Despite being overused, this slogan really is a good one. We have to pinch ourselves to believe that we really did it. We really sailed Madcap all the way to Belize! We really are below 18 degrees latitude! You’d better Belize it indeed!!

It seemed a long trip from Puerto Morales – all day, all night and then pushing just as hard as we could to try to make San Pedro before dark on the second day. The wind was E 15 – 20 much of the time and the seas were regularly 4-6 feet with enough 8 footers and chop to keep my stomach off kilter most of the way. We passed Cozumel – barely visible in the haze, and we took pictures of Tulum as we passed by outside the reef, imagining it as it would have been in A.D. 1200 – 1450 with cayugas plying these waters. We really couldn’t see it very well and will have to take a land trip another time.

We weren’t sure we could make the distance in 36 hours and had a few alternatives in mind. We could stop at Chinchorro Bank for a few hours sleep, but we were going by there in the morning and it didn’t feel like a good time to stop. We could go in to Xcalak, (still in Mexico) but the entrance is tricky and by then we thought there was a chance of making San Pedro. If it was dark when we got there, we could go on to the shipping channel into Belize city, 30 miles farther south and not appealing – but doable after dark.

The night was a lovely bright and starry one and we seemed to be sailing straight into the Southern Cross – shining brightly in the sky ahead of us. One cruise ship crossed well ahead of us and I chatted with Bob on Captain Action as he overtook us. Other than that, we were alone out there. While I cannot say either of us minds that, it is still an eerie feeling to be alone out there on the sea, rolling up and down over the crests and into the troughs of the waves in this little boat, trusting that it and our own abilities and whatever spiritual presence we each believe in will get us safely where we are going.

The sun, wind and patron saints of sailors were with us, and after 12 hours of roaring with engine and sails pushing hard, we reached the waypoint off San Pedro at 1700 hours and prepared ourselves to enter the cut. This whole business of going through cuts in the reefs where we can’t see any land to avoid – just frothing waves – and relying on waypoints we’ve entered into the chart plotter because the electronic charts are useless in terms of detail, is a new act of faith for us. Long time cruisers have lots of memories of using sketch charts, waypoints gleaned from other cruisers, and their own eyesight, but it is relatively new to us. As we approached the break in the reef though, we told each other that it would be no worse than going into Rogue’s Roost in Nova Scotia, and it wasn’t – except that the dangers are all under water. There is a yellow buoy in the middle of the entrance, the water froths well on the reef and it was pretty easy to see where to go. The trick here is that we have to make a dog leg turn in the middle of the entrance to avoid a bar just inside the reef, but the waypoints and bearings are all laid out in Freya’s book (and Bruce’s confirmed them). Jim kept watch; I handled the helm. We passed between the buoy and the reef, made the turn and picked up a bearing on the telephone tower, eased our way along inside the reef in 7 – 8 foot depths, dropped the anchor and exhaled!

Sandi and Steve came down straight from Isla Mujeres so they were already here and it wasn’t long before we had the dinghy in the water and were on board Yonder to celebrate the arrival of our foursome in this beautiful place. We watched the sun go down, marveled at the azure of the water, toasted our safe passages, and dined on Steve’s yummy pasta before falling exhausted into our beds by 8 o’clock.

It is very good to be here.