chuck brantley
06/05/2008, Cay Caulker

This is Joe trying toget a weather update from the local bar tender, Ha. I made im pose for this picture. Joe is a Boy Scout. i am continually amazed at the careing, smart and nice people I run into , although I am not sure how smart it is to sail a 35 foot hobie cat from Tulsa OK to his place in Honduras. After our night getting to Belize I think Joe may agree. Happy sailin Joe, I consider you a good friend.


I made it to belize. The jouney was epic for sure. The entrance to Ambergis was raging. Joe went in because he could not turn around. I was not sure I could fight6 my way back out but I made it. Came in about 15 miles farther south, backtraked to Cay Caulker and met up with joe

I got some stuff entern out of order so read the Punta Allen section again to ctatch up to here

Comments [1] | | More

chuck Brantley
05/31/2008, Punta Allen

A picture of the anchorage at punt allen during the storm

Sunday
Storm has passed. Still getting high winds 25 to 30. Hope we can jump one bay down about 20 miles or so on Tuesday. Pancake brekfast for dinner tonight

Currentley getting hammerd by Tropical Storm Arthur. Holding our own, Worst appears to be over

Comments [4] | | More

chuck brantley
05/30/2008, Dirt road town

Friday am
I will try to write down the passage as it happens. Left Isla threw the slot at 8 am or so. Current was running almost 4 knots at the narrowest part. Got outside and turned on the auto pilot. Ya Hoo it works. Set the main and Genoa and were off. Picking up some current slowing us down to 5 knots. Over the ground. Winds 15 to 20 out of the east . My heading is almost due south. Reach Punta Cancun and pass by about a ½ mile east of land. Turn more south. heading toward Punta Nizuc. Pass by Nisuc about 2 miles east of land. Doing about 6.5 I think a counter current is moving us along. Good motion . Eat breakfast I can see waves breaking on the reef just west of our position. GPS chart has a big hole in it. No info on depths. Just a red line that when you put the curser on it says danger line. We will stay east of that line. Looked at the chart and the red line are reefs. I set the depth alarm at 35 feet . Currently doing 6.2 with 60 feet of water under the boat. The Cat is trailing me about a ½ mile back. Still making contact with OTG back in Isla now about 12 miles away. All is well at 10 am. Seas are 1 to 3 feet. Guinness is watching Flying fish off of the port rail hoping to get lucky, he looks content as I am as well. The Cat has moved up and is a couple of hundred yards behind.
11 am A pod of dolphins came by . Guinness saw them first and ran forward. They were big dolphins. I thought he might jump in. Joe caught a 10 lb Wahoo .22 miles traveled so far
:12:15
Just south of Puerto Moralas and we are in the current. 6 over he water and 3.5 over the ground. Working are way toward the reef to get out of it. Joe caught a big Dorado and we hooked a small wahoo. Caught and released.. In 60 feet of water and we think we can see the current on he surface . White caps on the port side and none on the starboard. Moving closer to the reef
1:27 pm
Most of the opposing current is gone in 40 feet of water. Realy looks rough about a mile off the port side. Strong current out there for sure. Best to hug the reef right south of Puerto Moralas
1:43
Really hugging the reef south of point hut. Reef breaking 200ysrds off the starboard rail. 30 feet of water under the boat.. Current is lurking just east of the boat currently making 5.2 knots
7 pm
Hugged the coast all day. Had to dodge dive boats and jet skis. The coastline is packed with resorts. Managed to stay out of most of the opposing current. Just passed Purta Adventuras. ETA tp Punta allen is 4 am. Two trawlers passed us a hour or so then decided to double back to Adventuras. Too tempting I guess. Had to stop typing when my reel went off ,landed a 15 lb tuna, he is in the fridge. Almost dark, will be heading off shore soon. Kind of rough with swells coming from the side and rolling th boat.
9:30 pm I called Joe and told him I was going to catch some sleep. We agreed that he would call at 10:30 and then He would sleep. Slept a little but was at the helm at 10:30. Joe was off the port quarter. He has no running lights jut a mast light. Gave Joe a call t 11:30 and hit the sack. Slept well and was awake at 12:30. Joe went to bed. Very dark out, black, no moon. Wind and wave are increasing as they always seem to do at night. Joe awake at 1;30 me to bed. Woke up at 2;30 and can not see Joe's mast light. A few interesting moments contemplating this, What if Joe does not answer the radio? What would I do next? I make the call, Joe where are you? "Off your port side" I can not see you. " Oh I have my light off to conserve power"
2 30am
Winds kicked up around midnight and needed to reduce sail. Just a little jib out now. Immediate improvement. I was trying to keep the pace up for Joe because he was planning on continuing to Belize and arrive tomorrow night, We have slowed to 4 knots and Joe is thinking of hanging with me at punta allen and waiting for the weather to pass. We will arrive in the dark so we need to slow down to 2-3 knots and will arrive at sunup. l roanisland.us and joeroatan@yahoo.com

