“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.

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!!

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!

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.
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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!!

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’.

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!

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.