Last year we seemed to be greeted fairly often by sea turtles as we moved around the E. Caribbean, this year its dolphins. Sometimes it’s a troupe of dolphins, often a lone dolphin. They don’t have any interest in hanging around once we are swimming in the water but it’s still exciting to encounter them coasting up to the bow of the boat and rocketing along on/in our bow wave.
Over the past few weeks we continued our exploration of the area -- which equates to navigating in and out of the various reefs via poorly charted passes, sailing through the deeper waters, motoring with a constant bow watch around coral heads through shallow waters, checking the anchors, snorkeling around our anchorages, investigating ashore when we can and collecting lots of rainwater.
We left Turneffe (where Dan Rather was vacationing at the Turneffe Flats Lodge) and sailed SE to Long Cay on the Lighthouse atoll. Which reminds me, earlier in the month I used Bonine for seasickness – it works fast! I never tried it before but now I won’t hesitate. Once again we maneuvered through a scantily documented, narrow cut over skinny water at Lighthouse reef. We headed toward 4 other anchored sailboats (not charter boats), put down the anchor in a sandy patch at 12 feet, checked the anchor and swam over to investigate the neighboring coral. We found fabulous snorkeling within swimming range off our port and starboard sides. The next morning we tuned into the newly discovered daily NW Caribbean cruiser net on the SSB, with a plan to ask some questions about food supplies and immigration procedures in the more southern villages in Belize. We realized that all the cruisers anchored with us were regular participats on the nett. As a matter of fact, two of the folks were net controllers. We checked in and gave our position and were welcomed into the anchorage. This made for a fun, social and informative few days. We had many of our questions about Belize answered by Doug/Rayenne on s/v Christiana and Judy/Greg on s/v Lonestar Love. All four boats had been playing together for multiple days and chatting on VHF channel 17, so I invited everyone to drop by for sundowners on our back porch (Rick laughingly commented “I was glad there are only 4 boats anchored there with such a public invitation”.). Living on a catamaran is still a novelty in the live aboard community and we have noted that they many of the folks we have met appreciate a tour of the Dragonfly and a chance to ask questions about cat living. We heard talk of daily hunting and gathering sessions on the reef so the next morning Rick joined the guys for hours of snorkeling, practice with his pole spear, and fillet instruction. Spear fishing seems even more popular in the cruising community here than in the E. Caribbean -- I can’t seem to get psyched to hunt but am glad to reap the rewards! We also were thrilled to receive a list of waypoints for many of the shallow passes and cuts as well as descriptions of where the best “hidey holes” are in case of serious weather. After a few days with this group, we are much better informed cruisers!
We had to make our way back to a town with an immigration office well before we were finished exploring Lighthouse since our 30 day cruising permit was about to expire. Our next step was tough to figure – we wanted to head to the village of Placencia, highly touted as a charming village, good for cruiser services, a likely spot to base ourselves when visitors arrive. It would be a 30 mile trip over the course of a few days of island hopping to sail there but we had just learned that the immigration office for renewals was only open on Thursday in Placencia and Odd, the immigration office was open daily for clear in/clear out but not renewals – and only Placencia has this quirk. Of course neither the immigration office in San Pedro nor our books mention this important detail. By the following Thursday we’d have missed our deadline. Everything in Belize runs slowly and we figured that the likely instructions from the officials if we “played dumb” and showed up on a day other than Thursday would be to come back the following Thursday, but it was possible that they would tell us to make tracks to another town in the next 2 days in order to meet renewal deadline. The hassle of the 30 day renewal rule is greatly disliked by the cruising community, everyone would rather receive a 60 day or 90 day permit and pay upfront than have to go back and forth to town at the end of every 30 days. But I digress, Rick and I decided to bite the bullet and go to the closest town with standard office hours, Dangriga, a town that is never recommended by cruisers, has been described as “having nothing to offer” and a unprotected, settled weather only anchorage. We figured we were due for some adventure, and it felt similar to last years constant experiences of not knowing what we’d find when arriving at a new port.
The sail to the coast was pleasant and we were very fortunate that the winds lay down as we closed in on the town’s coastline. We found that the cruising guide’s lat/long for the anchorage was off by miles and the written descriptions provided didn’t help us to pinpoint the recommended holding grounds so we found a 15 foot spot that we guessed was close to the main part of town and anchored; happily the anchor stuck. Our approach was to get in and get out before the wind picked up -- we dingy’d toward what seemed to be described in our book as the river in which to leave a dingy while ashore – but the entrance was a scene from Huckleberry fin, brown silt, logs and trees damning the entrance, white caps breaking over wht looked to be all sandbar. We could see power boats and small sailing skiffs tied up along the banks of the river so it was clear that boats entered/exited this river – but how? Well, finally we had to make a move so we picked our spot; but it wasn’t the right spot – we had to drag the dingy over the sand bar, we were slightly embarrassed but it gave us a chuckle. We were greeted at one of the docks by “Abraham” who persistently led us to a dock where he said we could safely leave the dingy. Abraham assumed the role of ambassador to Dangriga, assuring us he’d show us the necessary government offices, groceries, etc. Flashback to last year, where often we’d be approached by a guide or boat boy expecting to assist us for a fee. Well, we consider this a way to give back to the community so although we could have navigated our way through the small town, we followed behind Abraham, attempting to engage him in conversation. After a walk to the immigration office, then to the treasury office and back to the immigration office we had our renewal ($50U.S.!) for another 30 days.
