Another Month In Belize

Well, we have been in Belize for another month now, and it has been hectic! After our last post, we received word that we had a serious offer on our condo in North Padra Island Texas. Naturally, we had not had the foresight to arrange for a power of attorney in case a buyer came along, so for a month we have been dealing with the potential sale of the condo while taking in, as much as possible, the sights of Central Belize.
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After our friends, Nancy and Steve, left us from Cay Caulker, we made a beeline out to Long Island and Half Moon Cays (part of the Lighthouse Reef atoll). We had heard that it was not to be missed (as in one of the most beautiful places on earth). We were somewhat disappointed, since the wind blew 20 knots most of the time we were out there, and we found very few spots to snorkel where we could dingy in that much wind. While we were at Half Moon Key, we visited the Frigate Bird and Red-Footed Boobie Rookery which was interesting. In the Springtime, there are many frigates soaring overhead, and those in the treetops often show large orange sacs under their chins to attract mates.

Leaving Lighthouse, we had a great sail back to the barrier reef, then stopped by a couple of the islands for some snorkeling and for the use of some resort or other's wifi in order to email copies of the condo sales contract to and from our real estate agent. Cold fronts (with their strong north winds) continued to come through every few days so, we dodged them by staying in protected mangrove island anchorages when they passed. For one cold front, we found ourselves going into Sapodilla Lagoon on the mainland. Sapodilla Lagoon is a large lagoon , surrounded by mangroves, with a Pelican Rookery island in the middle and the Maya Mountains in the background. In fact, you line up with Victoria Peak to get in, which at 3681 feet is the tallest mountain in Belize. There is absolutely nothing to do there but relax and enjoy the scenery, so we fell in love with the place.


From there, we moved on down to the little town of Placencia (again, for better communications with our real estate broker). After we arrived, we went into town, and the first person we met was a gal named Brenda. Brenda cooks on a wood grill at the Shell Station Dock (even though the shell station dock was pretty much distroyed during last years earthquake). Brenda, with her bright and bubbly personality, serves as the town greeter (something like a Walmart greeter, except slightly younger). Brenda will cook and sell you lunch while telling you where to have your laundry done, which stores to buy groceries in, all about local internet services , how and when to have your propane tanks filled, and all the other things a cruiser needs to know when they hit port. Oh yeah, her chicken was pretty good, but a little expensive.


We soon found ourselves at a little bar called Yoli's. Yoli and her husband, Ragan run the bar (and sometimes restaurant), and they are delighful. The place is under a palapa (thached roof building) and out over the water. Yoli's always seems to be full of ExPats and cruisers. On some nights, and we are not sure how those nights are determined, they grill ribs, pork chops and chicken. We can tell you, they have the best and biggest pork chops in all of Belize.
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Next to Yoli's is the Paradise Resort. It was purchased by an ExPat, form Jacksonville Florida, named Alan four years ago. He tells us that it took him three years to remodel the place and has only been open for a year. The Paradise has twelve rooms, a restaurant, a bar, and a dive shop with three dive boats. The place is spotless and even has American TV, so it seems to be the place for cruisers to watch their favorite sports teams, etc. The Paradise bills its self as being Cruisier friendly, and they certainly live up to that. They have free wifi, and there is always coffee and icewater on the bar for those in need of something to cool them down or warm them up.


Other places of interest in Placencia include the Cozy Corner beachfront resort which has the best fried chicken in Belize, Walling's Grocery, Walling's Hardware, The Hokie Pokey water taxi and of course the Tuttie Fruiti Ice Cream Shop.
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With the help of the US Emabassy, we obtained the notary seals necessary to complete the sale of our condo. Thankfully, we didn't have to make the trip to the embassy in the capital of Belmopan, as the ambassador and consulate came to a fancy resort north of Placencia to meet the US residents in southern Belize. There are about 6000 US residents living in the country. We think our part of the condo sale is completed. Everyone keep your fingers crossed.
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We hitched a ride on the Hokie Pokey Water Taxi over to Independence and renewed our visas and boat papers. Belize says that we can stay forever, but the boat has to be out of Belize by the end of April, so we plan to meet up with our friends, Rodney and Katrina on Angelina (who have been cruising the Bay Islands of Honduras this year), and check into Guatamala on April 19.
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We will update the blog when we reach the Rio Dulce, until then happy cruising!

