evidence for a trial against poachers.
They illegally obtained a large amount of conch and were going to be
fined a hefty amount. We said goodbye and proceeded with a grilled
chicken dinner and great conversation. Later I hooked in my iPad to the
sound system and we watched the delightful Life of Pi. I was
definitely moved.
After a great nights sleep and some weird dreams, we prepared for our
first of two dives. Our first dive will be with Avadon Divers. They
are rendezvousing with us at our boat. At a bit after 0930 they arrived.
We jumped on board for our 3 tank dive. They were about 15 folks
already on board and anxious to dive. My first dive was a check out
dive as I had not been diving since 2008 in the BVI's. There were 5
of us assigned with dive master Arthur. We went over the basics and
then set off for a 15 foot dive thru the reef. Lobster, octopus, tarpon
and lots of reef fish. Along the way a spotted eagle ray came into view.
Beautiful, easy dive and then we waited for the boat to pick us up. On
our second dive, I was assigned to Moses. We were headed down on the
second largest reef in the world, the Meso American Reef. We descended to 60' feet and glided slowly above the shoulder of the reef. The nice
thing about our dive master was how slow he went. Many of the dives I
have been on have felt rushed and too fast. Mo was sloow. I loved it.
Half way thru, I noticed that when I took a breath, the flow of air
would cut off towards the end of my breath. That's frightening. I got
Mo's attention and we buddy breathed for about 15 mins. He motioned for
me to go back to my reg and I shook my head no and handed him my reg.
He then noticed that my tank was only half open. He adjusted the valve
and I was good to go. We finished the dive with a 3 minute safety stop
which is SOP. After lunch we headed out once more. I added some more
weight and the last dive was the most comfortable and relaxed of the
three. We had an excellent dive and we saw tons of reef fish and
several lobster. Great dives and we will see the same group on a
different part of the ref on Saturday. Back on the boat for some
napping, swimming and cold beer. At 1830, we departed for dinner
ashore. The Blue Marlin lodge has some friendly staff and a nice dock
to hang out on. After a shrimp dinner and some red wine, John and I
played a game of the pool. It was one of my poorest showing ever but we
had some laughs. Back at the boat, the conversation continued about
favorite bands, concerts and songs. We ended with a long talk about the
Beatles. I was asked my favorite 2 songs by them, that's easy: Mother
Natures Son and Blackbird. Ali mentioned Dear Prudence. I mentioned
that I knew who they were singing about. They were going thru there
Ravi phase and visiting the Maharajah in India and they ran into Mia
Farrow and her sister. Prudence was cute but shy and the song was about
her not joining in on the fun. You just never know where this blog is
going to take you!
Didn't sleep so well and in the middle of the night a box fell that woke
everyone up. No big deal and I dropped into a dream sleep of wars,
delivering furniture and more. Gorgeous morning of coffee and my
specialty of blueberry pancakes. We take off in a couple mins for
Pelican Cay. Had a great sail out of the cay and to the south heading at 5-6 knots
down the channel with the wind hovering at 15-18 knots. A beautiful sail indeed! When I first considered cruising Belize, i heard
about the skinny water and that cats were recommended. Now that I have
sailed here, I realize that there are also some major portions with
plenty of depth. There are some very shallow areas but they are not as
prevalent as I was lead to believe. We had to access the anchorage from
the south and then head north. We wound thru the cays and then found
the Hide Away anchorage. We swam over to nearby reef that was no too
exciting but ok. Then we headed out on the dink for a look around the
anchorage. We saw a dock with a sign on it and headed a short ways. We
were greeted by the owner Dustin. He welcomed us to his island in
paradise. We headed upstairs thru the swamp that makes up most of the
low lying cays in the area. He had built board walks all through the
cay to get to the bar/restaurant, home, guest house and dock. We
ordered a round of margaritas and shortly were toasting to our new found
friends, Dustin and Kim and their 6 mos. baby girl, Ama.
Dustin our host.
He and his wife had bought the island 5 years hence. They toiled and
brought every piece of lumber and nails from the mainland an hour away.
They had built it using local woods and help from the Mennonites. Two
years later they had their first customers just as they ran out of
money. Beers were served to some young Belgian women and set them on a
course of opening a restaurant and a guest cottage. They get a steady
stream of customers during the 6 month cruising season from Nov.-May.
