Friends, Valentines and a Birthday, Bluefield Range, Feb 17, 2013, #34

We left Tobacco Range on Wednesday - after a wonderful surprise conversation with Mary (Strathspey) in the Bahamas on the SSB - headed back for South Water Cay and the possibility of another try for Glover's Reef. We weren't really too surprised to see that the seas were still up, so we settled in at South Water for another day and night, and with the forecast of a norther coming through on Saturday we started debating the wisdom of going over at all.

In the wonderful way that things happen when we simply let them, we got a call on the VHF from Tif Blue, saying they had left Placencia and were on their way in our direction. While the sun was high, Jim and I dinghied over to nearby Carrie Bow Cay to do some snorkeling, and found that it's a good spot. We were somewhat disappointed with the snorkeling at Tobacco Cay so we were happy to see some big, colourful fish here. The coral wasn't as pretty, but the fish were fine. After a couple of stops we headed back to Madcap, only to discover a dinghy headed our way - with Barb, Bob and "the brute" as Bob called our beloved son! We turned around and went back for a third go at the coral heads. There were some lovely stoplight parrotfish, wrasses, angelfish (the grey ones have pretty blue lips) along with the usual but always pretty french grunts and sergeant majors. We spotted a few big sea cucumbers and huge thorny sea urchins, and Barb saw a lobster. I spotted a barracuda hovering a few feet ahead of me and was surprised by a ray gliding by. I love to see the fish staying absolutely still in front of a piece of fan coral or against a chunk of brain coral as if they believe that the big white creature hovering above them can't see them there.

We eventually made our way back to the boats, and enjoyed a pasta dinner as the sun went down. It felt good to start the day by talking with friends in the Bahamas, and end it with friends in Belize.

Even though Thursday would probably have worked to motorsail over to Glover's Reef, and Tif Blue was thinking about Turneffe, we were in "friend mode" and decided to go together to Garbutt Cay to celebrate Valentine's day and Jim's birthday. What a pretty little anchorage it was, too. Tif Blue hardly had the anchor down before Harry came by to welcome them and ask if they wanted lobster. By the time we got there, he was coming back around the corner in his little fiberglass cayuco with lobster tails and conch. This charming man told us about his island - he is Harrison (Harry) Garbutt, the mayor and contact person of this group of cayes - and said we should let him know if we need anything. He feels responsible for our wellbeing. Isn't it nice to run into someone like that? He and Liam went off to check out fishing spots but returned with only a Spanish mackerel they bought from another fisherman (they tossed back a 6 inch barracuda) and some stories. To our dismay, Harry said the frigate mackerel Liam caught and threw back the other day would have been great eating. Next time we'll try it. We paid him a few dollars, a beer and a book and felt we got great value. Apparently many fishermen pay big bucks to come and fish in these flats. We celebrated Jim's birthday with good food and gifts: I found a couple of flowered shirts at the goodwill shop in Placencia (Yes Leila, they are still his trademark!), Liam bought a sack full of lures, and Barb drew a great picture of Madcap. For dinner, Tif Blue contributed garlicky lobster, and cole slaw; I made Cajun rice and a chocolate chip cake, complete with candles that he had to blow out before the wind did, and we all celebrated in fine style. For the first time in many days we had spotty cell phone coverage and were able to make a couple of calls before the frequent dropped connections made us give it up.

By one o'clock on Friday, we were all underway once more. The northwest wind was coming up and we headed for Colson Cay, tacking back and forth through the wide-open Inner Channel and anchoring on the west side. Dinner that night was grilled mackerel with conch salad and rice - oh so good - shared with Tif Blue. Bob and Liam have been having a good time entertaining us with Bob's guitar, and we have enjoyed introducing them to some of our wonderful Canadian musicians. David Myles great song, "When it Comes My Turn" is an all round favourite.

The wind didn't seem too awfully bad that night, but it was enough to dislodge our plow anchor from the grassy bottom and we dragged, held and dragged again shortly after 5 am. Once the sky lightened enough, we moved into the passage between the cays for a bit, but because of the forecast of strong NW winds, we moved on up to Bluefield Range to have better protection. It was a rollicking ride up, with every bit of Madcap (and crew) getting well and truly salty. This is a good all weather anchorage though, and while we strained and thrashed on the anchor, it held well in 28 - 30 kt winds ranging from NW to NE.

Our current "written in sand at low tide" plan is to try for Turneffe Atoll tomorrow (Monday). After a couple of days there we'll head back to Placencia to reprovision, reconnect and check out of Belize. Then we'll try once more for Glover's Reef on the way to Roatan - one of the bay islands off Honduras.

We haven't had internet connections since we left Placencia on Feb 8 and we have just now decided to try making remote blog postings using Jim's sailmail program on SSB. Hope it works! We also hope you haven't worried - we are all doing just fine and are really enjoying exploring these cays along Belize's gorgeous reef.