Belize in November, 2006
Nov. 1, 2006
What an exciting day for us. We have enjoyed our stay in the river and met a lot of great friends, but, it is that time that we must move on. Most of our friends are doing the same route that we are, so we will just keep running into each other at different beautiful places. What fun!
We woke up early and pulled up our anchor at Shell Bay in the Rio at 6:30 a.m. headed for Livingston to clear out with Customs and Immigration.
We passed Mario's Marina and waved our final goodbyes to our buddies. The current is going out of the river at about 2 knots, so instead of us cruising at 5.3, we were going over land at 7.5.
After the awesome cruise through the canyon down the river, we arrived at Livingston at 10 a.m. and called the Port Captain on our VHF radio to announce our arrival. We then, proceeded to Customs, the Port Captain, and Immigration for final clear-out.
We then went back to Valentina to wait for the proper time for crossing the bar. At the entrance of Livingston, there is a sandbar 5 1/2 feet deep for about 1/2 mile. Our draft on Valentina is 6', so we have to wait for the high tide to cross the bar. The high tide is about 4 p.m. this afternoon.
Our buddies, Blow Me Away and Kaija's Song also crossed with us. You almost hold your breath as you cross, especially with wind and waves, hoping to not run aground.
Our shallowest location was 6'8". Whew! We made it!
The wind is kicking up and blowing out of the west, so instead of anchoring nearby at Cabo Tres Puntas, we went a little further to a protected anchorage in Bahia La Graciosa.
Nov. 2
We talked to Chris at 6 a.m. He is the weather guru for sailors on the SSB radio. We pay for a service for him, at any time, to give us the weather, where we are heading, so this morning, Sonny talked to him for a weather update for Belize before heading out. He said there is a low pressure front merging with a cold front here, so, we will batten down the hatches until it is fair weather to head to Belize. It is only 20 miles to Belize, so that will be a good day's sail.
Nov. 3
Well, the weather is still not good. We woke early at 4 am for a storm blowing through. We looked out of our cockpit, and one of the boats in our anchorage drug anchor near us. We tried hailing them on the VHF radio, but no response. Sonny got out the spotlight and shined it on their boat, hoping to wake them, and it worked. They were dragging by at a fairly good speed. They were headed back to the shore, so we were thankful, they woke up. They reset their anchor and stayed put for the rest of the storm. It was blowing at about 40 knots, with rain. Not a fun day in paradise.
We downloaded the weatherfax and it looks like we are sitting between two tropical waves, with a low pressure system on top of us, with a cold front coming down from the great state of Texas. So, we will sit tight in this secure anchorage.
After taking Doc (their dog) to shore, Gary on Kaija's Song came by our boat in his dinghy and showed us some ugly shells with critters inside. He said he made a deal with the local fisherman to catch us 50 of the shells, and show us how to clean them, and we would pay him 2 packs of cigarettes and some beer. So, later he arrived at Gary's boat, with at least 150 of the shells. He stayed on Gary's boat a while, and smoke and drank, as they cleaned the critters. He said they were small conch shells.
After the cleaning session, Gary and Kaija came by and picked us up and we all went to Blow Me Away for dinner. I took a pot of beans and cornbread and Kaija, Lyla and I made delicious conch fritters. It was wonderful!
Nov. 4
We awoke early to listen and talk to Chris to check out our weather situation.
He said it was clearing, but, definitely some squalls on our NE horizon.
We all talked about it, and decided to hear for Puenta Gorda (about 20 miles away) to check into Belize. We could finally see sunlight on the horizon.
About 7 a.m. we all pulled up anchors. Ours was very muddy and had dug in very good from the high winds. After cleaning our chain and anchor, we headed out of the anchorage behind Blow Me Away and Kaija's Song.
We were out several miles, when, on our radar, sure enough, the rain was upon us. The wind gusts to about 25-30 knots, with rain. But, we were all ready and prepared for it. Our mainsail was reefed and ready. The rain continued most of the day.
Kaija's Song had headed on to Puenta Gorda, when Aaron came on the VHF and said he had lost a hose on his engine and was taking on water. After the engine cooled, he would go down and check it out. In the meantime, he would be under sail power only. We told them we would stay close by. After it had cooled, he went below and made the repairs.