Our First Month In Belize

Our first month in Belize has now come and gone. We have spent a lot of our time hiding from fronts that seem to come through every three or four days. (But, at least we are not shoveling snow, like much of the USA.) We have found some good anchorages in mangrove creeks, where you are well protected from the high winds and waves in the fronts. When we were not hiding from the fronts, we managed to enjoy San Pedro, Caye Caulker, The Bluefield Range, The Colson Cays, English Cay, Goff Cay and even made a stop at Cucumber Beach Marina with a trip into Belize City for groceries. Belize City, which is no longer the capital, is a crowded, dirty and seemingly poor place for the most part, though there is a section with nicer hotels, and of course the cruise line area. We have seen as many as six cruise ships anchored off the city at one time, from where they ferry everyone into the secured area for the cruise lines. No one is allowed out of this area unless they are on a bus to some of the inland sites.

Pat's college roommate, Nancy, along with her husband, Steve, came down for a week. We think they really enjoyed their trip, since they were able to visit Belize City, anchor at several of the cays, get in some snorkeling, make a couple of happy hours at the Lazy Lizard Bar in Caye Caulker and enjoy several meals in Belize restaurants. Steve also caught a Barracuda, which we immediately grilled for lunch! (Nothing better than really fresh saltwater fish!) Nancy and Steve left us at Caye Caulker, where they caught the water taxi back to Belize City. There is an old joke about how many people you can get on a chicken bus in Guatemala ... The answer is: " One More!" Apparently, the same is true for water taxies in Belize., since they packed everyone in like sardines.

Since our first month has come and gone, we are now in San Pedro to renew our 30 day visa. From here we plan to go out to Turneffe and Lighthouse reefs. These are two of the four atolls in the Caribbean. All the others are in the south Pacific. From there, we will go south to some of the southern cays and the Belize town of Placencia, where we will, once again, renew visas or check out before heading to the Rio Dulce in Guatemala.

We 're In Belize

We arrived at San Pedro, Belize on an island called Ambergis Cay, February 2nd, after an uneventful crossing from Bahia de la Ascencion. We made it through the cut in the reef with no problems, even though the cruising guides always make it sound as if your life is in danger at all times.









We anchored off Roman's resort and dingied into town. We quickly realized that everyone in San Pedro is in a hurry, and everything in San Pedro is expensive. The major modes of transportation are small automobiles, golf carts and bicycles with the occasional tractor (as in John Deere) with a small trailer attached, which is used to deliver beer and bottled water to the local stores, bars and restaurants. Walking the streets with all this traffic is harrowing at times. Bill found parts for his fishing rods at a small tackle shop called Fins and Feathers, which was operated by an expat from Houston Texas. We quickly found that groceries were two to three times the cost we were used to paying in Mexico.

One bright spot was the Customs and Immigrations office. They were efficient and pleasant. Immigrations now charges a fee of $20.00 US, and Customs also charges a fee of $20.00 US, plus a fee of $25.00 US each time you renew your 30 day permit. I'm not sure what the exit fee is, but I know there is one. We were required to dingy the Customs' guy out to our boat and let him inspect it. He stated that they were most interested in firearms, and since we didn't have any, we passed inspection with flying colors. As we began our dingy ride back to the dock, the Customs guy noticed another new boat in the anchorage flying the yellow quarantine flag, so I dropped him off at that boat, and they agreed to take him back to land after he inspected their boat. What else could they do?

The next morning, we weighed anchor and moved down to the little town of Cay Caulker. What a difference eight miles makes. Everything is still expensive, but no one seems to be in a hurry. The town seems to be a cross between a fishing village and a tourist town. No streets are paved here. They are white sand and the only automobile we have seen is the local government's old dump truck which they seem to use for everthing from garbage pickup to mass transit. Everyone else uses bicycles, golf carts or simply walks to where they are going.There are tourists from all over the world here. We have heard people speaking French, German, English, Spanish and other languages which we didn't even recognize. There are lots of restaurants and bars, a couple of grocery stores, several dive shops offering snorkel and dive trips, and the usual gift shops and mom and pop resorts. And they have a great bakery and homemade ice cream to die for! A nice little town, we like it here!




























