Another Successful Passage Over the Bar With 1 Inch to Spare.
Well we finally untied our lines from our home at Mario;s marina in the Rio Dulce and removed all the cobwebs that keep us secure to the dock and headed down the river back to the sea. Travelling down the river is gorgeous . Our plan was to stop off at this place called Texan Bay for the night and leave the next morning at high tide around 9 in the morning but another boat radio us as we were meandering down the river and asked if we wanted to go early so we meet up with them in Texan Bay and started to get the boat ready to leave that day. Well about ½ an hour before we were to leave Cheryl stepped over the combing and her back went out……Karen of course said that is what happens when you get old. So the idea of bouncing around was not particularly appealing to Cheryl so we stayed until the next weather window.
Well we made it safe and sound to Roatan, with an average speed of over 6 knots. There had been some problems at an anchorage we passed so we ran dark along with Samarang . At one point we were going 8 knots with one sail up...of course that is when we had a squall go throw and it started to rain of course on Karen's watch . We had confused seas after that for about 4 hours and Karen got launch onto the table while she was trying to sleep. I thought she was practicing for some table dancing. She is okay just a sore toe.
Checking in to Roatan was interesting as the Port Authority Captain had taken the key to the filing cabinet that held all the check-in forms to the mainland so the assistant port captain went and got the local thief, that happened to be hang around by the police station, which is adjacent to the port authority office, to see if he could open the cabinet. He couldn’t get it open either, maybe that is why he hangs around the police station because he is not very good at being a thief. Well Karen came up with an brilliant idea why don’t you get the main land to fax you copy of the form….so they did… buy the way they don’t have a computer so that the assistant port captain manually typed the forms. So now we are all legal again for the next 3 months.
Well it is like old home week as there are 5 boats here from Mario's marina. So we are shopping, visiting old friends and now getting ready for Karen's brother to come down for Christmas.
We have not gone diving yet as it is so cooooold. But we can't complain we just got an e-mail with pictures from our friends in Ontario where they have 3 feet of snow. We think we like our type of weather better, at least you don't have to shovel it. By the way it was 69F last night…where are my socks????.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
A Day on the Rio
The Rio Dulce, which means Sweet River, is where the cruisers go to play. They say it is like a cruiser’s day camp and they are right. There really isn’t a typical day for us, some days we had to be off the boat as work was being done in the main saloon and we would play a game of mar jongh, volleyball at 4 p.m. and a dip in the pool to cool off then of course happy hour to follow the hard day of fun. Other days we started working when we got up and stopped for volleyball, or worked through until 6pm.
Our first week on the river we tried to organize some boat work projects, like: getting our forward diesel tank replaced and general cleaning of the stainless steel. The marina offers workers at $4 US an hour to help out, so at that price Cheryl was very happy to give someone else the job of cleaning the stainless steel. Some jobs you do yourself: Karen and Cheryl spent the morning removing the foam around the old diesel tank. Then Marvin worked with Cheryl to finish the job as Karen and Cheryl had agreed to go for an afternoon sail with a couple, where the woman had not sailed before. This women is from Colombia and her and her husband just bought a catamaran and she had no idea on how to sail so Karen gave her a crash course for a half day.
To give you an idea of where we have been staying, it is about a 2 mile dingy ride into a little town call Frontiera where you can buy most anything from fruits and vegetables, meat to motorcycles. There also seems to be a large number of pharmacies, almost one at every corner. As our 2 dingy engines have been acting up we decided we are going to buy a new engine, so off we went to town and bought a new 8 hps Yamaha Enduro engine. What a difference 4 more hps makes, now we can go so fast Karen can dry her hair on the way into town. Zoom Zoom… Frontiera has a large bridge that spans the river, apparently it the longest and largest bridge in Central America so it has become a local attraction, when you reach the high point of the bridge most buses and even transport trucks stop to look around and take pictures, you can even buy juice and peanuts at the top as a local entrepreneur has set up a makeshift vendor stand. It is certainly worth the walk as the view from the top is amazing. There is always a lot of traffic in town, a great deal of it trafficking in cows in open trucks. So we don’t eat from the road side food stands.
For a bit of exercise you can go for a walk behind the marina. You walk through the village where most of the marina staff live. You also go through a rubber plantation. Great views from the top of the hills.
What do you do when you are tired of board games and volleyball well you get a bunch of cruisers from your Marina and go explore one of the side little rivers. So off we went covered in bugs spray, with camera in hand and a full tank of gas. 8 dinghies went exploring and we felt like we were bold new explorers trying to find a new world. The river was so thick with little water plants that we had to paddle for some of it and as one dingy blazed the path ahead, the plants would close up again in seconds it was like no one had gone ahead of you. It was quiet except for occasional sound of the Howler Monkeys saying “hi “.
Our next excursion was a trip to Guatemala City, a 5 hour bus ride on nice air conditioned bus almost as good as our buses at home and the roads have as many potholes as our too. Guatemala City is divided up into 25 zones with 4 million people living in the city…talk about traffic jams. The tourist zone which is where we spent most of our time has sidewalks made of Guatemalan green marble. The drivers are nuts here though, they have these raise speed bumps where pedestrians are supposed to cross but for the Guatemalan drivers the bumps are just there to launch their car in the air and if there is a person there who cares. Even the sidewalks are fair game for cars and motorcycles. So when you walk around, which we certainly did a lot, we had to have our eyes and ears open to make sure we did not get hit by a car or motorcycle. We don’t think they would really hit you but it sure looks like and we don’t want to test that assumption. We went to Guatemala City to do some shopping and exploring and sure enough we found most everything on our list even the things we thought we could only find in Canada. And guess what, it was way cheaper than Canada. They have large stores like a Costco or Walmart and a million hardware stores (okay only a few) and we probably went into all of them at least it seem like it. Like every city, probably everywhere there is McDonalds, but here they deliver!
We forgot to mention the people here are very friendly and helpful, an example of this was one time we were standing in front of a car dealership with a map and both of us thought we needed to go in two different directions, okay we were slightly lost, so this guy who overheard us asked if he could assist us, we of course where miles away from where we need to be so he asked if could give us a lift. He said his driver and car was right there and if we would like he could give us a lift. So we took him up on the offer. No we don’t usually go into strangers cars but this guy seem to very nice and he certainly looked like he had money. As we were driving he asked why where going to a hardware store and we explained that this what all cruisers do when they go into town. Not only did he give us a ride he recommend this great restaurant, he felt it is the best in all of Central America, called Don Mikel. He said make sure you are there by 6 pm or you will wait in line for hours. So after our day of shopping and getting our hair cut we went to the restaurant he recommended and boy was he right, the food was amazing and yes by 6:15 p.m. the line-up was huge.
We had been invited to spend a couple nights in Antigua with some cruisers that we know from our marina, who had rented a house for a month. Maggie and Paul picked us at our hotel in Guatemala City and off we went to Antiqua via taxi but first we need to stock up on some food and wine.
Antiqua was the capital of Central America but earthquakes and volcanoes damaged much of the city, many buildings have been rebuilt, but some of the churches had not been. The streets are cobble stone and very narrow with walls all around. But behind the walls is where the hiden treasures lie, usually you will find a house with beautiful courtyards and fountains and Maggie and Paul’s place was magnificent they a 2 story house with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, living room, formal dining room, library, sitting room and 3 courtyards all with fountains. Each bedroom had a fireplace and boy did you need it because Antiqua is in the mountains and it is cold up there at least for us, okay it was 55 F. We spent 3 lovely days with Maggie and Paul, eating out and exploring the sites. We even went to the local market where the average size of most of the people there was less than 5 feet so Karen felt tall. We wondered around the market and dreaming up ideas for appetizers and bought the ingredients for a fabulous appetizers night. Oh yeah the wine was good too. We said our goodbyes to Maggie and Paul and the city of Antiqua knowing that we will be back to spend more time in this beautiful city.
One of the cruisers friend (Jimmy on Blue Water Cat) organized a Full Moon party and race up to the lake about 4 miles beyond us. This is one of the advantages of being on the river, you don’t have to be stuck to the dock, as there are plenty of anchorages and rivers to explore. As we were heading home two days later we decided not to move Interlude up the river so we joined Jimmy on his catamaran, yes a boat with two hulls. We are still wondering why they need two hulls. We took our gennicker and had a great race. The party was held at place called Denny’s Beach were we stayed for 2 nights and played Karen played Mar Jongh and Cheryl entered a kayak race, played bocce, horseshoes and then it was time for volleyball of course! The next day we dauned our best riding duds and went for a horseback ride, that turned out to be about 4 hours and very aggressive, but a great way to see the countryside. The horses were better prepared for the ride then our butts.
Back to Canada. Getting back was not as easy as it should have been as Mexicana Air was going out of business. In fact we ended up on the last Mexicana Air flight, we did get to waggle our wings in a fly by of the Mexico City airport. Once in Canada something like 18 beds in 5 weeks! It was good to see everyone. We kicked off the visiting with a 50th birthday party for Cheryl. A great turn out and great food. We did the rounds of the doctors, visiting family and friends. Karen went to Winnipeg and Kenora and Cheryl went off to Edmonton. Cheryl had enough Dill Pickle chips to last her a few weeks, and as you can guess, she really didn’t share them. (Okay she shared a 1/3 of a bag)
Back to the Rio. We were to have had wood work done while we were away, needless to say that wasn’t done. And when we got back we found that the lid of the fridge had delaminated. The wood work and the repair work to the fridge is in our main saloon, so it made it very difficult to live on the boat while the workers where there. Basically our entire main saloon was in the V-birth. So 5 weeks later we have the new diesel tank in and filled. Good news is it holds 66 gals, which is more than before, so we are happy but the bad news is when Karen checking the tank she noticed that it was leaking! So our main saloon is only partially back together. Just in case you are wondering why we wanted a new diesel tank is the last one leak too!
We did celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. By the way there only 2 boats at our marina who are Canadians the rest are mostly from the states with an occasional Brit to add some flare. Everyone chipped in making their favourite holiday dish and marine provided the turkeys. Great food and great company!
We did a quick trip to Tikal (the largest Mayan city) and Yaxha, a few hours from the Rio. We went with cruisers from 3 other boats. We stayed in a lovely little hotel in Flores, an island town. You walk around Flores in about 20 minutes, which we did, then circled it again one street up. A very quaint, quiet town.
We had a guide for Tikal and Yaxha who did a great job explaining what life was like, he made sense of the ruins. Temple one from Tikal is used in the tourist brochures for Guatemala, and it is every bit as impressive in real life. Tikal once held some 150,000 people, only a small amount of it is excavated, which we are glad of as we walked and climbed all day. The views from the tops of the temples are amazing, but you have to remember not to look down. Two of our crew are birders and there are a lot of different birds to see, they added greatly to the trip.
