Kicking Back in the Cays, Tobacco Range, Belize, Wed, Feb 12/13, #33

We stayed very happily tucked into Tobacco Range for a couple of days. These are mangrove cays and Liam spent many hours in the dinghy. He and Jim took their spinning rods out on a couple of trips, and I went with him to steer the dinghy while he did some fly fishing along the edges. Unfortunately none of these trips resulted in dinner. Liam caught another barracuda but lost it as he simultaneously tried to lift it aboard and keep the dinghy out of the mangroves. Jim had the fascinating experience of catching a frigate bird! The birds were circling overhead, apparently attracted to the lures, and suddenly one swooped down, picked up the lure (and hook) and flew skyward again. Imagine the eyes on the guys as they watched the line going upward instead of outward! Fortunately, as Jim recovered from the shock and started reeling in the line, the bird decided this metal thing wasn't tasty and dropped it before the hook could do any damage. No fish, but a great story from that adventure!

Also on the fishing theme, Liam has started making stylish beer can lures, and pretty fluffy ones from the yellow ribbon and various beads I had onboard. He has caught a couple of fish on the beercans (not keepers though) and lost a huge fish that shredded the ribbon and made off with the big hook on a fluffy one.

While all this fishing was going on, I did laundry in the galley sink, and dried it on the lifelines in about half an hour. Over the next couple of days we all accomplished boat jobs: fridge cleaning, floor washing, tool organizing, screw tightening, light rewiring, swimming (and successfully diving for dropped wrenches) and scrabble playing. We strung up our Guatemala hammock on the foredeck and it proved to be a pleasant napping spot too. The Fisheries fellows came by again but when we told them we had planned to go to Glovers but were still here because of weather, they said they wouldn't charge us again. Very nice of them!

We were surprised that no other boats came in to join us in this pretty and protected anchorage where the wind blew all around us but we enjoyed calm waters. It's a good spot.