Well this one is going to cover a lot of water, literally, from the northern tip of the Yucatan down to Belize. We departed Isla Mujeres, Mexico at 0715 hours Tuesday, 12 July. It was hard getting up in time to make the 0630 (as you see we didn’t) departure as the marina employees threw us a going away party. They cooked a 20 kilo red fish, rice, potatoes, salad, and tortillas, and yes unlimited quantities of cervesa Sol. Matt and Carla called it a night early around 2000 hrs and returned to their boat. Just as Rose and I were getting ready to go to the boat some new cruisers we had met earlier showed up and we visited for a few hours more. John and Beth are from Georgia and J & J are from Louisiana. We kind of let them know a little about Isla Mujeres and what was in store for them further down the coast, their destination is also Rio Dulce, Guatemala.
Surfer Beef
That Beef dog is one crazy surfer
Our first stop was just a short run south to Puerto Morelos, Mexico. We are making it easy as no one is in a real hurry. We figured we would be there around 1300 hours and arrived at 1330 hours, a nice easy day sail. We entered the reef and proceeded to the area on the charts in the cruising guide to drop anchor. Just as we were ready to drop anchor a boat from the Mexican National Park Service pulled up and informed us that we could not anchor, we must use the mooring buoys furnished by the National Park Service. Matt wasn’t too sure about this as we didn’t know how well the buoys were maintained. We tied off onto the buoy and said a Prayer. Carla’s speaks beautiful Spanish so she checked us in with the port captain on the radio, he spoke a little English and it was a simple process, just told him we would be there over night. They held all night, but there again we didn’t have any high wind.
Potty run for Mia & Beef
We launched my dinghy and rowed over to Matt & Carla’s boat and mounted his outboard on my dink, his is easier and lighter than mine, loaded both dogs and headed to shore. We walked around town let the dogs do their business, found a little store, purchased a few Sols, Rose found ice cream, and then headed back to the boats.
Escondida at anchor
13 July – Raised the sails while tied to the mooring buoy and headed out through the reef, planned arrival at Puerto Aventuras 1300 hours, another easy day sail. Due to there being no form of breakwater at the marina entry we wanted to get there with plenty of daylight and hopefully light seas. Our route took us between Cozumel and the Yucatan Peninsula with a 2 to 3 knot northerly current, not as good thing when you are trying to go south.
Entrance to Puerto Aventuraa
Arrived Puerto Aventuras 1340 hours, Carla called the harbor master who by the way spoke perfect English thank God as he walked out to the entry point to the marina and explained to us how to line up on the range finder and time our entry based on the swells as they came in. I screwed up and instead of coming in on the valley of the swell I surfed this 17 ton 41 foot sailboat in on top of a 4 foot swell almost ending up on the rocks on the south side of the entry. Later when we went to the office to check in we were showed pictures of various boats that didn’t make it and ended up on the rocks.
Mayan ruins Tulum
The purpose of our stop in Puerto Aventures was for Matt and Carla to visit an old friend who lived not far away. Rose and I took advantage of the stop to visit the Mayan ruins in Tulum. The Tulum ruins were more restored then the ones we had seen last year north of Progreso, but they were more commercialized. Puerto Aventures is an exclusive resort area, with guards at the main entrance on the highway. In the resort there was a golf course, many shops, restaurants, a museum about ship wrecks in the area, and several 4 star hotels. There is a fuel dock, but due to its location it was easier to load the Gerry cans on a golf cart and go to the Pemex station outside the gate. Spent 5 days in Puerto Aventures relaxing, sightseeing, performing minor repair, and catching up on the laundry.
Baracuda for dinner tonight
17 July – Departed Puerto Aventures 0600 hours for Punta Allen, encountered 4 squalls on this run, not bad the highest winds were around 25 knots, the boats did well. Encountered the last squall as we were about to enter the reef at Punta Allen, so we waited for the squall to pass before going through the reef. Arrived Punta Allen 1530 hours, dropped anchor, launched the dink and took Mia to shore to do her thing. We walked around the town found the only bar/grill there and had a Sol and went back to the boat. We grilled the barracuda that I had caught that day for dinner, we had a pitch in dinner with Matt & Carla, Carla is a fantastic chef. I grilled the fish and she did the rest.
Xcalak pier
18 July - Late start out of Punta Allen as this leg is an over-nighter to Xcalak where we were told we could checkout of Mexico, WRONG! Arrived Xcalak 0830 19 July, when we checked in with the port captain we were informed that one could no longer checkout of Xcalak, that we had to go to Chetumal, by boat about a 2 day sail, south into Belize waters then into Chetumal Bay, then back north to Chetumal. The other option was a 1,500 peso taxi ride to Chetumal, 2 hours each way. We chose the taxi and went to Chetumal to out process. Xcalak is a nice little village, spent a great deal of time at Toby’s as they had good food, cold Sol, and WIFI. Spent 5 days snorkeling and exploring Xcalak, when we weren’t in a taxi going to Chetumal. Matt & Carla had received a response from Belize that they had received the entry form for their dog Beef, bet we hadn’t received any word, so we sent it again with no response.
Escondida Under sail
I’ll never forget the sight as we entered the reef at Xcalak, there was a 50 foot trawler on the south point of the reef as we entered, talking to the locals, it had been there for about 3 weeks and they were just starting to tear it apart with chainsaws when we arrived. By the time we left they had cut their way down into the engine room and removed both diesel engines, all by hand except for the chainsaw.