Yaxha was a much smaller city, less was excavated, but it is still very impressive. It had a very different feel from Tikal, quieter, more laid back. Which is probably just about how it once was. We were there on Bruce’s birthday. Karen called from the top of temple 4! The ruins are in the middle of the jungle, so the only way you get cell phone reception is from the top of the tall temples!
The next party was Halloween. Cheryl dressed up as a can of deep woods off, the perfume of choice on the Rio. Karen came as a Gemini, an angle and devil. Everyone said that they voted for Cheryl’s costume as the best costume, but she didn’t win! Still a great time was had by all.
We continued with the boat work job list, then at the end of November we went off to Cuba to have a holiday with Karen’s brother Bruce. This was a special week for Karen’s parents as they often went to Cuba and this resort. The resort puts on a special week for all returners and Karen’s parent never missed it. Some of the returners at the hotel did not know that Karen’s Dad had passed away, so there were a lot of tears. This was also where we spread Dad’s ashes alongside Mom’s, and Champagne was added to the ground. It was a great week that went by way too fast. Cheryl is not tired of lobster, but had her fill. We even started to get tired of smoked salmon!
Quite a contrast coming back to Guatemala City. The traffic! In Cuba the roads are almost bare, a few horse drawn carts/wagons, a few bicycles, even bicycle taxis, but very few cars. Guatemala City on the other hand has a huge number of cars and therefore lots of traffic jams.
One day we had some 22 people from the marina go to a restaurant for prime rib. We went in the bigger power boats. The one we were in has a 175 outboard! You can see Cheryl enjoying the ride back.
We are planning on leaving the river on Monday for Roatan, maybe with a stop in Utilia, part of the Bay Islands of Honduras. We have the usual last minute things to do, plus we need to test the diesel tank for leaks again! TTFN
Our first week on the river we tried to organize some boat work projects, like: getting our forward diesel tank replaced and general cleaning of the stainless steel. The marina offers workers at $4 US an hour to help out, so at that price Cheryl was very happy to give someone else the job of cleaning the stainless steel. Some jobs you do yourself: Karen and Cheryl spent the morning removing the foam around the old diesel tank. Then Marvin worked with Cheryl to finish the job as Karen and Cheryl had agreed to go for an afternoon sail with a couple, where the woman had not sailed before. This women is from Colombia and her and her husband just bought a catamaran and she had no idea on how to sail so Karen gave her a crash course for a half day.
To give you an idea of where we have been staying, it is about a 2 mile dingy ride into a little town call Frontiera where you can buy most anything from fruits and vegetables, meat to motorcycles. There also seems to be a large number of pharmacies, almost one at every corner. As our 2 dingy engines have been acting up we decided we are going to buy a new engine, so off we went to town and bought a new 8 hps Yamaha Enduro engine. What a difference 4 more hps makes, now we can go so fast Karen can dry her hair on the way into town. Zoom Zoom… Frontiera has a large bridge that spans the river, apparently it the longest and largest bridge in Central America so it has become a local attraction, when you reach the high point of the bridge most buses and even transport trucks stop to look around and take pictures, you can even buy juice and peanuts at the top as a local entrepreneur has set up a makeshift vendor stand. It is certainly worth the walk as the view from the top is amazing. There is always a lot of traffic in town, a great deal of it trafficking in cows in open trucks. So we don’t eat from the road side food stands.
For a bit of exercise you can go for a walk behind the marina. You walk through the village where most of the marina staff live. You also go through a rubber plantation. Great views from the top of the hills.
What do you do when you are tired of board games and volleyball well you get a bunch of cruisers from your Marina and go explore one of the side little rivers. So off we went covered in bugs spray, with camera in hand and a full tank of gas. 8 dinghies went exploring and we felt like we were bold new explorers trying to find a new world. The river was so thick with little water plants that we had to paddle for some of it and as one dingy blazed the path ahead, the plants would close up again in seconds it was like no one had gone ahead of you. It was quiet except for occasional sound of the Howler Monkeys saying “hi “.
Our next excursion was a trip to Guatemala City, a 5 hour bus ride on nice air conditioned bus almost as good as our buses at home and the roads have as many potholes as our too. Guatemala City is divided up into 25 zones with 4 million people living in the city…talk about traffic jams. The tourist zone which is where we spent most of our time has sidewalks made of Guatemalan green marble. The drivers are nuts here though, they have these raise speed bumps where pedestrians are supposed to cross but for the Guatemalan drivers the bumps are just there to launch their car in the air and if there is a person there who cares. Even the sidewalks are fair game for cars and motorcycles. So when you walk around, which we certainly did a lot, we had to have our eyes and ears open to make sure we did not get hit by a car or motorcycle. We don’t think they would really hit you but it sure looks like and we don’t want to test that assumption. We went to Guatemala City to do some shopping and exploring and sure enough we found most everything on our list even the things we thought we could only find in Canada. And guess what, it was way cheaper than Canada. They have large stores like a Costco or Walmart and a million hardware stores (okay only a few) and we probably went into all of them at least it seem like it. Like every city, probably everywhere there is McDonalds, but here they deliver!
We forgot to mention the people here are very friendly and helpful, an example of this was one time we were standing in front of a car dealership with a map and both of us thought we needed to go in two different directions, okay we were slightly lost, so this guy who overheard us asked if he could assist us, we of course where miles away from where we need to be so he asked if could give us a lift. He said his driver and car was right there and if we would like he could give us a lift. So we took him up on the offer. No we don’t usually go into strangers cars but this guy seem to very nice and he certainly looked like he had money. As we were driving he asked why where going to a hardware store and we explained that this what all cruisers do when they go into town. Not only did he give us a ride he recommend this great restaurant, he felt it is the best in all of Central America, called Don Mikel. He said make sure you are there by 6 pm or you will wait in line for hours. So after our day of shopping and getting our hair cut we went to the restaurant he recommended and boy was he right, the food was amazing and yes by 6:15 p.m. the line-up was huge.
We had been invited to spend a couple nights in Antigua with some cruisers that we know from our marina, who had rented a house for a month. Maggie and Paul picked us at our hotel in Guatemala City and off we went to Antiqua via taxi but first we need to stock up on some food and wine.
Antiqua was the capital of Central America but earthquakes and volcanoes damaged much of the city, many buildings have been rebuilt, but some of the churches had not been. The streets are cobble stone and very narrow with walls all around. But behind the walls is where the hiden treasures lie, usually you will find a house with beautiful courtyards and fountains and Maggie and Paul’s place was magnificent they a 2 story house with 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, kitchen, living room, formal dining room, library, sitting room and 3 courtyards all with fountains. Each bedroom had a fireplace and boy did you need it because Antiqua is in the mountains and it is cold up there at least for us, okay it was 55 F. We spent 3 lovely days with Maggie and Paul, eating out and exploring the sites. We even went to the local market where the average size of most of the people there was less than 5 feet so Karen felt tall. We wondered around the market and dreaming up ideas for appetizers and bought the ingredients for a fabulous appetizers night. Oh yeah the wine was good too. We said our goodbyes to Maggie and Paul and the city of Antiqua knowing that we will be back to spend more time in this beautiful city.
One of the cruisers friend (Jimmy on Blue Water Cat) organized a Full Moon party and race up to the lake about 4 miles beyond us. This is one of the advantages of being on the river, you don’t have to be stuck to the dock, as there are plenty of anchorages and rivers to explore. As we were heading home two days later we decided not to move Interlude up the river so we joined Jimmy on his catamaran, yes a boat with two hulls. We are still wondering why they need two hulls. We took our gennicker and had a great race. The party was held at place called Denny’s Beach were we stayed for 2 nights and played Karen played Mar Jongh and Cheryl entered a kayak race, played bocce, horseshoes and then it was time for volleyball of course! The next day we dauned our best riding duds and went for a horseback ride, that turned out to be about 4 hours and very aggressive, but a great way to see the countryside. The horses were better prepared for the ride then our butts.
Back to Canada. Getting back was not as easy as it should have been as Mexicana Air was going out of business. In fact we ended up on the last Mexicana Air flight, we did get to waggle our wings in a fly by of the Mexico City airport. Once in Canada something like 18 beds in 5 weeks! It was good to see everyone. We kicked off the visiting with a 50th birthday party for Cheryl. A great turn out and great food. We did the rounds of the doctors, visiting family and friends. Karen went to Winnipeg and Kenora and Cheryl went off to Edmonton. Cheryl had enough Dill Pickle chips to last her a few weeks, and as you can guess, she really didn’t share them. (Okay she shared a 1/3 of a bag)
Back to the Rio. We were to have had wood work done while we were away, needless to say that wasn’t done. And when we got back we found that the lid of the fridge had delaminated. The wood work and the repair work to the fridge is in our main saloon, so it made it very difficult to live on the boat while the workers where there. Basically our entire main saloon was in the V-birth. So 5 weeks later we have the new diesel tank in and filled. Good news is it holds 66 gals, which is more than before, so we are happy but the bad news is when Karen checking the tank she noticed that it was leaking! So our main saloon is only partially back together. Just in case you are wondering why we wanted a new diesel tank is the last one leak too!
We did celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving. By the way there only 2 boats at our marina who are Canadians the rest are mostly from the states with an occasional Brit to add some flare. Everyone chipped in making their favourite holiday dish and marine provided the turkeys. Great food and great company!
We did a quick trip to Tikal (the largest Mayan city) and Yaxha, a few hours from the Rio. We went with cruisers from 3 other boats. We stayed in a lovely little hotel in Flores, an island town. You walk around Flores in about 20 minutes, which we did, then circled it again one street up. A very quaint, quiet town.
We had a guide for Tikal and Yaxha who did a great job explaining what life was like, he made sense of the ruins. Temple one from Tikal is used in the tourist brochures for Guatemala, and it is every bit as impressive in real life. Tikal once held some 150,000 people, only a small amount of it is excavated, which we are glad of as we walked and climbed all day. The views from the tops of the temples are amazing, but you have to remember not to look down. Two of our crew are birders and there are a lot of different birds to see, they added greatly to the trip.
Yaxha was a much smaller city, less was excavated, but it is still very impressive. It had a very different feel from Tikal, quieter, more laid back. Which is probably just about how it once was. We were there on Bruce’s birthday. Karen called from the top of temple 4! The ruins are in the middle of the jungle, so the only way you get cell phone reception is from the top of the tall temples!
The next party was Halloween. Cheryl dressed up as a can of deep woods off, the perfume of choice on the Rio. Karen came as a Gemini, an angle and devil. Everyone said that they voted for Cheryl’s costume as the best costume, but she didn’t win! Still a great time was had by all.
We continued with the boat work job list, then at the end of November we went off to Cuba to have a holiday with Karen’s brother Bruce. This was a special week for Karen’s parents as they often went to Cuba and this resort. The resort puts on a special week for all returners and Karen’s parent never missed it. Some of the returners at the hotel did not know that Karen’s Dad had passed away, so there were a lot of tears. This was also where we spread Dad’s ashes alongside Mom’s, and Champagne was added to the ground. It was a great week that went by way too fast. Cheryl is not tired of lobster, but had her fill. We even started to get tired of smoked salmon!