Another norther was predicted, so we made the trip down to the Drowned Cays, about 15 miles south of Cay Caulker and only about 5 miles east of Belize City. To get there you had to go through the dreaded Porto Stuck channel, which is less than 5 feet deep at low tide. We had no problem with the channel, however there were a couple of times that we only had a couple of inches between the keel and the bottom. The Drowned Cays are unpopulated Mangrove islands with several wide and protected creeks--a good place to be with strong north winds. We spent two days there doing absolutely nothing before heading back up to Caye Caulker, where we will probably spend much of our time until we pick up guests at Cucumber Beach Marina in Belize City on the 20th of February.

We Finally Made It To Bahia De La Ascension

On our second try, we made it all the way to Bahia De La Ascension and the little town of Punta Allen Mexico on Wednesday January 27 th. We anchored out in the bay when we got there because there was a south wind and the anchorage near Punta Allen is open to the south.
The guide book says that the town is a sleepy little fishing village and there are no restaurants, bars, grocery stores or lodges. Well things have changed since that guide book was written. We saw a couple of small grocery stores, three lodges, four or five Mexican style taco restaurants and six or eight tourist bars and/or restaurants on the beach. We spent Sunday walking around town and eating nachos and drinking cervezas at the Muelle Viejo (Old Dock) Restaurant.

Bahia De La Ascension and the little town of Punta Allen are definitely worth the stop.

Our Cruise to Punto Allen Mexico

We left Marina El Cid in Puerto Morelos, Mexico bound for Punta Allen (about 75 miles south) about 3:00pm on last Friday with our buddy boat Wind Shift with Bob and Robin (a New Zealand couple) aboard. We went overnight and motorsailed into a SE wind and a current of 1 to 2 1/2 kts. for most of the night. Suddenly, the motor started to overheat, however, if we slowed down a little it would cool down a little, so we continued on and planned to fix whatever the problem was when we reached Punta Allen. 17 miles north of Punta Allen, we were three miles east of the rhumb line, so we attempted to tack. The wind was building to about 20 kts., the waves were about 6 to 8 ft., and we still had some current against us. To make a long story short, when we tried to use the engine to punch through the waves, it immediately overheated and we were making no headway. After going east and getting back on the rhumb line, we then found ourselves 21 miles away from Punta Allen, and the wind was building and shifting more to the south, which was making it more and more difficult to get where we were going. We decided to turn around and head back to Marina El Cid and fix the problem, while we waited for more favorable winds.

Our buddy boat had gone on ahead of us, and they were having VHF radio problems, so we counld not tell them about our decision to turn back. We were very worried that they would get to Punta Allen, realize that we were no where in sight or radio range, and call the local authorities and report us overdue or missing.

We made it back to El Cid in record time (for us) because the wind, waves and current were all in our favor. A couple of times our speed was as high as 9.4 kts., and I believe if we had had an engine we could have hit 10 kts - just to say we had done it. For those non-sailors, our average speed is 5.5 to 6 kts/hr.

We made it back to Marina El Cid just before nightfall on Saturday. About an hour later, we heard our buddy boat on the radio. They had lost their engine (starter problems) right outside of Punta Allen and had also decided to turn back to where they could have the required mechanic work done. (There are not many marine services available along the south Mexican coast.) After our attempts to find someone to tow them into the marina were unsuccessful, since the night crew at the marina only spoke Spanish, they decided to sail on back up to Isla Mujeres and not attempt to enter the El Cid marina at night without an engine. We later learned that they made it back to Isla Mujeres and were towed into Marina Paraiso.

When we were coming into the marina, we noticed that the engine vibrated when we reached about 2,000 rpms, and we were very slow considering the wind and waves were behind us.

Today Pat (aka Patsy Cousteau) dove down to check beneath the boat and found a large piece of nylon fishing net wrapped around the propeller and shaft, which was what made us so slow and the engine overheat. She cut the net away and scraped a few barnacles off the propeller, and now we are ready to try it again.

Stay tuned for more adventures of the Sailing Vessel Mobetah.