01/28/2009, Belize
Belize was not just a destination, but a little vacation from cruising. We were so happy to have made it in the nick of time to welcome Kristen and Chris for a visit on the 20th! We anchored at the Cucumber Beach Marina at 11:05am and they arrived by taxi from the airport at 12:30! They were able to witness an actual entourage of Belizian officials come to our boat to get us checked into the country which took almost 2 hours! Port Captain, Immigration, Customs and the Health Department, $125.00 and lots of paperwork. It's actually the 1st time anyone has asked to see our immunization records and they wanted us to give them a list of general provisions we had on board and tell them our procedure for disposing of our garbage! The first couple of days we spent enjoying the white sand beach, tropical drinks and catching up. On Thursday we had an unusual good weather window to take a sail out to one of the outer reefs for a couple of days. Turneffe reef was a great little anchorage and our 1st experience of anchoring with only 2 feet below the keel! As luck would have it the 1st full day we really introduced the kids to "life on the hook in the rain". It rained on an off pretty much all day, but managed to get a dinghy excursion in and played dominos and watched movies. On Saturday it was still cloudy, but we were determined to get some snorkeling in on the 2nd largest barrier reef system in the world! Lots of beautiful coral heads and Elkhorn coral that resembled a ship wreck with a myriad of fish swimming all around. Pipe fish, parrot fish, puffer fish and some really big either hog or grouper fish! With the cloud cover the colors weren't the greatest but then again, Kristen had fun just swimming with the fish right off the stern of the boat. On Sunday we said adios to Terri & Lyman on "sans cles" as we headed back to Belize City to do some land based fun as they headed further out to Lighthouse reef. On our way back Kristen spotted a perfect tropical island with a sandy beach, palm trees and cobalt blue warm 80 degree water all around it, so we detoured, picked our way thru some coral and shallow water, anchored and spent time snorkeling! What a difference the sunshine makes and in the shallower water, the coral heads were very colorful and schools of tropical fish were everywhere! Kristen claims she was "one with the fishes" and swam with their gang! They caught sight of a few Barracudas and snatched a couple of conch shells from the bottom. A stop at Goff's Cay was a fabulous way to end their reef snorkeling experience. Once back at the marina the bugs found that "fresh, white blood" of the kids and provided their most uncomfortable souvenir bug bites from little "no see-ums" and mosquitoes. You know you're in trouble when the restaurant provides insect repellent and smoking coils while you dine! Monday we had arranged for a taxi driver to pick us up at 6:45AM and our full day excursion to the Mayan Ruins of Lamanai. He took us to a "typical rural Belizian district of Orange Walk Town where we had chicken tacos for breakfast (3 for $1.00) then took a 75 minute river boat ride to the ruins. Great entertainment provided by the cute little spider monkeys and tons of unusual birds and even a few bats. We kept a watchful eye out for the crocodiles, but because it was raining they were tucked warm and dry in their hiding places. The Mayan ruins were awesome! 5 temples towered about the ground, one of which was 33 meters high with tall steps. Even in the rain and against the guide's recommendations, Kristen and Chris climbed to the top to capture the full experience of looking out over the rainforest canopy and the communities below, just as the rulers and kings did centuries ago. In fact Lamanai is known to be the longest occupied Mayan community in the world, dating construction back to 200 B.C. and evidence of Mayans occupying the grounds into the 1500's, when the Spanish arrived. What a day only to be topped off with a typical Belizian feast of stewed chicken, rice & beans, coleslaw and potato salad that was absolutely delicious. Needless to say the next morning was pretty slow moving but a visit to the Belize City Zoo was really cool, Jaguars, crocodiles, Tapir, native snakes and so much more, all in their natural, rainforest habitat. We played tourist on their last day, doing a little shopping at the "tourist village" where the cruise ship visitors go, meeting some local artisan's and having dinner on "Birds Isle" at sunset. Our final stop was at the City of Belize's Firehouse! Not your typical stop on the city tour but one both Kristen and Chris really enjoyed, getting to chat and climb on their big red engines. Their 9 days seemed to come to an end too quickly as most vacations do, but we are so lucky to have spent such a good time with them both! We miss them already! And look forward to perhaps their visit in Maine if not before!
