The dates of these recent 4 or 5 entries are a little wonky as I have tried to keep them in some kind of sequential order even though there is a significant delay in their posting.

After Christmas, we continued to enjoy all the things we like about Placencia – Above Grounds Coffee shop with friendly people, coffee and baked goods, delicious gelato at the Tutti Fruitti, great food at a variety of restaurants, walks along the sidewalk, and good friends in the harbour to share it all with.

John (Angela G) spent most of one morning climbing in and out of our stern locker as he attempted to repair our SSB radio that still receives well enough but doesn’t allow us to transmit beyond the immediate area. He found a corroded wire inside the tuner and fixed it. We keep doing things in segments – new coax cable in Rio Dulce, tuned up tuner in Placencia, examination of ground plane in Bluefield Range. We may find a fix, or, as John suspects, that corroded wire caused more malfunction in the tuner. After the morning’s work, we found Angie ashore and together we enjoyed the Sunday BBQ at Yoli’s – great ribs and chicken and pork chops an inch thick.

We kept laughing with Uli and Thomas as we shared not one but two “last evenings” with them. On Monday, we visited Toriba for sundowners (Thomas’ Gin and Tonics that appeared with just the click of our fingers!) followed by dinner at the Galley – a local fare place beside the soccer field. We just had too much to do the following day to get away when we planned, so we invited them over to Madcap for Rum Punches and made a reservation at Rumfish that evening.. It was the first time we have eaten there and I can’t imagine why – except that it is one of the pricier Placencia restaurants. But it is SO worth it to find such delicious and creative food. We started with lionfish sashimi. I had Pescaro Puttanesca (grilled fish atop a plate of pasta with olives and capers and all those good things.) Jim and Thomas both had super tender pork chops served with vegetables, and Uli declared her spicy Caribbean seafood to be perfect.

Uli and Thomas have been such good friends to spend these last days with. I knew when Uli and I had a heart to heart talk on the steps of the Belize Telephone Company that she “got it”. Sometimes it is hard to put into words how one thing just doesn’t feel right, and something else does – and it takes a special person to hear what is beneath the words. That is something we have found throughout this whole cruising adventure – special friends in all the right places. Friends to play with, friends to help us, friends to listen, friends for a short time, and friends for a long time.

And so, on Jan 2, we finally sailed out of Placencia harbour, bound not for the Bay Islands, but for Pelican Cays to snorkel and relax for a few days.