Quite a contrast coming back to Guatemala City. The traffic! In Cuba the roads are almost bare, a few horse drawn carts/wagons, a few bicycles, even bicycle taxis, but very few cars. Guatemala City on the other hand has a huge number of cars and therefore lots of traffic jams.
One day we had some 22 people from the marina go to a restaurant for prime rib. We went in the bigger power boats. The one we were in has a 175 outboard! You can see Cheryl enjoying the ride back.
We are planning on leaving the river on Monday for Roatan, maybe with a stop in Utilia, part of the Bay Islands of Honduras. We have the usual last minute things to do, plus we need to test the diesel tank for leaks again! TTFN
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Attack of the Bumble Bees
After spending a couple of days in No Name Point Belize where we had our nightly entertainment of a spectacular lighting shows we started our 35 mile motor down towards the Rio Dulce. As we made our way down between the reef and the coast we started to notice a few bees swarming us we were not too concerned until the numbers started to increase dramatically. Then the bees started to use our boat as a resting station. Karen armed with an old rag started to swat them away after a couple of hours of swatting we left the bee path and anchored for the night of the coast of Honduras.
Early the next morning we hauled anchor and made our way the famous bar in Livingston Guatemala. No we are not going drink at a bar first thing in the morning and no we have not gone off to Law school. The bar is a sand bar at the mouth of the Rio Dulce, it is famous because for those boat like ours you need high tide to go over it. So that morning armed with everyone’s waypoints plotted into our GPS we made our way nervously towards the bar. The theory is that you line up your course and go full speed ahead at near high tide and if you touch bottom you have enough momentum to get you over or really stuck. As we are approaching and are ready to line up for our run a group of fishing boats decide to drag there nets across our path. You have to understand we only have about 1 hour before we will lose the high tide and we would have to wait another day. After circling around and probably Cheryl’s evil eye scared the fishing boats away and off we went. As much as we are trained to go slow when you know it is getting swallow we toss caution to the wind and went full bore watching the GPS and the depth sounder. Yeah we made it with a few inches to spare.
We had made arrangement with this guy that all the cruiser use to organize all the officials need to check in to Guatemala and as soon as we radio he brought our a herd of officials. The whole process took 45 minutes with many forms to be signed and we were then free to come to shore and pay the fees. After heading to the bank and paying our fees we were giving a welcome package from the Port Captain. This was one of the easies and nicest experiences we have had checking in, although far from the cheapest.
Once you raise you anchor in Livingston you start your meander down a winding river with tall pine, palms and sheer cliffs with an occasional howler monkey hiding behind a tree branch saying “Welcome to the Guatemala”. We stopped of at an anchorage called Texan Bay where the Texan flag flew high above the trees. The Rio Dulce is a fresh water river so we both jumped in for a fresh water swim. It was like swimming in the northern lakes in Ontario except a lot warmer. Even Interlude enjoyed the fresh water as she had never been in fresh water before.
The next morning we hauled anchor to head to our new home for the hurricane season. We did notice that the navigation marks a little on the rustic side. In fact we have discovered that poles or stakes with the Pelicans on them are really the navigation marks marking the route up the river. We also discover if there is a Pelican on the pole which usually there was, if you look at the way he is facing he is showing you where the swallow water is. Who needs charts when you have a Pelican?
We arrived at Mario’s Marina to warm hug and kiss from the owner and some of our friends we have met over the past year. We knew we would have fun here because before we had our boat secure we were invited to play volleyball.
As with most hurricane seasons it is the time to spend fixing things, not that you don’t do boat work on anchor, but now you attack the big jobs. We have 2 leaky water tanks and a leaky diesel tank, those are priorities. Last season we dealt some big items like the water maker and electric windless. This season is about tarting Interlude up. She is going to be 30 next year and deserves a make over. New wood in the main saloon, varnish all doors, repaint walls and floors.
Early the next morning we hauled anchor and made our way the famous bar in Livingston Guatemala. No we are not going drink at a bar first thing in the morning and no we have not gone off to Law school. The bar is a sand bar at the mouth of the Rio Dulce, it is famous because for those boat like ours you need high tide to go over it. So that morning armed with everyone’s waypoints plotted into our GPS we made our way nervously towards the bar. The theory is that you line up your course and go full speed ahead at near high tide and if you touch bottom you have enough momentum to get you over or really stuck. As we are approaching and are ready to line up for our run a group of fishing boats decide to drag there nets across our path. You have to understand we only have about 1 hour before we will lose the high tide and we would have to wait another day. After circling around and probably Cheryl’s evil eye scared the fishing boats away and off we went. As much as we are trained to go slow when you know it is getting swallow we toss caution to the wind and went full bore watching the GPS and the depth sounder. Yeah we made it with a few inches to spare.
We had made arrangement with this guy that all the cruiser use to organize all the officials need to check in to Guatemala and as soon as we radio he brought our a herd of officials. The whole process took 45 minutes with many forms to be signed and we were then free to come to shore and pay the fees. After heading to the bank and paying our fees we were giving a welcome package from the Port Captain. This was one of the easies and nicest experiences we have had checking in, although far from the cheapest.
Once you raise you anchor in Livingston you start your meander down a winding river with tall pine, palms and sheer cliffs with an occasional howler monkey hiding behind a tree branch saying “Welcome to the Guatemala”. We stopped of at an anchorage called Texan Bay where the Texan flag flew high above the trees. The Rio Dulce is a fresh water river so we both jumped in for a fresh water swim. It was like swimming in the northern lakes in Ontario except a lot warmer. Even Interlude enjoyed the fresh water as she had never been in fresh water before.
The next morning we hauled anchor to head to our new home for the hurricane season. We did notice that the navigation marks a little on the rustic side. In fact we have discovered that poles or stakes with the Pelicans on them are really the navigation marks marking the route up the river. We also discover if there is a Pelican on the pole which usually there was, if you look at the way he is facing he is showing you where the swallow water is. Who needs charts when you have a Pelican?
We arrived at Mario’s Marina to warm hug and kiss from the owner and some of our friends we have met over the past year. We knew we would have fun here because before we had our boat secure we were invited to play volleyball.
As with most hurricane seasons it is the time to spend fixing things, not that you don’t do boat work on anchor, but now you attack the big jobs. We have 2 leaky water tanks and a leaky diesel tank, those are priorities. Last season we dealt some big items like the water maker and electric windless. This season is about tarting Interlude up. She is going to be 30 next year and deserves a make over. New wood in the main saloon, varnish all doors, repaint walls and floors.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Belize Again
The plan was for a downwind passage, from Roatan to Placencia Belize and it was!!! The surprise to us was we even got to sail most of our way, while during the night we watched an amazing lightning show off the coast of Honduras.
We arrived on a Friday afternoon at Placencia, a cute little village with small resorts, restaurants and the main street is really a sidewalk. We opted not to check in right away as we needed to move our boat over to a big shipping port call Big Creek, where they ship bananas to Great Britain. We went to shore to get the lay of the land and money on our Belize phone. We hung around the boat on Saturday and Sunday, and then moved Interlude to Big Creek to check in. Big Creek has a well marked shipping channel through the cays and shallows where you then meander up a mangrove river for ¾ of a mile to a large shipping port. After taking a taxi ride into town (25 Belize or 12 US) we checked into Immigration another (50 Belize or 25 US) this was a boarding fee although they did not board us???? Then back to the port to check in to customs and were we paid nothing. Then we needed to go to the agriculture and health office and pay another boarding fee of 50 Belize, again he didn’t board us. We were then told that we will need to pay a port authority fee when we leave of 10 Belize per day, (which we don’t know if that is per person or for the boat) but the toothless port authority guy said if come and find him he will give us a deal. Fun and Games.
Back in Placencia we had a mission to check out the restaurants so Cheryl could take Karen out for her birthday dinner as we missed doing it when we were in Roatan as we were both feeling a little under the weather. We found out it was lobster season and Placenia was having a lobster festival, Cheryl was ecstatic! We had a lovely birthday dinner, 4 courses all made with lobster at Rumfish y Vino plus a few bottles of wine. And Karen didn’t even break Cheryl budget.
We discovered the Gelato parlor that everyone told us about and boy were they were right … “It was worth the drive/sail to Placencia”. We had to try a different flavor of Gelato every time we went to shore, it is a rough life but some one has to do the tasting for future reference and quality control.
During the lobster festival tropical storm, soon to be hurricane, Alex was forming and we needed to move to a safe harbour, so along with another boat, Triumphant, we headed into Big Creek. We dropped anchor in the mangrove river and had a peaceful night while we listen to the weather reports and heard that the tropical storm hit just 60 miles north of us. The cruise ship tenders from Belize City and another boat joined us. After having a calm night Triumphant and Interlude left Big Creek to go back to Placenia a 3 mile passage. On our way back we spotted 2 dolphins, so we knew we were okay.
As we came into Placencia anchorage we saw that Litbe, a 40 odd foot ketch, had gone aground and some of the local fishing boats where on shore or had sunk and where being bailed out. We meet the guy on Litbe and offer our help to get him back afloat. The next day along with Triumphant and a Canadian couple (Jim and Caroline) tried to free Litbe. We put out an anchor attached the main halyard and tried to heel her over enough to get her off, but we were not successful. So the owner decided to call in Tug boat to get him out. The next day a tug arrived and within 30 minutes he was a float. It is interesting to note that the Fortress 23 (the anchor) was so deeply embedded that the tug had to use her engine to break the anchor’s hold! (We have the same anchor!)
We enjoyed many meals and drinks with Jim and Caroline, they were great company and we never ran short of words. We watched the FIFA world cup with a young couple (Tadd and Lindsey) who were running charters for Trade winds and picked there brains for waypoints and good anchorages around the cays.
As for the boat work stuff, of course our 9 month old flexible water tank leaked yet again, after Cheryl took the tank out Karen was on a mission to find the hole, she found a small hole along the seam and after a repair job we tried our luck again. Nope we sprang 2 more leaks…needless to say Cheryl had some rather colourful words to say. Repair number 2 in less then 2 days. You guessed it leaks still. Karen did some sewing of mosquitoes netting and some whipping of lines as Cheryl continued to fight with the leaky water tank. Just to add some fun to our life our 4 hp outboard decided to not work again so we tried our 3.5 hp. No luck there either, so we rowed. We ended up going to a repair shop and as they did not have the time to work on our engine we took it apart and clean the carburetor and added new gasket material and it seems to work again, all the while 4 of the mechanics looked on and where amused as 2 girls took apart an engine and appeared to know what they were doing. Fooled them.
