We motor sailed north to Sapodilla Lagoon - a safe anchorage for the expected cold front due this week. We had heard other cruisers mention this spot but had never been in, and for some reason I had it in my mind that it was too shallow for us. Not so.

This is a lovely lagoon - and extremely well protected from wind from any direction. The fact that it is part of the mainland also makes it a really safe spot - with road access in case of emergencies. The waypoint in Freya Rauscher's book is just north of the entrance so we dropped our mainsail there and pointed the bow toward the shoreline. The book said to take a bead on Victoria peak on land, but there was a huge amount of smoke billowing around and obscuring the hills so that didn't work. Fortunately she also gave a bearing to follow - in this case, we steered a course of 268 degrees true until we passed the brown bar stretching from the point on the right, then turned to starboard and followed another bearing (325 degrees true) to take us past the bar on the port side. In the right light, these bars are easy to see too. The experience reminded me of earlier explorers making their way into new harbours. What did they do when their landmarks were obscured by smoke or cloud?

Once inside it was easy to follow the well-marked channel to find a good spot. Our friends on Scott Free and Emerald Seas were already there, along with two other boats, and we joined the line of deeper draft boats on the right of the channel. This is a large bay with a picturesque little island in the middle, and although much of it is shallow, there is room for quite a number of boats, especially shallow draft vessels. By the time the winds came, there were 9 of us here, with room for more.

We ended up spending 5 nights here - we got in a day before the front came through because we wanted to make sure we got a spot, and we stayed a day longer than was absolutely necessary because we saw no reason to bash against wind and waves to get back to Placencia when we could have a more enjoyable trip the next day. And it proved to be an excellent spot to stay out of the wind. While reports were of 2 and 3 foot seas outside and we registered 25 knot winds at the top of the mast, the boat hardly moved.

So what's Sapodilla Lagoon like? What did we do there?

We joined Scott Free and Emerald Seas on a dinghy exploration of mangrove-lined Cabbage Haul Creek that runs off the lagoon at the southern end. I bet an early morning trip would have been a better time for bird watching, but we did see some egrets and small herons fly away as we approached, and we had a great time slaloming through one section on the way back out.

On another day, Jim and I dinghied up the little creek heading north near our boat - and as Jim reported to the others, "We went along farther than it was passable!" Indeed, it was very overgrown and narrow in spots, and I was continually fending off the mangrove branches over our heads as Jim kept the outboard from getting caught in underwater roots. Those of you who know us will be able to picture me saying, "Just a little farther!" while Jim muttered under his breath and finally said, "Enough!" Truly it was far enough with an outboard - but it would be delightful in a kayak - and I know there is another lagoon in there somewhere waiting to be discovered.

A huge marina/housing development is experiencing on-again/off-again progress inland on the west side. The only really visible signs from the anchorage are the red and green navigational buoys through the lagoon and the red mud of the dredged entrance into the development. Of course, it begged for exploration as well.

Once through that channel, the unfinished marina is on the left. Large, solid docks with dozens of slips await completion. Some have cleats; a water tap is functional; fuel tanks are in the ground but not full. A security guard and dog are on duty all the time and we found them to be welcoming. We bought water, as did a few of the other boats and we were amused that the price fluctuated according to who was on duty. Madcap Jim paid Benjamin the most at 25 cents per gallon, while Emerald Seas Jim paid Louis 6 cents and we heard that someone else paid another guy 10. It would be worth negotiating! There is good deep water at the docks, so while the two Jims fetched water in jerry cans, Scott and Heather pulled the big boat right up to the long dock to fill their tanks.

A canal leads off to the right through the housing lots, past 4 or 5 completed houses (with airy centre structures with rooftop palapas and wings off to each side - one even with a "boatport" instead of a carport), and around to the beach area. A whole group of us pulled dinghies up on the edge of the canal to have a look at the pool, palapas and beach one day, and on another day Jim and I walked with Peter and Mary (Rendezvous) all the way along the mud-red road from the marina. This beach area fronts on the sea outside Sapodilla Lagoon and is picture perfect beautiful. The large sandy area below shady trees was groomed (we saw workers with rakes, and little tractors and wagons hauling away the kelp that washed up along the shore) and a half dozen people were enjoying the pool and lounge chairs. A well-designed and constructed (but empty) bar, and a closed restaurant were encircled by attractive plantings. Farther down the beach, we found several high-end tents on concrete platforms - "hotel rooms" maybe? Check out www.belizesanctuary.com for more information. (I also found a number of other sites with comments about the place. It is so lovely and there is such a good start, I do hope something continues to happen there.)

We chatted on our second trip with Bonifacio, the security guard, who was also very welcoming but who had few answers about when the place might be really open, and Jim struck up a conversation with a property owner who didn't have much more information but who said, "Come back any time." When we got back to the marina, both the tour boat that brings prospective guests/buyers to have a look, and the impressive motor yacht, Mariah, were at the dock and "Mr. Gordon" hailed us to ask how we liked the development. While he was probably a little disappointed that we hadn't been on the tour, he did agree that the sooner the marina gets open, the better. The whole place is a wonderful hurricane hole, but the dock would offer even more protection along with services to visiting cruisers.

There appears to be a bit of a "history" around the development with some bills unpaid and management changes so who knows what will really happen here.

Whatever happens to the development itself, the lagoon remains a lovely spot to spend an overnight or a few days - and you don't even have to wait for the excuse of a cold front to go there.