We motored up to New Haven the next day and stayed there a couple of days and then stopped in Monkey Bay for a night before heading to Placencia. Lequesteau caught up to us and we anchored together in Placencia. We rented a golf cart one day and drove around the peninsula of Placencia. We had to stop along with a line of cars and golf carts, at the airport to let a plane take off over the road which passes at the end of the runway. After getting oriented to the town and making the requisite visits to the grocery and the local boaters' watering hole, Yoli's, we headed out of Placencia on 1/17 and headed to Sapodilla Lagoon with Lequesteau and Livin' Life.
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| New Haven anchorage |
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| Lagniappe peacefully anchored in New Haven |
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Greg, Greig and me in the golf cart in Placencia
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| Waiting for the plane to fly over the road so we can head to the north end of Placencia peninsula. |
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| A lady selling her crafts on the beach at a little place we stopped for brunch |
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| One of the beautiful carved doors in Placencia |
1/17/2019 Anchor up at 0844 and we motored out of Placencia. The winds were against us (as usual) and we motorsailed into 15 knot winds at 2200 rpm, making only 4.5 to 5 knots. At 1130 we had to pass forward of Ebijmar who was tacking across the way and we seemed to be having a hard time getting by them. The boat seemed sluggish and it took forever to get across their bow. I went down below after we finally passed them and found the floorboards floating!!!! I guess a boat full of water does move a bit more slowly!!! Anyway, I opened the engine compartment and a hose was spewing seawater all over the place. After Greg went below to determine where the water was coming from, we shut down the engine, got out the emergency bilge pump handle and started pumping. The electric bilge pump was running but we never heard it over the engine noise. It wasn't putting out much water and we figured out the suction valve on it had failed (it was old). We turned the electric bilge pump off and tacked the boat so we could sail while I pumped using the manual bilge pump and steered the boat. Greg figured out the hose clamp had broken on the hose to the lube oil cooler and was letting water go all over the engine compartment and into the bilge. Fortunately, the engine did not overheat and he was able to replace the hose clamp and re-start the engine within about 40 minutes. I had pumped all the water out and we got under way with engine and sails again. We made it to Sapodilla Lagoon, got through the tricky entrance, and were anchored by 1420. We had to take out our air conditioning ductwork and throw it away because it had gotten soaked in the flood. And the propane detector that Greg had just installed during the summer was also ruined as the sensor was in the bilge and got soaked. Greg took apart the inverter once we got anchored because it had gotten wet too. After letting it dry for a couple of days, he tried to get it going but no luck. Fortunately, our friend, Dave on Livin' Life was going home to the States for a few days and agreed to carry a new one back for us. A great savings, as shipping and duty would have made getting a new one nearly impossible. We found one on Amazon just like our (2 year) old one and ordered it to be sent to Dave's mom's house. Man, the hoops you jump through to get stuff on a boat! Another exciting day aboard Lagniappe.
Sapodilla Lagoon is very protected and we rode out several fronts there. We took dinghy trips down the mangrove channel and found the Beach Club at The Reserve. They were quite welcoming to cruisers and we made friends with a couple that live in The Reserve and found out their last name is Mulvania. We are related back there somewhere in our Irish ancestry. We enjoyed some time in the Beach Club pool and spent days fixing stuff on the boat, doing laundry, and reading.
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| Following Dave and Janice down the mangrove channel at Sapodilla Lagoon to the Beach Club Resort |
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| One of the fancy homes in The Reserve at Sapodilla Lagoon |
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| Yurt on the beach for rent at the resort |
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| The beautiful pool at the Beach Club |
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| Even a hammock in the pool! |
We have realized that Belize has many beautiful anchorages among the islands and mangrove bays but they are not marked and sailing here requires a lot of visual piloting skills (reading the water with sun over your shoulder and not too choppy of a sea), waypoints from the Rauscher guide, and from other trusted sailors and no wind-against-tide in the passes. Cloudy days where we can't read the water, choppy seas around the islands or the entrance of a channel, means we aren't going anywhere that we haven't been and don't have tracks on our chart plotter going in/out. It was hard for us to get going on our sailing adventures here for the first month as we were afraid of running aground on the many reefs and shallow areas and were always searching for a protected anchorage from the fronts coming through from January through March. But it has honed our skills and taught us that an overabundance of caution, while not always providing us with exciting travels, at least keeps us safe and on the water for another day.