We made a reservation for 7 and noticed the boat had dragged a bit. We
repositioned closer to the mangroves as another Moorings boat settled
in next to us. We also dropped the secondary anchor just to be safe. I
settled into the hammock for a nap and a beer.
We arrived promptly at 7 and our host was waiting to tie up our line.
Dinner was waiting and served shortly after opening the wine. The
dinner was fresh conk, snapper, rice and a squash mix. Our desert was
made by our crewmember/chef de cuisine, Ali. She did a wonderful job
of prepping, cooking, helping in the galley. She served a banana,
chocolate chip bread pudding. Delicious! Dustin and Kim sat near us
and continued their amazing life story. During hurricane season, they
head to FLA and work in the fishing/hospitality industry. They also
have a nice sail boat called Naked Tyme. Dustin was familiar with our
boat named Liberty Dream 2 out of Nice, France. The meal was amazing
and we had a great playlist (thanks Ali) on the Bose speaker that I had brought
along. What a great evening and we all enjoyed bringing another fun
couple into the mix. One of their big concerns of the recent arrival of
cruise ships in the area. Belize is just starting to hit it's tourist
stride and tourism is it's largest industry. We finished the night and
headed back to the yacht. After a nightcap in the bow, we headed for
our bunks.
In the morning, we headed out for a short snorkel and then pulled up
anchor. I was also able to find a shackle for our main halyard from the
Moorings boat next door. I accidentally dropped the previous shackle
in the drink. We took off for a wonderful sail on a broad reach on our
way to Hatchet Cay. The winds blow 15-18 every day and the sailing is easy and fun.
What a great sail! We arrived at the lovely resort island about 1500.
We jumped in the dink and headed over. We met some folks getting off a
boat that had just returned from a whale shark dive. Apparently, they
feed during the full moon. How many did they see? None. Bummer. We
had tried to sign up for the whale dive but they were all full. We hit
the bar for a cold one and some WIFI. I asked several folks where they
were from and everyone said Calgary. We headed back to the boat and
took off for a short snorkel into a beautiful coral garden. Some nice
fish in places. For dinner we had a nice dish that Ali and Shelly
prepared. The Thai Curry was amazing. The moon rise was great and we
enjoyed the hammock in the foredeck with some great tunes and talked
about the formation of the moon. The popular theory is that a huge
asteroid hit the earth as it was forming and the debris eventually
coalesced into the moon over ions of time. It was a windy, gorgeous
night and it was difficult to leave the deck for bed.
Ali and Shelly
On our last day, Saturday, we are heading out to the reef for a two tank
dive. The dive boat arrived and we took off for the first dive. We
jumped in and went down to 60 feet. The dive was ok but the highlight
came when we surfaced. A pod of dolphins was right below the boat and
close. There were 20 or more hanging out for 5-8 minutes. Wow. During
our stop, a very large turtle came by. I was hoping to see one. The
second dive started with my reg going nuts on the surface. Air was
flowing freely and I lost 1000 lbs. Because of this my dive was very
short. As I waited for the rest of my crewmates, a downpour of rain hit
us. We headed back to our boat for a 2 hour motor back to Whiperay
Cay. Dinner is coming up in our last anchorage.
Shelly and Ali did another boat cooking masterpiece: Crab enchiladas!
We had a great evening of conversation and where the next charter would
be? We discussed a future trip to the Grenadines. I have had several
friends cruise there and they had nothing but great reviews. Wayne gave
it a hearty endorsement as well. It rained overnight with several
showers.
I went for my morning swim and a Remora fish was trying to parasite on
me. I had to keep brushing him off me. We headed to the Sunsail base
and soon were on our way to the airport.
We
had a devil of a time with the fridge and it would not keep our food
cold. The gals did a lot of unneeded work and were none too happy.
On the plus side, Belize is a beautiful cruising ground. There were only a few other
boats and tons of fish and wildlife. Navigating the waters takes great
care as there are dangers in the reefs. We were very fortunate to have
Wayne as our Skipper as he has tons of experience and is a sailing
instructor as well. Thank-you Wayne for being a great skipper and friend! A very memorable trip and I hope to return and hit
the north side of the reef. Our adventure was unbelizable!
