Bruce & Dianne MacDonald with Drury and Jennifer Porteous on Ranguana Cay

On Monday morning we hustled ashore (about 10 am) to buy a few more supplies. Bruce and Dianne MacDonald were arriving at noon for a week of sailing with us, so we were just adding a few more supplies for the week. Plans were for a week of messing around where the weather permits. Buying things in Placencia is not like heading to SuperStore at home. After a week or so, you learn what stores carry what and on what days the fish man and the vegetable men come. Neither an art nor a science, it just takes persistance and patience. Here you can buy fresh fish, there shrimp. In this store they sell fresh milk, but over there you can buy UHT. This store sells this but not that, and next door, the opposite.
Due at 1:00 pm, we were still wandering around buying a few things when we spotted them in a taxi arriving about a half hour early. But we were ready to go, so not a problem. The weather was still unsettled and we were in no particular hurry, so we never quite got underway and just settled in for the night. In the morning there were some questions asked about wine consumption that accompanied dinner (fresh red snapper, coconut rice and fresh local beans, with local fruit for dessert) but all survived.
With the weather still unsettled and strong easterlies making a sail to the reef (easterly) uninviting, we headed south to Monkey River Lagoon, a mangrove lined lagoon that gave us a beautiful night in flat calm waters. Placencia's harbour doesn't provide the best protection from the north east, and we had had a rolly-polly night, so were glad of the calm the lagoon provided.
Just after anchoring, Bruce got out a fishing rod and in short order we had three small snappers and two grunts aboard for dinner. This time, more caution was shown in the wine consumption and after a great sleep, all were up and ready for sailing early.
Setting out, we were faced with the easterlies still persisting, in spite of forecasts to the contrary. So we sailed north back towards Placencia, about 10 miles away. By the time we were off Placencia, the wind finally obeyed the forecast and clocked to the south-east and dropped to an ideal 10-15 knots. With it we tacked over and were dodging corral heads on our way to Ranguana Cay, about 15 miles away.
We arrived there in mid-afternoon and were quickly in the water with snorkel gear. Ashore on the cay, we wandered around the tiny resort and bumped in to a couple from Toronto. And when they walked over to Bruce and Dianne, the man said "Bruce MacDonald!" It turns out that they worked together in Toronto some years ago. Its a small world. Lucky Dianne didn't listen to us and go skinny dipping! (We said she would never see anyone she knew out here in this remote spot!)
In the evening we went ashore (BYOB) and had dinner at the open-air restaurant on the beach. Besides us there were only two others there, cruisers from California on a charter cat. Again in the beautiful night air, we enjoyed an excellent dinner.
In the morning we we raised the main on the mooring and sailed off south searching for more adventure. Reaching down the reef in 12-15 knots of breeze behind the reef provided beautiful sailing that ended when we furled our sails and nosed in to North-East Sapodilla Cay. But we weren't happy with the anchorage, so we headed back out and worked our way into the anchorage at Franks Cay, just a quarter mile further south. Here we found an excellent empty anchorage, and flat water in the still-fresh breeze. And again we were quickly in the water with snorkel gear where we found the most spectacular coral we have yet seen. Being the only boat there (we could see one other about 2 miles further down) the coral was in pristine condition.
After we dragged ourselves out of the water we wandered ashore. The guide says there is a resort with bar and restaurant, dive shop where you can arrange diving or have your tanks re-filled. But we found only an abandoned resort slowly being taken over by the tropical vegetation. Later in the evening we did see someone land for the night at the one remaining habitable building, but certainly no resort. We dinghied across to North-east Sapodilla and walked around and out onto the reef that it sits on. Dinner was Crack Conch with cole slaw.
In the morning we headed north in search of more snorkeling grounds. By mid-afternoon we were off Laughing Bird Cay, noted for excellent snorkling and diving, but the wind was too high and the seas too rough, so we carried on. Again weaving through the coral heads with one emergency u-turn with the depth sounder screaming, we picked up a mooring off Whippari Cay. We again hoped to go ashore for dinner, but were disappointed to learn that the resort was closed for work on a new dock. But we were welcome to go ashore to walk. But by now it was time for dinner. And we prepared a pesto/cream chicken with penne pasta. It was a big celebration, Bruce's 60th birthday, so we had a chocolate bar for dessert.
On Saturday morning we again went snorkeling and I finally got my underwater camera out. Although the water was cloudy, I shot to my hearts content and was surprised at how well some came out. On the way back to the dinghy I spotted a large conch, so after some very messy cleaning we had a late lunch of conch ceviche... excellent! We had planned to head back to Placencia so that Bruce and I could go diving on Sunday, but the exercise, heat and large lunch had their effect so that by mid-afternoon, all that could be heard on the boat was some gentle snoring.
Awake in time for sundowners, we watched yet another beautiful sunset and cleaned out the refrigerator with a shrimp pasta. And dessert was similar to previous evenings, fresh local fruit! Then this morning we reluctantly dropped the mooring and sailed back to Placencia, arriving in early afternoon.
Tonight will be dinner at deTatch, our favorite restaurant in Placencia. Tomorrow MacDonalds leave and we will have to decide our next plans. It looks like either Guatemala's Rio Dulce or Nicaragua's Bay Islands of Roatan, Guanaja and Utilla. As usual, weather will dictate which.