We spied a great weather forecast, so we headed out to Ranguana Cay which is located about 15 miles from the mainland and is nestled beside the barrier reef. With the waypoints we had from Tadd and clear skies it was an easy passage. Except for the fact that the depth sounder kept showing .8 of a meter of water below the hull (we need 1.8 meters to float!) We don’t know if it was Felix (our remora) or seaweed, as it happened at the same places on the way back. After picked up a mooring ball in Ranguana Cay, and securing an extra line as the mooring line showed significant chafing we hopped into the water to explore the reef.
Ranguana Cay is privately owned, with a few cottages on it and a restaurant and bar. We snorkeled up to the bar and made arrangements for dinner, you guessed it, Lobster! Dinner was nice, but a little pricy. We shared our anchorage with 2 of local Belize fishing boats, the mother ship is about 24 feet long, where they store the fish and the provisions and somewhere in that boat 5-7 guys sleep at night. Along with the mother ship there are 5-7 little 8 foot boats that the guys go out in all day to catch the fish either by hand line or free diving for lobster or conch. Once the mother ship is full of fish they take the catch to Belize City to sell at the market.
Well we didn’t catch any fish but we did snorkeled each day for a couple of hours and on our last day just around our boat, a large turtle, southern ray and tarpon and the usual snappers, angles and parrotfish came to say “see you next time”.
Since it hurricane season we have been watching the weather and on Sunday morning the winds freshened from the west, so our little anchorage out in the cays was not the place to be. Nor would many of the other Cays be. So we headed back to Placencia, which is sheltered from the west and we have easy access to weather forecasts.
This Friday we will be checking out of Belize but hope to stop at a few cays or harbours along the way before we head into the Rio Dulce for Hurricane season. And maybe by then Cheryl will have the flexible water tank fixed or she will have tossed it over board.
We arrived on a Friday afternoon at Placencia, a cute little village with small resorts, restaurants and the main street is really a sidewalk. We opted not to check in right away as we needed to move our boat over to a big shipping port call Big Creek, where they ship bananas to Great Britain. We went to shore to get the lay of the land and money on our Belize phone. We hung around the boat on Saturday and Sunday, and then moved Interlude to Big Creek to check in. Big Creek has a well marked shipping channel through the cays and shallows where you then meander up a mangrove river for ¾ of a mile to a large shipping port. After taking a taxi ride into town (25 Belize or 12 US) we checked into Immigration another (50 Belize or 25 US) this was a boarding fee although they did not board us???? Then back to the port to check in to customs and were we paid nothing. Then we needed to go to the agriculture and health office and pay another boarding fee of 50 Belize, again he didn’t board us. We were then told that we will need to pay a port authority fee when we leave of 10 Belize per day, (which we don’t know if that is per person or for the boat) but the toothless port authority guy said if come and find him he will give us a deal. Fun and Games.
Back in Placencia we had a mission to check out the restaurants so Cheryl could take Karen out for her birthday dinner as we missed doing it when we were in Roatan as we were both feeling a little under the weather. We found out it was lobster season and Placenia was having a lobster festival, Cheryl was ecstatic! We had a lovely birthday dinner, 4 courses all made with lobster at Rumfish y Vino plus a few bottles of wine. And Karen didn’t even break Cheryl budget.
We discovered the Gelato parlor that everyone told us about and boy were they were right … “It was worth the drive/sail to Placencia”. We had to try a different flavor of Gelato every time we went to shore, it is a rough life but some one has to do the tasting for future reference and quality control.
During the lobster festival tropical storm, soon to be hurricane, Alex was forming and we needed to move to a safe harbour, so along with another boat, Triumphant, we headed into Big Creek. We dropped anchor in the mangrove river and had a peaceful night while we listen to the weather reports and heard that the tropical storm hit just 60 miles north of us. The cruise ship tenders from Belize City and another boat joined us. After having a calm night Triumphant and Interlude left Big Creek to go back to Placenia a 3 mile passage. On our way back we spotted 2 dolphins, so we knew we were okay.
As we came into Placencia anchorage we saw that Litbe, a 40 odd foot ketch, had gone aground and some of the local fishing boats where on shore or had sunk and where being bailed out. We meet the guy on Litbe and offer our help to get him back afloat. The next day along with Triumphant and a Canadian couple (Jim and Caroline) tried to free Litbe. We put out an anchor attached the main halyard and tried to heel her over enough to get her off, but we were not successful. So the owner decided to call in Tug boat to get him out. The next day a tug arrived and within 30 minutes he was a float. It is interesting to note that the Fortress 23 (the anchor) was so deeply embedded that the tug had to use her engine to break the anchor’s hold! (We have the same anchor!)
We enjoyed many meals and drinks with Jim and Caroline, they were great company and we never ran short of words. We watched the FIFA world cup with a young couple (Tadd and Lindsey) who were running charters for Trade winds and picked there brains for waypoints and good anchorages around the cays.
As for the boat work stuff, of course our 9 month old flexible water tank leaked yet again, after Cheryl took the tank out Karen was on a mission to find the hole, she found a small hole along the seam and after a repair job we tried our luck again. Nope we sprang 2 more leaks…needless to say Cheryl had some rather colourful words to say. Repair number 2 in less then 2 days. You guessed it leaks still. Karen did some sewing of mosquitoes netting and some whipping of lines as Cheryl continued to fight with the leaky water tank. Just to add some fun to our life our 4 hp outboard decided to not work again so we tried our 3.5 hp. No luck there either, so we rowed. We ended up going to a repair shop and as they did not have the time to work on our engine we took it apart and clean the carburetor and added new gasket material and it seems to work again, all the while 4 of the mechanics looked on and where amused as 2 girls took apart an engine and appeared to know what they were doing. Fooled them.
We spied a great weather forecast, so we headed out to Ranguana Cay which is located about 15 miles from the mainland and is nestled beside the barrier reef. With the waypoints we had from Tadd and clear skies it was an easy passage. Except for the fact that the depth sounder kept showing .8 of a meter of water below the hull (we need 1.8 meters to float!) We don’t know if it was Felix (our remora) or seaweed, as it happened at the same places on the way back. After picked up a mooring ball in Ranguana Cay, and securing an extra line as the mooring line showed significant chafing we hopped into the water to explore the reef.
Ranguana Cay is privately owned, with a few cottages on it and a restaurant and bar. We snorkeled up to the bar and made arrangements for dinner, you guessed it, Lobster! Dinner was nice, but a little pricy. We shared our anchorage with 2 of local Belize fishing boats, the mother ship is about 24 feet long, where they store the fish and the provisions and somewhere in that boat 5-7 guys sleep at night. Along with the mother ship there are 5-7 little 8 foot boats that the guys go out in all day to catch the fish either by hand line or free diving for lobster or conch. Once the mother ship is full of fish they take the catch to Belize City to sell at the market.
Well we didn’t catch any fish but we did snorkeled each day for a couple of hours and on our last day just around our boat, a large turtle, southern ray and tarpon and the usual snappers, angles and parrotfish came to say “see you next time”.
Since it hurricane season we have been watching the weather and on Sunday morning the winds freshened from the west, so our little anchorage out in the cays was not the place to be. Nor would many of the other Cays be. So we headed back to Placencia, which is sheltered from the west and we have easy access to weather forecasts.
This Friday we will be checking out of Belize but hope to stop at a few cays or harbours along the way before we head into the Rio Dulce for Hurricane season. And maybe by then Cheryl will have the flexible water tank fixed or she will have tossed it over board.
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
We Are All Quacked Up
We arrived in the entrance to French Harbour, a beautiful downwind sail from Port Royal, all of 10 miles, Jami, our friend who owns a live aboard dive boat, came out in his dinghy to greet us and welcome us back. After tieing up to a mooring and putting the boat back together after our long sail and yes, we did the 10 miles all in one day. And even got the forecast. We went off to town with Jami for lunch and some shopping for the pot luck dinner the following night.
So what do a bunch of cruisers do when they get together?:
Then we will be in the Rio Dulce in Guatemala for the hurricane season.
So what do a bunch of cruisers do when they get together?:
- Pot luck dinner on Saturday.
- Sunday it was the race of the century! OK, for the day, yes, it was a rubber ducky race. Complete with racing stats and pre track viewing. Well, Pumpkin Duck and Huey Duck got off to a slow start. It didn't help that they spent most of the race upside down. But somewhere along the line they decided to stop looking at the bottom of the sea and poked their beaks up to the sky and started to float on strongly and placed a respectable 7th and 10th. Karen's duck, Dockwise, a mother with 3 babies was busy trying to find her lost chick under the sea, never righted herself and came in 47th of 48! (Even 5200 can't hold a wandering duckling forever!) After the award ceremonies the ducks where put back in their PADDUCK and the celebration continued. Next time we will study the race stats and course conditions more closely!
- Well it is almost time for us to go off for dinner with the gang at a local restaurant, slow roasted brisket and all the fixings, yum.
Then we will be in the Rio Dulce in Guatemala for the hurricane season.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Itchy and Scratchy
Guanaja, another of the Honduras Bay Islands. It is known for it’s no see ‘ims or sand fleas. And it is justifiably known for them! OK, so we are in the Caribbean and we should not be complaining. …but the itch! Bleach, rubbing alcohol and anti itch cream are our new found friends.
We picked up a mooring ball off of “Graham’s Place”, a small resort on a cay off of Guanaja. We went ashore to “Graham‘s Place’ and wondered around and then we watched a local fisherman come in from a catch and clean a large grouper, so we decided to ask the chef at Graham’s Place ….“what’s for dinner” ??? You guessed it Grouper, so we just had to come back in for dinner and we had a lovely Tequila Grouper. Wow was that good. Graham’s Place caters to sport fish man but we guess they also in to the shoe business.
The wind died completely for a few days, so yes we are complaining….. it was hot. Around 35-36 degrees Celsius each day (around 100 degrees F) so we finally blew up “Dolly”, the 7 foot dolphin and Oscar, the 3 foot Orca and played with them in the water. The only way to get cool! The real trick was to get onto Dolly in the water, easy using the boat ladder, but a real trick otherwise. Our faces were hurting from laughing so hard at each other trying to ride this child’s toy!
We took a water taxi to the closest village, Savannah Bight and walked over to Mangrove Bight, a long 2 miles of course at high noon. We walked on a beautiful road put in after Hurricane Mitch. An interesting use of money. Anyway it was great to see some of the island as we had not been walking that much.
There is Cay called Bonnoco where most people live that are from Guanaja as the main island has so many sand fleas. The Cay is suppose to have as dense a population as Hong Kong. So we took the provision boat from Graham’s Place over for a look see. There is not a square inch left to build on and there are no cars just one main alley and channels that run thru the little Cay. The houses were very well kept and the people friendly, I guess they have to be friendly when you neighbour is arms length away from you. Thursday the boat from the mainland comes in with provisions, so it is busy. We filled out boat back up with fruit and vegetables.