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01/19/2009, Between Roatan & Belize
We FINALLY got the go ahead and a weather window that we could live with! Sunday was a very rainy day on and off, so it's a good thing we didn't leave that day. Today, Monday was our last ditch day, as Kristen & Chris arrive Tuesday in Belize City and we sure want to be there, so they don't have to camp on the dock! We left in mostly sunny skies and a nice breeze for setting the asymetric sail and cruising right along at 5-6 knots. That lasted all of 35 minutes, when we rounded the West corner of Roatan when we needed to head more northerly and discovered what everybody was talking about...Winds picked up to 15 knots (great for sailing) but the seas had settled to ONLY 7-9 ft swells. Doesn't sound too bad , a bit choppy at first but they were pretty close together and fortunately they were forward of our beem, so we could sort of cut right thru them. We have some awesome pictures of Triple Stars handling these swells like a sailing bulldozer! Thanks to Terri on sans cles who really captured some of the views of us just plowing thru those 8 ft seas! When we get to Cancun and have good internet I promise to get them up on the blog. (We changed computers in Belize, so I didn't have them available to me to get them up sooner) . Needless to say we made great time until about 4:30 that afternoon, when the wind clocked around to our nose and died...So on went the motor, motored thru the night and dropped anchor outside the Cucumber Beach Marina at 11:05am... Not a moment too soon, as Kristen & Chris arrived by taxi from the airport to the Marina at 12:30!!!!!
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01/15/2009, French Harbour, Roatan
We arrived in French Harbor after only 2 hours time...Not bad for leaving in party sunny skies, to getting thru 2 little rain squalls and very cloudy skies. We hung out in front of the entrance to the harbor for about 20 minutes or so, awaiting a break in the clouds and the drizzle to pass to shine little daylight so we could see some of the shallows and reefs we were needing to steer clear of to get into the harbor. Their buoy markers should be just a tiny bit bigger, as the white one you keep to your port and the black post in the water you keep to your starboard are only about 3 feet out of the water...and then there is a rock head that just breaks the surface that's past the black post that you need to keep to your starboard, but then make a "sweeping turn" to get into the channel..... Oh yea...you'll need to head on a diagonal to the island watching for the shallow spot that lies ahead of you....See why it's so important to have good light! But with some direction from Jay on Jupiter Smile (another IP packeteer) and Jan on the bow and Rob following his route and waypoints on the chart plotter, we made it in safe and sound. We anchored in 20 feet of grassy sand but it stuck pretty well. While we were one of only 6 boats now in the anchorage...in the next 24 hrs we are amongst 24 boats anchored here to await the "nasty, abominable " squally weather that has been forecasted from the Yucatan Peninsula, thru Belize and into the Honduras, Bay Islands (which is where we are)! While overcast and showery for the past 4 days...It really hasn't been all that bad here in the anchorage. We arrived on Monday, Tuesday just stayed aboard sitting thru some squally weather and Wednesday with some periods of sunny sky, went to provision in the morning...WELL...by the time we got to the store, the rain started, and in an hour or so, we were loaded to the gills, got the stuff in the dinghy and in rain and choppy seas, spilling over the bow with every wave, made our way back to Triple Stars! What a nasty trip! Thursday brought some pretty awesome weather sights.. By 10am we had seen 2 different funnel clouds and 2 different swirly surface rain bursts travel along the sky. One funnel cloud even was sucked down into the swirling water on the ocean's surface. The energy within those systems were pretty intense. We were sure glad we didn't take off that day! But the rest of the day was pretty cloudy and little periods of showers. Friday, we decided to check out in Coxen's Hole, still waiting for all of this "foul" weather to either come or pass us by! While we only saw sun for a few brief moments, we have just had cloudy weather. We even followed the leads of many of the local cruisers here in the anchorage and put out our secondary, storm anchor, in ANTICIPATION or preparation of the 35+ knots squalls that were forecasted for the area. 1 boat did drag, but other than that we seem to be very secure but still alittle freaked about all the "pending nasty stuff" that is still be forecasted. So stay tuned...we hope to leave on Sunday, but if weather is not good we may have to wait until Monday....Kristen & Chris arrive Tuesday at 11:30am so....only time/weather will tell...
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