1/23/2019 After a week in Sapodilla Lagoon, we got a break in the weather and decided to make our way up to Cay Calker in northern Belize. We stopped the first night at Garbutt Cay where we anchored in 18 feet of water. When we tried to shut down the engine, it wouldn't turn off. Greg had to shut it down manually and then figured out the fuel cutoff solenoid had gotten wet and corroded with the hose incident and he cleaned it up and got it working again.
The next day we were able to sail to Middle Long Cay and the following day we set out for Cay Calker. We sailed up to the main ship channel and then motored out of the inner channel to the outside of the reef. We were pinching too hard on the rhumb line for our course so we fell off and raised the jib which we had lowered while in the channel. The wind kept coming more to the north so we finally had to drop the jib and motorsail to Long Cay Pass. This is another tricky entrance where you need good waypoints and calm seas not to run aground. We had good info from a friend who had recently gone in and we motored into the pass using his waypoints and headed up to Cay Calker. The only other obstacles the rest of the way were numerous stakes randomly placed from Cay Chapel area to Cay Calker. They are probably fishing markers but are hard to see until you are very close and present quite a navigation hazard. Sharp lookout required!
While at Cay Calker, Greig and Caroline's friends, Kevin and Denise arrived to spend a couple of weeks. We had met them last year while in Colombia and they sailed with us to Panama. We had fun checking out the local restaurants, went on a snorkel trip with a local guide, had Happy Hour at The Split and watched the sunset.
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| Relaxing at one of the beach bars in Cay Calker |
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| A couple of the local denizens |
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| Greg, Caroline, Denise, Kevin and Greig united once again on Lequesteau |
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| A young parrot fish among the purple coral |
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| A really large stingray we swam by |
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| Flamingo Tongues on a purple coral |
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| A Caesar Grunt |
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| Redband parrotfish, Initial phase |
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| A Green Moray Eel came out of hiding to greet us |
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| Lots of stingrays waiting to be fed |
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| The guides feed the nurse sharks so dozens of them swim right up to the boat. People got in to swim with them but I wanted nothing to do with that! |
We took a long walk around the southern end of Cay Calker one day with Melissa from Slow Dancing.
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| Really interesting seashell wall around a former resort |
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| Iguana climbing a tree in an area being developed for more housing |
Friends on two catamarans took their boats loaded with a bunch of us over to Chapel Cay for a day of kiteboarding. We were observers but several of the guys and a couple of women were kiting too. A couple of the guys are actually professionals and instructors and two friends took lessons while we were there. It looks like quite an adrenaline rush but takes a good bit of practice to even become a beginner and it is an expensive hobby. Besides, we don't even have room on our boat to store a kite and board. It was a fun day with a great potluck lunch and about 30 people on Livin' Life for lunch.
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| Friends out on a sandbar getting their kites ready and others kiting in the shallow water |
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| Lunch on board Livin' Life |
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| OK, catamarans are big and we tend to gravitate to them for our parties, but we had 30 PEOPLE on board Livin"Life for our lunch pot luck after kiting that day. |
We had to go over to San Pedro on Ambergris Cay to extend our visas by the 6th of February. About 10 of us took the ferry from Cay Calker to San Pedro and went to customs and immigration to get all legal for another month. We walked over to the marine store and did a bit of shopping there. Then we rented golf carts and drove around San Pedro and went to the "Truck Stop", a place with shipping containers set up as mini restaurants with a bar and picnic tables outside and a pool, ping pong tables and other games. We ordered meals and drinks and relaxed around the pool. The food choices ranged from Korean to BBQ to local island food to desserts. A fun place. We stopped at a grocery and a wine and cheese specialty store and picked up some stuff to take back to the boat. Yum..
On our way home on the ferry, Greg and I talked to an older lady named Verna who lives in Cay Calker. She is in her 80's and has travelled extensively. She moves when she feels like it and has been on Cay Calker for a couple of years now. She invited us to see her apartment which was near the ferry dock and on the beach. We had dinner at a local restaurant with her and really enjoyed getting to know her. She kept telling us we were "living her dream." She was so lively and positive, I wish we could have taken her for a couple weeks on the boat but we just don't have room. So glad we got to meet her.
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| Dinner with Verna in Cay Calker |
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| A Harlequin fish swimming among the nets where some seahorses hang out. |
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| The red arrow points to a little brown seahorse. |
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| Yellow seahorse |
We left Cay Calker and headed back south with Slow Dancing to explore some of the more southern Cays. We stopped at Colson Cays that evening and explored the area. Unfortunately, they were doing some local dredging and the water was too cloudy for snorkeling. We sailed to Twin Cays the next day and dinghied around the islands. We stayed a couple of days and then headed north to Tobacco Cay, sailing just inside the reef. We stopped at one point and snorkeled along the reef. We anchored at Tobacco Cay near friends on their boat, Moondance, and went ashore for Happy Hour drinks and burgers.