Friday we ran away from the no'seems and back to Port Royal in Roatan, as we are suppose to get a really blow for the next 3 days and we ran out of Deep Woods Off. We actually got to sail the whole way back! Yes and Cheryl even made Karen hand steer for change and not use the Auto Helm (which we call Otto VanHelm).That was a treat. We picked up a mooring ball here and before we finished putting the boat away “Patrice” the owner of Mango Creek came out to say ‘hello’ again’.
The next day, Patrice and Terry went snorkeling with us in their dinghy, the one with the 100 HP Yamaha! The seas would have been too high to go with ’Trouble” our dingy.Just for fun yesterday we did the front half of the stainless steel, yes part of a day in the life of a cruiser! Then we learned how to play Mexican train dominoes, and Karen won!! Today we started with taking the head apart as the weeds had clogged it. Now we are doing internet, in style and our laundry. Well it is almost time for our snorkel. Then we are heading back to French Harbour Roatan to checkout and then off to the south end of Belize a 120 mile sail…hopefully not against the wind, until July 13th. Then off to the Rio Dulce in Guatemala to spend the hurricane season.
We picked up a mooring ball off of “Graham’s Place”, a small resort on a cay off of Guanaja. We went ashore to “Graham‘s Place’ and wondered around and then we watched a local fisherman come in from a catch and clean a large grouper, so we decided to ask the chef at Graham’s Place ….“what’s for dinner” ??? You guessed it Grouper, so we just had to come back in for dinner and we had a lovely Tequila Grouper. Wow was that good. Graham’s Place caters to sport fish man but we guess they also in to the shoe business.
The wind died completely for a few days, so yes we are complaining….. it was hot. Around 35-36 degrees Celsius each day (around 100 degrees F) so we finally blew up “Dolly”, the 7 foot dolphin and Oscar, the 3 foot Orca and played with them in the water. The only way to get cool! The real trick was to get onto Dolly in the water, easy using the boat ladder, but a real trick otherwise. Our faces were hurting from laughing so hard at each other trying to ride this child’s toy!
We took a water taxi to the closest village, Savannah Bight and walked over to Mangrove Bight, a long 2 miles of course at high noon. We walked on a beautiful road put in after Hurricane Mitch. An interesting use of money. Anyway it was great to see some of the island as we had not been walking that much.
There is Cay called Bonnoco where most people live that are from Guanaja as the main island has so many sand fleas. The Cay is suppose to have as dense a population as Hong Kong. So we took the provision boat from Graham’s Place over for a look see. There is not a square inch left to build on and there are no cars just one main alley and channels that run thru the little Cay. The houses were very well kept and the people friendly, I guess they have to be friendly when you neighbour is arms length away from you. Thursday the boat from the mainland comes in with provisions, so it is busy. We filled out boat back up with fruit and vegetables.
Friday we ran away from the no'seems and back to Port Royal in Roatan, as we are suppose to get a really blow for the next 3 days and we ran out of Deep Woods Off. We actually got to sail the whole way back! Yes and Cheryl even made Karen hand steer for change and not use the Auto Helm (which we call Otto VanHelm).That was a treat. We picked up a mooring ball here and before we finished putting the boat away “Patrice” the owner of Mango Creek came out to say ‘hello’ again’.
The next day, Patrice and Terry went snorkeling with us in their dinghy, the one with the 100 HP Yamaha! The seas would have been too high to go with ’Trouble” our dingy.Just for fun yesterday we did the front half of the stainless steel, yes part of a day in the life of a cruiser! Then we learned how to play Mexican train dominoes, and Karen won!! Today we started with taking the head apart as the weeds had clogged it. Now we are doing internet, in style and our laundry. Well it is almost time for our snorkel. Then we are heading back to French Harbour Roatan to checkout and then off to the south end of Belize a 120 mile sail…hopefully not against the wind, until July 13th. Then off to the Rio Dulce in Guatemala to spend the hurricane season.
Not the weather forecast again
When we left La Ceiba we had light winds and 1 foot seas for our 19 mile motor/sail to Cochinos. Karen was at the helm for the first part and she did get the forecast, then Cheryl took the helm and the wind picked up as well as the seas and of course the wind was hard on the nose (not the forecast…of course). So for the last 2 hours Cheryl did a combination of sailing in the wrong direction and finally motored in the right direction. Cheryl said “it would have been a great sail if we where heading to Roatan not Cochinos”. But we made it and of course we had to laugh because when we left to go to La Ceiba the wind was on our nose and when we came back it was on our nose….how does that happen?????
Interlude inherited a remora a shark sucker, we named Felix ll. But Felix was looking for a better home, when Karen went for a swim Felix ll decided to try Karen’s leg as a new place of residency. Not a good thing, with the appropriate amount of screaming and new found speed Karen climbed into Trouble, our dinghy. Neither Cheryl nor Karen went for a swim until French Harbour. Yup we are chickens. Thank goodness for the deck shower!
We spent a great 2 weeks in Cochinos with our new friends Greg and Judy who own a house there, enjoying great dinners together and playing with the fishies. Greg and Judy left to go home to the states and we were running out of food so off we went back to French Harbour, Roatan. Guess what, the wind was on the nose again. O’ well at least the winds and sea were calm this time.
We arrived back in French Harbour at 11:30 a.m. N’ Joy Boat 3 came over to say ‘hello’ as we had not seen them since Bonaire. They told us of a pot luck barbeque that afternoon for yachties, so we hurried into the food store with them. Once back on the boat we just had enough time to make the dish to share and put our stuff together when N’ Joy Boat 3 picked us up for the barbeque. French Harbour had a whole new group of yachties to meet and it was great to hear all their stories of their travels.
French Harbour, Fantasy Island Marina has a new dock master who has been organizing Pot lucks, Pizza nights and even a Sushi night thrown in for a change for the yachties.
We met up again with Jami a guy who owns a Live aboard dive boat and we did some diving with him and got to have a look around his boat and see what it would be like to be on a live aboard dive boat. It definitely is a lot bigger then Interlude.
We moved down island, okay it is really east ….to a bay called Port Royal where the Spanish and Pirates used to hang out. They even named a beer after the bay…it is not bad beer even Karen liked it..Surprise. N’Joy Boat 3, Wendy and Ken followed us to Port Royal to join in on Karen’s birthday celebration or is it an anniversary…we are not sure what you call it when you get THAT old! Along with Ken and Wendy the couple who run the small fishing/dive/nature resort (Mango Creek) joined us in the celebration complete with sparklers and cake. We even got to play and feed two 2 month old parrots and their dog Sailor…you guessed it the couple who run the resort are ex-yachties.
With N’Joy Boat we took their dingy with there 15 hp engine and went on a tour through a mangrove river to the north side of Roatan, we felt like we were the first explorers beating a path through the wilds of Roatan, except for the ‘private property, keep off signs’. We had hoped to see some crocodiles but the only crocs we saw were the ones on our feet.
We are starting to grow gills as we have been spending time snorkeling with Patrice from Mango Creek exploring the reefs around Port Royal, no sunken treasure yet.
Once again we are all alone in the anchorage ready to head off to Guanaja another Bay Island to the East and off course the wind will be on our nose. We hear the no-see’ms on the main island can carry you away, that is why everyone lives on the cays so if you see us fly by you, you know it is true.
Interlude inherited a remora a shark sucker, we named Felix ll. But Felix was looking for a better home, when Karen went for a swim Felix ll decided to try Karen’s leg as a new place of residency. Not a good thing, with the appropriate amount of screaming and new found speed Karen climbed into Trouble, our dinghy. Neither Cheryl nor Karen went for a swim until French Harbour. Yup we are chickens. Thank goodness for the deck shower!
We spent a great 2 weeks in Cochinos with our new friends Greg and Judy who own a house there, enjoying great dinners together and playing with the fishies. Greg and Judy left to go home to the states and we were running out of food so off we went back to French Harbour, Roatan. Guess what, the wind was on the nose again. O’ well at least the winds and sea were calm this time.
We arrived back in French Harbour at 11:30 a.m. N’ Joy Boat 3 came over to say ‘hello’ as we had not seen them since Bonaire. They told us of a pot luck barbeque that afternoon for yachties, so we hurried into the food store with them. Once back on the boat we just had enough time to make the dish to share and put our stuff together when N’ Joy Boat 3 picked us up for the barbeque. French Harbour had a whole new group of yachties to meet and it was great to hear all their stories of their travels.
French Harbour, Fantasy Island Marina has a new dock master who has been organizing Pot lucks, Pizza nights and even a Sushi night thrown in for a change for the yachties.
We met up again with Jami a guy who owns a Live aboard dive boat and we did some diving with him and got to have a look around his boat and see what it would be like to be on a live aboard dive boat. It definitely is a lot bigger then Interlude.
We moved down island, okay it is really east ….to a bay called Port Royal where the Spanish and Pirates used to hang out. They even named a beer after the bay…it is not bad beer even Karen liked it..Surprise. N’Joy Boat 3, Wendy and Ken followed us to Port Royal to join in on Karen’s birthday celebration or is it an anniversary…we are not sure what you call it when you get THAT old! Along with Ken and Wendy the couple who run the small fishing/dive/nature resort (Mango Creek) joined us in the celebration complete with sparklers and cake. We even got to play and feed two 2 month old parrots and their dog Sailor…you guessed it the couple who run the resort are ex-yachties.
With N’Joy Boat we took their dingy with there 15 hp engine and went on a tour through a mangrove river to the north side of Roatan, we felt like we were the first explorers beating a path through the wilds of Roatan, except for the ‘private property, keep off signs’. We had hoped to see some crocodiles but the only crocs we saw were the ones on our feet.
We are starting to grow gills as we have been spending time snorkeling with Patrice from Mango Creek exploring the reefs around Port Royal, no sunken treasure yet.
Once again we are all alone in the anchorage ready to head off to Guanaja another Bay Island to the East and off course the wind will be on our nose. We hear the no-see’ms on the main island can carry you away, that is why everyone lives on the cays so if you see us fly by you, you know it is true.
Monday, May 3, 2010
“To Drip or Not To Drip That is the Question”
Well we found the reason that Karen was emptying the bilge every two days or so, our dripless stuffing box was dripping. Like everything, but especially on a boat, things get old and tired so it was time to replace the stuffing box. So we made the passage to La Ceiba, all of 19 miles, which should have been down wind. The forecast was for a Maximum 4 knots but we could sail it if we had too….but what did we get 10-15 on the nose, so we motored!
As we approach the entrance to the river to Karen spotted a nose sticking up, she says it was a manatee but Cheryl who didn’t see it said she was dreaming. Our cruising friends had told us that marina entrance looks like you are going up a narrow creek with lots of trees and fishing boats and boy they were not kidding it sure was narrow. We arrived safely and started the process of ordered the part. It took 2 weeks to get here from the States mostly because it was lost. Opps, thanks Fedex!
But it is not a bad place to be stuck waiting for a part the marina has a lovely pool and the view of the mountains are spectacular!