We both went into South Mojo Cay, but, did not like the looks of it for an anchorage, so we went on down to New Haven (Hard Luck Charlie's) about two hours further.
We set anchor at 4 p.m. and enjoyed a beautiful sunset, full moon and calm anchorage.
11/7
We are currently in Placencia, Belize and have checked in with customs.
We walked around the village and tried to update the web, but, no luck. The connections here are very slow. Will try again later. So, we will sit here a while.
11/8
Today was our first day to go spear fishing. Sonny snorkeled in the water with the spear gun and Kay trolled around in the dinghy because we did not bring our dinghy anchor with us. Sonny shot some small fish, but no keepers. He had fun.11/9
We went into town to download the website and then we went snorkeling and spear fishing. It was Kay's first time, and she shot at a fish, but he was too far away. Sonny shot a blow fish, and by the time he got it back to the dinghy, it was a big one! We got him off the spear quick. But, it was fun.
Nov. 9
We went into town today and took our washing, went to the bank, found some PVC pipe to make a boat hook, since Kay dropped our other one in the water at New Haven. I think I "missed" mentioning that in our previous logs.
Along the street, we went into John the Baker's shop.
We met him on the sidewalk last night and bought some cinnamon rolls from him for $.50 each.
They were delicious. We want to get some more.
Then, we came to The Shak, where you can get natural smoothies. We went inside, and the owner talked us into a seaweed smoothie. It kind of tasted like a vanilla shake with a lot of nutmeg, but, we did not care for it.
We dinghied over to Kaija's Song for delicious appetizers and fun.
This is the great part of cruising.
Enjoying friends .... sunsets... and great food.
Brenda on S/V Queen Mary hailed us on the VHF and invited us to all come over to their boat to play so we brought our guitar, harmonicas and Gary brought his ukulele and harmonicas and we dinghied over to S/V Queen Mary.
Tom and Lyette (S/V Mesqua Ukee) were already on Queen Mary, along with Gene, Brenda, and Mom (Brenda's mother).
Brenda's mom, Helen, is 79 and cruising with Queen Mary for two months before returning home.
Gene and Brenda (S/V Queen Mary) play and sing country and western and gospel songs and are very, very good. I could listen to them for hours. They are also net controllers for the NW Caribbean Net.
The anchorage was alive with the electric keyboard, electric bass guitar and harmonicas, Oh yes, and the conch horn blowers.Gary (Kaija's Song) played the keyboard and is a pro.
He does great on Ray Charles' songs. Just needed a pair of dark sunglasses, he has the movements. Georgia..... Georgia......
What fun! This has been one of our more memorable nights cruising.
The sun goes down at 5:15 p.m. and usually by 6, Kay is heading towards the v-berth. But, tonight, we stayed out until almost 10 p.m. A fun, late night!
Nov. 9
Before we pulled away from the dock at Mario's on the 31st, we turned our inverter on and it made a noise and, then, quit. Then, after we got to Placencia, our generator started leaking water out the bottom. So, since then, Sonny has been checking and troubleshooting our systems to see what we need to do to get them all working properly.
Currently, we have to run the engine to charge the batteries, and our inverter will charge the laptops, but, not a heavy load such as the microwave, icemaker, or a/c. Sonny is contacting the companies for advice.
Kaija told Kay about butter you can buy in a can that does not require refrigeration until it is opened.
So, we went to get a couple of cans.Also, here, you purchase small boxes of milk that do not have to be refrigerated until you open them. And, it tastes just like regular milk, when opened. Very good for sailboats and cruising. This way, you can stock up on dairy products.
11/12
We will listen to the NW Caribbean Net this morning, listen to the weather, run to shore to get ice and last minute supplies, download the website and we are heading out to the islands. We plan to be back at Placencia for a cruiser's Thanksgiving, so until then, you will need to contact us on our winlink address.
A rain shower came up, so we will wait until tomorrow.
We sailed about 20 miles north of Placencia to an island called Lagoon Cayes. We had several firsts today. It was our first time to run aground. We eased near the island between the coral reefs and coral heads and the chart shows to anchor in 10 feet of water, then it goes to 3 feet. We dropped the anchor in 10 feet, but eased on up to the 3 feet. That does not work very well with a six foot keel under us. We checked the tides, and we were, sure enough on a rising tide, so we knew we could get off. Sonny took the dinghy and nudged the front of Valentina and slowly pushed her to deeper water. Then, we set our anchor. We are on the west side of the island with protection from the north and east winds.
