Pelican Cayes are - a unique spot amongst a cluster of about 10 small mangroves. The pilot book mentions 2 entry passages - an inner channel and southern channel. With our keel up we entered via the Inner Channel with no problems.

Once inside Pelican Caye it is SO deep, it was great to take up a buoy, and not have to tie to the mangroves. I VHF radioed ashore to the buoys owners and explained that we had had a long day and would come ashore to meet them tomorrow - the Active Captain info says that the mooring are 'free' if you go ashore for drinks and a meal. We were all alone on a beautiful, quiet and calm night.

Thursday 11 May Pelican Caye - on a buoy off the now named Hideaway Caye - the pilot book calls it North West Caye - all a bit confusing.

We saw dolphin and manatee swimming around the boat. We had a dingy explore ride around the maze of mangroves in the early afternoon- lots of large orange starfish in the water - no snorkelling.

A charter cat with 4 men onboard came to take up a buoy about 3.30pm. At 4pm we went into the dock at Hideaway Caye and met the owners Dustin and Kim and their little 4 year old daughter for a few afternoon drinks and a chat. Their home, bar and restaurant and small Airbnb cabana are built among the mangroves perched high on pilings. Dustin and Kim have built themselves this 'hideaway' - their business model and lifestyle is interesting - the rum cocktails were good too. We paid for our drinks, but were not charged for the mooring ball for the 2 nights - thanks guys!

A beautiful, quiet night with a beautiful full moon.

The charter guys went into the restaurant for dinner after we had left, so they had some income from them.


RANGUANA CAYE. We spotted the tall grove of palm trees from far off, and a wonderful pod of dolphins guided us in. Excellent afternoon snorkelling- saw spotted ray, black ray, moray eel - loads of fish and lovely soft and hard corals with lots of colour.

Ranguana is a day-play island - everyone left on a speedboat at around 3pm, and then the pelicans came to swoop and catch fish - great to watch. 2 other charter cats arrived in the late afternoon. On our dingy explore around we noticed serious erosion on the little Caye, with walls of sandbags on the southern shore. We were on a mooring ball for the day and night - nice for a change, and no charge.

Thursday 18 May - We departed Ranguana Caye, heading to North Long Coco Caye after the 7am SSB weather forecast was finished we headed north/west - motoring into a 10-13k northerly - making the sea have a short, sharp chop - but the journey was very beautiful indeed, passing by several small cayes between us and the 100 fathom line. From a distance all these little cayes looked picture-postcard perfect. With names like Pompion, Queen, Hatchet, Spider and Buttonwood - how anyone has identified and named all there 1000's of cayes is amazing.

We were mostly in deep blue water, but at times depth changed from 20 to 4 meters in an instant. We passed through several 'rivers' of light water - just SO MANY water and sky colours - Belize will always be my memory of the myriad of blue!

We needed to pass through the Funk Cayes - easily could have been renamed F??k Cayes as the pass was shallow and narrow!

Finally we identified North Long Coco Caye and its little idyllic neighbour Rendezvous Caye. From a binocular inspection sadly Rendezvous has some housing development and a concrete retaining wall built all around it - but this development is now unfinished and sitting ugly and idle.


North Long Coco Caye on the other hand has no housing development - just 2 thatched on-stilt seating areas are at the far northern end - very South Pacific-like.

This little Caye is also a day-play Caye - but thankfully no one was about, and we were all alone. A very quiet night, with little breeze - all alone - anchored off this lovely looking island. No afternoon snorkelling, but hiding from the hot sun down below reading, listening to music and writing etc.

Friday 19 May Just after breakfast we went off exploring around the Caye and Rendezvous - nothing below the water looked like exploring. We had a short, drifting sail from North Long Coco Caye, we are now heading south so a nice northerly breeze helped us along. Getting into South Long Coco Caye was a challenge as we had to cross a very shallow coral bar between South Long Coco and the northern small Cary Caye - lots of dodging and weaving with James on the bow. In the afternoon we watched a charter boat doing the same entry - yes they had a bow lookout and were weaving around too.

The pilot book description of this Caye is now sadly incorrect due to the total destruction of the Caye land and trees in preparation for a development that has obviously never happened. Spotted a lone dolphin wandering around near the boat in the afternoon.

Saturday 20 May- Strong NE winds overnight - but as usual they dropped around 3am to a hot, still early morning.

Just as we were about to leave the boat we had a local visitor! This man - apparently the island caretaker visited all 3 anchored yachts trying to sell coconuts (please). James spoke with him, no we didn't want or need the coconuts - and then he asked for a can of drink. James looking into his very makeshift, leaking canoe and noticed that he had been successful at the other 2 boats with a bottle of red wine and a can of beer - so our can of coke, which is what he asked for, added to his liquid refreshments for the day.

We found very good snorkelling off the northern end of the Caye - loads of fish we have found is a good sign for how the rest of the area will be. Lots of bright soft and hard corals is shallow water. We explored the western shore - saw many huge starfish- the largest I have ever seen. We came across a sleeping grey nurse shark, and several live conch.

Quite afternoon onboard hiding for the hot afternoon sun.

Sunday 21 May - South Long Coco Cay back to Placencia. Great downwind sail. Passed over a deep blue hole and saw the depth change from 4m to 20m in an instant. Arrived back in Placencia mid-afternoon as the sailing kids were having a race - great to watch them rounding the buoys! Hung-out on boat in the breeze for the afternoon and evening.