Ambegris Cay
24 February 2014 | Belize
The other day, the Port Authority lancha scoped out the Caye Caulker anchorage and picked up the captain of a blue sailboat. They took him ashore to go to the bank to pay his fine - for what, we never found out.
Yesterday, my guess is incorrect in assuming that they won't be back because it's Sunday and it's a catholic country. Well, they were back and were going boat to boat. When they got to Contento, their sweet little terrier went berserk and barked like crazy that drove the authorities away. When they got to our boat, they said, "you checked out already." I said, "yes, but the weather was bad and we couldn't get out. We'll try again tomorrow." They also asked if we already paid the port fees and I said, "yes." They then moved on to other boats.
Sooo, today, we left Caye Caulker for Ambegris Cay. We had the choice of backtracking to Long Cay then head north to Mexico or 10 miles of calm waters inside the reef. The catch is that it gets really shallow. A few cruisers believe we can make it through and gave us waypoints to follow and John (SV Contento) lead the way for us. Halfway through, even following the waypoints, we were in 6.7 ft. of water - then, we hit bottom, with a slight thump. We put the boat in neutral and as soon as we floated away from the shallow spot, kept on going. With Steve's creative maneuvering, we made it to Ambegris anchorage. There are about 15 other boats anchored with us in the rolly anchorage. The weather has calmed down a lot and it looks like we may even be able to get out tomorrow.
Let's all hold our breath.
Marie, Angel and Steve