Oops missed the cut
Chillin'
Mexican Navy Xcalak
No wonder he missed
The local bakery in Xcalak had fantastic bread and sweetbread, you could make a meal out of it. Unlike Punta Allen where the lights all went out at 2200 hours when they shut down the generator which produced the town’s electricity, Xcalak had power all night. Xcalak also has a Mexican navy station, and once had a ferry service which has been closed for a while now.
Xcalak Fishernam
We encountered a storm the 2nd night we were in Xcalak and the boats moved closer to shore, 5 ½ under us so we re-anchored in deeper water and apparently they held better. The snorkeling was great, Conch were everywhere along with many colorful fish and giant Caribbean starfish. Even though it wasn’t Conch season there was plenty of Conch to be eaten prepared any way you wanted. Our favorite was shrimp and conch ceviche with chips.
We have been e-mailing the 2 new boats we met in Isla just before we left providing them with information we have learned along the way. The strongest piece of advice I would give anyone is “DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS RUN WITHOUT CAPT FREYA RAUSCHER’S CRUISING GUIDE”.
24 July – Left Xcalak heading to Long Caye, Belize, 0545 hours, my son tells me we are on an extended vacation, my reply is if this was a vacation, I wouldn’t be getting up at 0400 hours to get ready to set sail for before 0600! It would be hard to make it to Belize City in a single day and by stopping at Long Caye, we will be able to make it in to Belize city before 1100 hours and avoid paying overtime rate to the officials. It was a great sail, making 5 ½ to 6 knots all the way. We covered 43 miles in 9 hours, not too bad! We arrived on the west side of Long Caye around 1515 hours,. Dropped anchor, fired up the generator, made ice, fixed dinner, kicked back made Rose a limeade and a margarita for myself. Ran out of margarita mix a long time ago, new secret recipe squeeze 15 limes, dissolve ½ pound sugar in 1 liter water, best margarita mix every consumed, just add Tequila.
25 July – Set sail early so as to get to Belize City on time, around 0600 as I remember it. Shallow water all the way, especially in the cut between Hicks Caye and Montejo Caye, right at 4 ½ feet, the channel is marked with wooden sticks and the GPS reads about 30 feet to the east, DUH? Arrived at Cucumber Marina at 1130 hours, the officials were there to greet us and the people are very friendly. As it turns out there was no problem bringing Mia into Belize as we had all our paperwork in order. The lady from Agriculture looked at her for a minute, looked at her paperwork from our vet in the U.S. looked at the paperwork from the vet in Isla Mujeres, then made a joke that she had finished Mia’s paperwork and Mia ate it. All the officials were extremely friendly and very helpful. The total cost of checking into Belize was $340.00 USD, there was no charges for Mia as we had suspected that there would be. The cost involved was the transportation cost of the officials to drive out to the marina, 5 of them at $30.00 USD each. Then we had to go to the Port Authority and pay another fee of $190.00 USD for port fees and City of Belize fees. I guess it would have cost less if we had checked in at San Pedro, but couldn’t as Belize City is the only port of entry to check in with a dog.
Entrance to Cucumber Marina
Store Cucumber Marina
Unfortunately even though we had reservations for 2 boats, there was only 1 slip, so My Peace took the dockside tie up and Matt & Carla on Escondida tied off on My Peace, yes they got a 50% discount. Water was $0.05 per gallon USD and electricity was $0.30 per KW, slip rent was $30.00 USD. The up side was they did have armed guards on duty all night, 2 of them walking around with riot guns, yes in Belize City it is needed. YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE ON THE STREETS IN BELIZE CITY AFTER DARK! You do not want to stay in the marina that is in the heart of Belize City! Cucumber Marina had a coin op laundry, but save your time and money do your laundry at Caye Caulker, Ruby’s Laundry at Caye Caulker will do 3 loads wash, dry, and fold for $30.00 BZD ($15.00 USD). Rose spent over 4 hours trying to get 2 loads done until 2100 hours being bitten to death by sand fleas and mosquitoes. (Still suffering from the bites 2 days later) Be sure to check the electricity and water meter they assign to you and record the numbers, it can be costly if you don’t.
Belize City Belize
26 July – Weren’t able to get underway until around 1030 hours because of problems with the meter readings, they had calculated that I had used 134 KW electricity and over 600 gallons of water in less than 24 hours. Got it straightened out and was underway. Followed my track on the chart plotter back north as far as Long Caye, then made way to Caye Caulker. Arrived Caye Caulker 1530 hours and dropped anchor.
South end of caye Caulker
Launched the dink and headed to shore, Mia has been great on waiting to go to shore and if it is a long day she uses the foredeck. Walked around town, nice little island, you can walk from one end to the other in about 15 minutes, all the way across the middle in 5. The people are friendly and very helpful, we tied up the dink at the “Fishermen’s Co-Op” and they watched over them while we were away. Had dinner at the Sand Box Restaurant, I had Jerk Chicken and Rose had Stewed Chicken and we shared an order of Lobster Fritters, a meal to die for and under $20.00 USD. Seems the further south you go the less expensive the food as long as it is local food. Other items like Coke, canned goods, and stuff imported, which almost everything in Belize is imported, are expensive. So eat native food, it is healthier for you anyway and you will save money.
We are Here
Anchor Holding
27 July – Went to shore and had the laundry done, found an internet café, purchased some lobster tails for dinner, around 4 lbs for $20.00 BZD from the Fisherman’s Co-Op, had some fried chicken, took the dink around the island to the only fuel source, came back to the boat and caught up on this e-mail. Still have to go through 2 weeks of pictures and pick out the ones we want to share with all of you, this will be accomplished in the morning.
My kind of palce
Sand Crab Caye Culker
Lazy Lizard Swiming Hole Caye Culker
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