BUT boy is it Hot Hot Hot and we are not describing the bathing beauties at the pool (we are the only ones at the pool by the way). How hot is it? Lets see the average temperature during the day is over 35C (100F) and at night 28C (85F) in our boat. So we had to break down and buy an air conditioner. We are no longer hot chicks just cool babes. Yeah!!!!. So what do you do on hot days waiting for a part, for excitement we went to the dentist, $30 for a check up and cleaning, done by a US trained dentist with all the latest equipment. But we didn’t get new toothbrushes or a lolli pop! Then we went for a little tour up the river and saw some of the sights of Le Ceiba.
And of course we took the opportunity to do a little boat work too!!
Yeah the part is in and we are heading back to Cochinos.
As we approach the entrance to the river to Karen spotted a nose sticking up, she says it was a manatee but Cheryl who didn’t see it said she was dreaming. Our cruising friends had told us that marina entrance looks like you are going up a narrow creek with lots of trees and fishing boats and boy they were not kidding it sure was narrow. We arrived safely and started the process of ordered the part. It took 2 weeks to get here from the States mostly because it was lost. Opps, thanks Fedex!
But it is not a bad place to be stuck waiting for a part the marina has a lovely pool and the view of the mountains are spectacular!
BUT boy is it Hot Hot Hot and we are not describing the bathing beauties at the pool (we are the only ones at the pool by the way). How hot is it? Lets see the average temperature during the day is over 35C (100F) and at night 28C (85F) in our boat. So we had to break down and buy an air conditioner. We are no longer hot chicks just cool babes. Yeah!!!!. So what do you do on hot days waiting for a part, for excitement we went to the dentist, $30 for a check up and cleaning, done by a US trained dentist with all the latest equipment. But we didn’t get new toothbrushes or a lolli pop! Then we went for a little tour up the river and saw some of the sights of Le Ceiba.
And of course we took the opportunity to do a little boat work too!!
Yeah the part is in and we are heading back to Cochinos.
Utila and Cochinos
One of the reasons we went to Utila was to see the Whalesharks that are suppose to migrate there usually from mid March to mid April. But apparently this year, with the weather being cold the migration is late. So we didn’t see any Whalesharks. We also heard from local fisherman there have not be many for a number of years. Since we left there apparently been 1 sighting.
We did dive with 3 different dive shops! Paradise Dive, with the most reasonable prices, however this was the dive shop that we said we would not use, as their dive boat had black smoke coming out the exhaust but we did, and this was the dive group that got the line caught on it prop when we went diving with them. Capt Morgan’s dive shop, we dove with because they state that they go to the Cayes to the west. And Utila Dive Center, as they promised that they would go to the north end, supposedly the best diving and too far for our dinghy. We did one dive with our dinghy and another with our yachtie friends on Cool Breeze. Two weeks and only 8 dives! Again the fish life seems to be limited, the topography varied. We need to learn about corals and sponges!
Then back in the saddle again, we rented bikes for a day to ride around the 8 mile long island of which half of it you can only get there by water. We biked over the hill, passed the airport to the north shore, then the roads and trails stopped okay the jungle took over the path and we did not have a machete with us. The north shore was very rugged. Then we road back along the path on the east side, past new housing being built and to you guess it we ran out road and hit water. There really are only 2 roads in Utila one going north/west and one going east. We ended up stopping for lunch, over looking the water of course and finished our tour de Utila in 5 hours.
Then the big sail (okay 18 miles) to “HOG Islands” called Cayos Cochinos, a series of little Cayes, now part of a marine park. No anchoring, moorings are free, although there is a fee to be in the marine park. We stayed in Cochinos for just over a week, and we snorkeled and dove with some passing cruisers. There is a little Caye called “Little Monitor” which has a local fishing village on it, probably a mile and a half from where we anchored, part of the passage was open to the sea, so we went over with 2 other boats who had larger dingy engines then us, we left 30 minutes before them and they still beat us to the Caye. We enjoyed a fish fry lunch with “Angelina” and “Sothern Mist” then once again we left before them and they passed us with a wave and smile. The good news is we would have used a lot less gas then them. But they certain get back and forth a lot faster.
We meet another 2 boats “Antic” and “For Today” and did a dive around the corner from our anchorage at “Lion’s Den”. We also went on a hike up to the derelict lighthouse with Judy (who lives on Cochinos part time) and Antic and For Today. We past one pink Boa on the path, Karen moved that out of the way BEFORE Cheryl saw it and Cheryl was very happy about that. After our 45 minute hike, of course at the heat of day, and straight up a huge hill okay it was meandering trail up to about 300 ft high to lighthouse. Up we went we climbed to the top of lighthouse were it swayed in the breeze. The view from the top of the lighthouse was phenomenal! The next day we had lunch at Plantation Beach Resort with Antic and For Today, Judy and her husband Greg joined us for good food and great company!As always with the cruiser life everyone moved on and we were on our own in the anchorage. Greg and Judy invited us ashore for lunch and Greg cooked two types of fish that he had caught the night before! Wow, was the fish ever good. They have a special orange tree on their property which is both sour and sweet and you can eat the whole thing or makes it into a great juice and a little Vodka. Yummy and good for you too!!
We did dive with 3 different dive shops! Paradise Dive, with the most reasonable prices, however this was the dive shop that we said we would not use, as their dive boat had black smoke coming out the exhaust but we did, and this was the dive group that got the line caught on it prop when we went diving with them. Capt Morgan’s dive shop, we dove with because they state that they go to the Cayes to the west. And Utila Dive Center, as they promised that they would go to the north end, supposedly the best diving and too far for our dinghy. We did one dive with our dinghy and another with our yachtie friends on Cool Breeze. Two weeks and only 8 dives! Again the fish life seems to be limited, the topography varied. We need to learn about corals and sponges!
Then back in the saddle again, we rented bikes for a day to ride around the 8 mile long island of which half of it you can only get there by water. We biked over the hill, passed the airport to the north shore, then the roads and trails stopped okay the jungle took over the path and we did not have a machete with us. The north shore was very rugged. Then we road back along the path on the east side, past new housing being built and to you guess it we ran out road and hit water. There really are only 2 roads in Utila one going north/west and one going east. We ended up stopping for lunch, over looking the water of course and finished our tour de Utila in 5 hours.
Then the big sail (okay 18 miles) to “HOG Islands” called Cayos Cochinos, a series of little Cayes, now part of a marine park. No anchoring, moorings are free, although there is a fee to be in the marine park. We stayed in Cochinos for just over a week, and we snorkeled and dove with some passing cruisers. There is a little Caye called “Little Monitor” which has a local fishing village on it, probably a mile and a half from where we anchored, part of the passage was open to the sea, so we went over with 2 other boats who had larger dingy engines then us, we left 30 minutes before them and they still beat us to the Caye. We enjoyed a fish fry lunch with “Angelina” and “Sothern Mist” then once again we left before them and they passed us with a wave and smile. The good news is we would have used a lot less gas then them. But they certain get back and forth a lot faster.
We meet another 2 boats “Antic” and “For Today” and did a dive around the corner from our anchorage at “Lion’s Den”. We also went on a hike up to the derelict lighthouse with Judy (who lives on Cochinos part time) and Antic and For Today. We past one pink Boa on the path, Karen moved that out of the way BEFORE Cheryl saw it and Cheryl was very happy about that. After our 45 minute hike, of course at the heat of day, and straight up a huge hill okay it was meandering trail up to about 300 ft high to lighthouse. Up we went we climbed to the top of lighthouse were it swayed in the breeze. The view from the top of the lighthouse was phenomenal! The next day we had lunch at Plantation Beach Resort with Antic and For Today, Judy and her husband Greg joined us for good food and great company!As always with the cruiser life everyone moved on and we were on our own in the anchorage. Greg and Judy invited us ashore for lunch and Greg cooked two types of fish that he had caught the night before! Wow, was the fish ever good. They have a special orange tree on their property which is both sour and sweet and you can eat the whole thing or makes it into a great juice and a little Vodka. Yummy and good for you too!!
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Farwell to Belize and Hello to Honduras
In keeping with our theme of butts, we did finish San Pedro with a sore butt adventure as we rode Bicycles from San Pedro to a Bay called Tranquility Bay, 16 miles as the crow flies, but we were not crows but sailors and had to tack our way up. We had to follow roads, dirt roads, sandy dunes, through the surf, through the dump and cross country. But we made it! We had company, Rhonda and Bruce as well as Jan, people staying at the condos called the Belize Yacht Club. There we had a lovely lunch a snorkel and walked the beach. And then we had to go back! While, we made that too and the next day we were all pleasantly surprised to find that we were not sore!! Although we did not ride the next day!We checked out and spent our last night in San Pedro with Steve and Monica, from Fedelis 11. Our friends from the Belize Yacht Club helped cast off our lines after some teary so longs. It is always hard to leave when you have been in a place so long. We left, slowly as we had to plough our way out to the channel. We received a round of applause, or Interlude did, as we hit open water. The passage to Roatan, a Bay Island of Honduras, known for it’s diving, was 24 hours. We motored most of the way. We had a great visit from our passage making friends, a pod of dolphins. They entertained us by doing flips, racing us and giving us a smile and a wink.Coxen Hole, our first anchorage was a great introduction to Roatan and Honduras. As we were going into anchor a yachty, named Mark on Cool Breeze, directed us in and gave us the scoop on Coxen Hole. We went ashore the next morning to clear with Customs and Immigration. Customs did not want to see us! Immigration came around 2:30pm, after he was called by the Port Captain. So we wondered around town, shopped, had lunch and drinks, then cleared in with Immigration and the Port Captain. So we have permission to stay for 90 days with no need to check in every 30 days, or at every island we visit in Honduras. Such freedom!Mark had given us the scoop on how to address people: if they are black say ‘hello’, if they are brown say ‘ola’. He was right! You can do all you basic shopping in Coxen Hole, and we did notice that wine was back to $5-10 a bottle!! Yeah!!Off to French Harbour, a bay some 5 miles east along the coast. The entrance was tricky, especially with 15 year old cruising guides. We figured we were in the right place when we saw a bunch of masts. It was great to be back in a cruising community! We went to a raft up, which is were all the dinghies raft together and share appetizers. We went to a couple of sundowner nights at coco view resort. The cruisers all got together for a pot luck on Fantasy Island. We also had a lovely massage, a Christmas present from Bruce. We ventured out by car and toured west one day and east the next. The highlight of the west end is “West End”, which is a diving village. The road is unpaved and they have voted to keep it that way. Wall to wall dive shops and restaurants. We had lunch in West Bay, on the water as usual. We then headed back before the cruise ship crowd plugged up the road.The east end is less populated, which means that the roads are worse. We had a drink out over the water in Camp Bay. We had lunch as a resort which was mostly empty, also looking over the water. While we had the car we stocked up on diesel and wine and topped up the propane.In French Harbour itself we did take some time do to a few dives. We saw 3 lion fish on Coco view’s home reef, not a good sign. We did a dive with Mark and Liesel (from Cool Breeze), and a couple of dives from Trouble, our dingy. We went to Marie’s place, a dive site recommended by Cool Breeze, and a good recommendation it was. The topography was great and we got a good picture of a seahorse.We also spent the usual cruiser time changing oil in the diesel, fixing the outboard, replacing fuse holders, polishing the stainless steel and recommissioning the water maker.Then we headed to Utila, another of the Bay Islands. Utila is another divers paradise, known for the back packer crowd, who like to party (very loud) all night and dive the next day. Also the holding is not good. So sleepless nights for us. We have done a couple of dives. The topography has been good, but the fish life seems limited. Today’s dive was made exciting by the ‘shop’ getting the mooring line caught around the shaft and propeller. We had to hail a passing boat so that we would not be thrown ashore while the dive master and a friend of the captain went down with knives to cut off the line. Oh well, shit happens!