We went snorkeling and Sonny got our first conch.We feasted on conch fritters for dinner.
He also shot his first barracuda and was trying to get it to the dinghy, but he got off and swam away very fast. He shot the barracuda using the spear gun.
11/13
We woke up to a familiar sound.
We could hear the dolphins near our boat blowing air as they come to the top of the water swimming around. We jumped up to greet them and, of course, take their pictures.
After breakfast, decided to go snorkeling/fishing.
Sonny shot two fish we will have for dinner tonight. When we got back to the boat, one of our lines in the water had something on it. We pulled it up. This is what we caught on our small fishing line.
It was a nurse shark. Our dinghy was nearby, so we just dropped the shark over in our dinghy so we could decide what we wanted to do with it. We skinned it and cleaned it and then put some on the grill, but, did not like the taste. We did not soak it in anything beforehand, that may have made a difference. It had an ammonia taste. We will stick to the fish. Cleaning (skinning) this shark about whooped us.
11/14
Today is the day that cruising is what we thought and hoped it would be. Up to this point, everything we have done, has been on a schedule. But, this anchorage is not the most beautiful anchorage, but the coral, fishing, and atmosphere is just awesome. We watch thousands of small fish jump out of the water in unison, as the larger fish chase after them, the pelicans soaring above the water, then dive in for a mouth of dinner, and the dolphins come in the mornings to wake us.
But, the coolest thing has been learning to spearfish. We went out this afternoon to the opposite end of the island, it was calm, slick clear water. We could see the fish from inside our dinghy. We jumped out of the dinghy with our snorkel gear on and was amazed at what we could see down below us. The coral was alive and fish were everywhere.Sonny motioned me to come over to where he was. It is always kind of spooky, because you do not know what he is going to show you. He had his spear in a huge snapper, but could not get the fish out of the crevice it was hiding under. He used my spear also and managed to get it out.
It was huge! We were so excited! He had also shot four other fish and got another conch.
We are hooked!
11/15
Tom and Patty on S/V Liberty (what a good boat name) arrived yesterday and wanted to stay another day in the anchorage, so we all planned on going snorkeling early.
But, after listening to the weather, we all decided to sail north, while we had an unusual south breeze. So, we loaded up and pulled up anchor and headed to Blue Ground Range. We are anchored in 35 feet of water, and surrounded by islands. There is supposed to be some weather coming, so we tried to get tucked in safe and sound.
It was a nice, slow sail up. It took us about four hours in calm water, calm winds. Relaxing.
We prepared fish (imagine that?) for dinner and invited Tom and Patty over. It was a nice evening.
But, during the night, we were tucked in too close to the mangroves and when the breeze died, the no-see-ums came out. They were awful. You cannot hardly see them, it is a tiny black dot, but they sting like a mosquito. They are so tiny, they can get through the screens into the boat. We were up at midnight taking another shower, thinking that would help the itching. Then, we showered in "Off" and that seemed to help. Miserable!
11/16
We woke up to the weather report and headed to Lighthouse Reef about 40 miles away. That would be a good day's sail. The wind was favorable, so Liberty and Valentina headed to Lighthouse. The wind picked up along the way as the northern passed through. We had 20-28 knots of wind and 6-8' seas. The last two hours were pretty rough, pounding into the waves. When we realized we would not make it before sundown, we opted to head to the eastern side of the reef and enter there with calmer seas. The island is surrounded by a coral reef with coral heads all inside, so you need good light to enter.
After we entered, we anchored in an unprotected area inside the reef and plan to move around to the more protected anchorage after daybreak.
It was a rough, rolly, anchorage all night. Not as bad as some we have stay at, but not comfortable.
11/17
After a trying time to enter in between the breaking reefs in the rough water, we made it inside to a safe haven at Lighthouse Reef.
We, S/V Island Link, S/V Liberty, and S/V Blow Me Away all had dinner on Blow Me Away. It was grouper the guys had caught. Delicious.
