Belize and on to Cuba

We had a great sail up to Belize and after arriving in Placencia checked in on Friday, 13 November, not a good day for departures, but it worked well for our arrival. As soon as we hit shore the harbour master, in his little hut on the dock, wanted our $$ for a cruising permit. We paid for two weeks $195 and should have paid for another day, as he had no change. We would have been saved a lot of pain a few weeks later ☺

We had two options as to check in, but as we had paid our cruising permit we decided to take the water taxi across the lagoon. It proved to be a fascinating day. The ride across was fun and then we met "Russell" our delightful Rasta taxi driver who stayed with us for the two hours it took us to go to Customs, Immigration and a couple of other places for paperwork. He only charged us $25 Belize, which is $12.50 US - the buy of the week. He drives during the day and runs his own restaurant at night we would highly recommend him. He dropped us off at a local restaurant so we could have some lunch before our return trip, yet again $20/$10 US for two fresh juices and tons of yummy food and we had been told Belize was expensive.

While we were having lunch the heavens opened, really opened, but thankfully there was a lull during our walk back to the water taxi although the puddles were huge. Crossing the lagoon was a laugh; there was a tarp that everyone huddled under as the heavens opened again. Luckily in this climate even if one gets wet, one does not get cold and we soon dried off.

Onto the next challenge - money. Well thankfully there are three banks in Placencia, although only one had a working ATM. We went into the bank and joined the long line up, as we needed US dollars for Cuba, having been told that we had to have CASH for Cuba. Remember it was a Friday and our plan was to leave on Sunday. After quite a wait we were told they had no dollars, so off to the next bank - only ten minutes away. They were happy to give us dollars, but they needed cash. So a quick walk back to the previous bank's ATM and a rush back to the dollar bank before it closed. That being said in Belize you are only allowed to cash $250 US per person per year. It sounded like we were going to have to be very careful during our month in Cuba.

We ended up staying in Placencia longer than planned as for two days it did not stop raining and the weather was not good for moving. However we really enjoyed our time there, it is a lovely town with a lot of character even when totally flooded. It was early in the season, so not many tourists and we had only two other boats out at the anchorage with us. We loved "Friends on the Pier" a great couple from Canada had just taken it over. They are the perfect place for cruisers, right off the dock with great coffee, food, wifi and laundry. We mentioned that we were going to the market to stock up and they kindly lent us their golf cart for a couple of hours, we love meeting such friendly people with big open hearts like that.

Our plans changed somewhat as we started to have problems with our ... generator. Yes again. So we headed up to Cucumber Marina just south of Belize via Wippari, Blue Ground and Long Cay. It was then the weekend so we headed to Cay Caulker having managed to book in a Kohler dealer for Tuesday (our two-year warranty ran out on the Wednesday). All the way we hardly saw another boat, although when we got to Cay Caulker (a popular spot) there were four other boats in the anchorage. We can understand why people like Cay Caulker with its funky, hippie charm and we met some fun locals and tourists who we spent an evening partying with.

The staff at Cucumber Marina could not have been more helpful, but it is not a place to spend time as the bugs half killed us. I have never suffered from bites like it and we covered ourselves with spray. They call it "Old Belize" and have a little museum, gift shop, restaurant and false beach/swimming area. Apparently there are people who come off the cruise ships who have never seen a beach before and love the place. There were four cruise ships out in the Bay and tourism is a big part of their economy.

The two Kohler guys were with us for over two hours before they found out that the problem with the generator was a loose wire at the very back of the machine - we are talking about a very cramped area, so we are lucky they found it and that we were up and running again. Our generator is very important to us as otherwise we have no water maker or cooking facilities. However, the cost of two nights at the marina (not cheap) was not in our budget.

There are not many places to check out of Belize and so we took the opportunity while we could. The three offices we had to visit were all over the city and we were advised to hire a driver for a couple of hours. Good idea as our Rasta friend was the best. Our driver for the morning sadly was a lot more expensive and it took four hours (we kept loosing her), it also did not help that we owed an extra $5 ($2.5 for an extra day on our permit) and they took over half an hour to find us in the system ☹ Belize City is not big, in fact the total population of Belize is very small with a lot of snowbirds who find the living easy; especially as English is the common language.

The highlight of our time in Belize were the Atolls, outside of the long reef that protects the coastline. At Turneffe we went ashore to the Lodge in the hopes of getting wifi. At $3000 per person per week it is very exclusive, it was lucky we arrived between guests and they let us use their office computer to send a quick update to family and get weather. Then there was Lighthouse, where we anchored off Half Moon Cay and went ashore to visit the bird sanctuary. What a treat as the Frigate birds were mating, the males puffing out their red chests and making an amazing noise, and where we saw red footed Boobies for the first time. This is where the famous blue hole is, a perfect round lake rimmed by living coral which is over 450 feet deep. The water depths around it average about 6 feet, and the hole shows that at one time the water level was at least 400 feet lower than it is today! Amazing.

The weather was good for us to move on, and as we were already checked out it was time to sail to Cuba. We ended up having to take two long tacks as the wind came from the NE and not the east, but on the whole it was a good trip; which took us four days. We had a bit of everything weather wise, but the highlight had to be Birdie Num Num (named after the film "The Party" with Peter Sellers).

We have had some interesting characters on board, but this little swallow was probably the smallest to date and he made up for his size in character. He was delightful. He hitched a ride a couple of days out of Cuba and within a few hours had made himself at home not only outside, but also inside of Ta-b where he checked out everything and often enjoyed talking to his friend in front of one of the mirrors. He also preferred to sleep inside, finding a little shelf for his bed and soon became quite tame.

When we arrived in Cuba we expected him to fly away, but he stayed with us and we were soon wondering whether we had a new pet on board. On that note I will end and update you in our next blog (probably from the Cayman Islands sometime in January) as to what happened.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year

The Salty Sailors