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Belize Continues
On Feb 1st Cheryl’s Cousin Bill and aunt Rhoda arrived. After picking them up in a golf cart and getting them organized on the boat we offered them a meal at the Captain and First Mate’s table on the luxury yacht Interlude. Okay they get to eat at the Captain and First Mate’s table every night!
We took them on a tour via golf cart to the north end of the island over a road which has now been named “The journey - a Belizean massage”. Bill and Karen climbed a coconut tree to harvest the fruit for a Thai dinner and a Panty Ripper.
We arranged a tour to the mainland to go to a Mayan ruin up a river (without a paddle) it was a great trip we got to climb up the tallest temple. The view was spectator. Once we were up we then realized we needed to go down, it didn’t look that hard when you are going up but man are those stairs step when you have to go down. Well we all made it safely; we had a great tour guide (Ronny) both at the ruins and on the river. He was very well read and knew his stuff, not only the ruins but the birds, animals and trees.
Karen flew home as her father passed away, just over a year after her mother died. Now Karen and Cheryl are both orphans.
.
We walked the beach almost everyday. My cousin went to the Blue Hole for a day while the girls stayed around the boat. Rhoda and Bill went parasailing (not enough wind to send up three) and boy did Rhoda have a grin on her face, when ever we mention it she got the grin again it was so cool.
Cheryl and her cousin went diving for a day to the 2nd atoll in Belize called Truneffe, the topography was amazing and we even saw a lionfish. A lionfish is not native to the Caribbean as is a not a good thing to have here as it kills all the fish around the reef so the dive master were trying to capture it but were unsuccessful and one of them got stung which ended our dive.
Cheryl had two days on her own when Sandra came to visit. They tried a new version of the Belizean massage, riding bikes to the north end of the island. They then rented a golf card and went south and picnicked at the end of a dock, feet dangling near the water. They had to stop at the Rasta bar, for a swig and a swing. Cheryl and Sandra continued to explore the island by foot, now Cheryl knows the name of every stone and pot hole in the ‘road’. They snorkeled off the end of the dock, to see fishes and plan Interlude’s route to deeper water.
Cheryl and Sandra met new friends around the pool and got reacquainted with Steve and Monica on Fidelis, who had gone home to watch the super bowl in their home town of New Orleans. Monica brought back beautiful fleur de lies scarves for us to celebrate the Saints win of the super bowl!
Karen got back on Thursday and Cheryl arranged a night dive/snorkel for Friday at Hol Chan. Karen and Cheryl snorkeled while Sandra, Ronda and Bruce snorkeled. It was great; the boat ride back was all about fish identification. The number of Stingray’s was amazing.
We watched the Men’s Gold medal hockey game in the lounge of the airport. The Canadians were out numbered, but we prevailed! Ronda and Bruce (American friends staying at the yacht club) sat to our right and the Alaskan boat’s crew to our left.
We circumnavigated the island with Sandra, Jenny and Burrell (Canadians who own a condo at the yacht club). We went through the canal in the mangroves dug by the Mayans in 600AD, to the north is Mexico, and to the south is Belize. We did some bird watching, spotted a manatee (or at least its nose). And snorkeled at Barracuda Alley (boy were they ever big) and at Tranquility Bay. Just to remember we are Canadian and to feel more in tune with the winter Olympics, we hugged downhill skiies while standing on the deck over looking Tranquility Bay. We had snapper on the beach cooked by our driver/naturalist/chef/dishwasher, a beautiful day.
We walked to the Lazy Croc for an amazing lunch of pulled pork, making our way back long the beach. By the time we finished our walk we were still stuffed!
Now Karen and Cheryl are making up for lost diving time! Cheryl had her 100th dive, celebrated with different types of bubbles, in a glass, Champagne. The topography and fish life is amazing, while if you like sharks, lobster, turtles and green morays.
We are now planning on going to Roatan or the Bay Islands on the next weather window. Belize allows you to stay only 90 days (from a customs perspective) so we are off to explore another county. We will probably be back to Belize in 90 days as Honduras has a 90 day rule too!!
We took them on a tour via golf cart to the north end of the island over a road which has now been named “The journey - a Belizean massage”. Bill and Karen climbed a coconut tree to harvest the fruit for a Thai dinner and a Panty Ripper.
We arranged a tour to the mainland to go to a Mayan ruin up a river (without a paddle) it was a great trip we got to climb up the tallest temple. The view was spectator. Once we were up we then realized we needed to go down, it didn’t look that hard when you are going up but man are those stairs step when you have to go down. Well we all made it safely; we had a great tour guide (Ronny) both at the ruins and on the river. He was very well read and knew his stuff, not only the ruins but the birds, animals and trees.
Karen flew home as her father passed away, just over a year after her mother died. Now Karen and Cheryl are both orphans.
.
We walked the beach almost everyday. My cousin went to the Blue Hole for a day while the girls stayed around the boat. Rhoda and Bill went parasailing (not enough wind to send up three) and boy did Rhoda have a grin on her face, when ever we mention it she got the grin again it was so cool.
Cheryl and her cousin went diving for a day to the 2nd atoll in Belize called Truneffe, the topography was amazing and we even saw a lionfish. A lionfish is not native to the Caribbean as is a not a good thing to have here as it kills all the fish around the reef so the dive master were trying to capture it but were unsuccessful and one of them got stung which ended our dive.
Cheryl had two days on her own when Sandra came to visit. They tried a new version of the Belizean massage, riding bikes to the north end of the island. They then rented a golf card and went south and picnicked at the end of a dock, feet dangling near the water. They had to stop at the Rasta bar, for a swig and a swing. Cheryl and Sandra continued to explore the island by foot, now Cheryl knows the name of every stone and pot hole in the ‘road’. They snorkeled off the end of the dock, to see fishes and plan Interlude’s route to deeper water.
Cheryl and Sandra met new friends around the pool and got reacquainted with Steve and Monica on Fidelis, who had gone home to watch the super bowl in their home town of New Orleans. Monica brought back beautiful fleur de lies scarves for us to celebrate the Saints win of the super bowl!
Karen got back on Thursday and Cheryl arranged a night dive/snorkel for Friday at Hol Chan. Karen and Cheryl snorkeled while Sandra, Ronda and Bruce snorkeled. It was great; the boat ride back was all about fish identification. The number of Stingray’s was amazing.
We watched the Men’s Gold medal hockey game in the lounge of the airport. The Canadians were out numbered, but we prevailed! Ronda and Bruce (American friends staying at the yacht club) sat to our right and the Alaskan boat’s crew to our left.
We circumnavigated the island with Sandra, Jenny and Burrell (Canadians who own a condo at the yacht club). We went through the canal in the mangroves dug by the Mayans in 600AD, to the north is Mexico, and to the south is Belize. We did some bird watching, spotted a manatee (or at least its nose). And snorkeled at Barracuda Alley (boy were they ever big) and at Tranquility Bay. Just to remember we are Canadian and to feel more in tune with the winter Olympics, we hugged downhill skiies while standing on the deck over looking Tranquility Bay. We had snapper on the beach cooked by our driver/naturalist/chef/dishwasher, a beautiful day.
We walked to the Lazy Croc for an amazing lunch of pulled pork, making our way back long the beach. By the time we finished our walk we were still stuffed!
Now Karen and Cheryl are making up for lost diving time! Cheryl had her 100th dive, celebrated with different types of bubbles, in a glass, Champagne. The topography and fish life is amazing, while if you like sharks, lobster, turtles and green morays.
We are now planning on going to Roatan or the Bay Islands on the next weather window. Belize allows you to stay only 90 days (from a customs perspective) so we are off to explore another county. We will probably be back to Belize in 90 days as Honduras has a 90 day rule too!!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Numb Butt Passage
We finally saw a weather window for Belize, just like Santa Clause we checked once then checked it twice then again we confirmed with our meteorologist friend on Tiger Lily 2 and off we went…
Oh what a feeling or lack of a feeling.
For those who have done a passage you can relate to the numb butt passage. The forecast was for 15-20 the first day, dying to 10-15. As luck would have it we started with 10-15 and the winds did die off. We ended up motor sailing for all but 6 hours of our 3 day passage to Belize. Not something to complain about after getting beaten going to Grand Cayman! Boring is good. Two books read!
During our passage we celebrated our One year anniversary of retirement with a beer in a champagne glass with a hint of Lime.
As we saw the sun rise on our third day, Belize was in sight. We made our way through the Barrier Reef and head to the Belize Yacht Club…..after running aground 4 times we finally got on the radio and asked for assistance on what sand patch to take to the docks. An Aussi came on the radio and directed us in by saying “a little to port mate…..more to port…it will get shallow soon but no worries mate” He was not kidding it was swallow, we went aground again, so now we know exactly how much water we need to float the boat. We finally made it to the dock and did all the usual check in with customs and immigration stuff. First impression of San Pedro was we love it. They drive around in golf carts because there are very few roads and it is an easy way to get around. We walked the town in 1 hour to get the lay of the land.
We arrived in Belize on a Tues and had friends fly in (Deb and Jim) on Thursday. After meeting them at the airport in a golf cart we went off to find a dive operator to dive the Great Blue Hole the next day. So the next morning before even the sun was up the 4 of us were off to the Blue Hole a 2 hour boat ride. The blue hole 1000 feet across and 412 deep. This is the hole is famous for the stalactites around the 130 – 160 feet depth. We did see some sharks but they were not hungry that day so we were okay. After diving the Blue Hole we went off to two other dive sites that we loved, we swam in and out of among coral tunnel and met a few fishes along the way including some spotted and southern rays. We lunched on island that had red footed boobies (birds) and after an all day diving adventure we got back to the boat and crashed.
The next day was the tour of the island on our hot rod golf cart with Cheryl trying to hit every pot hole she could find. Day 3 of Deb and Jim’s visit was a lazy day at the pool and watching the football game. Their team lost but the boat beside us (Steve and Monica on Fedilis 2) their team won so good banter was had by all.