We all opted to stay here until Thanksgiving and have Thanksgiving together at Lighthouse Reef. Also, the weather will not be favorable to leave before then. It is howling and the seas are very rough out there.
11/19
Well, I must say......this is "all right". We have eaten lobster for three nights in a row and three more lobster tails in the refrigerator, I must do something with today. Any easy lobster or conch recipes? Please email me.
Lighthouse Reef is about 40 miles off shore, and, we are in a protected anchorage, so we will stay here for another week, waiting for weather to clear.
We FINALLY got to barter today! When we left the states last December, we were told to take beer and cigarettes to barter for fish, shrimp or lobster. After carrying this beer and cigarettes aboard for almost a year, we finally got to trade some of it for some goodies.There are several small fishing boats that come over from Belize City. It takes them two days to get here and they stay for a week, fish all day, and return to Belize City to sell their fish to the co-op. But, due to the high winds and seas, they have had to stay here longer than expected, so their supplies are low.
There are nine men aboard this small boat, carrying nine dories (small boats) aboard.
We went over to their boat today to see if we could trade our (year old) beer and cigarettes for fish. They were glad to. We told them we would go back to our boat and get our stuff and return. So we did. We brought back nine beers (one for each of them) and two packs of cigarettes and wanted to see what we could get with that.
They loaded us up with three lobster tails and a bag of cleaned fresh conch. Probably fifty conch. They had been here for a week already, and because of the weather, would need to stay longer. They asked us if we had any coffee, and we told them we did. We asked if they needed anything else, and they said, "canned vegetables".
We told them we have coffee and canned goods (also one year old from the states) and we would be glad to trade them.
They came to our boat in their dory and picked up our coffee and canned goods and will bring us some fish tomorrow by mid-day.Kay would like to have Thanksgiving and include our other three buddy boats, and our new 9 fishing friends from Belize. After all, Thanksgiving was originally Columbus dining with the Indians on Plymouth Rock, right? How about the cruisers dining with the Belizean fishermen at Lighthouse Reef? We will see. Not on any of our boats, though, maybe on land. Just a thought...
All four buddy boats monitored channel 17 on the VHF so we could communicate with each other. Every morning, after the NW Caribbean Net, we would have our "Lighthouse Reef Net" with the four boats. It was fun.
Somehow in the scheme of things, the NW Caribbean Net was in need of net controllers for the morning net. Lyla mentioned she would be willing so Kay volunteered her. She has a great voice and good radio. She will be good.
Queen Mary suggested that Valentina also be net controllers. They asked us on the NW Caribbean net if we would help out....so, reluctantly, we agreed. So, Wednesday the 29th will be our first attempt at net controllers. We will do Wednesdays and Lyla will do Fridays.
11/20
We were all ready to go to shore, so we took our dinghies and found a place we could get ashore. We walked through the trails on the island. It was marshy, but good trails.
There were sections staked off with Lot numbers on the trees. How would you like to buy some ocean-front property in beautiful Lighthouse Reef for only ????? dollars?
We followed the trail for about one mile then came to this palapa and knocked down some coconuts and drank the juice and ate the coconut meat.
11/22
Our local fishermen have left our anchorage for better fishing elsewhere on the reef. The water is very cloudy and cool here.
So, we all decided for Thanksgiving, we would have it on the beach. The only problem was the small beaches near us were where all the trash runs ashore from the east wind. So, we would need to clean up the beach area first.
All eight of us went ashore and began the clean-up campaign. We had a fire and was burning what we could. We also took our trash from our boats to shore to burn. We raked the sand with plastic objects we recovered from the beach and the guys began their magic.
You would not believe what all we had created at our "Turkey Beach".Jeff on S/V Island Link is a real McGiver. If we were on survivor, he would be a good one on your team.
He gathered wood and built a table for our Thanksgiving dinner, made a privacy Ladies Room with a ladies shoe over the door, complete with rack for toilet paper and a shelf for your drink. The guys also had a secure cup to aim into. We brought hammocks, chairs, and food.
We played conch horseshoes and the conch toss.
Aaron found a big log and brought it to the campsite, so we all carved the date and our boat names on our log, also, so future cruisers to add the names too.All of us had been out for a couple of weeks, so fresh groceries on board were getting scarce. We all pulled what we had together and we all had chicken on board, so we opted to have chicken, with dressing and gravy, conch cerviche, Any's recipe of potato tortilla, green beans, corn, cole slaw, homemade sweet bread and pumpkin and pecan pies.