We visited a local veggie market and were pleased to find spinach, leaf lettuce along with the typical cucumbers, tomatoes, onions & bananas. Then we decided on a quick lunch (passed on the cowfoot soup special) which of course included Abraham and headed back to the dingy so we could sail to a better protected area to spend the night. Abraham asked for $45 US as payment for his 90 minutes with us, which we considered exorbitant. We settled on $30 (excluding lunch) and it served to remind us to cover the fee upfront; we were out of practice! It was interesting to see the difference between Dangriga and San Pedro. San Pedro in the thralls of the tourist boom in Belize, construction and activity everywhere, lots of local stores and lots of ex-pats engaged in businesses, providing a wealth of visitor services. Dangriga has been left out of all this growth and tourism.
Happy to have taken care of the renewal, we had nothing much on our agenda. Our practice is to listen to the weather in the morning, read the cruising guide and select a cay based on it’s expected protection from the weather, it’s holding and the distance we want to sail. We spent a few nights tucked behind the mangroves at Tobbacco Range (listening for crocodiles). We then moved on to Southwater cay where we had our choice of a few sand patches amongst the grass at which to aim our anchor – glad we arrived early as the next day/night the wind blew 20knotts and we witnessed a few charter boats having big trouble getting their anchors set in the grassy bottom. Southwater cay includes 3 small hotels, one of which focuses on hosting school groups for biology/wildlife coursework. Wouldn’t that be a great way to conclude your high school or college biology course, a week on the reef in Belize? We joined a group of 2 divers at the Blue Marlin Lodge for a pleasant but not stellar dive of Roselita’s Garden.
Once the wind, rain and squalls died down we decided to brave the route described in the guide to Spruce Cay. The book says DO NOT ATTEMPT To enter the lagoon at Spruce Cay if it is overcast, but we figured we would take a look and see if it was doable in he half light we had at the time. The channel between Southwater cay and Spruce Cay seemed consistently deep at 40-50 feet but once headed toward the entrance to the lagoon things changed quickly. It was only on our third attempt that we found a 10-12 foot path through the coral heads but and were safely in the lagoon; we dropped the anchor just as the sun came out in full force (could have used that sunshine during the navigation portion of the day). I would have been happy to give up and head elsewhere but not Skipper Rick; he had a goal and figured it was reachable. Spruce Cay was quite a nice spot, only Dragonfly, ringed by coral reef and a mangrove island (no beach) protecting us on the northeast side. We did a quick exploratory snorkel in some very shallow water, coming upon an eagle ray digging in the sand a mere 3 feet away from where I was swimming.
The next morning we decided to stay put as it seemed to be a safe, comfortable place to be for the expected 20 knots out of the north –northeast. We watched the weather roll in and the next thing we knew it was raining fiercely and the wind was howling. The wind stayed upwards of 20 knots out of the West, northwest for 48 hours. This direction presented a potential for big problems if the anchor dragged in that we had anchored about 70 feet from a mound of small corals, and in North-northeast winds we were laying so that we had “no worries” (two anchors out is the rule this year) BUT in west winds that mound of coral was awful close. During the day we could visually monitor our position, closely watching that dark shadow in the water, the anchor seemed to hold us just fine. But the thought of dragging into that coral kept us awake for the better part of two nights: scanning our lat/long on both our primary GPS and our handheld, monitoring our depth as it fluctuated from 11 feet to 35 feet as we swung from 310 degrees to 359 degrees, watching the wind accelerate from 21 to 25 knots. But we knew we had little chance of maneuvering through all that coral to exit the lagoon in these conditions. The second night was a mental low point for me, my anxiety was overwhelming and I would have easily walked through door #1 to be back in our house in Marblehead. Fortunately, things changed the third morning, the wind dropped to 15 knots and there was enough sunlight to pick our way back to the deep water and head elsewhere.
We decided that a little civilization was called for, so we sailed 17 miles in very light winds and drizzle to the village of Placencia. On our way we were flagged down by a local fishing crew offering us fish and lobster. We gave them $8 US and the local rum left in the bottle and they gave us 3 nice lobster tails and a Spanish Mackerel. You can’t beat those prices for a tasty grilled catch of the day dinner. We have had no luck while trolling for fish ourselves since arriving here –it seems just as fun to support the local fishing economy! Arriving at Placencia, we were shocked to see about 25 boats anchored (the majority of which are Moorings charter cats), the largest gathering we have seen to date! Placencia is small, quiet and rather cute. Our first stop was for gelato, as recommended by the gang at Lighthouse Reef. Then it was on to the veggie stand, a regular horn of plenty since their delivery was made earlier that day. At sunset we welcomed Tom and Mary off of s/v Carpe Diem from Shreveport, LA., with their pitcher of Pina Coladas. In talking about the area and the cruising lifestyle, we enjoying the shared joke that folks back home must have trouble grasping that the high point of our day is discovering broccoli and cauliflower at the local store and finding a place to bring our trash!
That brings me up to date. We’ll be welcoming 2 sets of visitors soon and hope for good weather as we investigate some new keys and atolls. Then I think we’ll be ready for some new sights and we’ll look for a weather window to sail to the Bay Islands of Honduras. Most of the cruisers we have met these past few weeks are on the same plan, and we look forward to something new and hoisting our second courtesy flag!