Day 4 was a tour to the main land via local ferry arranged by this woman we meet on the road who offered a great deal. So we left for the main land at 6:15 a.m. so much for sleeping in. We were met by Denis (local taxi driver) started off by saying he had beer and rum punch for us ….a interesting way of starting a day…we opted for coffee and juice. The first stop was the Zip lines through the trees, were we had some great laughs. Karen over came her fear of heights for at least a minute or two. We only swallowed a few bugs as we smiled all the way. After getting our legs back on the ground off we went to float our butts down a river through some caves. First step is to numb your feet then comes your butt as you float down the river in an inner tube. At one point our guide would yell out “Butts up” as we would have to raise our butts or we would run aground on the rocks. After our lunch we headed off to Old Belize City were Jim and Cheryl, who did not get enough of the Zip line, tried the Zip line the Old Belize City a 450 drop. We made it back to San Pedro and crashed once again after another fun filled day.
On Deb and Jim’s last day we went off for a little snorkeling tour at the reef just by the dock and saw a ray and some great fishes. Week one of Belize summarized in a word ‘Super’.
Oh what a feeling or lack of a feeling.
For those who have done a passage you can relate to the numb butt passage. The forecast was for 15-20 the first day, dying to 10-15. As luck would have it we started with 10-15 and the winds did die off. We ended up motor sailing for all but 6 hours of our 3 day passage to Belize. Not something to complain about after getting beaten going to Grand Cayman! Boring is good. Two books read!
During our passage we celebrated our One year anniversary of retirement with a beer in a champagne glass with a hint of Lime.
As we saw the sun rise on our third day, Belize was in sight. We made our way through the Barrier Reef and head to the Belize Yacht Club…..after running aground 4 times we finally got on the radio and asked for assistance on what sand patch to take to the docks. An Aussi came on the radio and directed us in by saying “a little to port mate…..more to port…it will get shallow soon but no worries mate” He was not kidding it was swallow, we went aground again, so now we know exactly how much water we need to float the boat. We finally made it to the dock and did all the usual check in with customs and immigration stuff. First impression of San Pedro was we love it. They drive around in golf carts because there are very few roads and it is an easy way to get around. We walked the town in 1 hour to get the lay of the land.
We arrived in Belize on a Tues and had friends fly in (Deb and Jim) on Thursday. After meeting them at the airport in a golf cart we went off to find a dive operator to dive the Great Blue Hole the next day. So the next morning before even the sun was up the 4 of us were off to the Blue Hole a 2 hour boat ride. The blue hole 1000 feet across and 412 deep. This is the hole is famous for the stalactites around the 130 – 160 feet depth. We did see some sharks but they were not hungry that day so we were okay. After diving the Blue Hole we went off to two other dive sites that we loved, we swam in and out of among coral tunnel and met a few fishes along the way including some spotted and southern rays. We lunched on island that had red footed boobies (birds) and after an all day diving adventure we got back to the boat and crashed.
The next day was the tour of the island on our hot rod golf cart with Cheryl trying to hit every pot hole she could find. Day 3 of Deb and Jim’s visit was a lazy day at the pool and watching the football game. Their team lost but the boat beside us (Steve and Monica on Fedilis 2) their team won so good banter was had by all.
Day 4 was a tour to the main land via local ferry arranged by this woman we meet on the road who offered a great deal. So we left for the main land at 6:15 a.m. so much for sleeping in. We were met by Denis (local taxi driver) started off by saying he had beer and rum punch for us ….a interesting way of starting a day…we opted for coffee and juice. The first stop was the Zip lines through the trees, were we had some great laughs. Karen over came her fear of heights for at least a minute or two. We only swallowed a few bugs as we smiled all the way. After getting our legs back on the ground off we went to float our butts down a river through some caves. First step is to numb your feet then comes your butt as you float down the river in an inner tube. At one point our guide would yell out “Butts up” as we would have to raise our butts or we would run aground on the rocks. After our lunch we headed off to Old Belize City were Jim and Cheryl, who did not get enough of the Zip line, tried the Zip line the Old Belize City a 450 drop. We made it back to San Pedro and crashed once again after another fun filled day.
On Deb and Jim’s last day we went off for a little snorkeling tour at the reef just by the dock and saw a ray and some great fishes. Week one of Belize summarized in a word ‘Super’.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
The Passage of the Travelling Wok
After checking the weather a million times and not seeing a long enough weather window to go to Belize, it is 4.5 days sail, we opted to go to Grand Cayman a 1.5 day sail and break the Belize passage up and after the front moves thru we would continue to Belize, a further 3 days.
The weather sites we researched forecasted we will have 3 days weather window before a cold front comes down from Canada. We only need a 1.5 days to get to Cayman so off we went.
Well what can we say….we had 8-12 foot seas, winds at 20-30 knots with gust a lot higher…..with confused seas…..The seas were not the only things confused needless to say it was rough. At one point Cheryl was down below getting a drink of water when a wave hit the side of the point (the confused wave) the wok that is normally safely stowed under the over and Cheryl not safely stowed away went flying. Newton’s law of Gravity what goes up must come down but the light one goes down first heavy second, you guessed it Wok landed first then Cheryl on top of the Wok. The Wok has a new bend in it and Cheryl is brandishing a “wok butt bruise”. There is new ancient Chinese provoke: “Wok stowed properly may someday bit you in the butt”.
Anyways we arrived safely into Cayman with a warm welcome from Port Security, Harbour Control and Customs and a ice pack for Cheryl’s butt. Sorry No Pictures
We kept checking the weather to see when we could continue our passage to Belize but those damn Canadians kept sending down cold fronts. In fact it was so cold down in Cayman we had to dig out our socks and sweats. It got down to a high of 19c dropping to 10C at night, burrrrrr…..We rented a car for couple of days and toured the island, there is a village called ‘Hell’ here but we could not find so we can honestly say we tried to find ‘Hell’ but got lost. We walk the famous 7 mile beach twice in one day Karen calls this walk her pedicure, Cheryl just calls it a long walk. We went out for some great food and one memorable night was at the Old House, the Petra Plantation this dinner was a Christmas present from Karen’s dad. Cayman is known as Cruise Ship destination with 2-3 cruise ships in a day and also for great diving and the famous Stingray City, but it was so cold we decide we would stay above the water instead…wimps.
We met up with some friends we met in Jamaica Wilfried and Annette on Sentra had dinner on Interlude and on our last day in Cayman had drinks with them in one of the many bars downtown along with all the thousand of other tourist. To describe Grand Cayman is like going to Fort Lauderdale. Unless you go under the water, then it is amazing!
The weather sites we researched forecasted we will have 3 days weather window before a cold front comes down from Canada. We only need a 1.5 days to get to Cayman so off we went.
Well what can we say….we had 8-12 foot seas, winds at 20-30 knots with gust a lot higher…..with confused seas…..The seas were not the only things confused needless to say it was rough. At one point Cheryl was down below getting a drink of water when a wave hit the side of the point (the confused wave) the wok that is normally safely stowed under the over and Cheryl not safely stowed away went flying. Newton’s law of Gravity what goes up must come down but the light one goes down first heavy second, you guessed it Wok landed first then Cheryl on top of the Wok. The Wok has a new bend in it and Cheryl is brandishing a “wok butt bruise”. There is new ancient Chinese provoke: “Wok stowed properly may someday bit you in the butt”.
Anyways we arrived safely into Cayman with a warm welcome from Port Security, Harbour Control and Customs and a ice pack for Cheryl’s butt. Sorry No Pictures
We kept checking the weather to see when we could continue our passage to Belize but those damn Canadians kept sending down cold fronts. In fact it was so cold down in Cayman we had to dig out our socks and sweats. It got down to a high of 19c dropping to 10C at night, burrrrrr…..We rented a car for couple of days and toured the island, there is a village called ‘Hell’ here but we could not find so we can honestly say we tried to find ‘Hell’ but got lost. We walk the famous 7 mile beach twice in one day Karen calls this walk her pedicure, Cheryl just calls it a long walk. We went out for some great food and one memorable night was at the Old House, the Petra Plantation this dinner was a Christmas present from Karen’s dad. Cayman is known as Cruise Ship destination with 2-3 cruise ships in a day and also for great diving and the famous Stingray City, but it was so cold we decide we would stay above the water instead…wimps.
We met up with some friends we met in Jamaica Wilfried and Annette on Sentra had dinner on Interlude and on our last day in Cayman had drinks with them in one of the many bars downtown along with all the thousand of other tourist. To describe Grand Cayman is like going to Fort Lauderdale. Unless you go under the water, then it is amazing!
Final Week in Jamaica
Christmas in the tropics, was great we spent Christmas Eve with the crew from the 138 foot Islandia and on Christmas day we enjoyed a Cornish hen dinner on Interlude. It was weird to hear Christmas carols and seeing Christmas decoration on palm trees but we will get use to it. Cheryl got her Christmas wish to go up the mast of Islandia, 125 feet up “What a View”.
After checking the weather we made our way down to Montego Bay with Interlude where we stayed for a couple of days repaired another diesel tank leak (on our brand new tank) and toured around the town a bit. Montego Bay is not a touristy as Ocho Rios. Cheryl’s cousin and his Wife (Bill and Laurie) where at a Sandals resort and we got to meet up with them for a ½ day before they flew home to the cold. The four of us snuck into a Sandals resort in Montego Bay (okay Bill and Laurie used there pass we snuck) for an afternoon of all you can drink and eat. After that we took them to the boat for a quick tour. It was great fun.
It was New Years Eve and rather then going out we spent a quite night on Interlude. Since we are true cruisers or we are getting old now (we like that former) we stayed up to celebrate New Years till of 9 p.m. we figure it is News Year day some where in the world. We woke up at midnight to the sound of fireworks going off, then back to sleep! After doing some final shopping off we went with Interlude to Negril the western most part of Jamaica.
After checking the weather we made our way down to Montego Bay with Interlude where we stayed for a couple of days repaired another diesel tank leak (on our brand new tank) and toured around the town a bit. Montego Bay is not a touristy as Ocho Rios. Cheryl’s cousin and his Wife (Bill and Laurie) where at a Sandals resort and we got to meet up with them for a ½ day before they flew home to the cold. The four of us snuck into a Sandals resort in Montego Bay (okay Bill and Laurie used there pass we snuck) for an afternoon of all you can drink and eat. After that we took them to the boat for a quick tour. It was great fun.
It was New Years Eve and rather then going out we spent a quite night on Interlude. Since we are true cruisers or we are getting old now (we like that former) we stayed up to celebrate New Years till of 9 p.m. we figure it is News Year day some where in the world. We woke up at midnight to the sound of fireworks going off, then back to sleep! After doing some final shopping off we went with Interlude to Negril the western most part of Jamaica.
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