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| An old abandoned fishing camp on Colson Cays |
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| Pelican nesting in the mangroves |
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| Small tree branch marking some shoals. This is why we were so cautious navigating in Belize. |
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| Lagniappe anchored at Twin Cays |
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| Ranger housing on Twin Cays. It is part of the Marine Park |
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| A gift shop and museum at Twin Cays |
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| Snorkeling along the reef on the way to Tobacco Cay |
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| Pink tipped sea anemone |
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| Grunts among the coral |
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| Large purple fan |
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| White Scroll Alga |
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| A barracuda came swimming by as we snorkeled the reef |
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| Pretty hibiscus on Tobacco Cay |
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| Lots of housing for divers coming to Tobacco Cay |
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| Watching the sunset at happy hour |
We headed back to Sapodilla Lagoon the next day as a front was predicted with west winds which made Tobacco Cay a less desirable anchorage. Spent another week at Sapodilla getting laundry done and enjoying the Beach Club.
We finally headed out to Pelican Cays where we anchored in 60 feet of water, the deepest we have done. It is very deep at Pelican Cay and there are only 3 mooring balls, one of which was not in place at the time. We had dinner at the Hide-Away restaurant on the little island here. The owners, Kim and Dustin and their 6 year old daughter, Ama were delightful hosts. The second night we dined at the restaurant again and we sat with a couple from another boat, Don Quixote and found out they live in Mexico City and have a home in Beziers, France. They will be there in June and we plan to stop and see them on our trip through the Canal du Midi. So great to make friends from all over the country and the world.
We found some nice snorkeling spots around Pelican Cays and enjoyed our time there.
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| Nice trunk fish sighting |
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| Porkfish swimming through the coral |
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| Grey Angelfish among the coral |
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| Sea cucumber |
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| Split Crown Feather Duster (Worm) |
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| Green sea star and golden one below |
We headed out of the Pelicans and Dan and Melissa headed back to Cay Caulker. We went over to North Long Coco Cay and anchored near Wahoo and two French Canadian boats. North Long Coco is owned by the company that owns the Reserve development at Sapodillla Lagoon. It is not really inhabited but two caretakers live there. Although the development is in receivership, the homeowners in the Reserve can use the island and there are nice picnic areas, hammocks and beaches there. There was also great snorkeling all around the island. But also a lot of jellyfish. Greg got into a cloud of larvae and had a terrible rash for several days.
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| Blue Tunicates |
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| This grey Angel was as large as a dinner plate! |
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| I think this is a Thorny Oyster |
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| Not sure about this one. Maybe an elliptical star coral |
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| Picnic on North Long Coco |
We headed back to Placencia to renew our visas again and to stock up on some supplies. Then we sailed back to Sapodilla to meet with Greig and Caroline. We rented a car and picked them up in Dangriga when they returned from Mexico and then took a day trip to the Jaguar Preserve and to Hopkins, a small Garifuna town on the coast.
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| Our hike in the Jaguar Preserve included a stop at a crashed airplane which belonged to a scientist who had done extensive research here. |
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| Some of the leaves here are huge! |
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| Greg and Greig check out their Tarzan vines. |
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| Double fiddleheads |
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| We reached the top of our hike. |
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| Views of Victoria Peak and Outlier peaks |
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| The jungle here is so amazingly green and dense |
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| A well-deserved rest before we descend back to the base. |
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| One small waterfall on the way. |
We headed out of Sapodilla Lagoon and sailed over to the Tobacco Cayes with Lequesteau. We used the Google Earth app on our ipad to navigate around the shallows and reefs and found a nice anchorage for the night. The next day we headed out to Glover's Reef which is an atoll outside of the main reef running most of the length of Belize. We had a great sail to Glover's, running with the spinnaker most of the way. We even got Lequesteau to put up their spinnaker for the first time! Again, we used the Google Earth function to navigate in to the interior of Glover's Reef and anchor near Southwest cay. We spent two days snorkeling and exploring the island.
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| Parrot fish |
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| One of the rental houses on the Cay |
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| Squid |
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| Ocean Trigger fish |
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| Black Durgeon |
Then it was time to head to the Honduran Bay Islands....