It was a real feast!
We are very thankful.
After we had all eaten, a local fisherman came rowing by in his dory. We invited me to come ashore to eat with us.
He was a very gracious gentleman.
He said we could fix him a plate, but, he would take it back to his boat for him and the other five guys. He stayed and talked to us for awhile.
The no-see-ums were coming out, so we all packed up and headed out. As we were leaving the shore in our dinghy, Randolph was too. After about 20 feet out, he said, "A lobster", and turned his dory back to go see. We headed his way. He said, "See the wimple"....we could not until we got closer. Randolph pulled out a stick with a hook on it and hooked that lobster!
He asked if we wanted it and dropped him in our dinghy.
Although we dearly missed our friends and family, this was a very special Thanksgiving in the islands. 11/23
Michelle, S/V Independence in Kemah, emailed me a recipe for Lobster Etoufee. So, while Sonny was over on Blow Me Away, helping Aaron with his generator, Kay got our our lobster and began the new recipe.
We invited our three other buddy boats over for Lobster Etoufee and it was very good. Thanks Michelle!
Having eight people aboard is cozy but fun.
11/25
Jeff and Cindy, S/V Island Link need to return to San Pedro to check out of Belize by Dec. 1st. So, after listening to the weather this morning, the three other boats decided to head to Turneffe Reef. It was an overcast, windy, blustery day, and we decided to stay until the weather improves. They pulled up anchor and we said our so-longs and the parade of boats out of the harbor began.
Once they rounded the protection of the reef, they were in 20 knot winds and rough seas, so they decided to come back to Lighthouse. It was a good homecoming. It was good to have them back.
About noon, things started to settle down a bit, still overcast and sprinkling showers, but the wind had died down. Jeff got on the VHF Lighthouse Reef Net and asked if anyone would be interested in heading to Turneffe now. Sonny told them we were and then all four boats headed out from Lighthouse Reef.
The wind was 15-20 and the seas were 5' waves on the beam.
We arrived at Turneffe Reef at 4:30 p.m. It was a pretty rough and tipsy night. Not much sleep on Valentina. We will move on early in the morning.
11/26
All four boats talked on "our" net and pulled up anchors at 7:30 a.m. and headed to Glory Cut. It is a cut you can pass through to get inside the reef that runs from Mexico to Belize with the exception of Liberty and they had to head back south. So long Tom and Patty!
Island Link is a catamaran, so Jeff and Cindy would go ahead of Blow Me Away and Valentina who have 6' drafts. Jeff would let us know where is was very shallow and helped us dodge the coral heads as we weaved our way along the reef.
We anchored at Water Cay, but with a north wind, there is no protection, so we all came to Shag Cay Bogue. There was a shallow bar we had to cross to get into the lagoon, but after the bar, it was 15-20' deep inside.
Lyla made tortilla soup while underway, so a great dinner was on Blow Me Away tonight.
11/27
We woke up to a beautiful sunshine this morning! It has been a while since we have seen the sun!
I have not taken many pictures, since it has been dreary.
We plan to go to Cay Caulker today. It will be about a 4 hour motor-sail to the north with northeast winds. Cay Caulker has civilization! We have been on uninhabited islands since November 12th, so it will be good to get some clothes washed, update the website, and re-stock on some provisions. (And....eat at a restaurant!)
The channel to Cay Caulker is a very shallow bank. It is soft mud, but depths of 6' or less in areas. Porto-Stuck is a channel between two islands and very shallow.
There are some sticks in the water, and for the deepest channel, you are supposed to stay within 50 - 100 feet keeping the sticks on your starboard side.
If we did not have the catamaran leading the way, we would have opted to go outside the reef where it is deep.
Valentina is sailing along.
It is a four hour sail, and you are watching the depths the whole way. Very shallow.
We also sailed past a local fishing sailboat.
Whew, we made it through Porto Stuck without digging mud or getting Stuck!
After we anchored at Cay Caulker, we walked around the village, then went to Gene and Brenda's boat, S/V Queen Mary and played music. What fun! Good night.