Getting quite rough. Dozing in the cockpit. Winds gusting to 30. Need to put a reef in the main but no way I am going on deck. Please chuck, always reef the main before dark. Storm is brewing behind us. Slowed to 3 knots so as to arrive at the entrance in the light. Need to lower the main as the squall approaches but I do not want to go on deck. Maybe no wind with this one. No luck first gust blows Perrovida 90 degrees off course. With the jib in the boat is out of balance and the gust swivels us around. Auto Pilot can not bring us back so off it goes. Hand steering as gust goes to 40 knots Put her in to the wind and go on deck to lower the main. For some reason she stays into the wind long enough for me to claw the main down. The halyard is really screwed up and I can not get the last 6 feet down. I have already pushed my luck and scamper back to the cockpit. Gust to 50 but no rain. Turn back on course which has the storm at our back 6 knots on almost bare pole. Getting everything back under control as it begins to get light. The entrance is a none event as it is 2 miles wide. Still very stressed as Joe's way point is different than mine. Go slow for a hour or so as we cross red lines on our GPS that say " Danger line" What ever. As we move into the bay we turn North and come in Behind Punta Allen. A local resort owner comes on frequency and answers some questions we are debating on the radio. I guess 71 is the hailing frequency here so the whole area heard us coming in. " This does not look right" " I cant see any breaking reef" " There are supposed to be breakings reefs on either side"" I am sure we were the local entertainment for the last couple of hours. We switched to channel 13. Moved as close to the dock as we could finally hitting bottom about a mile away. Moved into slightly deeper water and set the Dansforth. The Cat does likewise. Mount the outboard and run over to say hi to Joe, we are both elated and pumped up from the last 24 hour adventure. I run Guinness to the dock which is a walkway about 200 yards long running threw the mangroves to the open water.
Did not do any exploring but could see the beginnings of civilization where the mangrove ended.. Back to the boat for food and rest. Head in around 10 am and go in search of internet. We are defiantly way off the beaten path. The Dirt road town is quite run down but there are people about. Get directions to the internet place and mosey along. Find the place and ask about the internet. No problem is the answer " The power comes on at 11 am. The whole town runs off a generator that goes from 11am to 11 pm. Drank two beers then sent a e-mail to Diane to let her know all is well. Head back to boat and sleep til 4 pm. I clean the boat then go over to Joes boat and pick him up as we are dinning aboard Perrovida this pm. I have decided to try the tuna I caught. Cooked fish, ate fish and chatted the evening away. Took Joe back to his boat and it is pitch black out. We are the only boats out here for miles around. On the way over the water is glowing behind the prop. Lighting up as if I am being propelled by some type of underwater jet. Joe asked if I have some type of underwater light on. I look like I am rocket powered, cool. Get back to boat realize I need to take Guinness a shore. It is pitch black as we head the mile to the un lighted dock. We tie up and I realize the Palapa at the end of the dock has many people hanging in it. I resist the urge to shine a light on them, but feel a little weird as if I am intruding although I can see no one because it is so dark out. I say "Ola" and receive many replies. Back to the boat with my jet tail blazing behind, feeling pretty good, time for sleep

