After a perfectly glorious sail down from Colson Cays we eased through the deep but narrow channel into Placencia's big anchorage and were immediately hailed by a passing dinghy. "Hey Madcap! Good to see you. Want to join us for dinner?" Now that's a welcome - a dinner invitation even before the anchor is down!

The folks in the dinghy were Barb and Bob (Tif Blue) and it was a treat to put a face to the name of the fellow we chatted with by VHF as we sailed overnight from Puerto Morales to San Pedro a few weeks ago.

Speaking of sailing, we had the most wonderful 2 days from Cucumber Beach to Colson Cays for a quiet overnight, and then on down to Placencia. We might have burned a litre of fuel in the whole 2 days. The wind was steadily E and ranged from 10 to 20kt, allowing us to travel with various configurations of sail on gentle seas in the most perfect of sailing conditions. At Colson, we dinghied around a bit, had a good swim and checked out a couple of pretty little coral heads. A seriously large motor yacht (never did see the name) was anchored off the south cay while we were off the north one, giving us company as well as privacy.

With the anchor well set (we have switched to the Bruce anchor) here in Placencia among 18 other boats we dinghied ashore to Yoli's thatched hut on the beach. We've heard of Yoli's from other cruisers and from the guidebooks and it lived up to its reputation as a friendly gathering spot for cruisers and the folks who came for a visit and never left. The beer was cold, conversations were easy and the breeze welcome. We chatted with many folks including Doug (Serendipity) and the following:

In yet another of those "small world" experiences that we continue to find, it turns out that Barb and Bob's good friends are Sydney and Dave (Hannah Bay) and Heidi and Cabot (Chewink). Cabot and Heidi are also friends of Sandi and Steve (Yonder). So, S&S, if your ears were twitching last evening, it's because we were all sending good wishes to you and missing you!

The Tif Blues, Chewinks and Hannah Bays introduced the Madcaps to Placencia in fine style. We found our way from Yoli's up the little dirt path, over the gravel pile and up the road to Omar's only to find it closed. A short discussion later, Bob led the way into Tommy's - the local Chinese restaurant next door. I never thought I'd be eating Chinese in Belize, but the chicken, pork, shrimp dishes with vegetables and rice were very good, very reasonably priced and kind of a nice change from our recent diet of ... well ... Belizean fish, vegetables and rice!

It was nearing 9 o'clock by the time we finished up and Bob insisted that we pay a visit to Tutti Fruitti - the "must visit" ice cream shop around the corner. In fact he was so worried that we might miss it that he asked our server to call ahead and ask if it would stay open until 8 of us hot footed it up the street to fill our "dessert stomachs". Sure enough - the gentleman stood waiting for us with scoop in hand and dished up cones and cups of cappuccino, coconut, lime, papaya, pistachio. Oh - bliss! (The pic is from our next visit - a scant 14 hours later!)

They headed off north on Saturday morning and we were sorry to say goodbye to them so soon but we know we'll meet up again as we sail these waters next season. After a SSB radio check in on the North West Caribbean Cruisers Net, we loaded up bags and bags of laundry and toted it ashore to Ther's house. Unfortunately we woke her up, but she happily agreed to have it clean and dry for us later this afternoon, leaving us free to explore this pretty and friendly town.

Flowers, friends, clean laundry, turquoise water - we're loving this country. You'd better Belize it!