Thursday
A couple of squalls came threw last night. I was to tired to care. I could drag for 5 miles before going a ground. Felt like I was coming out of a coma as I became awake. Raise m Dipole antenna and make contact with the Waterway net and give my position. Alias N3UPL Do not find the NW net. Decide to try and dingy around the front side of Punta Allen where the town is located. Pick up Joe and head around. Soaking wet by the time we arrive a 3 or 4 mile ride the last part exposed to the wind and waves. Beach the dingy in front of the beach bar with internet. This little resort is pretty much deserted but the bar is open. We sit down and drink beers while we wait for the power to come on. The power comes on and we continue to drink beers. Guinness is getting in touch with his dog self and decides to dig in the sand under our bar stools. He undermines Joes stool and keeps digging. A few minutes later he is snoozing in the sand. There are a few house dogs around and are friendly. In the Bahamas and here in Mexico there are unruly dogs as well. They can be aggressive. They all kind of look the same. 35 lbs short brown hair, real scrappers. Mostly they stay on the periphery like the iguanas and crabs. Head over to the computers and check the weather. The bad stuff will be here tonight late and hang around for a few days. E-mail Diane and all is well at home. I miss not talking to her on skype. Only a few weeks till we are together again. Back to the bar for some Guacamole and chips. We decide to head back to our side of the bay and go dive on the sailboat wreck very near our boats. We got the skinny on this boat at the bar from the resort manager. The boat hit the reef coming in. Reportedly the Blue guide book leads many boats onto the reef. " The guide book I use" I dought this is true, more likely the captain screws up and blames it on the book. That's probley why the waypoint was different in my newer version as opposed to Joes older version. Both waypoints will work . The new waypoint might give a higher fudge factor. We came in using the old way point, the newer one is a little north. The opening in the reef looks to be over a mile wide at least. If you head right for Punta Allen from off shore you will hit the reef. Any way back to the wreck. I guess they got the boat off the reef pretty quickly and m moved it to the protected area we are in. When the captain learned the local officials were planning on fining him 20 grand he hit the road and left his boat. The boat survived at least one hurricane then just sank one day. It appears to be 30 foot Catalina type sail boat . Not a old boat maybe less than ten years old. We head over and Joe jumps in, Guinness jumps on top of him, bad dog. With Guinness back in the dingy I jump in. The boat is in good condition. Basically un touched except some one removed the engine " Just sank on day" The rest of the boat is there, winches , mast and all. The deck is just under the water. Joe starts going inside the boat . I watch and wait for him to return. To much silt to see him in there. Still no Joe and I start to worry. I look around and he has come out the bow hatch. We are excited as if we have found sunken treasure. By the time we get back to Perrovida we are water soaked prunes. The day is gone it is almost 7 pm. We study charts and I thaw some hamburger and cut up some potatoes and make hamburgers with French fries. I get Joe back to his boat before dark this time. Another good day and to sleep.
Friday
Many squalls during the night. Open and close the hatches many times. Still storming in the am Check on Joe as his boat has limited living space. Just a small space in each hull. He sleeps in a hammock on deck except when it rains. He has suggested I follow him to Roatan in Honduras and kick back at the Compound that he and his family own. Not sure if I will do that or not but it would keep me busy for the next couple of weeks. We did mark the location of the compound on a chart so maybe Diane and I will stop by at some point. Right now our plan is to head down south 20 miles to another bay. Maybe leave before everything has calmed down out there as it is only 20 miles. Then maybe Cayo Norte which is a off shore atoll another 30 miles or so then to Xcalak Mexico. From there it is a quick jump to Ambergris Cay then endless island hoping down to the compound in Honduras according to Joe who spent years searching the Caribbean for the perfect vacation Island

Comments [2] | | More